{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama   A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week;

*We celebrated thanksgiving with the rest of  USA. I said I was thankful for my family, which is lovely but a little lame. I will strive to be more creative next year. James was thankful that we got to have such an amazing experience together last year and that he found such a great job, so quickly. Ronan was thankful for the sailing trip and for Daddy because he thought of it and it was so fun. Paloma was thankful for getting into a good school.

*We enjoyed the balmy weather and braced ourselves for the coming cold.

* We saw the lovely Hugo, which we all enjoyed, even if some of us (Ronan) think the book is better and makes more sense.

*We got stuff out of storage, adding to our box collection.

* Our favorite babysitter got her brother to bring me Xtra Hot pepper sauce from St. Luisa.  I can’t tell how happy this make me.  I’ve been really jones’n for it.  My own  little bit of the Caribbean here in new York, now that is something to be thankful for.

How was your week? What are you thankful for?

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama   A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week;

*James’ new catchphrase is ” We spent a year living on the water and now it feeling like we’re living under it”

* We had lots of middle school drama but I am happy to report that Paloma will start at a wonderful school on Monday.

*We moved into our new apartment, with the stuff we flew back with, borrowed air mattresses and the bounty from our obligatory IKEA trip.

* James left on his first business trip on the same day we moved.

* I spent a lot of time buying stuff and then unpacking it from boxes. I kept saying I want to live with less stuff.  We ended up with no stuff.  Now I think the universe is having a good laugh at my expense.

* I messed up my first Freshdirect order. I thought I was ordering 10 apples but I was ordering 10 packs of 4. Apple crumble anyone.

* We’ve enjoyed our new view of the Hudson river, even tho the sailboats make us a little wistful.

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How was your week? Put your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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This week:

*Paloma turned eleven. We celebrated at a beloved New York institution. It was a pretty perfect day.

* James started his new job.

*We looked for and found an apartment. Yay!  A big thanks to our friend and soon to be neighbor for introducing us to the building.

* I  spent way to much of my life on Craig’s list and Pinerest.

*We are tried to get use to schedules, calenders and commutes.

* We enjoyed hangout with our generous Brooklyn hosts.

How was your week? Post your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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This week:

*We spent a rainy day in Istanbul

*We flew to New York

*Ronan went right back to school at PS150.  Getting Paloma into middle school is a little more work.

*We lost a friend to cancer. He was 49, with two girls the same age as Paloma and Ronan and he was an awesome person. Cancer sucks.

How was your week?  Put your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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This week on board:

*We packed up the boat ( one guess how James feels about packing) It was not fun, it was sad, boring and hard. Not a good combination, but it’s done!

*Paloma dived into algebra with help of khan ( they should pay me for product placement) academy and James.

* Paloma & Ronan spent a lot time with their new four legged friend, Aris.

*After watching all of the X-men movies, and after much debate, Ronan declared imagination the greatest mutant power.

*We said good bye to the good ship Ondine. ( I keep humming this song )

How was your week? Are you sad about Jobs dying? ( James’ is very sad, he worked for him once) Put your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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This week off board:

* We went to the amusement park

* We missed James alot

*We checked out the market

*The kids fell in love with Adventure Time

* We’ve been grateful that it’s cooling off a bit here.

How was your week?  leave your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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Yesterday I was struck by the similarity between the beginning of our trip and the ending. I found my self-making popcorn in a seaside resort town that prides it’s self on its Englishness; waiting for James and the next chapter of our lives to begin. Despite all my own good council about a lot life happening in the transitions, I have not escaped the energy sapping feeling of being in purgatory, again.

Of course Didim, Turkey, with its sucky fish spas and English grannies with lots of tatts, is a long way from Bermuda. (I should know, I’ve sailed it)

We are staying in an apartment in Altinkum a seaside resort area that caters to English tourists, James refers to as butlins in Turkey. I admire the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial sprite that the Turks bring to giving their visitors what they want. Although I wouldn’t mind a little cultural arrogance if it meant I could get some really good Turkish food and experience a little more ottoman empire and a little less Blackpool.

It’s not all egg and chips, we got fresh yogurt and honey comb at the lovely Saturday market and we’ve found a restaurant in the center of Didim that serves only Turkish food. We had a good time at the amusement park, Luna Park; the crazy dance is really crazy.

