by Judy Handley | Mar 1, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 60: Like a Lion
Date: Monday, March 1, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 47, Low, 16 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
March has arrived like a lion here on Cape Cod. Supposedly the high temperature today was 47 degrees F, but it surely didn’t feel like it. Right now it is 35 degrees outside but Weather Underground says it feels like 24. It felt like that to me all day. I cut my first walk with Shadow short because it started pouring rain, but I did go back out in the late afternoon when the rain had gone away and finished our walk. The high tomorrow is forecast to be 32 degrees F, but there is going to be a strong northeast wind making it feel much colder. Hopefully when this little stint of cold weather is gone, things will moderate a bit. I’ll look forward to seeing March go out like a lamb.
So, the weather was not good news today. Another ‘not good’ news event was that Ollie had to spend his morning in the pediatrician’s office and then at the hospital getting blood tests and x-rays of his knee. At bedtime last night, Heather discovered that his left knee was quite swollen. He has no pain, the knee is not hot or red, and he says he feels fine. Tomorrow morning, he will meet with a joint specialist, hopefully to go over the results of today’s testing and try to figure out what is happening. Lyme disease and arthritis have been mentioned. He handled the morning like a trooper and was just anxious to get to school. When I picked him up this afternoon, he was upbeat and seemingly untouched by the hospital experience. They gave him a little beanie baby tiger after taking blood and he was very proud of that. I’m anxious to hear what the ortho appointment reveals in the morning. I will pick Ollie up from school at noon tomorrow because it is a district-wide early release day. I think Sam, Robert, Jonah, and Ollie will be coming here for a movie afternoon. We had thought about going to the skatepark, but the 25 mile an hour cold winds makes that sound very uncomfortable.
I did not get out of Panama in my writing today. And realistically, I will not get much writing done tomorrow. So maybe Wednesday I’ll write my way out of Panama and arrive in the Galapagos on Thursday. Then on my birthday on Friday, I will give myself the gift of revisiting one of my favorite places on earth. I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday.
by Judy Handley | Feb 28, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 59: A Day of Rest
Date: Sunday, February 28, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High 43, Low, 37 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was such a day of rest that I even forgot to comb my hair! When I got up and took Shadow out for a walk this morning, I twisted my braid into its customary bun, put a rubber band and scrunchy around it, and then forgot about my hair for the rest of the day. Probably no one noticed, but this is just a little too relaxed.
Other than walking Shadow and canning my chicken mineral broth, the only other thing I accomplished today was going to the supermarket to get steak for Shadow. Yes, my little guy has organic grass fed steak for dinner most nights. I buy the flat iron steak which I think is too tough for human consumption, but he loves it. And while I was in the store, I saw the most beautiful artichokes, so I just had to buy those. I bought six so that I could invite Heather, Jed, and boys over for dinner. I stopped by the Goldstones to invite them, but Heather and Jonah were not at home. I got to see the wooden map of the world they have been assembling on the dining room wall and I absolutely I love it. And when I drove into the driveway, Jed was talking to a neighbor about me. Evidently my timing was perfect. The neighbor is a young woman who is really interested in learning to sail and Jed had told her about my sail around the world. I had a great conversation with the young woman and will help her make a few local contacts for sailing opportunities.
When I went inside and was admiring the wooden map, Jed called Heather and they accepted the dinner invitation. Unfortunately, however, I had spoiled their plan for a birthday dinner for me on Friday. They were going to have artichokes. Hopefully, we’ll just have them two times this week. For dinner tonight, I also made matzo ball soup as a second course and everyone enjoyed that. I’ll get back to writing tomorrow, but it was nice to take a day off.
Just before Heather and family arrived, Justin called via Skype and I got to talk briefly to him and to Ziggy and Coco. Z and C are back in school for the first time since last March when the coronavirus took over all of our lives and they are really enjoying being back with friends. It was great to talk with them and to then have dinner with the Goldstones. When they got home tonight, they sent a photo showing me where they want to go in the world. From what I could tell from the photo, Ollie wants to go to Hawaii, Jonah to Paris, and Sam to Finland. I can’t wait to ask them why they made those choices.
by Judy Handley | Feb 27, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 58: Editing Day
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain All Day; High 48, Low, 34 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
How could it take an entire day to edit two chapters of a book? The answer is easy. Editing is no quick and easy job. I have completed seven chapters of The Voyage of Windbird and am almost finished with Chapter 8. But instead of finishing Chapter 8 today, I wanted to go back and edit Chapters 6 and 7. This was prompted by my conversation with Heather and Jed last night about their Christmas in the Caribbean aboard Windbird. That walk down memory lane brought up some details I wanted to add. Going back to do that led to additional editing and changes. And all of a sudden, it was dark outside. I did complete editing Chapters 6 and 7. I am sure I will be going back to edit over and over, but for now I am ready to finish up our time in Panama and move on to getting to the Galapagos. That will be Chapter 9.
