Today is weekly cleaning day. The steward changes my towels and linens. I
bought paper towels yesterday, and have the cleanest windows, clean enough
for pictures or viewing with the binoculars.
The 2 adjacent ships have left, one last night, one this morning.
The river current is visible. There are often interesting ships of barge
tows going by on the river. Twelve and 15 barges at a time are common.
This afternoon, the riggers on the wharf were still welding the large
transformers from Korea to the rail cars. Each is over 100 tons. Other
cargo is being loaded on the ship today.
At last: Finished reading 'Decameron'. I am inclined to throw it over
board. Started reading it in Italy in April. Instead, I will leave it in
the ship's library. This lightens my load by a pound. Next is Dante's
'Inferno', another Italian classic of the middle ages. It is only 1/3
pound, and will only take me a few days. It will not be coming home
either. Wrote a short story about some students, making the best of
having 'Decameron' on their reading list.
Alak pula is red wine, I think. I will discover if that is correct when
we are in international waters, and the Captain's 'Slop Chest' is open.
Pulled away from the dock about 6:30 pm on the way to West Palm Beach.