The kids have made friends with an ice cream vendor on the boardwalk and he gives them extra big servings. The beach is just outside our door and we have great view of the sea from our balcony. The beach it’s self is not that enticing for children who have lived on a boat for a year, it’s sallow and crowd with people, and cigarette butts.

We mainly hang out in the apartment, reading, writing and doing math on khan academy, eating popcorn and looking forward to Adventure time. Not terribly exciting but not terribly exciting maybe just what we need right now, before taking the next big leap. Even purgatory had it benefits.

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This week not on board:

*We went to Didim’s temple to Apollo

* Ronan lost another tooth, making him look a strange anti-vampire. It made wonder what young vampires do when they lose their baby teeth, then it was pointed out me that vampires are made not born. Duh.

*James flew back to the US,  job hunting again.

*Paloma perfected her stuffed tomato recipe

* We moved apartments. Now we have a lovely view of the main beach instead of neon and brake dancing and best of all, Ronan got his bath and not just a bath, a jacuzzi!

*We saw a white rabbit hanging out on the beach.

How was your week? Post your week in the comments, we love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We bid farewell to the our new friends the pirates of Kalymnos and sailed to Didim Turkey.

*Ronan lost a tooth.

*Ondine was hauled out by a huge, fancy, remote control crane at D-Marin Marina.

*We enjoyed the beach club and the pool at the yacht club, both part of the marina, very nice.

* We moved off Ondine and into an apartment. We were excited to give landlubbing a go again.

* We had an osmosis scare. I thought osmosis was a way to learn French in your sleep but it means this and is kinda disastrous on a boat.  It turned out we had a faulty moisture reading not a leaky haul. Phew and double phew.

*We discovered that our apartment is in an English tourist mecca. Our neighbors are Zanzibar,who serve proper full English breakfast with proper beacon, and Skybar, named after SkyTv, which they play on huge screens both inside and out. Both bars (pubs) have Karaoke, dancing bar boys ( actually one of the break-dancing groups was quite impressive) and very loud music all night long. Great if your on holiday from Newark-on-Trent but a little shocking if you’ve been living on a boat.

*We were  grateful for and amazed by restaurants that have pick up and drop of services for their guests.

What did you do this week? Post your week in the comments, we love hearing from you!

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This week on board:

*The lovely Laurie came and went.

* We enjoyed probably the last beach in Greece where farmers still herd their sheep.

*We finally left Naxos and sailed to Amorgos

* There was a serious hearts craze.

*We sailed to Kalymnos

*Ronan enjoyed the joys of pajama sailing.

What did you do this week? Put your week in the comments, we love hearing from you!

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual viasoulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on Board:

*There was the dramatic being dragged out to sea at 2am incident, more to come on that later.

*Cindy returned to New York but not before being declared Uno champion and champion of the mayday call.

*The captain returned, had his stitches removed and put some new stitches in our sail.

* We saw a movie  at the Naxos open air cinema.

* The lovely Laurie came to stay.

What did you do this week? Post your week in the comments, we love hearing from you!

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Normally on Fridays I  post one photo of a  moment with out text as part of {this moment} via soulemama

But last night we dragged on our anchor.  At 2am I discovered  we were drifting out into a stormy sea, without the captain on board.  It was the scariest moment ever!  It feels like a miracle that we are back at anchor and okay this morning. So I think I needed to comment and post two pictures.  One of the sunrise because I was so happy to see it.

And one of my anchor grease covered feet.

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This week on Board:

*We missed James. (I find it hard to sleep when he is away)

* I used my sleepless hours to make a tote out of plastic bags.

* Cece came to stay!

* We played a lot of Uno

* I spent a lot time worrying about our dinghy, Searover

*Ronan feel in love with Pipi Longstocking.

What did you do this week? Leave your week in the comments, we love hearing from you! ( specially our London dwelling friends this week)

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Anyone looking for a great CEO, only very slightly damaged?  James is in United States on our first post Ondine reccy.

It’s an odd feeling to think that the sun is starting to set on our grand adventure and to be contemplating life back on the hard. It feels like time as flown by and simultaneously our life in New York feels like eons ago, being a dirt dweller feels as foreign now as being a live board did last November.

