Ooh, I love whirlpools! From a distance! LIke on the TV! Wasn't one in a Sinbad film back in the day, or am I hallucinating? Works for me. Love the photo.
EVERYONE LOVES A WHIRLPOOL! (Which I think was the exact slogan that the washing machine manufacturer used to use...)
Yes! Sinbad. I remember that exact one.
Also, there was a terrifically creepy one in the recent series "1899": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzfThefXiWk (Although it turned out that it wasn't actually "a whirlpool", it was something much, much stranger, as was fairly evident from how that scene played out...)
Oof, this is all pretty chilling. I spend a lot of time worrying that people read about my cold water swimming and don’t pick up on my hefty respect for - even fear of - what water can do. It’s awe-inspiring in all the ancient ways.
That's actually a thing I love about your writing - that you make clear how the wild deserves our full attention when we're in it, because you never know what it'll do next, because, well, it's wild. And that reverence doesn't get in the way of the fun: that *is* the fun.
And really...isn't that really the antidote to being fearful of it? I've read a lot of bluster about land ownership, the performative, controlling kind, as a bit similar to the deep fear that bullies have that helps make them proactively abusive. But when you're respecting the natural world properly, and recognising your true relationship with it (somewhere between teamwork and stewardship) then that's when awe has room to flourish, because it's not Your Survival vs All That Stuff Over There - it's just about keeping yourself safe via attention and smart decision-making, while the infinitely bigger and more powerful landscape (and seascape) does its thing in a way that absolutely doesn't mind you being there if you don't do anything daft...
Okay, Mike, that was a longwinded comment. TL;DR - awe is awesome and everyone should give cold-water-swimming a go at least once.
1) My new superhero name is the Maelstrom of Wetwang. You've all been warned.
2) Lord, I am dumb when it comes to maths. You write "The sum of the squares of a right triangle’s two shorter sides equals the square of the hypotenuse," and my head hearts and I know the letters form words that mean important things but all I hear is "Blah blah squares blah blah triangle blah blah I hope I get to see a hippopotamus some day."
3) Whirlpools are the best! I've got one in a book I recently finished writing!
1) To be fair, "The Maelstrom" is pretty amazing as a superhero name! I wonder if we could team up and trademark it to make absolutely loads of....oh, dammit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(comics)
2) However ill-experienced you think you are at maths, I guarantee you are not the level of dumb where you publish a newsletter where you get something exactly 180-degrees wrong, and then have to follow up with a correction to everyone by email. Because that would be SUPER-embarrassing. 😆🤦♂️
3) DETAILS PLEASE. DETAILS REQUESTED. WE NEED DETAILS.
Well, when one is trying to communicate difficult concepts there is a higher degree of difficulty than in personal essays. I don't mean to sell ourselves short -- I love what we have to say. But maths aren't involved, so our errors are much smaller...
Actual full-body shiver over “hook you under the rock.” Dear god. Once when I was very little, I was held under and flipped many times by an ocean wave. It was so long ago now, but I’ve never forgotten the visceral terror of not knowing which way was up and then the weird calm certainty that I was going to die. Didn’t, of course, but I’ve had an extremely healthy respect for all bodies of water ever since.
Anyway, thank you so much - this post was fascinating! I’m glad you never got hooked under the rock.
Oh yikes. 😬 That's horrific. (Apologies if this gave you any flashbacks!)
Yeah - the power of water, when it's moving in one direction according to ocean currents and the Moon and physics working at the scale of islands and oceans and continents - really alarming. Even when I go for a swim in the Scottish sea on a summer's day, when a big wave pushes me off my feet, there's something in my deepest mind that starts shrieking, every time...
I also am *extremely* glad there has been no rock-hooking-under in my childhood, since the Strid's a bit inland from the seaside town I grew up in. Equally glad that I was an adult before I learned about the Strid, because, brrr.
(There was however a lad from my class at school who later went out into the North Sea on a fishing boat and was never seen again.)
