After a cool night of off and mostly on sleep, I was awakened by a violin. My groggy yet inquisitive mind first asked what that screeching moan was. After the fog cleared in my head, I realized its origin and looked around for the rude jerk. Some lady who – in the course of a half hour – barreled straight through her entire repertoire. The benefits of civilization for her became obvious: she was not forced to walk the plank, or even asked to stop and go play elsewhere by the dozens of people still trying to sleep. The sound was not even good or enjoyable to hear, and she probably thought she impressed us with her early morning virtuosity. Nope; definitely nope.
A little boy, who probably owned the noisemaker, played afterwards with stronger musical timing and far more interesting music. But it was still early, and I’d rather have had it on CD at home when I was not asleep. Large groups were made of individuals, and each had an individual viewpoint. Fine, just take the viewpoint below deck when it was loud and still early.
Forced awake by sound and not choice, I walked down two decks to the public showers. I found two surprises: plenty of hot water and no line. Hallelujah to both. After that point, my whole day was the laziest on record.
I had been looking forward to a full day of rest from the vibrating steed; that Second Coming came. I relaxed on lounge chairs and stared off at passing coastline so much that it was almost ridiculous. Back in Boston or at home I would have kicked myself in the butt for not doing something more “constructive”, but instead I whittled away time minute by minute entranced by the passing natural coastline. On the ferry I had no books to read, no movies to watch, no work to do, and no appointments to keep. No anything, no nothing. I could have offered to swab the decks or batten down the hatches, but I was not that nautically inclined. A day for writing, relaxing, being in place. Plan, but not much delivery. Thank goodness for today’s days.
I did talk to Nat and other Solarium campers. And, while most people took a bus into Sitka, Dad and I zonked for a couple hours in the afternoon making up for lost time to violin recitals. The zonking was a quality zonk, and I woke up refreshed though just as lazy.
Food was provided during the day at a limited snack bar. It’s real culinary specialty was play-for-a-quarter video games, though. There was enough to get the basics and it provided milk, yogurt, and other good USRDA foods. Snacks came from our pre-boarding grocery store cache. A big stuffer meal came in the dining room for dinner: an all-you-can-eat buffet. We gluttoned to satisfaction and moved on, this time with an excuse for laziness (digesting a big meal).
That night was colder than the prior one on the open ferry deck. I bundled up in a sleeping bag covered with a blanket. That made my body too hot, but my head was providing passages for me to breathe through out in the wind. After hunkering down as far as possible without re-breathing already exhaled air, I decided on more head protection instead. Hmmmm… How could this heat-sucking wind situation have been improved? Aaaahhhhh… The lounge chairs that nobody were using… I tilted one over on its side and tied the sleeves of a windbreaker jacket to it, resulting in a freestanding windbreak. Not balmy, but certainly a better night’s sleep.