Evanston: screens; landlord; unsafe

        I travelled from GANNET carrying my purse, a.k,a. messenger bag—and if anyone had made a snide remark I would, of course, have hit them with my purse—and wearing my Scottevest.  Essentially I was carrying screens:  MacBook Air, iPod mini, iTouch, Kindle Paperwhite.  Three of them I wore in the infinite pockets of the Scottevest.  This seems like too many screens, but all serve different purposes.

        With no checked bags and Global Entry, I was through Immigration and Customs at LAX about as quickly as I could walk across the room.  The Global Entry process of inserting my passport into the kiosk, placing my fingers on the reader, answering a few questions on the touch screen, two of which related to Ebola, and taking a printed receipt to hand to the agent at the far door, took a minute.  Even if I never used it again, avoiding those long snaking lines was worth $100.

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        A few days before I left GANNET I met my landlord, Grant, a Kiwi who lives in Melbourne, Australia, but keeps his boat in a slip in the Opua Marina and had an unoccupied mooring.  He and his friend Brian came up from Auckland to take a mini-cruise around local waters, and we got together for  drinks and dinner at the Opua Cruising Club.  I enjoyed their company and the then novelty of ice in my drink.  I am now blasé about ice, which is just as well because the temperature in Evanston is due to fall to 23°F/-5°C Tuesday night.  

       

          The next morning as they were heading out, they took this photo of me wearing GANNET, and after their return, Grant took this of the little sloop from I expect his own 31’, KALAI.

        Grant took the lovely photo at the top at one of my favorite anchorages, Whangamumu.  I hope to have that view from GANNET next April.

        I thank Grant for permission to share the photos with you, even though they make me miss my second home.

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        Except when I am at sea, the world’s roads are unsafe for another four years.

       My driver’s license was due to expire next week, so on Friday I rode the train into Chicago to apply for a renewal knowing that I would have to pass a vision test.  Rather to my surprise I did and am now legal until 2018.  Referring to the Yellowbrick tracking map will enable you to know when it is safe to venture out.