Politics is like airlines, I keep thinking it can’t get any worse, but it always does.
Having said that, quite unexpectedly airlines, unlike politics, occasionally gets something right.
When United announced basic economy fares several months ago I groaned and thought, here we go again. No normal size carry-on bag, no seat selection, board last. Yet when I fly from GANNET rather than to her, that suits me perfectly, particularly for a short flight such as from Florida to Chicago. So I am flying home a week from Wednesday, Fort Lauderdale to Chicago, for the ridiculous fare of $54.20, of which only $37.21 goes to United. The rest is taxes and other government fees.
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You will have seen this news by now, but I thank Wayne for first bringing it to my attention. Another US Navy destroyer has been involved in a collision with a merchant ship. How this could happen only days after a scathing preliminary report of the investigation of the FITZGERALD collision truly is beyond comprehension. One naval expert compared it to a collision between a Formula One race car and a garbage truck, asking rhetorically, “Which can get out of the way more easily?”
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A fourth solution to August heat in Marathon has just presented itself: a solar eclipse.
It definitely works, but in between them, the library is good.
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Above you see Dave Skaife's fourteen foot Paradox, now named VIKING FUNERAL. For a long time she had no name, but Dave had to fill out forms that required one, so finally gave in. For me the name conjures up Kirk Douglas being given such a funeral at the end of the 1958 film, THE VIKINGS.
Behind her here at Marathon Boat Yard is GANNET.
I last saw Dave and VF in Hilo, Hawaii. Since then he shipped her to California, towed her to Texas, and sailed her along the Gulf Coast to Florida, out to the Bahamas, Cuba, and now here.
Since then GANNET and I have sailed westward around the world to here.
Thus GANNET and VIKING FUNERAL have at Marathon Boat Yard completed a co-circumnavigation. Of sorts.
VIKING FUNERAL makes GANNET seem luxurious.
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Several of you have written to me about marine heads.
I thank Beau for telephoning the manager of the Key West mooring field who affirms that PortaPottis are legal in the Florida Keys.
I thank David for searching and sending me a link to the relevant sections of the Marathon Municipal Code which do not forbid PortaPottis.
And I asked the local West Store if PortaPottis are illegal in the Keys, and if so why do they have several for sale?
So, for whatever reasons, the bureaucrat in the Marathon moorings office told me something that is not true. While that has become common practice among government officials, elected, appointed and hired, he simply is what he is, and ‘Be As You Are’ is perhaps not universally good advice.
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From David comes a good quote from the Spanish writer, Miguel de Unamuno, “Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.”
I thank him.
