Did I ever tell you how much I hate the wind?

October 6, 2016

Raleigh

A few of you have called or written, wanting to know how Hurricane Matthew is effecting us and if we are okay.  We are absolutely fine, safe in Raleigh with my nephew and family.

We headed to the boat, 3 hours away, to do the much needed work and to prepare it for Hurricane Matthew.  We received an email from the marina that boaters needed to secure their boats, so if we had not already been here we would have flown down to take care of our boat.  

We are watching the weather very carefully and staying here until it is fun to travel, not just safe but fun.  I wonder what the East Coast will look like as we travel south on the waterway. My heart goes out to the people in Haiti and the East Coast.  I just read that the storm is suppose to effect Lake Okeechobee.  

We worked for a couple of days getting ready to launch the boat so we could get back to Raleigh and wait out the storm. We met other boaters that were also getting their boats ready for the hurricane and at the same time preparing to launch their boat for winter cruising.  One family of five from Canada lives on their boat full time and each year spend the winter in the Bahamas.  I told the woman that depending on the winner of the election in November we might also move to Canada.

Staying on the boat while it is on the hard is not really fun, it is like tenting in the air, no bathroom, no way to do dishes and if you haven’t found the flatware yet there isn’t anything to eat with. We had one of those great chickens from the food store that they cook on the rotisserie, I love that chicken although they are probably highly processed.

Remember when you were camping and had to get out of your sleeping bag, crawl out of the tent, out into the woods and reverse that to go back to bed?  Now think about climbing down a ladder to do the same thing only walk to the bathroom as well. Oh the convenience of living in a house.

Word to the packer. Write two lists about bringing clothes on a trip and don’t be influenced by the weather of the day. Write one list in the winter and one in the summer so that you have clothes for any weather. I would pack my clothes on a hot day and the next cold day I would make significant changes to the clothes I had already packed.

I have learned so much in just over a year. I can’t imagine how much the long term boaters know!

The bedraggled

The Boat

New header, new lights and new TV

Notice the ladder in the back for getting on and off the boat 

A catamaran with a guest house

Tricia

Out to Sea

September 30, 2016

Wear ya ben

Whatcha up to

Come agin?

No worse for the wear

How ya do’in

Wear ya go’in

We'll sea

The time is May 30, 2016.  We arrived home after six and a half months “at sea”, well basically away from home.  “At sea” just seems too dramatic, but oh wait, some of it was dramatic never to be repeated, I hope. 

I made a photo album of the trip and it took me until the week before we were to leave.  There are mistakes in the narrative of the book but heck I made mistakes along the way, I guess it is all fitting.

This is what we arrived home to in April 

I had the best summer in my 62 years. Exercising and swimming everyday.  I had no sense of time and didn’t have to go anywhere on a schedule. I didn’t feel obliged to do anything. I think arranging your life so the word guilt has a place only in a dictionary is the essence of a lovely life. 

September 30, 2016 and it was time to go, I will be okay once on the water again and realize that Maine’s summer was not going to stay beautiful and warm much longer. 

Here is how we left the old homestead.

We traveled south in the truck, on the road instead of a trawler on the seas, but only as far as Beaufort, NC where our boat spent the winter.  There is lots of work to be done before we can schedule the splash. With the help of my nephew, Rob did a weeks worth of work on the boat this summer.  The headliner needed replacing, a television and new LED lights were installed.

We made it to Raleigh just in time…

The Trawler and Raleigh update in next posting.

It is nice to see you again.

Tricia

44 32'27"N 69 47'7"W

Here I sit at my dining room table working my way through the paperwork.

Let me update you since we arrived home less than 72  hours ago.  It is cold here, so I have checked the calendar four times to make sure it is spring and not fall.  It sure feels like I should start making Christmas cookies.  This is not a complaint just an observation. Today the high will be 47.

The house is a wreck. Some time during today I realized that all the stuff everywhere came from the boat, I don't remember where we put it.  I know that when we return there will be less of it, famous last words.  I promised I would not go upstairs empty handed, but now it is all in the loft.  I will get to it.

I learned on my trip that lots of the people I met didn't understand my sense of humor.  If someone was doing something that I liked I would tell them I was jealous. My friends at home know that I am kidding, that is my way of saying that is really special.  I can't name all the times that I said something I thought was funny and the looks on their faces were blank.  I don't know, do I have to rethink my sense of humor?

