Life in Kana-text (er… CONtext)
The summer I was 17, my uncle took my younger sister and me for a live-aboard week sailing around Lake Michigan. It was the beginning of my love-affair. I was already on a course toward Marine Biology studies, didn't yet have "my" lighthouse tattooed on my arm, but was on that course too, captivated by … Continue reading What Dreams are Shaped Like
Acting on my new resolve to get out again in bare feet, I just walked down to our RV park's laundry room with a few already-read paperbacks to leave in our little lending library. I attend the local library's annual book sale to restock the shelves (yes, that's why I go to the book sale, … Continue reading “Books From the Ships”
I don’t love it that our sailboat is a five-hour drive from home. It’s hard to get away to go there, hard to tackle the work and projects that we have in mind, hard to get the boat-time I’d wish for, if I really had my way. But yesterday did remind me of one of … Continue reading Driven
I've been obsessed with the ocean since before my teens, but it was my Uncle Dick who "infected" me with the love of sailing. I took the official ASA courses later on in adulthood, but it was my uncle & aunt ("Captain Grunk" & "First Mate Cookie," as they have ever-after been known to us) … Continue reading “This is What We Do.”
Our boat is in her slip at Tacoma, motorsailed there last week from Seattle by our boat-broker, Lee, with "a couple he knows from O-Dock" (I love the community-ness of docks-and-boaters). Lee took this photo of Seattle's skyline from our boat.. This is the busiest, craziest, hardest month for us to get away from the … Continue reading The Ship’s Cat Wants a Ship’s Goose
One of the trickiest (read: "most harrowing") aspects of coastal sailboat-cruising is the process of DOCKING. Precisely placing a 40-foot boat into a right-angle slip is a maneuver that requires adroit steering, precise timing, 360-degree situational awareness, and (preferably) steel nerves. A sailboat doesn't have brakes, of course---so you'd better not come in too fast. … Continue reading On Docking, On Keels, On Seamonsters
A conundrum I have never understood: PEOPLE are simultaneously the most energizing and the most draining element of life. I love being behind the counter in the Park Office, welcoming and checking in the RVers, dispensing advice, making them laugh, solving their problems, hearing their stories. These interactions ("people-ing" as I jokingly call it) can … Continue reading On People-ing
Kana's Chronicles 