2021 Life Logs, Day 83: First Crocus in Bloom
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Weather: Sunny Early, Then Overcast; High 54, Low, 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Saturday was the first day of spring, but at that point I had seen no spring flowers in bloom. Today was an early release day for Ollie and when I drove him home and parked the car in the driveway, I spied a little dot of the color purple in the landscaped area by the driveway. I told Ollie to go investigate and we both delighted to see the first flowers of spring in bloom. The tiny purple crocuses with their bright yellow centers were such a delight to see. He went in to get Heather and bring her out. There were squeals of joy. Spring has officially arrived.

It was also a day of joy for Massachusetts. Boston Mayor Marti Walsh is headed to Washington to serve as President Biden’s Secretary of Labor. And after 200 years of being a city with a white man as the chief executive, Boston’s acting Mayor is now a black woman, Kim Janey. A new era is ushered in . . . finally.

I achieved my goal today of finishing up Chapter 12 of my proposed book and I started writing Chapter 13. I did a quick reread of Chapter 12 which is about the time Windbird spent in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. I will begin tomorrow by reading it again and making a few more edits. Then I will continue on with the new chapter about our time in Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, and Bora Bora. When Mark and I left the Marquesas, we were headed for the Tuamotus. We never got there. So, I started the chapter today writing about how plans change. I started the new chapter by writing, “Of all the people we met while sailing around the world, it was a couple we met on Langkawi Island in Malaysia, and with whom we buddy sailed across the Indian Ocean, that we remained closest to once we returned home. Ed and Lynne on Constance were in the sixteenth year of their circumnavigation when we met. They had been ‘out there’ long enough to know what they were doing. They soon learned that Mark and I lived by an adapted version of a Ben Franklin quote. ‘If you don’t have a plan, you are planning to fail.’ When I would say this to Lynne, she would always smile and say, ‘You can make all the plans you want, but then life happens.’ Our planning, and then our rapid change of plans during our last days in the Marquesas and on our passage to the Tuamotus was a perfect example of Lynne’s ‘then life happens’.” So true.

2021 Life Logs, Day 82: Beautiful Weather
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 60, Low, 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Finally. We are having a stretch of beautiful weather. Little wind, warm temperatures, sunshine. Delightful. I love it. Normally I would be outside getting the gardens ready, but I find I cannot pry myself away from my computer. I desperately wanted to complete another book chapter today. I did not make my goal, but almost. I will finish it tomorrow and head on to the Society Islands in French Polynesia—Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora. This will be chapter 13 and it was in Moorea that I broke my leg. Fitting chapter number for that little catastrophe. BTY–I am so superstitious that I thought about not having a chapter 13!

Last night I wrote a bit about our hike to a waterfall on the island of Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas. I mentioned that I was not sure I was going to finish that hike without being injured due to the rough terrain. This morning I got an email from my friend Lynne Kirwin who is currently living in New Zealand. The first time she walked to that waterfall she broke a bone in her foot. Testament to the fact that it really was a treacherous walk.

I recently finished reading a book that I highly recommend. Heather gave me the book for my birthday because she had really enjoyed reading it. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd is a novel, totally fiction, but the author meticulously researched the history of the time period. That research was reflected in the book. It is the story of a young woman named Ana who marries Jesus. She is from a privileged family and is quite the liberated young woman for those times. There is no historical proof that Jesus ever married, but Sue Monk Kidd helps you imagine what it could have been like if he had. It was a book I had a hard time putting down.

2021 Life Logs, Day 81: Writing, Writing
Date: Monday, March 22, 2021
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; High 56, Low, 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was another beautiful day in the neighborhood that I spent inside writing. I can’t help myself. I have this aching desire to just keep writing. Of course, I did walk my daily mile with Shadow plus I played ball with him in the afternoon and took another shorter walk. I also picked Ollie up from school and took him home. Otherwise, I either worked on a presentation that I make on Friday for the Snow Library in Orleans on the Outer Cape via Zoom, of course, or I was sitting at my dining table ‘office’ writing.

