I reckon that from the very beginning…since human beings first went down to the sea in ships to earn their livelihood on great waters …. They engaged in ritual and carried talismans to ensure safe passage and a bountiful harvest. The wretched Agamemnon offered up his own daughter Iphigenia as a blood sacrifice to conjure up fair winds for his plundering voyage to Troy. I confess I have own ways to propitiate the unknowable and fickle forces of nature. Before my solo kayak trip down the coast of Baja a dear friend presented me with a prayer feather specially blessed by a Hopi shaman for my safe voyage. I carried it on that trip thru the winter of 1970-71…I have had it with me ever since..it is with me now on board the Questar. As for ritual…I was inspired by the folkways and observances of Inuit hunters I had the privilege of travelling with during the spring and summer of 1974 on Baffin Island above the Arctic Circle… On my boat I would always kiss the first salmon that came over the roller at the beginning of the season…then we would eat it…. We would fillet it out, leaving the head, backbone and tail intact…these we would return to the sea accompanied by an impromptu prayer of thanks. Once I began this ritual my crew would insist upon it, year after year. Then at the end of the season..after the very last set..I would release the last fish in the net back into the sea. And, of course, I would never allow bananas on my boat….