We made a very concise effort to make this a real year out and not make post sailing plans. When people asked what next  we would honesty answer, “ We have no idea”.  But lately “ When we move off the boat” has slipped into our vocabularies.   I am looking forward to not feel nauseous so often. The kids are looking forward to going back to a school where you get to see your friend’s everyday, not just when your wakes cross. James is looking forward to exchanging all the manual labor for a lot more PowerPoint.  I know Mr. Elephante is looking forward to a stiller drier life.

There will be a lot to miss, more than I ever expected. A lovely community of supportive cruises, the sea, the sunsets. Most of all I think I will miss the sense of freedom. Freedom to leave at anytime and go somewhere new. Freedom from imposed schedules. I am now shocked by how much of my time was spent scheduling things or transitioning from one scheduled activity to another. Freedom from a lot of the bureaucracy and forced social interactions that are part life in the big city. Freedom to spend your time with the people you want to spend your time with.

As terrifying as they where in the beginning and as nerve wracking as I still find them, I will miss night-watches. I will miss the time alone with just the stars, the wind and Ondine.

Whatever sadness I will have about giving up this vagabond life at sea is over powered by my curiosity to find out what happens next in the family green story.  I am hoping I will be able to bring some of the freedom and adventure from this chapter into the next

During the Obama campaign I kept buying “change is awesome “ T-shirts and bags. I wondered what appealed to me so much about the slogan. Was it all that tantric yoga, did I really believe it? Or was I just trying to convince myself? One of the great gifts of this year at sea is that I now know for sure, I was right, change is awesome.

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One day we went to an island called Delos. It’s known as the birthplace of Apollo and Artimis. We had to take a ferry; it was a very long ride. Then we finally got there. We looked around the ruins. I drew a picture of a mosaic of an anchor.

We also climb on the walls. It was a lot of fun. We went to the ruins of an outdoor theater. Paloma and went up really high on the stairs and sat down, Daddy could talk to us with out yelling or a microphone.

Then we looked for a beach. It was a bit prickly on the way. We found a fender we named it booey. We swam and walked the rest of the way to the beach.

When we got to the beach we had lunch and swam. We all splashed each other but we slashed Daddy the most. Paloma and I       laughed a lot at the beach.

It was almost time for the ferry to leave, so we rushed back. Luckily it was still there. I had a good day at Delos.  :)

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

*We recovered in a lovely isolated cove, a rare find here in the islands of Greece.

*We moved to a more built up part of Naxos.

* I started to play Ronan’s Ukulele as therapy for my finger. I am beyond awful but it seems to be working.

*James left for the USA on our first post cruising reccy. Fingers crossed the Herman Muster look doesn’t put off potential employers

*The kids and I are missing James and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friend Cindy.

What did you do this week? Put your week in the comments section, we love hearing from you!

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

* We had a lovely lunch at James’ favorite childhood taverna.

* We went to Delos, birth place of Apollo and Artemis. ( Paloma was shocked by the Apollo to Artemis temple ratio )

* We sailed to Leros to find out about getting hauled out again (dam you P bracket)  We learned we have to wait for a part. ( the dam P bracket)  So we’ve sailed off to explore the near by Islands.

* Some crazy people attached themselves to Ondine and got pulled along behind her.

* We spent a few days just chilling in Lipsos.

* I felt under the weather, so James read to me.  ( I love being read to. Do you?)

* Paloma learned fishing skills or lack there of may be inherited.

What did you do this week? Leave your week comments in the comments, we love hearing from you!

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Today we visited Delos, I haven’t been since I was a kid, but I am pleased to say that it is still as I remember it: probably the best, most-intact set of ancient Greek ruins in the world.  Delos is a VERY special place.   I had five things I wanted to do with the family on the trip, based on my fuzzy memory.  Would we achieve them all?

