langreiter.com plain, simple: 2004-02-13-cataCompile

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2004-02-13-cataCompile

CREATED BY chris • LAST EDITED BY chris 7571 days AGO

Robin Popplestone: "Having accepted a post at the EPU, I set off to travel from Leeds to Edinburgh in a craft of my own construction. Now, while I have become quite proficient in the art of navigation, it must be admitted that proficiency in the shipwright's craft seems to have eluded me. The belief that any bug can be eliminated at any stage may be valid in the domain of interactive computing, but must remain anathema in more concrete domains of engineering. However I cheerfully set off, down the Aire and Calder Navigation to the Humber. I caught the ebb on that very tidal estuary and was carried almost to Kingston upon Hull. Thence, some tides later, I set off into that stern environment the North Sea. One night, as is its wont, that body of water betook itself into something of a turmoil, and morning found me very much afloat, but with both the daggerboards of my little sailing catamaran snapped off. Alas, one cannot do a quick edit, a little incremental compilation to up the scantlings, and proceed according to plan when one is some nautical miles North East of Scarborough Head."