Bill and I were unpleasantly awoken last night around 2:15 am. The wind had shifted 180 degrees and was howling. Unfortunately, the mooring ball (that was now) directly behind Mary Elizabeth was empty and was banging - with a lot of force - into our stern. For those of you who have seen our boat you will remember that we sleep in the aft cabin. The noise literally sounding like a wrecking ball was coming through the hull at our heads. We got up and, after figuring out what was happening, tried to put out fenders, moved the dinghy and even tried to tighten the lines to our mooring to shorten the boat. Nothing worked - the wind was too strong and it kept shifting so the ball was right off our port then starboard side hitting the boat the whole time. After about three hours the wind shifted enough that sv ME was out of the path of the mooring ball, but we did not get the best nights sleep to say the least. The worse part is, the mooring balls are white with red stripes. Our boat is blue. We are still assessing the damage..... Quote of the day - "Never again will we have a blue hulled boat!" -- Bill McClendon, 3:19 am.
On another note, Bill and I have both been reading. I finished In the Heart of the Sea: The Story of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I bought this book at the gift shop of the Whaling Museum. It is an incredible story, and a fabulous read. It is about the whaleship Essex out of Nantucket. In 1819 at the height of the whaling industry, 20 crew left for the Pacific. After about a year of being at sea, their ship was rammed by a whale and sunk. The 20 crew got into three whaleboats in search of land. In the Heart of the Sea is their story of survival. The book won the 2000 National Book Award (Nonfiction). If anyone is interested in reading it, I would be more than happy to put it in the mail. More information can be found on the author's website: http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/heartofthesea/index.html
Bill and I both also read You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Letham (one of our favorite authors). It was an OK book (not my favorite, Bill like it a little more) about the LA art / rock scene, a struggling band, and a kangaroo. We passed it along to Keith to read on the ferry yesterday. Here is a book review from the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502626.html
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