Sailing from Scotland to Alesund, Norway I was lying in my bunk and heard something run underneath the length of our boat. We looked astern and there was something that looked like a log, except it was far, far longer and seemed to be flexing as it floated. Maybe a long length of very heavy floating line that stretched right across our course. We were doing 6-7 knots and thankfully our keel apparently pushed it far enough underwater that it did not snag on our rudder skeg.

THAT would have been a serious issue. How do you extricate yourself from an indefinitely long piece of large floating cable caught under your hull?

In an earlier era people might have made an effort to remove something like that. These days it seems the attitude is different. Profit motive, indifference, lack of respect, lack of perspective ... we're not making the world a better place for our children.