A lovely week here. Clear skies. Spectacular sunsets. Lows in the high 30sF. Highs around 60. A great week to be working on GANNET. But I’m not. I am presently waiting for delivery of our long ago ordered bed. Yesterday I had to be here while stone masons fit granite around the fireplace. Tomorrow other workmen are to replace the baseboards beside the fireplace. All worthwhile, but confining. So while waiting, let me catch up on some unrelated odds and ends.
Above you have a painting of the clipper ship, STARLIGHT, in Boston Harbor not long after her launching in 1854. I run it because it is pretty and thank Tim for the photograph he sent me taken at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
From Dana come this photo taken by a friend of his in I believe the U.S. Virgin Islands with the caption ‘envy’. I thank them both and quote:
You go through life thinking you’re king of the hill. Buy yourself a 200-foot yacht, drop anchor in front of the Dupars, the St. Thomas Dupars. “Apogee” on the right.
Then the 240 foot “Lunasea” drops anchor next to you (left), and you can hear “Mine is bigger than yours!” piped over the PA system. Spend the night making fun of the “little guy next door.”
Then the 320 foot “Faith” steams into the harbor Saturday morning, and you realize you’re nothing but a testicle! Made in Italy, ooooozes sex appeal as she slides into port. Canadian billionaire Lawrence Strol. Life is good.
To which Dana replied:
Then I wander in on my 45 year old 30' sailboat and they all envy me for the simplicity and not having to worry if someone is going to scratch the paint or try to steal my stuff as there isn't anything worth stealing. Ah life.
As you may have observed I am not a crowd person, but sometimes, occasionally, groups are good. I thank Alan for this link to an enjoyable and heartening video of a zoom rendition of the sea shanty “Leave Her Johnny.” Some of the comments are puerile. Others point out that the song is not from a sailor to a woman, but sailors to their ship at voyage’s end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fow61Zsn2s
A frank defining of oneself in six words has come:
Father, artist, sailor, pilot, programmer, drunk.
An added note mentions trying to save jobs and pain.
I don’t put names on these to preserve privacy.
My friend, Carlos, asked in an email for a list of my ‘ten best reads’.
I have given it thought and I have reviewed my list of books read which goes back to June 2009 and have come up with the following in no particular order:
TYPHOON Joseph Conrad
DEBACLE Emile Zola
THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE Thomas Hardy
ANNA KARININA Leo Tolstoy
NIGHT FLIGHT Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC Aldo Leopard
BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA Jose Saramago
LIFE AND FATE Vastly Grossman
VOSS Patrick White
SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD Joshua Slocum
I am quite certain that if I were to make such a list tomorrow it would vary and I have excluded the epic poems that are among my most favorite books.
I could easily have chosen other works by several of the authors. Conrad: THE NIGGER OF THE NARCISSIS; HEART OF DARKNESS; and others. Zola: THE BEAST IN MAN; and others. Hardy: TESS OF THE d’UBERVILLES; FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD; JUDE THE OBSCURE; RETURN OF THE NATIVE. Saramago: THE DEATH OF RICARDO REIS. Patrick White: THE VIVISECTOR.
Of sailing books: TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST Richard Henry Dana; and although I have not read it for several decades, ALONE IN THE ROARING FORTIES by Vito Dumas.
Had I made such a list a few years ago I would have included HUCKLEBERRY FINN, but when I last reread it, I liked the parts about Huck and Jim, but found the those about Tom Sawyer too childish.
Likewise I would have included MOBY DICK if about a hundred dull pages were eliminated.
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