In Synch With The Geese

Athens, NY
No LL

When we meet people who ask about our cruising lives, I’m fond of comparing ourselves to the geese. “We’re like the geese,” I say, “we go south in the fall and north in the spring.” This year, I’m happy to say we are truly in synch with the geese.

Ever since we entered the Hudson Valley, we've been seeing and hearing numerous flights of geese. That too is a familiar sound. I remember well past October sailing vacations on Lake Champlain in which the sounds of the geese honking seemed louder than that of the wind howling. I also remember life in West Charlton. The trees around our house made it difficult to ever see the geese, but we heard them all the time in the spring and fall. Behind us were big corn fields where the geese were fond of spending the night. In case you don’t know, they honk all night long.

The geese’s schedule has them flying south past New York in October, and north again in late May. In the past four years, Tarwathie and crew have been in the mid-Atlantic states during those months; therefore not truly in synch with the geese.

Just a minute ago, a flight of geese passed Tarwathie particularly low and close, inspiring this blog article. When seen close up, one can see how they use the honks to coordinate their flying to maintain the V formation. Each goose uses sight to maintain his position in the V behind birds ahead of him, and sound to know how he’s positioned with respect to the other geese behind him. The V shape is never perfect, it contains wiggles and curves that constantly appear and are constantly corrected by the birds.

The geese also made Libby and I a bit jealous. They fly north, while Tarwathie sits here with her wings clipped. What I mean is that yesterday we took the mast down. A sailboat without her mast erected is a sadly neutered creature. Don’t worry Tarwathie, we’ll erect it again as soon as we get to Champlain.

Today is a day of not moving. We’re hanging out in the Athens/Hudson area today. Tomorrow, Libby is going to ride the train from Hudson to New York City to have lunch with our daughter in law Cathy and Cathy’s friend. How very cosmopolitan. I wonder if this ladies lunch will be reported in Vogue?