Carol had an early flight back to Chicago. I stayed in the hotel room to watch the final of the Women’s World Cup. The US women are superior and deserved the win. I am not hung up on the nationalism. The US spends more money on women’s soccer than any other nation and has the third largest population in the world to draw from. That American women’s soccer is superior to American men’s, even considering that men’s soccer overall is much more competitive than women’s, is undeniable.
I enjoyed being with Carol. No surprise. I always have in the twenty-five years I have known and loved her. But I am glad to be back on GANNET. No surprise. I always have during the eight years I have owned her. And I have always enjoyed being on the water. Even somehow knowing I would during those long years of my landlocked childhood.
Carol and I were on GANNET on July 4 and again yesterday afternoon.
On the Fourth a kayaker came along side who recognized GANNET and by inference me. We talked. He displayed knowledge that he had indeed been following the voyage and he was complimentary. As Carol, who is astute, noted afterwards, he did not offer and I did not get his name. A warning: you are always welcomed to approach me, but in the future I will ask your name. We are in this together. I do recall that he grew up in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago not far from Evanston, and now lives in Colorado.
He said among other things that I am a rock star of sailing. I have heard that before, but not liking rock music am ambivalent. I want to be the Bach of sailing.
I do not deny that it is pleasing to be recognized, but it is also pleasing not to be recognized, as none of the paddlers and kayakers who pass by GANNET, and occasionally bump into her, do. I expect that they see a slim old man standing in the companionway or sitting on a Sportaseat on a small boat and think that it is nice that he still has these quiet moments of enjoyment on the water. I am pleased that they have no idea of what GANNET has done. That of all the more than a thousand boats in this basin, she has sailed the farthest. And that I have sailed farther than everyone else in this bay and probably San Diego Bay combined as well. And not just farther, but harder.
Yesterday we rented a bike for Carol and rode Mission Beach from one end to the other. I like being here so much.
I do not deny that it is pleasing to be recognized, but it is also pleasing not to be recognized, as none of the paddlers and kayakers who pass by GANNET, and occasionally bump into her, do. I expect that they see a slim old man standing in the companionway or sitting on a Sportaseat on a small boat and think that it is nice that he still has these quiet moments of enjoyment on the water. I am pleased that they have no idea of what GANNET has done. That of all the more than a thousand boats in this basin, she has sailed the farthest. And that I have sailed farther than everyone else in this bay and probably San Diego Bay combined as well. And not just farther, but harder.
Yesterday we rented a bike for Carol and rode Mission Beach from one end to the other. I like being here so much.
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As long time readers know every six months I post the books I have read.
I am a reader, but I read more on passages than on land when there are distractions such as the Women’s World Cup. I observe of myself that I have finished only four books in the now more than two months since I reached land. During the passage I often read one a day. I am knowingly in one of the great transitions of my life and I am feeling my way forward as all of us do.
So here is the list.
Of all these, the one you are most likely not to know and that I particularly liked is ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE.
THE AENEID is the equal of Homer and I had read Conrad’s ALYMAYER’S FOLLY so long ago that it was a new book to me.
January 2019
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA John O’Hara
BABYLON BERLIN Volker Kutscher
THIS THING OF DARKNESS Harry Thompson
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE Anthony Doerr
DECEMBER 1941 Craig Shirley
BIRDMEN Lawrence Goldstone
THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS David McCullough
LAST NIGHT James Salter
GONE FOR SOLDIERS Jeff Shaara
THE WANDERING FALCON Jamil Ahmad
CITY OF SCOUNDRELS Gary Krist
MAYFLOWER Nathaniel Philbrick
NIGHT SOLDIERS Alan Furst
FACES AND MASKS Eduardo Galeano
CENTURY OF THE WIND Eduardo Galeano
PARIS IN THE PRESENT TENSE Mark Helprin
ANNAPURNA Maurice Herzog
FARTHEST NORTH Fridtjof Nansen
THE GUN C. S. Forester
A TIME TO STAND: The Epic of the Alamo Walter Lord
ONE NIGHT IN WINTER Simon Sebag Montefiore
THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS Anthony Tommasini
MARCH Geraldine Brooks
THE YOUNG LIONS Irwin Shaw
GOD’S SECRETARIES Adam Nicolson
THE WRITTEN WORD Martin Pulchner
THE AENEID Virgil translated by Robert Fitzgerald
THE SILENT DEATH Volker Kutscher
THIS GULF OF FIRE Mark Moleskt
THE PLAYER’S BALL David Kushner
THE LADY AND THE UNICORN Tracey Chevalier
APPEASEMENT Tim Bouverie
ALMAYER’S FOLLY Joseph Conrad