2022 Life Logs, Day 48: The Personal Librarian
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022
Weather: Overcast, Winds SW 32, Even Warmer; High Temp 54, Low Temp 51 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Last night I finished reading my March book club book, The Personal Librarian written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. It is a fabulous piece of historical fiction telling the story of the life of Belle da Costa Greene. In 1905, soon after she graduated from Princeton University, J. P. Morgan hired her as his personal librarian. The interesting thing is that Belle was a black woman who chose to pass as white. In case you might want to read the book, I won’t divulge when the truth was revealed. And ‘chose’ is not really the right word. She had no choice if she wanted to fulfil her life’s dream. “A colored girl named Belle Marion Greener would never have been considered for a job with Mr. J. P. Morgan. Only a white girl called Belle Da Costa Greene would have that opportunity.” Both Belle and Mr. Morgan had a deep passion for ancient manuscripts. Together (his money and her expertise) they built one of the world’s most envied collections of rare books and manuscripts and Belle became one of the most prominent librarians in American history. Belle continued on in her position after Mr. Morgan’s death, and she and his son honored the wishes of J. P Morgan by opening the institution to the public in 1924. Belle was named director at that time and was in that position until she retired in 1948. I just wish she had done all she did without having to pass as white.

It was impossible to read the book without making comparisons to today. “That Belle denied her true identity in order to protect herself and her family from racial persecution speaks not only to her time but also to ours . . . This is a compelling and important story.” These words by a bestselling NYT author are printed on the cover of the book. The book was published in 2021, but while the two authors were working on the manuscript race issues exploded in this country. Some things are certainly better today than they were in the early 1900’s, but sadly as I read I realized how much many things are really still the same.

In 2024, to celebrate the one hundred years of its life as a public institution, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City will open a Belle da Costa Greene exhibition. In 1949, a year after she retired and the year before she died, the library staged an exhibition in her honor. It featured over 250 of the most prized items that Belle had acquired. She attended in a wheelchair. This amazing woman dedicated her entire adult life to the Morgan Library, and I would love to visit the exhibit in 2024 when it opens. The authors of The Personal Librarian were able to bring Belle’s interest in ancient books alive. They write with a such colorful detail that I honestly felt like I was there holding one of the first books ever printed. Now I want to go see those books.

2022 Life Logs, Day 47: More of the Same
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Weather: Overcast, Warmer, and Windy; High Temp 43, Low Temp 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It’s the same old story here—editing, puzzling, editing, walking, editing, playing outside with Shadow, editing, watching the Olympics. I do take time to cook a little, clean a little, but for now, life is mostly spent editing the chapters of The Voyage of Windbird. Today I was back at the beginning of the book working on Chapter One: Getting Ready. It begins, “People often ask how long it takes to get ready to sail around the world. That’s a tricky question. It took four years after buying the ‘just right’ sailboat to do the final preparation. It took all of the thirty-two years that Mark and I were together prior to sailing out of Boston Harbor to get to the place where we were financially and mentally prepared to live the sailing dream.” I have often talked about the fact that Mark I both retired on Friday, October 14, 2005, and sailed out of the Boston Harbor only four days later. When I say that, people ask if it really only took four days to get ready. I chuckle. We had spent a lifetime in preparation, and the last four years really focusing on the task. I’m not sure what we did those last four days, but they were inconsequential.

February’s full moon, aptly called the Snow Moon, rose at 4:56 pm this afternoon. At 5:15 pm Shadow and I went out to play fetch with a tennis ball. We wandered down to the dock to see the bright spot of red, orange, and pink in the sky accompanying the sunset. That was definitely the brightest spot in the overcast sky today. But the real shocker was the low tide. There was literally no water under the dock. I know the lowest tides do occur during first quarter and last quarter moons, but this one was the lowest I have ever seen here.

It is time to turn my attention to the Olympics for the evening. Last night I stayed up way too late watching the women’s figure skating short program. So far tonight I have been watching the men’s aerials in free skiing. As I watch these Winter Olympics, I keep asking myself how in the world people can do such things. I am in awe. Today I was rewriting the Preface of my book and noted my opening quote by Henry David Thoreau. It certainly applies to Olympians. “What people say you cannot do, you try and find you can.”

2022 Life Logs, Day 46: Editing, Editing
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High Temp 26, Low Temp 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The winds come back from the south tomorrow bringing slightly warmer weather. This old body looks forward to that. Seems like the really cold weather makes my bones creak!

