Title:Zealous Zaphyr log entry: Race 1 : () : traveler of Rome: 7/27/2001,8:13:08< prev next >

As we saw the crew of Thersites give the starting signal, Helena, Rhiannon and me had to cork our amphora of Chian wine and try to figure out how to get our glorious ship 'the Zealous Zephyr' started. After some searching for the start button we finally found the mast and raised the sail with great difficulty. Helena quickly figured out how to steer the boat and Rhiannon was watching the sea in front of us while I tried to open the box containing the items we were supposed to use during the race. Then we heard a deep woman's voice shouting through the wind: "MAAAAAAN!" "Oh my!" Rhiannon cried. "What creature has one voice like that?" I thought it sounded like a sad animal and said: "It probably walks on four legs in its mourning". Helena didn't care about the voice. She was already tired of me sitting on the deck playing with the items and said angrily: "Hey, most people use their two legs at noon!" "Well, I use three legs by the evening!", I shouted back. (I realized just a second too late what I was saying...) But our little quarrel soon took an end as we heard the voice again: “AAARGH, YOU HAVE PASSED THE JEOPARDY SPHINX’S RIDDLE” and then we saw a lion-eagle-woman falling from a cliff and into the sea. “No wonder the eagle couldn’t fly with that weight!” Helena had restored her good humour. After passing the sphinx we found ourselves in more open sea. But as Rhiannon had heard about a horrid sea monster called the Scylla we steered to port..? starboard..? to the RIGHT, such sailing close to the shores of Salamis. Rhiannon was still standing in the front watching, but she was no longer watching the sea. Instead she was watching her hair in the bronze mirror which I found in the box. I was angry at her and said that she would find herself with snakes in her hair if she didn’t attend to her duties. At the same moment, she cried out: “DON’T MOVE, FOLKS! Now look into my eyes. Whatever you do, don’t let go of my eyes!” And Helena and I looked into her eyes, wondering what kind of practical joke she was up to. She now picked up a basket of baklava which she emptied on the deck. “The Baklaaava!” I cried. “What are you doing to the baklava?” Rhiannon didn’t care about answering me, she was busy tying the basket to my head with a woolen string. “I can’t see”, I said. “Good for you” she answered. Only later Rhiannon would tell me what happened. She had seen Medusa in her mirror and she knew that anybody who looked directly at her would be turned into stone. So she blindfolded me with the basket and she and Helena hid behind the big oxide shield, sailing safely past the Gorgon. I’m kind of mad at Rhiannon because of this. I have always dreamed of cracking a joke to Medusa about her morality, she having two immortal sisters.... Anyway, the rest of the race turned out to be a merry boat-trip with  lots of wine, singing and dancing. I had a really good time! - Maecenas, captain of the Zealous Zephyr Ahem! This is Helena sneaking into the captain’s log to finish the story: The thing is; we (Rhiannon and me) knew that we had to sail between the great sandbank and Salamis, thus encountering the sirens. We were out of danger, the sirens are only interested in men, but we had to find some way to prevent Maecenas to hear the sirens singing. He would have been a dead easy prey for them. So when Maecenas started drinking heavily, we didn’t say anything. Soon he was so drunk he fell asleep and we tied him to the mast, using the rope, without much trouble. Then we put earplugs in his ears and hoped for the best. As we sailed into the narrow strait, we made good speed. We had the wind right from behind us, thus filling the sail. We thought of lowering it because it was dangerous to keep this speed, but we guessed Maecenas would wake up soon, so we kept the speed high. Also, the crew on Nausicaa had to be beaten! But Maecenas woke up anyway and saw the sirens. He couldn’t hear them, but the sight was enough for him! He got hold of an arrow from the quiver and started cutting the ropes with the point of the arrow. Rhiannon quickly grabbed the olive oil amphora and poured the oil on the deck in front of the captain. Maecenas was now nearly free and he could remove the earplugs, which made him even more eager to get to those sirens. Drunk as he was he couldn’t think clearly. And he definitely couldn’t walk steadily. As soon as he was free from the ropes he fell to the deck. Because of the slippery oil he didn’t manage to get on his feet again either. With the speed we held we were soon clear of danger and Maecenas fell to sleep again. We gratefully thanked his patron God Apollo, whom he kept a bronze statue of. Shortly after we reached Megara, and Rhiannon and I carried Maecenas between us on to dry land. A flock of Harpies came upon the boat eating all the baklavas and we stumbled towards the Harpies’ Cave for a good meal!      -HelenaDavisDidius, crew member