Night Sweats

Bob and Nancy Griffith cruised a 52-foot double-ended ferry-cement yacht Awahnee around the world. From Alaska to Antarctica, from the Med to the Caribbean. Their adventures are the stuff of dreams and I read and re-read their book describing their travels.

Bob was sometimes referred to as ‘3 squares a day’. We’re not talking meals here folks. We’re taking toilet paper. On board Awahnee, Bob doled out 3 squares of the precious stuff to Captain and crew alike. What you did with it during those 24 hours was up to you. But 3 would be all you would get. As an aside, Bob had nothing to do with the expression ‘3 sheets to the wind’. That’s something else entirely. Back to Bob.

For this trip, I actually sat down (no pun intended) and counted how many sheets of toilet paper I figured I would need. It was way more than 3 sheets a day. But now, cookie-less and panicking, my stores of the stuff seemed woefully inadequate. Could I have miscalculated? Perhaps forgot? Maybe left ashore?

The whole scheme seemed to hang in the balance as suddenly I imagined I was going to run out of everything way before I had figured. The only thing to do was to recount and make sure.

And sure enough, all was right with the world. At least as far as the important stuff was concerned. There they stood. Like little paper soldiers. Ready, willing, and able to serve as need be. Thank goodness for I cannot imagine what a ration of 3 squares a day would do to morale aboard Seaburban.