The yard is a mess from not doing the garden, but Rob started cleaning it up with  the leaf blower working for hours, it looks so nice now.

I think that it is time for me to dedicate this blog to the people that supported my adventure in many ways.  I am a tad concerned about naming the people with the fear that I forget to mention someone, but I will try my best.

First, my husband who listened to me during good times and difficult ones, he taught me how to motor a dinghy and start the engines. He taught me about the instrument panel so I don't blow up the equipment.  He has so much faith in me that I can do anything, much more than I have in myself.  Sometimes we are in tough situations and I want him to take over the helm but he insists I follow though.  Remember the time I was crossing the ICW from Fort Lauderdale to Lake Sylvia in a strong wind with intimidating seas and wanted him to take over, especially when he asked WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!? He still let me figure it out.  He is my friend and I love him very much.

Ken, my nephew who was their for me so many ways when my mom died.  He said he would do anything. He saw me at my worse in Penobscot Bay when I was hysterical during a time I thought we were going to collide with rock and could not make myself understood, it was not a pretty picture.  I was right if we didn't change course indeed we would have collided with the rocks. He scolded me when I petted a strange cat and had a nasty bite landing me in the ER, I knew he scolded me because he loves me.  I would like to name all that he did for me but just so you know the list is endless.

Our neighbors, Barbara and Lenny, who visited us in Florida, collected our mail, sent important mail to us no matter where we were.  Barbara understood what this was like for me and let me know that in many ways. They texted and texted which meant they were thinking of us.  Barbara kept an eye on the deer in our yard and Lenny performed monthly maintenance on the pellet furnace and generator. Here again there is much more to mention.  Let me end with saying I loved being at their house for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with their friends, Ken and Rob and two students from Colby.  One student played the piano and the other the violin while singing a song that Julian wrote in honor of a young friend that died in an auto accident. He played it in honor of my loss. I thought that Rob and I might be alone for Thanksgiving but the death of my mother was perfect timing for me to have a special dinner with them as well as my nephew and his family. That was a special night, thank you mom.  Barbara and Lenny came to my mother's memorial service even though the ride was very long and Barbara had Thanksgiving dinner to prepare.

My friends Jan and Kathy who listened as I told them about my fears and supported me with phone calls, texting, reading my blog following my adventures. 

Susan and I had many phone calls, Susan on her own boat traveling the ICW many times.  She will always be a treasure to me.

Sue and Paul who guided us on the beginning of our trip teaching us about locks, bridges, engines and much more.

For Chaz who supported me naming the boat after his mother.

I thank all of you who read my blog and were interested in my adventure and for those that let me know you were on the other end of my ramblings. We will go back next year and start over.

If I have been callous in my gratefulness please let me know.  I had so much from so many it is hard to capture it here.

I hope you had as nice a winter as we did or as nice a winter as you could have given the circumstance you are living in.

Here are the photos

April, June or November

Fall/Spring

I really am confused

Hard at work

Side yard

Thank you Rob

 

Truck Travel

April 23, 2016
Alexandria, VA
Coordinates 38 48'35"N, 77 3'4"W
Chaz and Holly's home

Our ride home

As you know we left the boat in Beaufort, NC and from there to my nephew's in Raleigh, we had a great time. A busy family with nice stuff going on.  Mom had a key role or the role in organizing the games for an annual carnival for her son's elementary school.  Dad made the wooden structures for the games and mom painted.  Their son has a major role in Mary Poppins, needing to spend time when possible learning his lines. Maggie and Will are both good swimmers from years of swimming lessons. My sister had just arrived at her new Wake Forest home with an entourage of movers bringing her treasures from Maine.  

In spite of all the family has going on they had time for cocktails at night, family meals and chats.  

Ken picked up our Dahon folding bike, now called the "clown bike" and when you see Will riding it you will know why.

Ubiquiti  Computer Experts

Clown Biker

Mema, Maggie and Papa John

The Old and the New

The lioness sleeps tonight

Dad glues the game posts

The moon over Raleigh

On April 22 we headed to Chaz and Holly's in Alexandria VA.  They put together an amazing impromptu pizza party with lots of friends.  I had a really good time, but neither of us could see the party to the end. Our entire visit has been fun, lots of eating out and meeting their friends.  I have enjoyed walking and playing with Cooper a Pyrenean Mountain Dog if I am off on the name please forgive me Cooper.  

