Mar violento

Acerca da "psicologia" do Cabo Bojador (na RTP estavam uns sapatos coloridos a dizer que o problema da passagem do dito cujo "era psicológico" (sic):

A primeira googlada dá logo a verdade:
"The disappearance of numerous european vessels that made prior attempts, despite its violent seas, to round the Cape led some to suggest the presence of sea monsters."

As palavras-chave são "violent sea", um bom nome para uma banda rock.

"Above all, the seas themselves were unpredictable and dangerous."

A National Geographic, que sempre saberá alguma coisa mais que a pernóstica personagem televisiva, diz:

"For centuries Cape Bojador has been known as one of the navigable world's most treacherous places. The British Royal Navy's Africa Pilot, warns that the charting of this coast is "reported to be inaccurate" to this day. The cape lies at the base of a narrow strait, where the Canary Islands form a funnel that squeezes the south-flowing current hard against the Moroccan coast in a frenzy of wind, whitecaps, and fatal shoals. There the Sahara abuts the sea in a mutable front of dun-colored cliffs and shifting walls of sand. The cape's rocky beaches collect ships the way a spider's web traps flies."

"To journeyers of Eannes's time, Bojador represented an unbreachable barrier, a point of no return, and it was the achievement of this reluctant hero to pass that invisible boundary in 1434"

"point of no return" mas por causa das correntes, não de mitos. A história dizia que era impossível pois todos já tinham tentado e ninguém conseguido mas se acreditassem nisso, e não em 'apenas' dificuldade técnica, não se metiam a tentar. Henrique tentou porque tinha uma vantagem técnica em relação a todos os anteriores e acreditava que com isso e com método, seria possível.

Os outros medos (medos de indolente gente culta, com certeza não de Henrique, um homem metódico e cujo lema era "Talent de bien faire","Desejo de bem fazer") dos mitos da Terra Incognita só serviriam de incentivo: "A curiosidade é a mais forte de todas as paixões" (Goethe). Mas são tudo tretas, inflamações decorativas.

"É a curiosidade que leva o italiano Luís de Cadamosto a participar na empresa marítima portuguesa."

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"Often called by its Portuguese name, Cape Bojador, this promontory jutting into the Atlantic had defeated all of Africa’s and Europe’s greatest sailors for nearly two thousand years. Phoenicians and Greeks from pre-Christian eras had tried, and after they had wrecked, Arabs and North Africans likewise came to grief at the Bulging Cape. Long distance northern European sailors such as the Vikings also failed during the early middle ages, as did the Renaissance Venetian, Genoese, and Catalan vessels accustomed to Mediterranean seas."

Os monstros:"But there he had also met with failure because these island volcanoes rise suddenly from the ocean floor, blocking the smooth flow of southward air and wind. Like any giant object impeding the smooth flow of wind, the waters and air behind the Canaries are very turbulent. Giant curls of wind and water swirl in circles southwest of the islands, trapping vessels in an endless merry-go-round."