Something Sam asked last night is why I say k?-RIB-ee-?n with the stress on the second syllable instead of ker-i-BEE-uhn with the stress on the third syllable. Good question. These are the two most prevalent pronunciations of “Caribbean” outside the region, but evidently most islanders side with Sam and say ker-i-BEE-uhn. I seem to go back and forth between the two, depending on how I am using the word, but use k?-RIB-ee-?n most of the time. Sam’s choice is also the choice of most dictionaries. I love kids that question everything. It can be frustrating, but they keep us on our toes. I caved tonight and watch the 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I truly enjoyed finally seeing the set we explored in the St. Vincent anchorage of Wallilabou. Most of the ‘Port Royal’ scenes in the movie that were shot on the Wallilabou set were seen in the beginning of the movie. Much of the rest of the movie took place on two different ships, in a cave, plus in the small town set which was filmed north of Wallilabou at Chateaubelair. That set was disassembled after the shooting of the movie was completed, but the Wallilabou set was left in place.
During editing today, I checked in with Alan Kanegsberg a couple of times to get his opinion on some things I had written. And I contacted Dave Laux who installed our new engine in the Chesapeake at the beginning of the trip on something I had written about a battery issue we had in the Caribbean. He and his wife Donna got back to me immediately and it was so good to hear from them. They still read my blog every day, so they know what I am up to. So Donna sent some details about their lives that I enjoyed reading. She updated me on what their son and daughter and their families are doing. She also said that they still keep their sailboat on the northern shore of Lake Huron in Canada as they have for years. Unfortunately, that meant they could not go sailing last summer due to travel restrictions and they aren’t sure about this summer. And in typical style, Dave had a recommendation about my water heater issue. Thanks to Dave. And thanks to Alan for his technical editing support.
While doing all of the above, I have been burbling a batch of my magic chicken mineral broth. It is time to strain the broth and put it on the back porch for the night. I’ll have to go to Heather and Jed’s to get enough jars to can it tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Feb 26, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 57: Dinner with the Goldstones
Date: Friday, February 26, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Slightly Cooler; High 41, Low, 31 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
As promised, I made myself take the day off from writing to catch up on real life. I snuck in a bit of editing time and will see what happens tomorrow. We spent eleven days on the southern end of the canal preparing for the passage to the Galapagos, so I will begin there tomorrow. It will be the beginning of next week before I get us to the Galapagos. I’m looking forward to writing about that.
I spent the morning trying to figure out what kind of water heater I can get that will satisfy National Grid, the natural gas provider, so that they can do what is necessary to insulate the cottage. The current water heater does not pass their test as it leaks a tiny amount of fumes when the furnace is not running. It is not really enough to be dangerous, but they cannot do the work to insulate the cottage until that problem is fixed. I worked on this last year and then decided to just leave things as they are. But it is important to make everything in our lives as energy efficient as possible, so I’m giving it another go. I made some contacts and will continue with this next week. Then in the afternoon, Nilson, the contractor that my landlord Shirley has always used, came to do some work in the attic. Once Nilson left, I headed to Heather and Jed’s. I had offered to take the Goldpebbles to the skatepark after a day of remote schooling, so that was next on the agenda. I had been invited to have dinner as well, so I spent the rest of the evening with Heather, Jed, and the boys. I have had a really quiet two weeks, so the activity level in the Goldstone household had my head spinning—but spinning in a good way. While dinner was being prepared and Heather and Jed were giving me a crash course on water heater options, there was a concert going on in the basement. Sam on drums, Jonah on bass, and Ollie singing Iron Man. Then they dispersed and Ollie worked on building a ballista catapult that was given to him by his Grammy Goldstone. Jonah was in the living room working on an art project. And Sam was in his bedroom reading about different weapons used in World War II. Once dinner was ready, we gathered in the dining room and I asked Heather and Jed what they remembered from their Christmas in the Caribbean aboard Windbird.