This was very interesting Mike and I'm glad to be a newish explorer. Your writing is delightful and makes me want to dig in and learn a bit more. Two comments
(1) while a fan of the metric system as a much better and cohesive set of weights and measures, there is not much poetry in each liter weighs about a kilogram. As a youngish engineering student, I much prefer "a pint's a pound the world around".
(2) I like that you focus on the dominance of water in our world. A wonderful Goldilocks sort of place that is just right. A wonderful book by Simon Winchester about the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 delved into the science of plate tectonics. The part I remember most was the description it is best to think of the world as a large bathtub and the land are really just floating bits of small bars of soap floating on top. While not a perfect description, nevertheless a great way to realize that even children going to school in the 1970s were using textbooks that were simply wrong about how the earth works as plate tectonics was so new at that point!
The thing that really struck me reading this one (besides horror) was how delightful it is to read someone who feels like they really know the place they live, or are from. The land, the water. It’s deeply satisfying to read this from your perspective.
I was pinned under a fallen tree in a rushing river that had tipped my family’s canoe when I was about two years old and have a healthy respect for any but the most well-known and calmest waters!
Just wow! First of all, having grown up at a whitewater rafting company, I'm familiar with river-based whirlpools (usually harmless - the water keeps moving and they can be fun to swim through with a lifejacket) and I'm also familiar with the rocks you describe at the Bolton Strid -- we call those "undercut" rocks because they're shaped like mushrooms and can tangle you up underneath them, particularly if you're still attached to your kayak or if logs are lodged down there. I've had friends die that way, so it's definitely something to respect.
But when you described the "oily" patch in the ocean, I had no idea what you meant (having grown up NOT near the sea), so to see it in that video -- spooky! You're right, it's obviously something scary that has no business in the ocean except there it is. Such a cool explanation of why it's happening. I learn something new every time I read your newsletters!
Mesmerizing read! When you wrote about Corryvreckan I immediately thought of the Powell & Pressburger movie "I Know Where I'm Going." Love that movie and Corryvreckan plays an important part in it. https://whirlpool-scotland.co.uk/films/
Ooh, I love whirlpools! From a distance! LIke on the TV! Wasn't one in a Sinbad film back in the day, or am I hallucinating? Works for me. Love the photo.
EVERYONE LOVES A WHIRLPOOL! (Which I think was the exact slogan that the washing machine manufacturer used to use...)
Yes! Sinbad. I remember that exact one.
Also, there was a terrifically creepy one in the recent series "1899": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzfThefXiWk (Although it turned out that it wasn't actually "a whirlpool", it was something much, much stranger, as was fairly evident from how that scene played out...)
Oof, this is all pretty chilling. I spend a lot of time worrying that people read about my cold water swimming and don’t pick up on my hefty respect for - even fear of - what water can do. It’s awe-inspiring in all the ancient ways.
That's actually a thing I love about your writing - that you make clear how the wild deserves our full attention when we're in it, because you never know what it'll do next, because, well, it's wild. And that reverence doesn't get in the way of the fun: that *is* the fun.
And really...isn't that really the antidote to being fearful of it? I've read a lot of bluster about land ownership, the performative, controlling kind, as a bit similar to the deep fear that bullies have that helps make them proactively abusive. But when you're respecting the natural world properly, and recognising your true relationship with it (somewhere between teamwork and stewardship) then that's when awe has room to flourish, because it's not Your Survival vs All That Stuff Over There - it's just about keeping yourself safe via attention and smart decision-making, while the infinitely bigger and more powerful landscape (and seascape) does its thing in a way that absolutely doesn't mind you being there if you don't do anything daft...
Okay, Mike, that was a longwinded comment. TL;DR - awe is awesome and everyone should give cold-water-swimming a go at least once.
Couple of things here.
1) My new superhero name is the Maelstrom of Wetwang. You've all been warned.
2) Lord, I am dumb when it comes to maths. You write "The sum of the squares of a right triangle’s two shorter sides equals the square of the hypotenuse," and my head hearts and I know the letters form words that mean important things but all I hear is "Blah blah squares blah blah triangle blah blah I hope I get to see a hippopotamus some day."
3) Whirlpools are the best! I've got one in a book I recently finished writing!
