Around the Horn
Just before we were married, my husband crewed for a boat to deliver it from Hawaii to Australia. He experienced 70 mile per hour winds that shredded their mainsail near Samoa. He felt incredibly vulnerable out there among the high seas as they were tossed about. I thought about what it might have been like for those men long ago who sailed in ships without mylar sails, satellite navigation, or Gortex clothing. They braved extremely dangerous seas, such as the precarious sail around the horn, in order to seek their fortune and find adventures in exotic lands. Or perhaps it was simply the challenge of surviving that perilous passage itself that drew them there, for it seems that it is in those moments of the greatest peril that we often discover the only thing left that really matters. And when we discover that, then we can truly live.
Lyrics
Music and Lyrics by Jill Poulos | Sung by Kellie Crabtree
- Around the horn we go,
- With our cargo full,
- Of silks and spices
- And bars of gold.
- To our hearths we sail,
- Through this mighty gale,
- With our hopes and dreams
- We must prevail.
- Trim the sail and watch the main,
- Steady as she goes.
- Hold the wheel and plant yer feet,
- For over the bow she’ll roll.
- Over the bow she’ll roll.
- In the still of the morn
- Back at the port with our pints of ale,
- Think of the tales we’ll tell.
- Of warm soft winds and distant isles,
- And palm trees swaying with the ocean’s swell.
- Sound the bell, all hands on deck.
- It’s time to repent of the lives ye’ve led.
- The waves they crash, the wind she blows.
- O God have mercy upon our souls.