Snow/sleet/snow

Matthews, VA

A slow morning of coffee, reading. I tackled the cute little Mighty Mender sewing machine.  Frustrating. Took me several hours to get it to work properly. Tiny, plastic spaces such as bobbin winding and insertion are challenging for my aging fingers and eye sight. Also, I'd missed a thread guide so the needle wasn't picking up the bobbin thread. And then...and then..but finally, success and I made two, count them, TWO successful seams (including back stitching) to finish a small project.

I'm noticing that Amelia is sleeping longer before she starts waking me at her two hour intervals, midnight to 7 A.M. This causes me distress so I get up to make sure she is still breathing. She's old, and I worry about her. Similar to new parents waking up to make sure their newborn is still alive. Amelia went out several times today and this evening. Wanting to be outside. Not particularly liking the snow and cold. Sniffing to discover familiar smells. Not sure there are any here for her.

David and I went to the boatyard to gather a few things from the boat that we need at the apartment. Then took off for an afternoon of adventures - library book sale that our host told us was great (it was/is); then drove to Yorktown to visit West Marine Express for zincs for the engine. Continued to Newport to visit the Maritime museum there. A great exhibit about the Monitor, an Ironclad Civil War ship that has been found off Cape Hatteras. I surprised myself by being interested in that particular technology, how the South and the Union developed it differently, how both had flaws to be corrected. Really good educational exhibit. I am struck these days, though, by the "whiteness" of exhibits and the "gift shop" offerings. Was it Howard Zinn who said that the victors write the history?   From their perspective, of course.

I'm feeling a bit stranded here, not knowing when to expect the boat to be ready for us to move back aboard and get her in the water. Makes it impossible to plan. Should we settle in?, leave for NC family visit?, seek a volunteer opportunity here?, really explore this area and go exploring? Actually, we want to stay visible to the boatyard to keep the management focused on our project. And there is the "cha-ching, cha-ching" stress of all the related costs...the boat work, the apartment rental, the car rental. Knowing, too, that Mercury is in retrograde is distressing with the incumbent mechanical, technological and communicative challenges that brings. I'm impatient, worried, in need of a creative outlet. Perhaps sewing the fabric shelves tomorrow will be helpful.

Warmer tomorrow, and sunny, according to predictions. Winston-Salem and Freeport have snow.

Still shivering

Matthew VA

This has been a sixes and sevens kind of day, not quite snarky but could have easily slithered in that direction. I started a bunch of stuff but finished little. The muffin frittatas stuck to the muffin tin. It is raining. It is cold outside and cool inside. Al Franken has said he will step down from the Senate.

David went to work on the boat, pressing hard to get all he can do, done, while keeping out of the way of the mechanics. They, the mechanics, are clearly being stressed by our being present. When we learned that the boat repairs were not going to be completed as promised by December 1, we wanted to get here specifically to keep the company focused. They are pressing to get that engine aligned and re-installed...or re-installed and aligned. When David left last month the mechanics got called off to other things. So, we're here now, as planned. Grace is not finished but IS the focus again.

I stayed at the lovely apartment, said goodbye to our hostess who is going on a European cruise for 2+ weeks, tackled email and writing my MoC (Members of Congress), took out the Mighty Mender that I purchased 2 years ago for $10 at the church yard sale. When someone asked what I was going to do with it, "Put it on the boat and let it rust," I said. It is a cute little sewing machine, hasn't been on the boat yet, and I look forward to sewing on it sometime in the next 3 days...making fabric shelves, turning the useless hanging closet in the aft cabin into something more useful - shelves. Some reading. Monthly receipt organizing and determining, sort of, average daily expenditures. I've done this since our 8-month boat trip in 2015-2016 just to see how we are using our money. I'm nearly ready to give up the practice.

I gathered David around 3 PM and we did some errands, food shopping, back home to apt. to cook and a game of "take two." David became horizontal around 8:30. I'll continue to read for a bit longer.

As we came in this early evening (did I mention rainy?), a big raccoon trundled across the yard. And the deer here are really small, about 2.5' - 3' tall. I realize that I have to look lower to the ground if I want to avoid them on the road edge.

Tomorrow, rain predicted so we'll take a play day and do some sight seeing.  Mercury is in retrograde until nearly Christmas. Be cautious/careful with all things technological, mechanical, and involving communication. It's a fragile time for such.

Practice joy (even in the cold rain).

Matthews, VA shiver

12/6 Matthews, VA

Finally we've arrived at our temporary destination, more or less settled into the sweet apartment we are renting since we can't live on our boat...yet.

