“Get The F.... Out of My Way

                Botany Bay* Mooring*

After successive wild seas and gales
we reached Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales,
the port we used to call "The cat o' nine tails".
I'll tell you why but I will not go into details.
Grueling and long working hours to hold 
                                            [the ship in place.


We were already exhausted and please note 
                                               [the strange case.
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A MONTH EARLIER  (70's, the era of disco),
after drunkenness, our ship departed from 
                                               ["Little San Francisco,
(so, Vakparaizo in Chile, call the sailors).

The Pacific greeted us with consecutive hailers
and with unprecedented huge waves.

"Chief Engineer strangely behaves"
donkeyman* said with concern to me,
and he was right......
                  in two hours the ship was wayward in the sea
and the engineer was saying that engine was out of order..



It looked like generalized anxiety disorder
displayed by the engineers when every attempt failed..

We need much luck to live, the terrified Captain revealed,
while others were crying and others were praying,

Suddenly everyone saw the old former fisherman 
                                                              [running and saying...
"I got it, the engineers are idiots, the cause is the filter
and by saying to Chief engineer 
                                 ["get the hell out of my way, mister",
he went and washed the filter from the engine of the ship.

Thanks to him, we were saved and continued our trip.

The former fisherman was not a magician,
but in his boat was the captain, the engineer and the technician.
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The story should end here, and with it, a happy ending
but when my microwave hood brown down and said 
                                       [the technician there is no mending,

I pointed out to him to clean the filter
and the microwave hood worked...... Τhe guy said 
                                             ''how did you know this mister?''

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*Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // c47// e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//

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*Mooring,   The act of making fast a vessel.


*Botany Bay, Australia,    An open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Sydney central business district
Lieutenant James Cook first landed at Kurnell, on the southern banks of Botany Bay, on Saturday 29 April 1770, when navigating his way up the east coast of Australia on his ship, HMS Endeavour. Cook's landing marked the beginning of Britain's interest in Australia and in the eventual colonisation of this new ‘southern continent’. Initially the name Sting Ray Harbour was used by Cook and other journal keepers on his expedition, for the stingrays they caught. That name was also recorded on an Admiralty chart. Cook's log for 6 May 1770 records "The great quantity of these sort of fish found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Stingrays Harbour". However, in the journal prepared later from his log, Cook wrote instead:(sic) "The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of BotanistBotany Bay".

*Donkeyman,  (nautical) The person in charge of a ship's engine room.


*Distances,  Puerto Valparaiso, Chile to Port of Sydney , Australia, 12869 nautical miles.


*Valparaíso,  played an important geopolitical role in the second half of the 19th century, when the city served as a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan. Valparaíso mushroomed during its golden age, as a magnet for European immigrants, when the city was known by international sailors as "Little San Francisco" and "The Jewel of the Pacific". In 2003, the historic quarter of Valparaíso was declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World HeritageSite.

*Sydney,  is the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds the world's largest natural harbour, and sprawls towards the Blue Mountains to the west.Residents of Sydney are known as "Sydneysiders".

*The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to the cat, is a type of multi-tailed whip that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, notably in the Royal Navy and Army of the United Kingdom, and also as a judicial punishment in Britain and some other countries.


*Disco music,  was a worldwide phenomenon, but its popularity declined in the United States in the late 1970s. On July 12, 1979, an anti-disco protest in Chicago called "Disco Demolition Night" had shown that an angry backlash against disco and its culture had emerged in the United States.




  the tales of a greek sailor