1. Visit a (specifc) ancient temple that I remember
2. See a bathtub.  Yep, go to Delos to see a bathtub
3. Have lunch on a beautiful beach with a marble pillar in the middle
4. See the Delos Lions.
5. Go to the museum

Here’s our trip along with some graphical aids:

We left early on a Ferry from Mykonos.  Kinda nice to be on someone elses’ boat.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on Board:

*We finally made it to Mykonos. Where James spent his summers as a child and where Aunty Lucy, uncle John and Kailey still spend their summers. ( If I only had a euro for every time james says ” this road wasn’t here, it was just a donkey track”)

*We help Steve and Sarah find the beach and taverna, they had loved on their Honeymoon. It turned out James new the people who started it. ( When there was only a donkey track)

*Ronan leaned the joys of Kadima.

* We said goodbye to the Dembitzers.  We suspect the children sabotaged the dinghy so they couldn’t leave. Luckily James swam to another boat and the very nice captain gave everyone a lift in his dinghy, so no ferries were missed.

* We spent our first day on board as just the Family Green in over 12 weeks. ( We like company)

*We spent evenings on Aunty Lucy’s porch eating take out, watching the amazing sunsets and downloading torrents on their really fast connection.

* We put some of Grandpa with Grandma.

What did you do this week? Put your week in the comments section, we love hearing from you!

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This week on Board:

*We sailed through the Corinth Canal to the Aegean.

*We took thermal baths in Loutra on the island of Kythnos.

*We felt the power of the Meltemi.  Even losing some clothes to it, oops.

*We dropped off Lisa and Dave in AntiParos, where they spent their honeymoon 11 years ago. (ahhh)

* We picked up Steve, Sarah, Lousia and Alex. Paloma and Ronan are in kids our own age heaven.

*We ate a lot of good food.

* We did a lot of swimming.

What did you do this week? Put your week in the comments, we love hearing from you!

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*Ronan cut off all his hair! He looks super cute in a very british post war way.  But part of me will always miss Ziggy.

*We sailed to Sardinia, Italy.  We have  been eating lots of gelato in celebration.

*We said good bye to our fabulous beleaguered  guest Grant.  but not before sending him up the mast, twice.

*We had our best dinner ever at  Trattoria Lillicu.  Where the amazing GIAN PAOLO was our singing waiter.

* New victims guests; Manuel, Alison, Claudia and Jimmy joined us.

* We saw whales!

* We stopped Ondine in the middle of the ocean and went for a swim.

* We arrived in Ustica. The loveliest island you will never go to unless you live on a boat.

What did you do this week? Please share in the comments. We love hearing from you!

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We went out to see the monkeys in Gibraltar.   First we went to this other exhibit to eat lunch.

And we got to see animals: a butterfly, fish, and a turtle.  When we were walking to the cable car, we saw a Fire Truck and Fire House.  When we got to the cable car, it took 10 minutes then finally we got to the top.

We saw a little monkey sitting on the wall.

We were so tempted to touch it, but we didn’t because they told us, well the machine told us, not to because it would bite us.  There was this other monkey that was behind the bars so that no one could really take his picture.  So he leapt from the bars to the monkey who was getting his picture taken and pushed him off the edge.  Luckily the monkey was all right.  We wanted to go up the steps, but we couldn’t because there was this grumpy monkey sitting on the steps.   He was grumpy because he made the step his territory and lots of people would go up it.  Which made him very grumpy and he would sit there and sit there and sit there.  But luckily, my sister had a water bottle and he spotted it can came down but we went up the steps before he could snatch it.  But we didn’t really know, because he might have just felt bored and wanted his picture taken.  Then we saw baby monkeys eating some food.

And one jumped right up – I wish I took a picture of it, but I didn’t have the camera.

We saw a Mother monkey cleaning a baby monkey and the Mother taught the child how to clean itself, so it was cleaning itself.

When we were walking down, we saw a monkey that had escaped from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar.  It was in town.  Well even though the monkey was wild, they put food up there so that the monkeys will stay at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar so they don’t come down when you are having dinner and steal your food and eat it.

It was fun seeing the monkeys and I like telling it to you!

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Last week and this week on board:

* We left Horta, Portugal heading for Gibraltar. We sailed for seven days and end up back in Portugal, Faro Portugal on the continent, but still! ( It was a wind thing)

* Ronan settled on his passage look. The hair has yerned him the nickname Ziggy.

* Our friend Grant who was expecting a lovely holiday sailing around the Med drinking sundowners has ended up, flying to Gibraltar, then having to bus to Cadiz, Spain, where we picked him up then immediately sailed over night back towards Gibraltar, When our starboard engine failed, we made Grant get in the dinghy and act as out engine. Now he’s hanging out in a marina while we have work done. Oh the glamour of being on Ondine.

