Sailing Alone

Before I left home in my parents’ RV, mom handed me an ice pick and suggested I’d take it with me. I tried not to roll my eyes when she said I might get into an ice storm. She knew all too well that I would have to hack through the ice in the miniature aluminum ice trays that came with the RV. The things are about as useless as a match in a wind storm and require more energy to break the ice for a cool drink as an ice breaker spends cutting its way across the Artic Ocean in a dark January afternoon. I made a mental note to purchase a small plastic tray when I finally discovered a Wal-Mart in Newport. However, my mental capacities for “hanging on to things” have not been up to par lately. I constantly wonder where I left the RV keys. I need to discipline myself more.

I have employed the ice pick in other applications. This afternoon I carefully poked a hole in the base plate of a childproof latch that I adapted to work on the screen door slide to prevent the all too smart cat Phoenix from escaping. It took me some time to figure out how to place it so I could still open the slide without too much encumbrance. All the while, Phoenix sat in front of the door feigning indifference to the project, grooming herself ever so purposefully, but I knew she was carefully watching me, calculating her next move. I have yet to figured out how to secure the screen door so she can’t just ram through it like she did the other afternoon. She is not much over eight pounds, but she has learned she can put enough force on the roller latch that it pops open. (Note: See that little Diablo sitting at the door?)

Knowing that tomorrow’s forecast is gloomy, I headed off to the beach, such as they are around here. I was able to park the RV curbside to the shore and in a good cross breeze that kept the RV nice and cool. Diablo watched sunbathers and sea gulls most of the morning. While I read Joshua Slocum’s tale of Sailing Alone Around the World. He was the first to successful challenge the experts who said sailing around the world single-handed was impossible. Captain Slocum presented the proof in an epic voyage, taking over three years to circumnavigate the globe in a 34 foot sloop named the Spray. That was done between April 1895 and 1898. Absorbed in the book I picked up at the New Bedford Whaling Museum,I got a little toasted on my toes and thighs. Since I was quite close to Flo’s Clam Shack (it was across the street) I decided to take a chance with the fried clams, hoping I wouldn’t have the same experience I had last week.

Found a mosquito in the RV the size of a plump red tomato on a good vine. If she got me, I don’t know where. If she got the cats, they might need a transfusion. I picked the little bugger off the screen and it did not take much to pop her.

I am beginning to plan my Connecticut Trip. Hopefully with more success with farmers markets and marinas than Rhode Island. And I must start calling on the bookstores down south.

Yep, did not work too hard today.