My part-time neighbor, Andrew, drove down from Larchmont, New York yesterday to trailer his boat back home with him. He and his family will not be coming to spend the summer here this year, so he wanted to get his boat back in the Long Island Sound. He rented a truck, but it didn’t come with a ball for the hitch. He was out before 7 am this morning to find 2 ½ inch ball. I got up early with Shadow and stayed up so I could see Andrew before he left for Larchmont. I got a text later in the day telling me the trailer had a flat tire about 40 minutes out. Luckily he and the boat were fine, but it took him much long to get home than he had expected. After Andrew left, I drove to Mashpee for my every two-month check in with my chiropractor. Then it was home to edit, puzzle, walk, edit some more, puzzle some more, and then just edit, edit, edit. I think that will be the story of my life for the next few weeks.

2022 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Monday, February 14, 2022
Weather: Snow Overnight, Partly Sunny, Cold; High Temp 29, Low Temp 10 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Here’s hoping you had a Happy Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day was a white one here. The ground was barely white when I went to bed last night, but when Shadow and I stepped outside early this morning, we stepped in a winter wonderland. Thankfully it was not nearly as much snow as we got in raging blizzard two weeks ago, but the trees and bushes were laden with snow and looked beautiful. Snow is not the only thing that fell overnight. The temperature dropped from the 50’s yesterday to the 20’s today. Tonight is supposed to go down to 10 with a strong wind. It is going to be cold night.

I started the editing process on book one of The Voyage of Windbird. I was in a slash and burn mood and cut a lot of material from the first two chapters. One chapter became a Prologue and Chapter 3 became Chapter 1. Writing a book is one thing. Finishing it through the editing process is another. But I knew this to be the case, so I’m not discouraged. I think it is a good thing that I stepped away for a few months. It seems easier now to cut things that once seemed so important, but now not so much so. I continue to work on a jigsaw puzzle and today took Shadow out to play in the snow to give myself breaks during the day. If I am going to play outside tomorrow, however, I am going to have to wear heavier gloves. My fingers were freezing today even when I had not been outside very long. That wind is a killer.

2022 Life Logs, Day 44: The Super Bowl Won
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2022
Weather: Overcast, Snow in PM; High Temp 52, Low Temp 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I did not intend to watch the Super Bowl this evening, but the Super Bowl won. I tuned in about 25 minutes before the game started, got sucked in by the ads, and heard the announcers talking up the LA Rams as the favorite. That made we want to see what the Bengals could do to stop them. Plus, I was curious about the Bengals’ 25-year-old quarterback, Joe Burrow, started watching the game, and just couldn’t stop. It was a good game right down to the last minute. The Bengals definitely gave the Rams a run for their money and gained a new fan tonight. I’d like to see the Bengals get to the Super Bowl again next year. But for now, it is back to the Olympics.

I went to Heather and Jed’s for a short visit in the early afternoon. Sam and Jonah had a great time on their Scout ski weekend. Jonah got a video of Sam snowboarding over jumping ramps. I think watching the Olympics last week must have given him new horizons. Frightening to watch, but he did a great job. The Goldstones leave on Friday for a week of skiing and snowboarding during school winter vacation week. They will all get to practice their Olympic talents.

Writing and editing took a back seat to Sunday fun. I started a new puzzle today. This one is 1,000 pieces and features scenes from ancient Greece. I finished my puzzle featuring scenes from Prague on Friday night and ordered the new one immediately. I get all of my packages delivered to Heather and Jed’s, and the new puzzle was there when I went to visit today. Thank you, Amazon. When I got home, I dove in. I already have the borders done and can now take breaks between editing and piece together a bit of ancient Greece.

2022 Life Logs, Day 43: Taking Time to Reorganize
Date: Saturday, February 12, 2022
Weather: Sunny Day, SW Wind; High Temp 52, Low Temp 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Finishing the writing project yesterday that I have thought about since 2011 and have been actively working on for the past two years was a milestone for me. But this morning, I felt like I had a ‘day after’ hangover. I woke up feeling a lost. I just couldn’t start the editing process today and I certainly was not ready to start writing the second book. So, I pulled out Windbird’s Captain’s Logs, the official logs kept to record the technical details of each day. I started going through them day by day, recording number of days sailing versus number of days at anchor or at a dock. And as long as I was putting information into a spreadsheet, I also added other information like number of hours sailing each day versus number of hours motoring, engine hours, and log and trip miles. I did not get very far because those logs were not kept with the detail that developed as our voyage progressed. At that point, only Mark made log entries and Mark was a lot of wonderful things, but not a detailed record keeper. I can’t wait to continue this project and see when things changed. I know our logs became a meticulous record of our voyage later on. I just don’t know when that happened.

Near noon, I went to water plants for friends who are out of town and ran some errands in town. I stopped by Heather’s, but no one was at home. Sam and Jonah are on a ski/snowboard weekend trip with Scouts and Heather, Jed, and Ollie were out on a bike ride. I’ll have to return to see them tomorrow. When I got home, I took Shadow for a nice long walk. It was beautiful out and warm enough to just wear a windbreaker.

