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| LIFE IN SOLERA | JANUARY 2025 | 23 Thi & Tha By the Solera Ghostwriter The rules of the nautical road require that powerboats yield to other vessels approaching from their right. To give the skipper of such a boat a clear view in this direction, steering wheels are traditionally placed on the right-hand side of the boat. The devil in this expression is not Satan, and "to pay" has nothing to do with the usual definition of the term. The devil is a seam on a wooden ship that is usually below the waterline and hard to reach. "To pay" means to caulk the seam with a water-resistant preparation like hot pitch. In order to get to the seam, a ship often had to be careened on a shallow bottom. When the tide went out, the work could be done, but it had to be done quickly before the tide came back in. If the ship were made ready, but the brew had not prepared the hot pitch, then they had "the devil to pay and no pitch hot." Any statement about why animals do what they do is, of course, arguable, and in this case, there appear to be two theories about why geese fly in a V formation. The first holds that the V formation allows each bird to take maximum advantage of disturbances in the air created by the flap of the bird in front. Such disturbances tend to be generated in an inverted V pattern very similar to the formation flown by the geese. The second theory states that, because the bird's eyes are located on the sides of its head, the V formation provides each bird with the best simultaneous view of the flock leader and the direction of the flight. Readers can decide for themselves which theory seems most plausible. Perhaps the real reason is a combination of both theories. Only the geese know for sure. There'll be the Devil to pay? Why do geese fly in a 'v' formation? Why do all those seagulls face the same direction on the beach? Why are powerboat steering wheels on the right side? Because of the way seagulls are built – heavy in the front and light in the back – they experience less wind resistance when they face in to the wind. That is what they are doing when you see them at the beach on a windy day all facing the same direction. They are facing into the wind to reduce wind resistance.