kateandjohnsail.boats

Hello blog readers, I’m beginning to wonder about you. That APRIL 1^st post about A.N.C.H.O.R. preservation was supposed to be satire, but apparently the silliness was not sufficiently applied. Seriously, I was certain the word salad regarding “technodiversity” and reference to propagation would be called out by someone (gtberne, where were you?).

The true part of the post is that there are many unwanted anchors around, sprinkled liberally into the scenery. And in fact, above are more anchors once again arranged in a garden-like row. Look how big some of them are!

In Malta, we observed the land-side equivalent: the unwanted cannon. Due to a long history as an outpost and center of trade, Malta has been heavily fortified for millennia.

Hence, leftover cannons.

Everywhere.

Just like the anchors, they are painted and blended into the décor. We thought the most clever use for dead cannons was sinking them harborside to use as gigantic cleats.

Okay, one more indulgence of my obsession with old anchors… here is an anchor graveyard we stumbled on while hiking to a castle on the island of Favignana. There were literally dozens of huge, identical anchors piled here. They were of an ancient style, with a wooden timber at the top, perpendicular to the flukes. The nearby port has evidence that it may have been a maintenance point for the Venetian fleet, and I’m wondering if this is where a lot of vessels changed out their anchors for a newer model, centuries ago.