Tonight, I am watching the Olympics, the Men’s Giant Slalom, and Ice Rhythm Dancing. One of the male ROC dancers was so smooth on the ice that I thought I was watching Kevin Bacon dancing in Foot Loose, not dancing on the ice. During the Giant Slalom it was snowing so hard I could barely see the skiers. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow, but hopefully not that much.

2022 Life Logs, Day 42: VOW Book One Done
Date: Friday, February 11, 2022
Weather: Sunny Day; High Temp 50, Low Temp 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I did it. Tonight, I finished writing the last chapter of the Voyage of Windbird (VOW) book covering the first year of Windbird’s trip around the world. Woohoo! But I am just getting started. I have two more books to write to complete the journey. I am delighted to have one book done, but I am not celebrating because the hard work of editing begins now. When that is done, I will celebrate.

As soon as I finished the last chapter tonight and looked at the word count, I realized that I need to go back and do some serious editing. I wrote 13,982 words to say something that could have been said in 71 words, something like this: “We left the Vava’u Group of Tonga headed to New Zealand. On the first night out, we lost both our autopilot and our windvane steering. Knowing we did not want to hand steer for 700 miles, we sailed to Nuku’alofa in the southern group of Tonga’s islands. We ordered a new autopilot from New Zealand, received and installed it, waited for the weather, and finally completed our sail to New Zealand.” That does tell you what we did, but it certainly doesn’t tell the story. Yet no one is going to read a book with chapters of 14,000 words. Most nonfiction books contain 50,000 to 75,000 words in total. My eighteen chapters total 182,273 words. Just the chapter on the Galapagos is almost 20,000 words. Cut, cut, cut.

My new goal is to complete the editing process by mid-April. I am estimating that at best I can get through two or three chapters a week. I’ll know more about the timing at the end of next week. Maybe it will go faster than I think. I can hope. I really want to get the second book started before summer. It will cover the middle years of the voyage and then the third book in the trilogy will cover our adventures in the Indian Ocean, around South Africa, the trip home and beyond.

I’ve done it again. I just wrote 375 words to say what could have been said in 6 words. “Book one done. Editing begins now.”

2022 Life Logs, Day 41: Writing, Writing, Writing
Date: Friday, February 11, 2022
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, Windy in the PM; High Temp 49, Low Temp 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Physically I spent my day here in East Falmouth, but mentally I was in the Northland of the North Island (Te Ika a M?ui) of New Zealand. Te Ika a M?ui, the M?ori name for the North Island, translates as the fish of M?ui, a superhero demigod in Polynesian and M?ori mythology. The M?ori came to New Zealand from further east in Polynesia in huge canoes called wakas. An unbelievable feat in human history. Windbird sailed more than 13,000 miles from Boston to get there. Not as amazing as crossing the Pacific in a waka, but today as I wrote about our arrival in New Zealand it seemed almost surreal to me. Did we really do that? Yes. Mark and I did it and enjoyed every minute of it. When we left Boston, I don’t think we had any idea what to expect. We had some really challenging weather and boat issues in the beginning plaguing us all the way to the Caribbean. But once we arrived in St. Martin, things started turning in our direction. I was loving doing the research on where we were going and what we were going to do when we got there, and Mark really loved the technical challenge of figuring out how we were going to get there. We joked that I told him where to go and he got us there. He was the Captain and I was the Admiral. It took us 393 days to get to New Zealand, but most of that time was spent at anchor enjoying the beauty of the South Pacific. My good friend Alan Kanegsberg keeps asking me to add up the days spent traveling versus the days at anchor. When I finish writing the final chapter of the first year of the Voyage of Windbird, I am going to do that. And I have high hopes that tomorrow is the day that I will complete that final chapter. So, stay tuned, Alan. And hopefully Alan is recovering quickly from the hip replacement he had this Tuesday. It’s only been two days, so I doubt he is out jogging, but hopefully not in too much pain.

Today I truly enjoyed writing about our explorations of the very northern most part of the North Island after we arrived. New Zealand is a beautiful country from top to bottom and I am so jealous that my friend Lynne Kirwin is living there now. Lynne sailed to New Zealand with her first husband, gained citizenship, divorced, and lived in New Zealand for about 15 years before she met Ed. Then she spent 17 years sailing around the world with him. The year after Ed died, she split her time between the US and NZ, but when she went back in the fall of 2019 she didn’t get to come home in the spring of 2020 due to Covid. She will have been living there for more than two years when she comes home this summer to visit family and friends, which will hopefully include a trip to Cape Cod.