*We sailed through the strait of Gibraltar at night. It’s a pretty spectacular light show. It’s like sailing down a super tanker highway. You feel like you can reach out and touch the lights of  Europe with one hand and Africa’s with other, as  huge lit up monster ships speed pass you.

* We have not actually ever made it to Gibraltar. We got darn close. However when we arrived the marina was closed due to a fuel tank explosion that had left oil in the water. ( poor Ondine got very dirty) We have ended up across the boarder in La Lina, Spain.

*We try and sound like locals and refer to Gibraltar as Gib.

What did you do this week?  Put your week in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual ( a day late) via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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Yesterday Ondine was hauled out. She is having her bottom painted and some work done in preparation for the big Atlantic crossing.

I can’t express how nerve racking it is to see your home being lifted up by a crane. James was a very pale shade of nervous Englishman through the whole thing. It’s very strange to climb up a ladder to the boat and see dirt through the port holes.

Last night was the first time I have slept on land in over five months!  We are staying in a funky little hotel on the water. It feels like total five star luxury to us. They have a pool and a small zoo. The bathroom seems enormous to a crew that has been showering in a head the size of a cupboard for months.  Best of all, we have 24/7 wifi. I’m on a broadband bingeing, downloading frenzy.

It’s going to be nice for a couple of days but the truth is, I can’t wait to get back on the water.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We sailed a night and day from St Martin to St Thomas. Ondine was back in USA for first time in five months.

*We picked up the Bricault family; Paul Cicek, Melise & Destin.

*We sail to St. John in a squall and moored at night. Note to self, maybe not the best way introduce guests to life on board.

*We hung out in St Francis Bay, St John.

*The kids taught each other every card game they know.

*Ronan & Melise spent five hours straight in a friends pool.

*We sailed to the Bitter end yacht club in BVI. Thanks to our lovely friends, we stayed on a dock  (1^st time in 5 months), while they stayed at the resort. We felt a little like the hick cousins staying on the lawn in our RV, a 55 Ft floating RV.

* Saying goodbye to friends again was hard, especially for Ronan.

* We crossed wakes again with Paloma’s resucers from SV Life Part Two. We are about to set sail with them for Tortola.

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual ( a day late) via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We fixed Ondine and she was ready to sail again. YAY!

*We sailed to Bequia. It was an unpleasant ride for me. The trip back the other way is said to be way worse, I’m braking out the patches for that.

*We anchored in the dark. Something we used to avoid at all costs. It’s still scary, but now we do it.

*We sailed to the beautiful Tabago Cays.

*We swam with turtles and rays.

*We had lobster on the beach made by Mr Wonderful. Mr wonderful turned out to be not so wonderful, he promised to do bunch of stuff for us then completely disappeared.

*I got a trim boat style.

*We watched all the Star Wars episodes in episode order. The Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite. We keep quoting Yoda to the poor kids “ No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

What did you do this week?  Leave your week in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board;

*We have been enjoying all the reading material James brought back.

*We had a really good time at The Cruises Net* birthday party. Everyone had “Then things went wrong” stories. It became very clear that it’s not us, it’s boats.  It made us feel better about everything, of course it could have also been the rum punch.

* I got to meet Ann Vanderhoof, author of my favorite books about cruising/cooking in the caribbean.

*Paloma started baking bread.

*We won the saturday morning cruises net quiz!  We won by correctly identifying an Oscar Wild quote.  James & I got to have a lovely dinner here. Thank you Mr Wild  and also SV Esprit de mer for watching Ronan & Paloma.

*James spent a lot of time with the Chinaman. We now have a straight propeller shaft ( there is a very Benny hill joke in there somewhere) and hope to have to engines running by the end of the day.

*Lots of new friends came and went. Its part of the rhythm of cruising life, not sure that it will ever be easy. (We miss you SV Ouma & Juno)

* The kids spent a lot of time on a big purple foot.

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments.

