Happiness
Position: 42°16’36.7″N 8°49’20.9″W Carol’s dad, Bob, asked us if we were going to see anyone on our journey north to the Baltic? It was a reasonable question. Our contact list is, after all, long. We thought about it during our …
Balloons: or Why Up is a Downer
Public Service Trigger Announcement Nowadays it doesn’t take much to raise the hackles of my inner misanthrope. If clumps of oil were all we saw, then life on the high seas might not be quite as ecologically depressing. The one …
Movie Night – Circa 1972
THX George My parents sent me to boarding school to learn the value of parental rejection at an early age. The lessons were profound, but one of the fun things we did there was periodically watch recently released movies. This …
Sintra
Position: 38°47’14.6″N 9°23’27.7″W The Palácio Nacional da Pena is a shining “jewel in the crown” of Portuguese royalty. That Portuguese royalty, like Britain’s, were Germans is neither here nor there. The where, since you asked, is in Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, …
Orcas
Position: 38°24’50.5″N 9°13’23.9″W “Aleta, Aleta, Aleta, Billaroo, Billaroo, Billaroo.” The VHF awoke with an unmistakably Australian accent. Twenty-four hours into our passage, we approached our final leg to Lisbon by rounding Cape Espichel and crossing the depths of the Lisbon …
Spanish Customs
Pop Quiz! You have ten minutes to complete this quiz. Good luck! You are motoring late at night towards the lights of Málaga. A vessel appears off your port side, but not on your Automated Identification System. Is it: A …
Awe! Dolphins
Position: 36°31’47″N 3°52’08″W As the sun rose over Aleta’s stern and Carol arose from her slumbers, it was time to change watches. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dolphin and called down to my first mate. …
Inner Visions: Planning Our Future
POSITION: Leaning In Life planning. A thing that life planners advocate, and few people bother doing. Perhaps that accounts for the vast numbers of life planners with second jobs waiting tables or mowing lawns. Well, I don’t know if that’s …
Cosyhousing
Position: 45°37’26″N 122°40’42″W It’s only been four and a half months, Lauren reminded me. I thought it was six, and that we’d more than passed our sell-by date. After all, fish and house guests smell after three days. Then I …