A Rare Glimpse of Deja Vu Underway

I found this photo on Bizim's website (http://www.svbizim.com/) so I'm borrowing it from them and hope they don't mind. It's one of the few photos of Deja Vu underway. That's me at the helm waving goodbye to Ruth and Iain on Bizim~one of my last happy moments for several hours as we bucked and pitched our way through the reef pass at Ambergris Cay into the BIG seas on the other side and en route to Turneffe Atoll.

Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world and it's a night/day, shallow/deep difference between the ridiculously thin water around the cays inside the reef and the steep drop-off on the oceanic side. The water color changes dramatically from pale, translucent turquoise to a dark, deep indigo. In the narrow passes between the reefs and cays the water can be intensely churned up with confused seas. Better to spend the day snorkeling, inside the reef, toss down a few more Belikin beers and wait for a weather window.

A Deja Vu Moment ~Approaching Ranguana Cay, Belize ~ February, 2007

Great Blogs to Inspire You to Sail Away ~ or Not

While listening to librarian, Nancy Pearl, on public radio's "Morning Edition" I was briefly swept away to the fantasy realm of summer reading. As I cruised through her website, http://www.nancypearl.com/ I wanted to read almost every single book she critiqued. I wondered, "who are these people who read 20 books every summer? Do they have nothing else to do?" I'm no speed reader but I do have a life which includes several other time-consuming interests beside reading~like paying the bills, emailing my friends, mulching my daylilies, picking wild raspberries and watching ships sail by on their way to grand adventures (or really bad weather). But I digress.

Well, that chatty bibliophile Nancy Pearl has nothing on me. I've decided to become the recommender of "Great Blogs to Inspire" because they're more concise, more current and often way more mesmerizing than some of the books I've forced myself to sit down and read. (However, I'm currently charmed by Elizabeth Gilbert's quest for a real life in "Eat, Pray, Love", although I usually disdain most of the books on the bestseller lists because they're cheesy romances or convoluted mysteries that I can't follow.)

This morning when signing in to my blog, I was diverted by a Blogspot "blog of note"~ 1000 Days Non-Stop at Sea (http://www.1000daysatsea.blogspot.com/). Whoa, these people are serious sailors attempting a non-stop, three year circumnavigation on a 70ft. schooner. For the life of me I can't figure out why they wouldn't want to stop along the way. They have really taken to heart that old aphorism "it's the journey, not the destination". As far as I'm concerned the destination is everything, especially when you're seasick and being tossed around like a piece of flotsam. In their words, "we will not refuel, resupply or pull into any harbor." Come on, not even for happy hour or to have someone else do your laundry in a real washer and dryer? Nevertheless, this is an extraordinary challenge for Reid and Soanya. Their adventure is also called "Mars Ocean Odyssey" and they have a strong on-line, real-time education component where "students of all ages will learn how to live well within an environment of limitied resources." I'll say.

Coming next: Different strokes for different folks, aka blog/websites for the sailing vessels Bizim, Free Radical, UpJinks, Dragonheart and Namaste.

Windjammer Days~Boothbay Harbor, Maine

The View from our Front Lawn~Damariscotta River Meets Ocean

Stay Tuned

OK, I lied--but not intentionally. Do not despair and don't give up the ship. There are blogs in me that are yearning to be free. Stay tuned. Maine life has gotten the best of me. I'm spending more time in my studio--trying to create fabulous jewelry designs--although I've lost my best teacher, Kate, to Nantucket life. You can take the girl out of the islands but you can't take the islands out of the girl. Tennis has also got a hold of me again after absolutely no court time for six months. Good thing I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself. I've thrown in a couple of Mainey photos to appease the hungry blog readers. Thanks, Cindy, for getting me to sit down and just do it.