* The Rodney Bay Cruise’s Net is an informal show broadcast on the VHS @ 830 am Mon-Sat.  Les, the rummey english gentleman who runs the show gives the weather, some BBC news items and then cruises call in with information, taxi shares, requests for help. I have been very thankful for it.

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This week on board:

*It was very windy (Not much sleep for me)

*I found a lentil recipe I really like. ( The Spice Necklace again)

* Paloma did very well selling her brownies at the Yacht club yard sale and is planing her expansion into bread.

*Ronan got to hold a boa constrictor. He smiled from ear to ear for hours.

*We saw the Pitons ( They’re on Oprah’s list of things to see before you die. That’s crossed off, phew)

*We bathed in volcanic mud

* I fixed my first my first ever leak. ( With help. Thank You SV Juno &  SV Ouma )

* James came home.  Yay, yay, yay!

* Ronan finally got his longed for corn rows.( Courtesy off  Emma, our NYC babysitters Lisa’s sister in law, and our Digicell rep. We love Emma.)

What did you do this week? Please share in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We hosted a kids book swap. Ronan scored Anakin Skywalker’s Journals .

*We broke our propeller.

*James left for Canada.

* We hung out at Pigeon Island

* I ran out of fuel on the dinghy.

*We spent a lot of time at the pool at H2O cafe

* We discovered joys of fresh cocoa pods

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

* we were rocked every few minutes by water skiers from Club Med.

* someone got a new French bikini.

* a script was printed and revisions done.

* lots of things were cooked and eaten

*James fixed stuff.

* a lot of lego was played and a little crochet was done.

* We all enjoyed this book.

* There was snorkeling.

What happen at your place this week?

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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The ocean is tough on everything.   When we bought Ondine, my good friend David Puchkoff had me buy a New American Flag to go with Ondine as the existing one was a little worn – nothing terrible, just needed an upgrade.  And although (despite valiant efforts) I’m not yet American one must fly the flag of the country the vessel is registered in off the stern (back) of the boat.  Hell, I love living in the US of A so that’s another reason to fly the flag.  But take a look at it now.   It is now COMPLETELY worn out after 7 months at sea.  Here’s Ronan doing his best Vanna White impression to compare the old with the new.

As we were buying a flag anyway, we decided to go whole hog and buy one for every nationality on the boat.  That’s American (Paloma & Ronan), Canadian (Paloma, Ronan and me), Australian (Paloma, Ronan & Emma-Kate) and English (all four of us).  According to maritime etiquette you can fly the flag of any guests on board off your port spreader (basically on the left side of the boat).  Here they are.  Personally, I think they look GREAT.

The red one with the Union Jack in the corner is the British Ensign or British Maritime Flag.  Trust the Brits to change the flag based on whether it’s on a boat or a palace.  In fact, the red is for us commoners.  I believe The British Admiralty can fly a blue one with the Union Jack in the corner and the Navy has a white one or some such nonsense.  More here if you care.

Anyway, the starboard spreader (right side of the boat) is reserved for the flag of whatever country you are currently in.  So we are currently flying the French Flag as we are in Martinique.  Here’s a picture of all the flags together on the spreaders.

With the US Flag off the stern we’re a veritable UN and I love it!

Here are a few photos that Emma-Kate took of Ronan as we were changing the flags.  Maybe he’ll become a ROCK STAR!  Certainly no matter what our nationality is, we are raising American Children.

Emma-Kate is using the best image (not included here) for her pic of the week.

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One of many things that has not gone the way we thought it would (Does anything, ever!) is connecting with other cruising families. There will be lots of families doing the same thing as us, kids naturally make friends easily, making new friends will be easy peasy lemon squeezy, we thought. (ha) By the time we got to Dominica Paloma was getting pretty desperate for playmates, she was not related to. In Portsmouth, when ever a new boat came in, Paloma would race on to the deck with the binoculars checking for signs of anyone under 14, and then checking the flag to see if they speak English. She has gotten very good at identifying country flags. She roped Ronan in and had him on VHS asking if anyone wanted to play Uno. We totally struck out.  The only thing standing between us and mutiny is that Paloma is able to skype her friend Marlon in NY on the weekends

When we arrived in Martinique we noticed two boys fishing off their yacht, they looked about the right ages. When we dinghied by and waved, they waved back, (a good sign. The French do not wave), then we saw the Australian flag on the boat. Eureka! This could totally work. We bumped into them the next day at the tourist office. After  the clumsy opening line of “ Are you the Australians?”,  we learned that they’re the Dunstans, Matt, Rachel, Alexander aged 9 and Nicholas aged 8. They have been living aboard their vessel, Orchid, since August. (You can read about their adventures here) They’re heading north as we head south. We were ships passing in ST. Pierre. We made plans to meet up the next day to celebrate Australia day/ my birthday.

