My father didn’t want me to be a sailor but I loved it. I would get onboard and hide under the buoy so by the time he found out we were already in the sea. In the end my four brothers and I became sailors, and we cannot swim because my father used to say that the sea was too dangerous.
Today becoming a sailor is very demanding. You have to study far too many subjects for a minimum of two years to get the licence, so where will the youngsters get the money they need for such courses? This is the reason why there are less and less seamen. A seaman is who sets off with his father and learns in the sea. That is the real school.
Clouds tell you where the wind comes from. The ‘amoladeras’ which appear on top of the pine tree forest are a sign for strong winds from the south. Now, every four hours you get a weather forecast, but still we would look at the sky because we don’t trust it in full.
The ‘piedra picúa’ (pointy rock) used to be surrounded by the sea, always wet. It used to be our beacon so we knew we were safely heading back home for the Mogan coast.
