I had forgotten about the other Arguses, thank you. Still, I think that the last reference that brings up Greek yachts, fidelity and "seeing off/coming back" must refer to Ulysses and his dog ( and to the car).

I tried to see if there was anything else with yachts or Yaks and had another thrilling surprise. There were two references in "Ada" that mentioned Greeks and Yaks and described a kind of barometer ( The cartesian diver, usually floating in a glass tube and a wooden-barometer in the other that informs about rainy or sunny weather).
A third barometer appeared ( it registered the hours!) but not as close to the Yaks as the other ones but VN brought again the expression "saw off"...

Google offered me an address refering to "YAK" but it can only be a coincidental find! There is a British company named "Yak" that offers yachting equipment, including "boyancy aids". For the fun of it, I´ll copy their address:

YAK: Producers of marine safety equipment, lifejackets and buoyancy aids, and immersion suits in Great Britain. www.crewsaver.co.uk/

The elements linked to separation/reunion, water flow, Yachts and Yaks, and paraphernalia for diving/ flotation/measurement in VN are :

"God save America, embarrassed sons, vulgar fathers, titled Britisher and Greek grandee matching yachts, and yacs, and yoickfests in the Bahamudas (...) God save their poor little American tastebuds.

‘Your new car sounds wonderful,’ said Van.

‘Doesn’t it? Yes.’(...) ‘And how is everything, my dear boy? I saw you last the day you returned from Chose. We waste life in separations! We are the fools of fate!

There comes a reference to a strange "barometer" at the end of the meeting, when Demon departs, but it doesn´t appear as close to car/yacht as the others. But the expression "saw him off" appears next, once again:

"Demon tapped the barometer next to the door. It had been tapped too often to react in any intelligible way and remained standing at a quarter past three.

Van and Ada saw him off. The night was very warm and dripping with what Ladore farmers called green rain. Demon’s black sedan glinted elegantly among the varnished laurels in the moth-flaked porchlight". All that Marina "could see was the sheen of the car’s bonnet and the rain slanting in the light of its lamps".

......................................................

Ada’s Argus had not yet been delivered. The gloomy black gloss of the hackney Yak (...) reminded him of her departure in 1905. He saw her off — and ascended, like a Cartesian glassman, like spectral Time standing at attention, back to his desolate fifth floor.

................................................................

Even more patly the sudden onset of her flow had curtailed yesterday’s caresses. It was raining when he slammed the door of his car, hitched up his velveteen slacks, and, stepping across puddles, passed between an ambulance and a large black Yak, waiting one behind the other before the hotel. All the wings of the Yak were spread open, two bellboys had started to pile in luggage under the chauffeur’s supervision, and various parts of the old hackney car were responding with discreet creaks to the grunts of the loaders.(...) he was about to enter the glass revolvo, when it produced Ada, somewhat in the manner of those carved-wood barometers whose doors yield either a male puppet or a female one (...) there she attempted to embrace him but he evaded her lips. She was leaving in a few minutes.

(Purpur?) /Dark-blue is a color associated with Van´s ancestors. Dark-blue is also a dream train that goes from London to the Cape.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>

To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:41 PM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Greece, Argus and Ulysses J-3 May