As I wrote this afternoon, I was wondering if the person I was writing about could really be me.
When Windbird sailed into Taioa Bay, also known as Daniel’s Bay, on the island of Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, we could see a waterfall falling from the top of a high peak. We knew it dropped 350 meters or 1,148 feet and we wanted to walk inland to the base of the falls. The next day we set out to do just that. Guides books were vague but said it should be about a three-hour walk round trip. Well, it was a five-hour trip over rough terrain. We got lost and crossed the same rushing stream multiple times. “There were few times that day when I seriously was not sure I was going to survive the walk to the waterfall without serious injury.” But Mark and I made it and it was spectacular. Maybe crazy, but spectacular none the less. And we understood why Survivor had done their fourth season in that valley. I have never watched a Survivor episode, but someday I should take a look at the Marquesas season. So, the sailing adventure of Windbird continues. I am truly hopeful that I will get out of the Marquesas Islands tomorrow and on to Chapter 13 about our time in the Society Islands. Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora are all in the Societies, so I have a lot to write about. BTW–Both the Marquesas and the Society Islands are in French Polynesia. By the end of the week my hope is that we will be sailing out of French Polynesia and headed for Rarotonga in the Cooks Islands.

2021 Life Logs, Day 80: Happy Birthday to Ollie
Date: Sunday, March 21, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 56, Low, 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was Ollie’s 9th birthday and what a beautiful day for an outside birthday party. Last year for his birthday, we all went for a walk in a nearby conservation area. It was the first time I had seen Heather and family for over a week as we were all in lockdown due to the pandemic. But he had a great Zoom call with friends on his way home, driving by the homes of each of his friends so they could give him a birthday wave.
This year was a little better as he had four friends over, all masked, and playing yard games. They played Kubb, which is a Swedish game, and then croquet. They had cupcakes on the deck and played giant Jenga and giant dominoes. Then it was hide ‘n seek, a walk around the boardwalk nature trail in the neighborhood, and finally bocce ball. During the afternoon outside with the boys, Heather and Jed were able to get a little yard work done and I made a quick trip home to get a couple of bean towers so that Heather could plant snap peas in their front yard garden. All of the landscaping on their property is ornamental plants, not vegetables. But little by little I think Heather will find a way to change that.

After Ollie’s friends left, he opened presents from me and from Jed. He had opened presents from Grammy Goldstone and his big present from Heather and Jed in the morning. The big present was a huge, long bean bag seat. It is very versatile. You can lay it out flat and use it like a lounge chair or double it up into a seat with a back. And it is soooo comfortable. I melted right into. Then the problem was getting out of it!

I made another quick trip home to take Shadow for a walk and then went back for dinner. Ollie ‘ordered’ Korean ribs. Jed had never fixed them before, but he gave it a try and they were delicious. Heather stir-fried veggies and made rice to go with the ribs. All yummy. And then we had Boston Creme Cake. It was Heather’s first attempt at making this. She thought she had used too much vanilla and cooked the cake part too long. I disagreed.
I thought it was just perfect and so did Ollie. Before we ate dinner, we went around the table to share one story about Ollie. Heather shared the story of when Granddad and I brought Sam and Jonah to the hospital to first meet Ollie when he was only an hour old. What a beautiful memory that was. We were all totally fascinated by that little creature and still are. Happy Birthday, Ollie!

2021 Life Logs, Day 79: Welcome Spring
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 45, Low, 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Welcome, spring. But where are you? It is still too cold for me to feel like wanting to go out and do any outside work. I am sincerely hoping that since March came in like a lion that sometime soon it is going to be warm and sunny so I can say it went out like a lamb. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with the high temp in the low 50’s. That just might qualify as warm enough.

Since tomorrow is Ollie’s 9th birthday, I am hoping that the weather forecast is correct. He is having a few friends over to play outside, so I am hoping for the sunshine for him. Tonight, the busy Goldstones stopped by for a late pre-birthday artichoke dinner. Jonah had an evening soccer game in Cohasset which is most of the way to Boston. Sam had a scouting day at Camp Greenough in Yarmouth Port which is a 45-minute drive. So, Heather took Jonah to his game and Jed to pick up Sam. Jed dropped Ollie off with me and we watched some episodes of Wild Kratts while waiting for everyone else to arrive for dinner. It was well after 8 pm when everyone arrived for the artichoke dinner. And it was well past bedtime when they left, but we had a nice evening together talking about soccer, scouts, and the upcoming birthday party. Ollie is having a few friends over tomorrow afternoon to play lawn games. When the friends leave, we will have the actual birthday dinner. And today was Grammy Goldstone’s birthday. Happy birthday, Marti.

Today was spent editing instead of writing. Since my ‘first reader’ is ready for more chapters, I wanted to make sure they were ready for her. I wrote them, but then did not even go back and proofread. Sure enough, there were loads of things that needed tidied up. I only got through two chapters, but I sent those along. Monday I will proof one more chapter and complete writing another. The writing project is going along nicely.

