Elsa passed as expected with moderate wind, distant lightning, and some rain. It was all over in a few hours. Really a non-event. At most a blip. Leaves, Spanish moss and twigs were blown onto our deck and have been swept overboard. During the five years we lived on board THE HAWKE OF TUONELA in Boston Harbor I had to do that to snow. A definite improvement.
NOAA recently released a report that La Niña is developing in the Pacific Ocean. One consequence of this is drier than usual weather in western states, which they do not need, and a more active hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, which we do not need.
On his recent cruise Steve Earley had a love affair with his dry suit. Some might think this odd, but I found it intriguing. He seemed to slip in and out of his dry suit with ease. The only time I tried on my dry suit, it was like battling an octopus, and I was in our Evanston condo. I think I won, but I’m not sure. It might have been a draw. I have never tried to put on the dry suit at sea. However, with Steve’s sterling example I decided to dig out my dry suit and study the situation more closely.
First I had to find the thing. Eventually I did in a waterproof bag with my set of heavy foul weather gear far in GANNET’s stern behind where I stow the Torqeedo.
I brought it up to the condo, spread it out, tried all the zippers, some of which are difficult to zip, particularly one that goes around the back, and gave it a go. It went better than I remembered except for that zipper around the back of the piece through which you put your head. A tube of lubricant was provided with the suit, but has not made an appreciable difference. We will see what teflon spray can do. Even without that zipper closed, I think the suit would keep me dry, although I might have to wear a foul weather parka over it.
I an relieved to discover that there is a fly zipper so that I will not have to lower the suit to my waist when I need to be relieved.
At the top of the journal page on the main site is a reference to THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK, an excellent anthology of diary entries though the centuries.
https://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/journal/journal.html
In the Evanston condo we had two seven foot high book shelves. When we put the condo on the market I went through the books and selected ten to move to Hilton Head, five of which I had written myself. Ten or twelve years ago those bookshelves were becoming full and I told Carol we were going to have to buy more, but then I started to prefer reading Kindle editions of books. I even bought Kindle editions of many of those on the shelves.
In looking over the shelves a few months ago I noticed THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK and rather than move it here, bought the Kindle edition. On July 1 I started rereading it. Reading each day the diary excerpts of that date. Usually there are three or four each day. On July 7 there were entries by H.D. Thoreau; Leo Tolstoy; Sofia Tolstoy; and Denton Welch. Yesterday William Soutar; Cesare Pavese; and Joseph Goebbels. A most interesting and entertaining book. Highly recommended.
Soccer fans are rejoicing. Tomorrow sees the final of Copa America between Brazil and Argentina and Sunday the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy. Quite surprising to me at least is that England has not been in the final of a major international tournament since 1966.
I continue each afternoon to read a few poems, some ancient Chinese; some more modern Western. I much prefer the Chinese. Perhaps because they have endured for centuries, whereas many of the more modern are concerned with trivialities, but also because none of the Chinese poems are set in cities, and there were cities then. They are poems often of wanderers or exiles living alone or at most in villages. As a species we are now urban, but we did not evolve to be, and I most definitely am not.
Here are two chosen almost at random. There are many others.
The first is by Li Bai, one of whose poems I included here earlier. He lived 701-762.
This by his contemporary, Du Fu, 712-770.
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