Alright. For all you landlubbers, a new toilet may not be news enough to post about in a new blog post. However, for anyone who has ever used a marine head (toilet), you will appreciate this. With an ordinary manual head, one must go through a series of flipping a switch from wet to dry interspersed with a number of hand pumps on a handle next to the head. We have three separate heads (and showers) on this boat (more than we really need and more that will require some dirty maintenance). Well, this week we have installed a brand new electric head. One just does his/her business and push a button on the wall next to the head… and you’re done! Woohoo!!

Our electric head! Pumping handles and flipping switches replaced by one brief push of the button seen on the wall beside the head.
Speaking of doing one’s business, here are some birds who obviously use the pilings next to Beatitude for their marine toilet.
Lastly, here is a new decorative item for our boat. I am finishing up teaching a 3-month course on The History of Christian Art. Two weeks ago, I mentioned how much I loved a painting by a French Rococo painter, Jean HonorĂ© Fragonard. Carlos DeLeon Campos, a wonderful artist from Guatemala and a good friend of ours who has been attending the class, presented me with his interpretation of Fragonard’s A Young Girl Reading. It is magnificent!
I believe the bird is a ‘laughing gull” Check out the following link.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Laughing_Gull/id
Roy Rogers recommended your blog. My brother-in-law and I took ASA 101-104 with Roy. During the last week of January we sailing for a week with Roy in the BVI.
You mentioned you worked in the ER at Lakeland Memorial. I believe a friend of ours, Karen Roe, also worked in the ER there.
Congrats on actualizing the dream of sailing.
Thanks, Jack! Roy is a good guy. We hope to meet up with him in a couple of weeks in the Abacos.