2021 Life Logs, Day 78: Feedback
Date: Friday, March 19, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Windy; High 40, Low, 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

If you regularly read this log, you know that I am working on writing a book about Windbird’s travels around the world. I am currently finishing up Chapter 12, but still have miles to go. I have a friend that was in the memoir writing class I took last spring that spurred me write this book. That friend has offered to the ‘first reader’ and give me feedback. I got her feedback on the first eight chapters today and I was delighted with the detail of her editing and her encouraging comments. Now I want to write even faster! But I do not think that is possible, so I just need to keep plodding along. I read a quote today that shook me a bit. It said, “Get out of your story and into your life.” That reminded me of something my high school principal said. It was something along the lines of, “If you are talking today about what you did yesterday, then you aren’t doing enough today.” I really want to write this book, but I promise to keep living today. That is not easy because I get so engrossed in the writing. But reminders like these will keep me straight.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Yippee! Now the weather just needs to feel like spring.

2021 Life Logs, Day 77: Rainy Day
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain All Day; High 46, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The rain started this morning, and it has not stopped. Shadow and I made it through a half mile morning walk without getting too wet, but late this afternoon when we did the other half of our daily mile, we both came home soaked to the bone despite our rain coats.

I kept my promise to myself today and did not start writing this morning until I did three things on my ‘to do’ list. One of those things was starting seedlings indoors to get ready for summer gardening. I started San Marzano tomato plants to day and will do more indoor planting on Saturday, the first day of spring. But I chose not to sweep the cottage floors. I will do that tomorrow morning while Shadow is at the groomers. He hates the vacuum, so I decided to give him a break. My writing today was about exploring the islands in the Marquesas in search of ancient maraes (me’aes) and tikis (ti’is) and being introduced to Polynesian music and dance. The maraes are stone platforms that were once used as a meeting place and where human sacrifices were made. The tikis were stone figures of all sizes. The largest we saw was Takaii at 8 feet. I would love to finish the chapter on the Marquesas tomorrow, but I have only written about three of the five islands we visited. So Saturday is probably more realistic for going on to the next chapter about the Society Islands in French Polynesia—Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, and Bora Bora.

This evening I got a Message on Facebook that Coco was inviting me to talk on Messenger Kids. We talked via video on our phones and she taught me how to ‘effects’ to make very funny faces. Coco loves jokes and riddles and is quite the little character.

2021 Life Logs, Day 76: Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Cold; High 33, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

According to my DNA story on Ancestry, I am only 5 percent Irish, but I am 39 percent Scottish, 3 percent Wales, and 37 percent English and Northwestern European. Close to Ireland! But Mark’s father’s family was from Ireland, so my children must have a much greater percent of Irish blood. For years, Mark always had some good piece of luck on St. Patrick’s Day and today I benefited from that luck. My Covid test came back much sooner than expected and it was Negative. And any cold symptoms had gone away. I couldn’t imagine how I could have gotten Covid or a cold, but it was a great relief to get the good news.

I started my day watching a Dutch violinist and an Irish musician playing The Irish Washerwoman on fiddle on YouTube. It was fabulous and I immediately fell in love with the music of John Sheahan and Andrew Rieu. And then I watched Andrew Rieu on fiddle and Florian Silbereisen, a German singer, on the accordion playing the same song. If any Irish blood courses through your veins, Google The Irish Washerwoman and watch the artists playing the song. Even if you have no Irish ancestors, you’ll love the music.

I promised myself that I was going to attend to some things on my ‘to do’ list today instead of writing. But I didn’t. I wrote the day away once more. The weather was warmer, so I did have a nice long walk with Shadow before I started writing. And I did pick Ollie up after school and took Jonah to the skatepark. But then I came home and wrote until 8 pm. Tomorrow morning, I won’t allow myself to turn on my computer until I have done at least three things on my ‘to do’ list.

2021 Life Logs, Day 75: Philosophical Kind of Day
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Cold; High 33, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My morning was spent chasing down a Covid 19 test. I thought I could just go to the Urgent Care Center and get a Rapid Test, but not so if you have symptoms. I ended up getting a test at CVS at noon, but not a Rapid Test. I will not have the results for a day or two. I still have cold symptoms, no better but no worse than last night—which is whole lot better than yesterday morning. Where in the world did I get exposed to cold germs? At least, I hope it only a cold. For the past week, I have seen very few people and none of them have a cold or Covid, at least not that they are aware of. I have mostly been sitting at my dining room table writing.

