Sunny, clear and cold here in the upper flatlands, with an inch or two of frozen snow on the ground.
I find myself unexpectedly enthused as we began a new year and a new decade. I have said that I did not want to be like some old rock star forever singing the songs of his youth, so I am looking forward, not back, and hope and expect that 2020 will be a year of change.
I find myself unexpectedly enthused as we began a new year and a new decade. I have said that I did not want to be like some old rock star forever singing the songs of his youth, so I am looking forward, not back, and hope and expect that 2020 will be a year of change.
Regular readers will recognize Baby, my favorite sea beagle, also looking forward on one of her boats that she lets Tom steer for her. I do not know if she has named the kayak. Baby’s big boat is FIRST LIGHT, a Welsford Pathfinder, that Tom built for her.
A brief accounting of the past year before I put it behind me.
GANNET and I sailed 7,000 miles in two passages, completing her first circumnavigation and my sixth. I read in the brief author’s note at the end of a recent article of mine in CRUISING WORLD that I have made six solo circumnavigations. I have not and have never claimed to. Three of my circumnavigations were solo: the first; fifth and sixth. Jill and Carol sailed with me on parts of the other three.
I did my full workout only thirty times during 2019. This is by far the lowest number since I began keeping records in 2004. The next lowest was 43 in 2009 and 2014. In partial mitigation I was sailing or preparing to sail for the first four months of the year and I lost two months to a fractured rib and another to a virus. Thirty workouts means I did only about 4,800 push-ups and crunches during the year. However I have worked out seven times in the past two weeks and am again my usual self.
Here are the books read in the past six months.
July 2019
RIGHTEOUS Timothy Jacobs
THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER John Cheever
FACING THE WAVE: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami.
Gretel Erhrlich
THE HEART OF THE MATTER. Graham Greene
THE LUSIADS. Luis Camoes
THE PHANTOM FLOTILLA. Peter Shankland
BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA. Jose Saramago
THE MARCH OF FOLLY. Barbara Tuchman
NARROW ROAD TO THE INTERIOR. Matsuo Basho
I, IAGO Nicole Galland
SHOUT AT THE DEVIL. Wilbur Smith
LOST HORIZON. James Hilton
THE BRILLIANT DISASTER Jim Rasenberger
A BURNT-OUT CASE. Graham Greene
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Lewis Carrol
THE FEAST OF THE GOAT. Mario vargas Llosa
POMPEII. Robert Harris
POMPEII. Robert Harris
MIDNIGHT AT CHERNOBYL. Adam Higginbotham
UNDER OCCUPATION. Alan Furst
HELL BEFORE BREAKFAST Robert H. Patton
CIRCE. Madeline Miller
Of them, I particularly recommend FACING THE WAVE; BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA, which I have now read three times; THE MARCH OF FOLLY; MIDNIGHT AT CHERNOBYL; and CIRCE, an original and imaginative retelling of part of the ODYSSEY from the perspective of the demi-goddess who turned some of Ulysses’ crew into swine and with whom he lived for a year.
On to the future, which I hope brings joy and fulfillment to all of you. And to me, too.
