MAD3PAD 55-57

[Toby G Levy]

vw#19: kedging - A method of pulling a boat out of shallow water when it
has run aground.

        Boatswain Higgs is concerned that if the rigging is not properly
tied to the ship that they may lose sails and wind up "warping and
kedging into a foreign port.

        Seaman Bodine is spending his time in obscene amusement and the
rest of the crew are slowly flipping out from boredom.  What does
Pynchon mean by the following?

"One or two chess players hold out for perhaps an extra week -- then
'tis Sal Si Puedes..."

with the Spanish phrase, which literally means "escape if you can" in
italics.

        The crew devise elaborate rituals to be performed when they
cross the equator.

        The scene switches back to the room where Wicks is telling the
story and the listeners discuss with Wicks reasons why there should be a
fuss about crossing the equator. Wicks says that the equator is the one
place where "our shadows lay perfectly beneath us."

vw#20: barcarole - the style of music sung by the gondoliers in Venice

        Eventually the Seahorse picks up a trade wind and heads toward
land. Pynchon closes chapter 6 with a scene of Mason and Dixon
fantasizing with each other what it would have been like on Sumatra had
they gotten to go there.

Toby