Walking a dog in the city is a lot of responsibility.  One needs training with their dog on how to do it gracefully.  Cooper and I did not have that bonding experience before heading out on the streets of Alexandria.  The first morning I took Cooper for a walk it was raining, so he donned his yellow raincoat. I did not wear one, but I don't think I smell like a wet dog when I come in out of the rain.  Cooper was not a happy walker.  One theory about his behavior that day was embarrassment to wear a yellow slicker when none of the other dogs had one.  I don't know.  It was busy Kings Street morning traffic in Alexandria and Cooper got to the middle of an intersection and wouldn't budge.  I had to get behind him and push to move him out of the middle of the street, the motorist were not humored by inept control over what they assumed was my dog.

I was warned by Chaz that Cooper loved to go after big trucks, so keep a tight reign on him if I saw one.  That would have been fine but how can one know a city metro is coming when they are bending down to pick up dog poop, Cooper knew it was coming and bolted. Nothing happened and I was so relieved I almost cried.  What if something had happened to Cooper.

I had a great time feeding Cooper treats and he had a good time eating them but not without sitting and shaking a paw, smart big dog.

Cooper

See what I mean by big!

Chaz, Rob and I spent the afternoon touring the National Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport. There seems to be a little confusion with everyone exactly what it is called.  Maybe they could have named it National Air Museum just to make it distinct from the museum that is actually at the Smithsonian.  Now, this National Air Museum is managed by the Smithsonian too.  I guess you can muddle through that or just look at a few of the planes I found of interest.

This was the most fascinating plane 

More pictures from Alexandria

This is not a real horse but I saw this exact idiotic scene with a real horse in Belgrade Maine.  I called the police.

Mt. Vernon

Had we continued with bringing our boat north we would have anchored in the Potomac and dinghied up to Mt. Vernon, see the Potomac in the background

A day in the mall

Albert Einstein

Honor Flight 

Watch the documentary

HONOR FLIGHT is a heartwarming documentary about four living World War II veterans and a Midwestern community coming together to give them the trip of a lifetime. Volunteers race against the clock to fly thousands of WWII veterans to Washington, DC, to see the memorial constructed for them in 2005, nearly sixty years after the war. The trips are called "Honor Flights" and for the veterans, who are in their late 80s and early 90s, it's often the first time they've been thanked and the last trip of their lives. As the Honor Flight trip unfolds, Orville, Julian, Joe, Harvey and others share their stories and wisdom. While the program is meant to give something back to these humble heroes, the goodness they embody and their appreciation for life transforms everyone they meet.

Here are just a few of the men I met today

I had a very rewarding day taking pictures of veterans and their families so all the people could be in the photos.

World War II Memorial

We visited the Newseum in Washington yesterday, visit if you get a chance.  This museum is not part of the Smithsonian, so there is a fee.  I was struck by how the press coverage over the years has been war or the effects on people because of tragedy.  Certainly the news on Vietnam, 9/11, FBI and the biggest horrible events since the revolutionary war are the most important.  Am I being a callous person to wonder where the good news coverage is in history?  There were newspapers post with that days news and that wasn't all bad news, unless you call snow in Portland Maine on April 27 bad news.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was quoted as saying

   

If the newspapers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people. permalink

• Daniel Patrick Moynihan

• I am known to say, "If a country only covers the bad news the press doesn't see the good in their country".

A lovely picture that Rob took of DC from the roof top of the Newseum.

Well, I keep thinking that I am ready for publication and another day is enjoyed without finishing my blog.  We arrived in Baltimore to visit Barbara's sister and brother in law for a couple of days. I have known Melissa for several years. We took a walking tour of the city last night and what a beautiful city.  We told people we were coming to Baltimore and they asked if we had a gun, certainly it isn't the part of the city that Melissa lives in that we need to protect ourselves.  It is beautiful here.

We just heard from Sue and Paul that they are held up in Barnegat, NJ because of horrible weather and most likely will not be able to move for one to two weeks.  I feel so bad for them.  Look up Barnegat on Google. It is far from any services or even a grocery store.

We went to the  Baltimore National Museum today, April 28.  It was a wet walk in the rain, but worth it. I took lots of pictures but the most important to me are the beautiful jellyfish.  There is at least one jellyfish that I was allowed to touch, a great part of our trip.

The jellyfish reminded me of the best of the fireworks, left until the end of the night.

I will let you know when I am home.

Tricia