And while I was sitting at my dining room table writing this afternoon, I found myself writing with tears streaming down my face. During the last four days of Windbird’s twenty-two day passage to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, we were part of a radio net support team for a boat that was having a serious medical emergency. The boat was Procyon and Sheri and Randy had become friends. They were much younger than us, but we had immediately liked them when we met in Panama and again in the Galapagos. Randy was in his forties and had been in the Coast Guard. He was the most fit of all of the cruisers we had met. At least he looked the most fit. But he had suffered a back injury a few years prior and had taken too many pain relievers. He had to be air-lifted from the Galapagos back to mainland Ecuador to have surgery to remove stomach ulcers and then on the passage to the Marquesas he fell on his back on deck while making a sail change. That fall resulted in the medical emergency. Within 24 hours, he could eat or drink anything and was in so much pain he could hardly move. Over the next four days, the radio net we were a part of, worked with Sheri trying to support her. It finally became evident that we had to take action. A doctor on our radio net had been talking with Sheri three times a day, but he agreed something had to be done. I sent emails to four boats that I knew were already in the Marquesas. They sent emails to other boats. Other boats with doctors aboard got involved. Boats hundreds of miles apart on the longest passage in the world with no land to be found were willing to do whatever necessary to help. One sailing doctor that was already in the Marquesas went to shore to a hospital and got a French doctor there involved. He contacted the French Navy and found a cargo ship that could divert to pick up Randy and take him to Tahiti to a major hospital. Two boats from Norway that none of us had ever met were closest to Procyon and they went to sail on either side of Sheri. With all three boats on auto pilot. they could do watches for her while she slept. The reason for the streaming tears was reading about the outpouring of support given to Sheri and Randy from people who did not even know them. On land, I have never experienced a community quite so willing to take huge risks for one another. I miss that sailing community. I don’t mean that I don’t have wonderfully supportive friends, it is just that I don’t see most people taking the time to stop and help someone they don’t know that is in need. This is when things get philosophical. What makes one community more caring than another? Why could we walk through any little village in the South Pacific and have people invite us into their homes to have tea and food when they had never seen us before? They had nothing, but wanted to share what they had out of a sense of humanity. Back in New Hampshire, I didn’t know my neighbors, and no one had ever invited me in as I walked by their home. My mind kept going this afternoon. Why? Why? Why? Then, out of the blue, tonight my daughter-in-law Jo sent me a link to a song by a female duo called Mamuse. I had never heard of Mamuse, but I loved their music, especially the words to the one song Jo had sent to me called “We Shall Be Known.” To me, it fit so perfectly with my thoughts while writing and finishing another Chapter in the Voyage of Windbird, as well as with the times we are going through trying to find our way out of this pandemic. I know. I am not usually this philosophical. But this was just one of those days.

“We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love”
Lyrics by K. Longaker, performed by Mamuse.

2021 Life Logs, Day 74: Two Times Cold
Date: Monday, March 15, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Windy, and Cold; High 28, Low, 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It is not only winter-time cold outside, I woke up this morning with cold symptoms. I felt fine, I just had sinus drainage and a runny nose. I think this is an allergy-related sinus issue rather than a cold, but what started the allergic reaction? This has happened to me in the past, and in each case, the next day I woke up symptom free. So, I’m hoping for that. But in any case, I will go get a Covid rapid test in the morning to eliminate that possibility. In the meantime, I asked Jed to pick up Ollie today. If it is Covid or just a cold, I don’t want to pass either on to him as he is already dealing with Lyme disease. His little body immune system doesn’t need a second assault.

And the weather outside is frightfully cold for mid-March. It was in the teens last night and did not get above freezing today. As I write this log, it is 24 degrees F outside but feels like 13 degrees according to Weather Underground. That is due to the wind from the north. Tomorrow will be a little warmer and then Wednesday and Thursday we will have time temps in the 40’s before it cools off again for the weekend. I’m hoping the forecast for next week with highs in the 50’s and lows above freezing is correct. The first day of spring arrives on Saturday and I’m ready for a little warmth.

In my writing, I made it half-way to the Marquesas Islands today. Hopefully I can complete the chapter on the twenty-one day passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas tomorrow and maybe even begin the next chapter about our Marquesas visit. After spending a week writing about our time in the Galapagos, today’s progress was encouraging.

I made a couple of corrections to last night’s log online but should set things straight here as well. First of all, my lack of knowledge of football was made blatantly clear when I misquoted Dr. Fauci. Don’t spike the ball before you reach the end zone, not the in-zone as I wrote. And I misunderstood what Heather had said about the date for sending all Falmouth students back to the classroom full time. The return date is April 28th, after the week of spring vacation, not the 1st of April. That gives teachers almost five to six weeks to prepare, not just two weeks. I still worry that we are moving too fast, but I do understand how important it is to get students back to school. I just want it done in a way that is safe for all.