To round off my series of lessons learned on the ocean (which started on February 11th with The Retrospective Perspective) , we’re ending on a lighter note.

I had a special playlist for extreme emergencies, and it consisted of just one song: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, from Monty Python’s film, Life of Brian.

(You will notice that, towards the end, Eric Idle is heard to say, “Worse things happen at sea” – well, to be sure, a lot of bad things do happen at sea, but there aren’t really all that many things worse than crucifixion…)

Sometimes I have a tendency to take life – and myself – too seriously. But no matter what I’m going through, this song never fails to raise a smile. It might strike some as irreligious, but I hope you’ll enjoy it for what it is meant to be – a daft, silly song, with a reminder that everything passes eventually, and there is always a bright side to be found if you’re willing to look hard enough.

 

Other Stuff:

Sadly my lovely American rowers, James and Cindy, are having to chew on life’s gristle at the moment. Shortly after setting out from Scituate, Massachusetts, their boat started leaking, and their VHF radio stopped working. So yesterday they wisely decided to request a tow back to shore so they can fix the problems. Keep an eye on their website for further updates.

In the Great Pacific Race, the proud owners of my old boat, Sedna, Fight the Kraken, are going well. I’m also following the Sons of the Pacific, comprising Louis Bird, who is the son of ocean rowing legend Peter Bird, and his 11th-hour substitute crewmate, Erden Eruç, who was the first person to row solo across three oceans, beating me to the title by 12 months.

inspire nationI was delighted to be a guest on Michael Sandler’s top-rated Inspire Nation podcast. You can listen to our conversation here.

Wishing you a slightly belated Happy World Oceans Day! I took part in two Google Hangouts yesterday, one with Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants, with classrooms from Canada and the US calling in, and the second with be Waste Wise, hosted by Ranjith Annepu, and featuring Dianna Cohen of Plastic Pollution Coalition, Marcus Erikson of the 5 Gyres Institute, and Sourabh Kaushal, expert on space debris. Unfortunately I had hideous internet problems, so my contributions are rather intermittent, but you’ll really enjoy hearing the perspectives offered by the others. The video recording is available here.

Starting next week, a new blog series on aspects of courage….

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