Our road journey was easy enough if you count 3 days of driving easy. We shared driving responsibilities but David did a lions share, especially in congested city areas. Getting across the GW Bridge between NYC and NJ was slow and tense and noisy. Perhaps we can never again drive across that bridge. Surely the Tappan Zee farther up river is easier - less crowded and prettier.

We found pet friendly motels so kitty was welcome. She has NOT enjoyed the car ride even though she has slept most of the travel time. Actually, she's sleeping most of the time. No major yowling at night, awakening me for food only a couple of times to eat rather than every 2 hours or so as at home. Today's travel, after we crossed the Potomac River, was calm with limited traffic, and beautiful. Large expanses of farm land put to bed for winter. Lots of horses and one sighting of LOTS of goats, white with brown necks and heads. Odd but lovely. We listened to lots of news and analysis and wrote our Members of Congress last night, several times on several different topics - having heard that MoC like a letter/email for each concern rather than a laundry list. Laundry list describes my concerns...so very many.

We stopped at Zimerman Marine to have a look at Grace and pat her hull. Then on to our temporary abode. I settled the cat and myself while David went back to Grace to chip away at the chipping bottom paint. We'll both go tomorrow to spend the day on boat bottom work, hoping to get new bottom paint on before it turns too cold to stick...on Friday. YIKES!

Meanwhile, all three of us are glad to be "settled" for several days and only driving (sans kitty who will sleep in the apt.) for 15 minutes each way to and from Grace.

Albert and Jenni's boat looks ready for winter. Magus is across the yard from Grace. I'm sure they are buddies as their captains have become.

Ready or Not...

...we've left Maine! What an arduous day! Mine started around 6:00 A.M. and it is now 8:50 PM in Sturbridge, MA. A non-stop day of packing, cleaning, packing the car, going to the bank and the P.O and the dump. Saying goodbye to neighbors and the neighbor's cat and the other neighbor's elder dog who ambled up for a visit then chased the other neighbor's cat. Bad, old dog. So many goodbyes. On the plus side is that both David and I have passed on clothes that we've quiet wearing.

I took a walk down our frozen dirt road this morning. All the grasses were covered with hoar frost. Cold. Beautiful. Pond, frozen. How fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. But/and...cold.

The car is packed to the gills. How, oh how, or where oh where are we going to put all this stuff on the boat? Holy cow! Some of the stuff is food that we didn't want to leave behind so that will disappear. We are bringing lots of paper and art supplies, expecting to make it to the Bahamas where we will pass the supplies onto schools. And we have all the elder kitty paraphernalia, including kitty litter!

Finally, we left the homestead, with one little look back, sigh, goodbye. 3:14 PM rather than 10:00 AM. Aaaarrrgh. But the house looks great! And, hey, what's the rush?

And now kitty sleeps beside me while David and I watch t.v. ...a fun activity since we don't have a t.v. at home. I might last another hour before sleeping. Onward toward Annapolis tomorrow, perhaps to visit friends, Lynda and Jeff.

Joy.

Almost Ready

December 2, 2017

Beautiful, chilly morning in Freeport, ME. We're two days out from leaving this home, starting the car journey to re-join Grace in VA. Then onto...wherever...further south. Everything seems immediate, and fragile. So many tasks will not get completed, friends not visited, conversations not had due to the press of time. Who will be here when we return? Nothing and no one will be the same, including ourselves. My relationship to change is filled with love and hate. And, of course, there is no choice. Change is....constant. More so, even than death and taxes.

I have this urge to touch everything and everybody, to freeze all in my mind as it is now. To remember this frozen state rather than embrace all the evolution.

Meanwhile, the house is chaotic in spite of the brief facts of cleaned and straightened and in "perfect' order only 4 days ago. There has been a great deal of clearing out, giving away, a little selling, and organizing going on. David has made (sewn) new sail covers and a Bimini cover and helped Spencer get his boat in our shed and monitored our boat repairs and new equipment. My goals have been more in the letting go of stuff and making visit dates with friends, not as willing to let go of them.

This morning I've packed food, I'll dance and go watch dance at Bates College and enjoy those friends for a brief moment.

I can't remember a time when I've enjoyed "leaving" but I am totally excited about this continuing journey, on the boat, traveling with David and Amelia "on Grace" - literally and spiritually.

Tuesday, 10/17/16         Freeport before daybreak...Amelia wanted out(!)

Clearly it is no longer 2015 as is the name of this blog. We're still, after all these years, on a school schedule...or a sailing south schedule...leave in the fall and forget in January that the year has turned. Maybe I'll start Blog #3 in January...or maybe tomorrow for this "going south" on Grace season.

