Random Writings of Others

  FROM A FRIDGE DOOR I composed this little poem in 2002, constrained by using a standard set of fridge word-magnets. Hence,  the dull title.  I was short of words. It is short on summer. But then, summer is often over before we realise it has officially begun.  By coincidence, this year (2009) has produced a wet summer despite a strong assurance by the Met Office that it would be a “Barbeque Sizzler”. They have concluded that they were not wrong, as “the rain was warmer”. Of course, the poem is not about fridges or the Met Office. It is about the unfolding of Nature’s extraordinary processes and sequences, and man’s lack of a relevant role in respect of them, other than to admire in silent awe.  FAF   10 th September 2009. Beneath a heavy cloud fecund plant and thick green moss breathe ancient song to fertile night. A sacred wind coaxes fresh life  as every trunk and tendril struggles  from winter into spring. Soon summer sun...

  Around the Marquesas aboard “Aranui 3”   30/1 to 14/2/2010 By Francis Frost An unusual ship takes us to exotic destinations in the Marquesa Islands (“Te Fenua Enata” – “The Land of Man”)  Aranui 3, ( PHOTO 1 ) built in Romania in 2002, is a specialist inter-island passenger/freight supply ship of some 8,500 gross register tons, 3,800 deadweight tons, with two 25-ton Liebherr heavy-lift cranes and accommodation for 65 crew and 210 passengers (but only carrying 87   pax on this trip). Her compact 5,000 h.p. MAK 8-cylinder in-line turbo-charged engine runs on diesel or heated heavy oil at a constant 600 r.p.m, driving a variable-pitch constant-speed propeller through a 3:1 gearbox. She has a powerful bow-thruster. She makes 50 tons of fresh water every day by modern German and American osmosis technology. The ship’s name means “The Way Forward”. A predicted cyclone having changed course at the last moment, we sailed from Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, on sch...