2026 Life Logs, Day 131: A Little Windbird History
Date: Monday, May 11, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Some Precipitation; High Temp 62, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I heard today from a ‘friend’ I have never met in person, only through comments on my blog and email exchanges. When we first ‘met’, his children were small and mine were both married. I learned that his wife was a pharmacist and he and Mark often wrote back and forth. By the time we returned from our voyage, Rich had bought a sailboat and had kids in college. He emailed today to comment on my Mother’s Day blog. If my history is correct, the first blog he responded to was 19 years ago on May1st of 2007. Windbird was preparing to depart New Zealand for Fiji. This was his comment.
5/1/2007 Day 7, Year 2: Still On Track for Thursday Departure (from New Zealand to Fiji)
“Just wanted to reply and let you know that I enjoy reading about the simple daily chores as much as the nautical component. It is help for those of us contemplating the future what living the ‘real’ cruising life is all about. Thanks … and know that your posts are being read.” from RichC
After that, we corresponded regularly. Rich was often a wonderful source of information that Mark and I needed and, in return, our blog posts were giving him a vision of the real cruising life.
Fast forward a few years …
Belated post announcing my friends the Handley’s U.S. return
Posted By RichC on My Desultory Blog, June 16, 2011
“Many who know me are well aware that I enjoy following sailors who set out on voyages across the oceans of our world. One couple, Mark and Judy Handley, have been exceptional at posting daily updates and making their travels both easy and interesting to follow. I’ve corresponded with them over the years and have enjoyed many an informative email exchange with Mark and Judy regarding things that they have learned thoughout the years (I shared some of our exchange during my son’s spring break aboard Encore this past spring).
The two experienced bluewater voyagers recently returned to the United States in their 6th year of sailing around the world aboard their 42-foot Tayana sailboat called Windbird – see HandleySail.com. If you are tight on time, don’t try to read their ‘logs’ until you have rested eyes and at least a week … and perhaps another few days for their photos. Judy is currently working on sorting out the very best photos in order to create a presentation … one I hope to see someday. If you only do one thing, take a minute and watch their accelerated plots on the Shiptrak Log entries map.
Currently the Handleys are enjoying a relaxing family and friends homecoming at their intended U.S. landfall of South Carolina … where Mark is also being treated for a “hopefully” minor medical issue. Get well soon Mark … I still need a more advice.”
Rich still writes daily, as do I. He began his blog on September 1, 2005 (I believe), and I began mine on October 18 of the same year. His blog is called My Desultory Blog, Desultory thoughts on a variety of subjects. When I checked WordPress today, it said that I have posted 7,076 blogs over the years. That is every day for more than 20 years except for the time we spent back home during our sail around the world. I only posted logs periodically during those three visits. I think Rich has posted daily since September 1 of 2005. Between the two of us, we have probably posted more ~15,000 times. The interesting thing to me is that I learned in the past ten years that we are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, yet we have so much in common. Stick with me Rich. One of these days we are going to meet in person so that we can have a face-to-face discussion about democratic socialism versus capitalism. Smiley face. Smiley face. And I’ll show you one of the many Voyage of Windbird presentations I have given over the years. .