So the "boating south" decision was littered with misunderstandings, guilt, hard work, boat (and land-based house) improvements, hard discussions, new clarity, passivity, assertion, communion, compromise....just about every element of living together in this wonderfully privileged life David and I have.

I was clear since we arrived home in May that I didn't want to be gone from land-based home for 8 months - too long, I loose my community involvement, no way to be creative in the way I most enjoy (dance for those who might not know, or even visual art on occasion), maybe even too much time alone with my sweet husband though I never admitted that out loud until now. And, we'd sort of figured out how to get the boat south without my being on it more than a month this fall. More than the 8 hours I was on board would have been fine, though. The weather delays threw even the possibility of taking Grace south into question. Thus the month of "Maybe. Maybe not." Finally, David was 99% sure we wouldn't take the boat south and we could go another way for a couple months. Maybe.

David struggled with the decision(s). The boat was ready. David is competent and skilled and cautious and the "I've got something to prove" attitude was not present anywhere (phew!). His desire to be on the water was a definite. I was as supportive of whatever decision he made as I could be, not wanting to push a choice which, legitimately, was his. Nervous/anxious as I was about him possibly traveling alone, I was equally anxious about his being unhappy all winter if he didn't sail.

Questions:
(1)  Are we wanting the boat south because it is the cheapest winter vacation in a warm place? Ha. Fact checker would dispute this "cheapest" idea in the long-term, though Grace is a fine home and moorings are $30/night.
(2)  We do want to be out of Maine winters, right?
(3) Are there other ways to be out of Maine winters?
(4) Do we want/need to be gone for four months to "be out of Maine winters"?
(5) Do we have to be traveling all that time?

One of the things I realized was that I don't want to travel all that time. It feels a selfish use, even waste, of my time and talents. What am I contributing to the world when I move around so much? A considered compromise is to travel to a place then stop and volunteer at something for 2-3 weeks, then continue. Post destruction from hurricane Matthew, there might be many opportunities to volunteer.

Learning continues...as does our journey...soloing and coupling.

These photos are from the HYC dock on our departure day 10/11/16. Beautiful, beautiful day.

Sunday, 10/16/16  Freeport, ME and Mystic, CT

Amelia is sleeping in the chair beside me. An un-needed but comforting fire burns in the wood stove. Quiet descends after I turn off "The Moth Radio Hour." David is on Grace in Mystic, CT, on his own. I've spent the entire day here at home except for a walk up to the ridge overlooking the Harraseeket River and our home harbor. Sigh. My first day of rest since David and I motored out of the harbor at 0937 on October 11, traveled to Perkin's Cove and parted ways. My first opportunity to miss him for more than fleeting moments in the mix of attending to responsibilities and joys. How did we get here?!!?

Our parting was amicable, a planned parting, only a day later than expected and way closer to Freeport than we'd expected and hoped. The plan for this year of boating and traveling south had always been that I'd start the journey but return on October 10 to take care of some commitments to my Freeport community. We planned (and tried) to leave in mid-September, as last fall. I'd co-pilot Grace as far as we could get by 10/10 and a friend would join David to continue the journey to...Norfolk or Morehead City or maybe somewhere even farther south. I'd take whatever public transportation available back to Freeport. Then David and friend would come back to Maine before Thanksgiving. We'd spend the early winter holidays here then re-join Grace, wherever she was, and continue on our journey to warmer climes.

This well-laid plan would honor my desire to spend more land time, nurturing and/or developing community ties and my need for creative outlets not available "at sea", and allow us to do some sailing and move the boat south honoring our desires to be out of Maine winter. We were pretty relaxed about the specifics of our leaving plans and the minuscule details of departure timeline/ deadline. Time slipped a little. Maybe we developed "port-itis." And then there were the nor'easters that kept the clouds and wind close and the seas, outside, kicking up. We, David really, continued to upgrade the boat for comfort and safety.

We got dinghy davits and installed them. David raised the mizzen mast 6" so the Bimini cover was high enough for standing head room on the aft deck. Deck lights got repaired. A new speaker for the radio was installed. The freezer box was relocated from front and center to the side of the refrigerator box. Grace was readier than she had ever been, galley was stocked and we were packed..."waiting on a weather window."

And then Hurricane Matthew blew up! We'd been watching this forming possibility since it was "97L" out in the Atlantic between Africa and South America. We followed the computer models daily, then several times each day, then hourly. When al the models agreed that "he" was not likely to come past NC we wondered, shall we start out? "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe. Maybe not." We quoted an audience participation line in Freeport Players version of the Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged) that we saw several times.

The story continue....tomorrow or next day.