Strange Nautical Sayings

HissyFit

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May the wind alway be at your back and the sun on your face.
Translation: May you never have the most efficient point of sail and not necessarily be looking where you are going.
 
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Is that a nautical saying? It comes from a Cocaine dealer serving life in California.
 

Black Sheep

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You seem to assume you're facing dead forward on a bermudian rigged yacht.
If you're sitting on the gunwhale of a dinghy on a beam reach... you're smiling!

(or the side of any tiller-steered yacht)
(or maybe at the wheel of a square-rigger)
 
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Flibber me jib! I often wondered if I am flibbering, but never sure.
 

Sandyman

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That of course is your translation. Mine would be ; May the wind everbe behind you pushi g you towards the sun & warmer climes.
 

Rocksteadee

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Log. They used to Chuck a log tied to a bit of string to see how fast it paid out to measure speed.
Knot. Counting the knots tied in the sting to measure speed
Trip. Give above bit of string a tug to break a wooden pin and trip the log so it could be pulled in
12 knots and a chinaman, meaning going very fast. On ships of old all the Chinese could count so they were used to count the knots for a calculation of the speed. Going so fast it pulled the chinaman overboard
 

Sandyman

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Log. They used to Chuck a log tied to a bit of string to see how fast it paid out to measure speed.
Knot. Counting the knots tied in the sting to measure speed
Trip. Give above bit of string a tug to break a wooden pin and trip the log so it could be pulled in
12 knots and a chinaman, meaning going very fast. On ships of old all the Chinese could count so they were used to count the knots for a calculation of the speed. Going so fast it pulled the chinaman overboard
In the Navy I was in I dont think our Chokie Dhoby Wallahs would have been to pleased ;)
 
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Translation: May you never have the most efficient point of sail and not necessarily be looking where you are going.

If your going to question a quote, at least understand it in the context that it was given. I am assuming you took it from my signature, which quoted the author, so you could have checked. It is a reference to being sanguine about where one finds oneself in life, nothing to do with sailing.

“May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face. And may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars.”


― George Jung, Blow by Blow

A quote from Blow by Blow

My signature has now been changed to flibber jibbing!
 

Rocksteadee

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In the Navy I was in I dont think our Chokie Dhoby Wallahs would have been to pleased ;)
This was 400 years ago. When I was aboard HMS Hermes (RM) the China wallahs could clear a dented stainless tray of scan faster with chopsticks than any Matelot I have ever seen. Bit mash, bit of baby head, bit of apple pie, a few peas, bit of custard, bit of mash, bit of gravy, back to apple pie and so on.
 

Sandyman

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This was 400 years ago. When I was aboard HMS Hermes (RM) the China wallahs could clear a dented stainless tray of scan faster with chopsticks than any Matelot I have ever seen. Bit mash, bit of baby head, bit of apple pie, a few peas, bit of custard, bit of mash, bit of gravy, back to apple pie and so on.
Chokie potmess :)
 
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Thanks! In oil well drilling we use babies heads to to seal off loss zones in formations. Take bentonite clay and water, mix so it becomes a thick paste, shred chemical sacks into strips about 3-4” thick and mix into the paste. Mold the mixture into small balls. The clay, water, brown sack paper mix turns a light pinky brown colour with the balls looking rather distressingly like babies heads. We tip them into the well and they find the fissure and block it up.
 

Rocksteadee

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Thanks! In oil well drilling we use babies heads to to seal off loss zones in formations. Take bentonite clay and water, mix so it becomes a thick paste, shred chemical sacks into strips about 3-4” thick and mix into the paste. Mold the mixture into small balls. The clay, water, brown sack paper mix turns a light pinky brown colour with the balls looking rather distressingly like babies heads. We tip them into the well and they find the fissure and block it up.
Ah, not dissimilar to those served in some galleys in the Navy
 

Sandyman

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A baby’s head is a steak and kidney suet pudding (rather it was as kidney can no longer be put in)
Part of the staple diet of the “grey funnel line”
Came in a tin about 2 foot long. Chef would slice it into portions revealing a circle of suet enclosing lumps of snake & pygmy in gravey which ''Jack'' likened to a ''baby's head'' with the top cut orf. :) bloody obvious :)
 

john_morris_uk

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What’s Baby Head?
Babies heads. A delicious tinned steak and kidney pudding. Much loved by matelots, but rarely served nowadays as they hit the scran budget a bit hard and the Logs HOD would be having an interview without coffee with the PO Caterer about the budget if he/she wasn’t careful.

Hope that’s clear.

Bit like these: Steak & Kidney Pudding

edit: I see I was far too slow...
 
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