I did my full work out only 53 times last year, the third lowest total since I started keeping records in 2004. The other two were during the second year of my fifth circumnavigation and the first year of this one. That means I did 8170 push-ups and crunches in 2016. Hardly half of what I have done in other years. Sailing oceans seriously interferes with work outs. Sailing oceans is real. Work outs are substitutes.
I did my full work out today, though I am certain that this, too, will be a low number year.
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Books read July through December:
THE FAR ARENA Richard Ben Sapir
SAPIENS Yuval Noah HarariWe
BLACK FRIDAYS Michael Sears
BARKSKINS Annie Proulx
CIDER WITH ROSIE Laurie Lee
STILLWATER SMITH Frank Roderus
MARCO POLO John Man
THE POLISH OFFICER Alan Furst
GREY WOLF, GREY SEA E.B. Gasaway
DUSK James Salter
IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE Hampton Sides
A LITTLE LARGER THAN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE Fernando Pessoa
TINSELTOWN William J. Mann
THE CHOUANS Honore de Balzac
DON’T POINT THAT THING AT ME Kyril Bonfiglioli
THREE CROOKED KINGS Matthew Condon
IN THE DISTANCE, AND AHEAD IN TIME George Zebrowski
END GAME Frank Brady
NEVER CRY WOLF Farley Mowat
THE GATE OF ANGELS Penelope Fitzgerald
THE CIVIL WAR Vol. 1 Shelby Foote
A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR Dennis Lehane
THE CIVIL WAR Vol. 2 Shelby Foote
BURNING THE DAYS James Salter
ROWING FOR MY LIFE Kathleen Saville
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH CHE GUEVARA Ben Fountain
GERTRUDE Hermann Hesse
BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK Ben Fountain
THE STORY OF SEX Philippe Brenot, Laetitia Coryn
REGENERATION Pat Barker
THE EYE IN THE DOOR Pat Barker
THE GHOST ROAD Pat Barker
THE COLLECTED POEMS Wilfred Owen
LETTERS OF NOTE Vol. 1 Shaun Usher
LETTERS OF NOTE Vol. 2 Shaun Usher
THE INFERNO Dante Alighieri translated John Cardi
THE RESCUE Joseph Conrad
NO TURN UNSTONED Diana Rigg
Of these I read more than half during the fifty-five day passage from Darwin to Durban.
Of these most are excellent books. The greatest new discovery for me by far was Pat Barker’s REGENERATION TRILOGY, as in music the greatest discovery was Leonard Cohen, whom I discovered only when he died. May others have that experience of me, though my death will almost certainly go unnoticed.
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I love Carol. I love being with her. We’ve had a really great time over the holidays when she was off work. But I love knowing that the beauty and purity of the open ocean are before me, and that I will again be on GANNET as she sings across the sea.
