Anchors Away!
I’m awoken at 0330 local time by the call of nature on our eighth and likely penultimate night in the Marina Mindelo on Ilha São Vicente in the Cabo Verdes. In the dim light from the marina’s dock lights I see Max sleeping peacefully on the settee. Hazel is too small for any kind of…
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The Reunion Islands
Although the real Reunion Islands are in the Indian Ocean, on my last night in the Canaries as I think back about my time here, I realize that this archipelago will always be my personal “Reunion Islands.” Not only for Rhett’s and my reunion but for our reunion with sailing friends. It reminds me of…
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The Fire Island
As a lot of people know, I’m not nearly as prolific when Rhett is onboard so please excuse the timing on this post. I started it when Rhett and I were on the island of Lanzarote (blue star in the upper right below). I made landfall there on November 6, sailing from Madeira and Rhett…
Keep readingPictures at an Exhibition
Given I’ve got limited time but near unlimited bandwidth (a rarity lately), I’ll make this post text lite and photo heavy. It’s 1100 local time in Madeira and I’m waiting for the squally cold front from the remnants of subtropical storm Patty to pass so I can start sailing the 275 miles to the island…
Keep readingAll Systems Go
Hazel’s ready, the Captain’s ready, the weather looks good, no orca encounters or sightings over the past several days—we are ready to roll. It’s about 2130 here (9:30 p.m.) and I’m just about to “turn flukes” as Melville would say in Moby Dick. Tomorrow morning about sunrise, we’ll return our marina access card (and get…
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Navigate and Orca-Strait
…of course I could have just as easily titled this post “Navigate the Orca-Strait” because we’re doing both at the moment. On one hand there’s the hour-to-hour, degree-to-degree and minute-to-minute navigation, but without high-level and mid-level sailing plans—the “orchestration” you might say—the navigation is pointless. As the Cat said, “If you don’t know where you…
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Just Passin’ Through
Tomorrow we sail! I pulled out my ship’s log and see that we arrived in Marina Almerimar on Saturday, September 14th. At the time, I was expecting a visit of 10 days that could reasonably stretch into 2 weeks. If you had told me then that we would be here 4 weeks, I would have…
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Watching Paint Dry
It’s an instant of clarity when I happen to experience the core of a metaphor, the sinews of a simile—when a figure of speech animates itself and dances on the stage. I find it happens more frequently in my sailing life than in my other life. This week, as Hazel’s spa time continues, I had…
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Hard Life
In terms of women in my life, Rhett and Hazel have their similarities, and differences. Both enjoy—dare I say demand?—spa time. Furthermore, I’m learning that as a person often oblivious to these needs (a.k.a., a guy), that there’s a relationship between physical size and the spa time needed. For Rhett, it’s the bliss of a…
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Seasonal Skull Scratching in Sardinia
…sure, the alliteration is cute and catchy, but change the context slightly and this blog post title could be read as a medical condition. However, time is short and it’s fitting (as you’ll soon see), so I’m going with it. I toss, I turn, I give up and give in to wakefulness. Rolling over in…
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Soft is Hard
Good morning. I’m sailing today from Palermo, Sicily bound for some port on Sardinia’s South Coast. It’s about 220 miles of sailing and should take me about 3 days given the weather. It looks mild…probably too mild. While my overall direction of sailing is west-northwest, I’m not sure if I’ll initially stay south to try…
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Last Day Sailing
A few professional writers I know speak with awe about old-school newspaper reporters, back in the days of clacking typewriters, smokey press rooms full of reporters, and print rooms that smelled of newsprint 24×7. What impresses them most is their ability to generate a story while under time pressure. If your story isn’t done by…
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Caio! (and announcing the return of daily micro-posts)
Greetings from Pylos, Greece. As Homer called it “Sandy Pylos.” (As I write this, I’m enjoying a morning coffee from my Bialetti. While it percolated on the stove, it told me how much it was looking forward to getting back to its Italian homeland.) The island of Ithaca (and generally thought to be the seat…
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Jumping Ship
Δεν θα με ξαναδείς, thought the young sailor as the stubbled captain handed him 20 dollars. The billfold was like any other seafaring officer’s wallet in the pre-credit card, pre-Euro days: US dollars intermingled with crumpled Greek drachmas, folded British pound notes, torn Turkish lira (or maybe they were Italian lira, who knows). There were…
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24 x 7 x 31
If you love and absolutely can’t get enough of the words that boil over in the cauldron of my brain and flow down my arms to my fingers like zip-lining tourists in Costa Rica—I have some good news for you. If you groan whenever you see an email from me via hjsailing.blog announcing a new…
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Four Years, and a Postscript of Lemonade
In Colleen’s later years, we acquired two big Rhodesian Ridgebacks. First Machupa, and then—since “Chupie” needed a playmate—Jengo. While “playmate” sounds like such a cute and childlike term, they grew into 200+ pounds of combined dog-weight. When the two would wrestle (as brothers always wrestle) you’d best stay out of their way. However, when spent…
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A Couple Confident Imposters
Although Hazel and I have been an item since 2017 and Rhett and Sunny signed-on in 2020 with their first voyages aboard, recommissioning and re-provisioning her after a winter layup takes confidence. Which at times is hard to muster when suffering from something like imposter syndrome. The confidence comes from the fact that we’ve done…
Keep readingSplash Eve
It’s Sunday May 19 and we’re hoping to launch Hazel James tomorrow in Lavrio, Greece. Please stay tuned for updates. Hazel has a new paint job and is looking trim. She’s also got a new tracker aboard so you should be able to see our location in near real-time. We’ll likely spend a day or…
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The Turkey Trot in Istanbul
Note: Please excuse any odd timing here as I started this post several weeks ago. I sit in front of a yawningly black and empty computer screen at our two bedroom rented flat in the New District of Istanbul, Türkiye. As our month in the country winds to a close, I’m lost in thought about…
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Gearing Up
“Oh great…so now the rest of my life is going to be nothing but watching Ted Lasso reruns in Florida.” That was my choice snide and snippy comment to Rhett as the 2023 summer sailing season was winding down. At least the choicest one I can remember; I’m sure there were others. While I can’t…
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