August in Brighton has been a month of weather contrasts, much warmer than anything I experienced on the Seadragon where we were wrapped in 8 layers of thermals, panic-buy fleeces, tangerine wet weather gear, life jackets and fishermans hats- yet just as varied. Storms. Monsoon rain. Hailstones as big as marbles. Heat to make your throat sear…
So in the close humidity of my studio, battling constantly with the streetnoise and buskers outside, I’ve held on to a drop of the sea silence I came away with and started looking at the drawings and notes I made when I was sailing across the North Atlantic with Pangaea Exploration.
I’m slowly collating the material I brought home – personal anecdotes of meetings with whales, recipes, hunting techniques, folk songs sung on the mountains deep in the Icelandic summer, stories of Vikings and conservation warriors… Some are remembered, some written down, some recorded. What kind of map will this make? A maritime chart? A description of the many layers we use to locate ourselves outside of the purely geographical? A Ship’s log? I will have to be patient before the waters become clearer.