When they mentioned being in the St. Vincent anchorage of Wallilabou where the set of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie was still in place, that got the boys’ attention. They have not seen the movie, but know about it. And after tonight’s conversation, I think we all want to watch it. We also talked about nutmeg. When we went for walks on St. Vincent, we saw fruits that look like peaches hanging on nutmeg trees. When we went to a market, we bought nutmeg nuts wrapped in bright red mace. This is the way they grow. Jed had never found out if you can eat the fruit of the nutmeg tree, but tonight when I got home I Googled it. Indeed, you can.
But that Christmas in the Caribbean, we had the fruits in a bowl as our centerpiece, naturally split open revealing the nutmeg nut wrapped in the bright red mace like tentacles. Such a beautiful natural phenomenon. This was a memory we had all forgotten, but Jed brought out a container of dried nutmeg nuts he still has from that time proving that it did happen.
by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 56: From the Atlantic to the Pacific
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Still a Little Windy; High 48, Low, 26 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
A French company started building the Panama Canal in 1881 but gave up eight years later. In 1904, the United States got involved and in 1914 the canal was opened. Until then, the only way to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific was to go north through the Northwest Passage or south around the tip of South America known as Cape Horn. Both were long and treacherous trips. So, this little man-made cut across Panama made a huge difference in world transportation. Going around Cape Horn was an 8,000 mile trip and took ships two months. With the advent of the Panama Canal, that trip was shortened to eight hours. What a difference. Today in my writing, I got to relive Windbird’s transit through the canal. Our transit was actually easy, but the preparation and uncertainly beforehand was hard. At the end of my writing day, Windbird made it to Balboa, Panama, on the Pacific side of the canal and is preparing for the sail to the Galapagos. I thought I was going to take tomorrow off writing and get some other necessary things done, but I don’t think I can do that. I want to at least get underway to the Galapagos before I take a break.
I did spend my morning dealing with life instead of writing. I made soup that I then delivered to a friend recovering from Covid. Then I went to the Post Office to get my mail for the first time since early last week and I took advantage of the beautiful day to take a long walk with Shadow and later to play fetch with him for the first time in a while. It is hard to play fetch with snow on the ground as the tennis balls get buried easily.
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 55: Ready to Transit the Panama Canal
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny, A Little Windy; High 47, Low, 38 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I spent my day in the San Blas Islands today and it was glorious. But in checking out a few things to make sure I had it right, I came across an article reporting that the Kuna Indians, an indigenous group of Panamanian people, are in the process of leaving their homes on the islands and moving to the mainland of Panama due to sea rise caused by climate change. It made me so sad to think of them losing their independent island life. And while researching, I saw that the area is no longer called the San Blas. When Mark and I were there in 2006, it was referred to both as the San Blas Islands and Kuna Yala. But in October of 2011, it became Guna Yala when the Government of Panama recognized the claim by the Kunas that ‘Guna” was a closer representation to the Kuna language. All of this piqued my curiosity as to how the Kunas gained their independence from the Panamanian government in the first place. So, I researched a little more. I learned that the Kunas had originally come from an area that is now in Columbia. In the 1600’s when the Spanish came into that area, the Kunas moved westward to the Darian region that is now in Panama. They lived there peacefully by their own laws and customs until the 1900’s when the Panamanian government moved to Westernize them. The Kuna men started wearing modern clothing, but the Kuna women refused. They have a very distinctive dress called a tulemola which is very colorful with intricately designed and embroidered panels called molas. They also wear distinctive beaded bracelets, red head scarves, and have pierced noses. An American who had taken up their cause helped them wage a revolution and in 1925 the American government intervened. Eventually the Kunas won their battle and have been allowed to live in their own region of Panama following their customs, ruling themselves, with the women still wearing their traditional clothing. In my writing today, I finally sailed away from Guna Yala, reached the Panama Canal region, and tomorrow I will write about that transit and reach the Pacific Ocean. I have been writing for a complete month now and am not even a fourth of the way through year one of The Voyage of Windbird. Last night in my log I said it would take the rest of 2021 to finish this book. I think that was not realistic. At this rate I will not get through year one until the end of May. It is quite a project. I just hope I continue to enjoy it as much as I am right now.