On the Olympics scene, last night I stayed up late to see Nathan Chen’s free skate performance. I loved watching him skate to Elton John’s Rocket Man. It was definitely a Gold Metal performance. I watched the men’s half-pike snowboard competition tonight and was terrified watching the young snowboarders try to fly. They go so high. I was disappointed that Shaun White didn’t metal, but he did come in 4th. I loved hearing that the teenager from Japan who won the Gold was a baby when Shaun won his first Gold. It was time to pass the torch.

2022 Life Logs, Day 40: Because I Can
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Cooler; High Temp 38, Low Temp 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I stay up late and get up late on many days, more so since the Winter Olympics began. And every time I sleep-in, I hear my father’s voice telling me that only lazy people do that. I know I am not lazy, but the guilt sticks with me. I get up every morning between 6:30 and 7:00 and take Shadow out for his first pee break of the day. Sometimes we go for a walk down the street, but on most days we just walk in the woods around the cottage. We are out there about 15 to 20 minutes and then we come back and go back to bed. Why? Because I can. That’s the only answer I can come up with.

I got a late start to my day but it was a productive one. I worked on my current puzzle (because I can), took Shadow for a long walk (because we both need that to stay healthy), and then started writing (because it is my current passion). I have now completed the passage to New Zealand and have started exploring the North Island. I have two more weeks before Mark and I fly back home for six weeks. I’m still not sure where I am going to end book one. I think it will be when we get on the plane to fly home. At that point it will be 421 days since we left Boston. We will have sailed 13,011.1 miles, crossed the equator for the first time, sailed from the Northern Hemisphere into the Southern Hemisphere, from the Western Hemisphere into the Eastern Hemisphere, crossed the international dateline, and visited 13 island countries, many more island, plus transiting the Panama Canal and visiting the land-based country of Panama . For me personally, I had grown from being a reluctant sailor to loving the sails from island to island and finding long passages to be one of my favorite things. What a 421 day year it had been!

Tonight I was invited to dinner at the home of one of my book club members. Dena and her husband Ed recently bought a second home here in East Falmouth. After graduating from Harvard, Ed stayed in Boston and Dena graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and moved to Boston for her first job. She bought a condo close to Harvard Square that she still owns, met Ed, and they began their life together. The condo she bought in the 1970’s is still their ‘first’ home. They travel back and forth at will. Dena joined our book club just before Covid, so many of our meetings have been on Zoom. It was wonderful to spend the evening together in person getting to know more about each other’s lives. Dena and Ed’s first grandchild, only six months old, is in Cambridge, and they find they are spending more time there than they expected when they bought the home in Falmouth. Grandkids have that magical ability to draw you into their lives. Nothing more wonderful.

As soon as I got home, I turned on the TV to watch more Olympics. The Women’s Half-Pipe Snowboarding finals were on and I enjoyed watching seventeen year old Chloe Kim win the Gold for the USA. I am now getting ready to watch the Men’s Figure Skating Free Skate Program finals. Go Nathan Chen. I love the two Japanese skaters that keep him on this toes, but I am still routing for him to win the Gold. He does such a beautiful job of balancing the technical with the artistic. Yes, I really am an Olympics fanatic!

2022 Life Logs, Day 39: Busy Tuesday
Date: Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 43, Low Temp 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a busy Tuesday. When I got up with Shadow at 7 am today, I didn’t go back to bed after our little outdoor foray as I do most days. I had a gazillion things I wanted to do before my 9 am tech tutoring session at the Falmouth Senior Center. The computer tutoring session is free and I always learn so much. It is so popular that it is hard to get an appointment more often than once a month, but I continue to go whenever I can get an appointment.

After the hour-long tutoring session, I headed to Heather’s to put in my bi-weekly laundry load. I rushed home to take Shadow for a short walk and get online for my 11 am Zoom book club meeting. This month’s book was This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. It was not my favorite book, but the character development was really well done. We ended a little late, so I had once again rush to get downtown as quickly as possible to pick Ollie up at 12:30. On this early release day, Sam went to the sports center with friends for the afternoon, so I had only Ollie and Jonah. Jonah met us at Ollie’s school, and after a quick stop by their house so I could put my laundry load in the dryer, we went to my house for the afternoon. We watched the Olympics, I took Shadow for his walk while the boys had some screen time, and then we watched part of a Marvel movie. We only watched part of the movie as I got a call from Heather reminding me that Jonah that had soccer practice at 5 pm. Oops. We had to take off quickly to get Jonah home to get dressed for practice. While he was getting dressed, I quickly got my laundry out of the dryer. Since Jonah’s practice was at the sports center where Sam spent the afternoon with his friends, I took Jonah and picked up Sam and his friend Sebastian and got them home. Whew!

It was a fast-paced day, but a much slower-paced evening. Being an Olympics junkie, I have spent most of the evening glued to the television. Tomorrow my focus is back to writing. I have promised myself that I will finish the last chapter of book one by Friday. That’s my Olympic goal.