1) To be fair, "The Maelstrom" is pretty amazing as a superhero name! I wonder if we could team up and trademark it to make absolutely loads of....oh, dammit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(comics)
2) However ill-experienced you think you are at maths, I guarantee you are not the level of dumb where you publish a newsletter where you get something exactly 180-degrees wrong, and then have to follow up with a correction to everyone by email. Because that would be SUPER-embarrassing. 😆🤦♂️
3) DETAILS PLEASE. DETAILS REQUESTED. WE NEED DETAILS.
Well, when one is trying to communicate difficult concepts there is a higher degree of difficulty than in personal essays. I don't mean to sell ourselves short -- I love what we have to say. But maths aren't involved, so our errors are much smaller...
Actual full-body shiver over “hook you under the rock.” Dear god. Once when I was very little, I was held under and flipped many times by an ocean wave. It was so long ago now, but I’ve never forgotten the visceral terror of not knowing which way was up and then the weird calm certainty that I was going to die. Didn’t, of course, but I’ve had an extremely healthy respect for all bodies of water ever since.
Anyway, thank you so much - this post was fascinating! I’m glad you never got hooked under the rock.
Oh yikes. 😬 That's horrific. (Apologies if this gave you any flashbacks!)
Yeah - the power of water, when it's moving in one direction according to ocean currents and the Moon and physics working at the scale of islands and oceans and continents - really alarming. Even when I go for a swim in the Scottish sea on a summer's day, when a big wave pushes me off my feet, there's something in my deepest mind that starts shrieking, every time...
I also am *extremely* glad there has been no rock-hooking-under in my childhood, since the Strid's a bit inland from the seaside town I grew up in. Equally glad that I was an adult before I learned about the Strid, because, brrr.
(There was however a lad from my class at school who later went out into the North Sea on a fishing boat and was never seen again.)
Tremendously enjoyable read, thank you 🙏
Aw. Thank you, Jill. :)
This was very interesting Mike and I'm glad to be a newish explorer. Your writing is delightful and makes me want to dig in and learn a bit more. Two comments
(1) while a fan of the metric system as a much better and cohesive set of weights and measures, there is not much poetry in each liter weighs about a kilogram. As a youngish engineering student, I much prefer "a pint's a pound the world around".
(2) I like that you focus on the dominance of water in our world. A wonderful Goldilocks sort of place that is just right. A wonderful book by Simon Winchester about the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 delved into the science of plate tectonics. The part I remember most was the description it is best to think of the world as a large bathtub and the land are really just floating bits of small bars of soap floating on top. While not a perfect description, nevertheless a great way to realize that even children going to school in the 1970s were using textbooks that were simply wrong about how the earth works as plate tectonics was so new at that point!
The thing that really struck me reading this one (besides horror) was how delightful it is to read someone who feels like they really know the place they live, or are from. The land, the water. It’s deeply satisfying to read this from your perspective.
I was pinned under a fallen tree in a rushing river that had tipped my family’s canoe when I was about two years old and have a healthy respect for any but the most well-known and calmest waters!
Just wow! First of all, having grown up at a whitewater rafting company, I'm familiar with river-based whirlpools (usually harmless - the water keeps moving and they can be fun to swim through with a lifejacket) and I'm also familiar with the rocks you describe at the Bolton Strid -- we call those "undercut" rocks because they're shaped like mushrooms and can tangle you up underneath them, particularly if you're still attached to your kayak or if logs are lodged down there. I've had friends die that way, so it's definitely something to respect.
But when you described the "oily" patch in the ocean, I had no idea what you meant (having grown up NOT near the sea), so to see it in that video -- spooky! You're right, it's obviously something scary that has no business in the ocean except there it is. Such a cool explanation of why it's happening. I learn something new every time I read your newsletters!
Mesmerizing read! When you wrote about Corryvreckan I immediately thought of the Powell & Pressburger movie "I Know Where I'm Going." Love that movie and Corryvreckan plays an important part in it. https://whirlpool-scotland.co.uk/films/
Wow. Have seen videos of low water dams and their hydraulic currents, and. . .no joke. Scary force.