Typing the word cockpit makes me all the sudden realize that
airplanes also have cockpits. Interestingly
the dictionary says its origin is from an enclosed area where they had cock
fights. It goes on and says it is also
the name of the quarters of warships where the junior officers are housed. A very interesting juxtaposition here. On small water crafts like sailboats and
smaller motorboats the word “pit” in the word cockpit sounds more true to its
meaning; it is a well where you stand in and do most of the boating and having
a nonskid floor is important.
Oh well. An egret was standing
on the dock, peering down, probably looking for a juicy morsel like a small
crab or small fish. At low tide (which it
was) the mud flats are often overtaken by fiddler crabs. Neat little animals; the males have one huge
claw and one that is the normal size.
Females have equal size claws.
Makes you wonder if size matters in this part of the animal kingdom as
well. There are so many ways of being
attractive to the opposite sex in the animal kingdom; it is amazing. Even in our own species, the humans,
different cultures have different (physical) things they look at to judge whether
that person makes a good mate. It is
absolutely fascinating what evolution did to further a species and facilitates
selecting mates that would make my offspring more successful than yours. That’s what Darwin called “Natural Selection”
and “Survival of the Fittest.” Guess that is also why we called out boat the "Beagle."
Anyway, there had been heavy dew fall, and after drying the
boat and waiting some time, I had a successful day getting the nonskid paint down. It is now safer down there; it looks better
and hopefully less sensitive to water getting into the core of the boat.
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