Evanston: a boat for my seventh circumnavigation;
good-bye to Mission Beach; Eva Braun home movies
A few days ago Doryman posted a link to several small boats for sale.
I emailed him:
Your latest entry tempted me. I've always liked the way catboats look, though I've never sailed one. That 16' might be perfect for my 7th circumnavigation--assuming I successfully finish the 6th in GANNET. But then I came to my senses and realized that is a bit premature. Still there are some bargain boats there.
I do like that catboat, but the Atkin designed Valgerda might have been a more interesting choice.
Not able to get to the boat I already own, I don’t need a second I can’t sail.
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An article last week in the NY TIMES about global warming and rising sea levels got me thinking about Mission Beach, which is only a sand spit a couple of hundred yards wide and barely above sea level now. When I lived there thirty years ago, winter storms sometimes pushed water all the way to the sea wall.
Scientists expect global warming to melt enough glacial ice to raise the ocean level by thee to six feet by the end of this century, and possibly much more beyond that.
In this map,
Mission Beach is near the upper left hand corner. The first hills are to the east of Interstate 5. Without a twenty-five foot high sea wall that is going to be the coast line. Point Loma to the south of Mission Beach will become an island. As will presently inaccurately named North Island and Coronado, if they aren’t below water. And San Diego Bay will cease to be an all weather harbor.
The Netherlands can hold back the sea, but the United States has too much coast.
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Yesterday THE GUARDIAN ran an article about Eva Braun’s home movies with links to four segments totaling about thirty minutes. Eva Braun was Hitler’s mistress and, for a day before they died, wife.
The movies were tracked down by a German artist my age, but who born in 1941 Berlin had a very different childhood.
I watched all four segments. The first has a wildly inappropriate sound track and voice over. The others are silent.
I don’t know what to make of them.
‘Banality of evil’ is not adequate.
Monday, January 28, 2013