We took a hike with them the next day, up the hill and down past the Madonna and into the butterfly garden (the back way.) By the time we got to the garden everyone was to busy talking to really notice the butterflies, despite my lame cries of “look butterflies”, every few moments. The Papillion garden is a funny, eco education and culture center. We sampled their organic fruit while the kids made jewelry out of traditional seeds, like the Caribe Indians, assisted by groovy young Parisian dudes (modern life can be very culturally confusing, not that I would have it any other way. My own fair haired boy is currently torn between having his hair in dreads, like Bob or corn rows, like the Karate Kid).  The guy running the garden was worried about us walking back to town along the busy road, so he gave us a lift, to the kids delight, in back of his pick up, because it was so much (ahem) safer.

That night we celebrated with champagne, good food, chocolate catastrophe, and good company. Nicholas made me a card and gave me the necklace he had made at the butterfly garden. A sweet and generous gesture from anyone, but from a eight year old boy, you just met, it’s melt your heart through your chest stuff.

The next day Alexander was not feeling well, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the chocolate or the past one am bedtime. The kids did manage to cram in some more playing and watched The Nutty Professor on our entrainment center (the salon curtains.) We all swapped books. We gave each other the highlights to look out for and the things to skip as we head where the other has been. The next morning as Orchid pulled out into the sunrise, heading to Dominica, we had lost our naïveté about the ease of finding friends along our journey but had gained a sweet appreciation of it, when we find it.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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James and I were getting totally sick of our hair, in the heat and salt water. I wanted a totally diffrent look for my Birthday. I was thinking Jean Seberg ala Breathless.

So yesterday James and I shaved off each others hair.   Neither of us had ever touched a pair of clippers. It could have been a recipe for marital disaster.

It all worked out. Although getting all the hair off the boat has been a bear.( a big hairy one) I think we both look super cute and if you squint really hard, we kinda almost look like Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

Let me know what you think! (remember it’s my birthday. Lie if you have to)

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We made it to France in time for my birthday!  Which means baguettes and Nutella for the kids and good wine and champers to celebrate my 39^th year with . Yay!

But we only just made it. Dominica didn’t want to let us go.

On first day we where due to leave James had a little free driving accident and needed to chill for a day. The next day as we were preparing to leave and James cut open his leg with his own knife and had to get stitches.

Finally the next day we pulled out of Ports Mouth. We got a couple of miles past the tip of the island when the clew holding the main sail to the boom pulled loose.

Not good. We had to drop the sail and motor back to Dominica, pulling into the capital Roseau. Where we meet the delightful Poncho (Roseau’s very special boat boy) and his family. He helped us fix our sail with the help of a friend.

We also discovered the special treats Dominica still had to show us, before she would let us go.

Finally on the 24th we left the wild, natural, lovely, Dominica, one mouth and two days after we first arrived to spend a week or maybe two.

We made it finally. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.  On the passage over the weather was rough. I got sick (no surprise) and then the boom got seriously messed up. (I will leave it up to James to give details to those that care) Again it was not good but we managed to limp into Saint Pierre.  The first thing we did was got to the supermarket to buy cheese and wine. Vivre la France.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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Whether you made it or not to the cold November night when we “left” Manhattan, you should check out this video put together by Gary Philip and his crew over at EMD Agency (www.EMDAgency.com).  Featuring all members of the Family Green, and speceial guest appearances from Brett, Eli, Brad, Clarissa, Ryan and others, this video is dramatic and hysterical.  And I LOVE Gary for putting it together.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Gary.  You rock my world.

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He’s back, he’s back.  Paloma baked brownies and they both made signs and gosh it’s nice to have him back on board.

He came bearing gifts.  Ronan got more of his beloved Bad Kitty and Bone books. And that’s the last we heard from him.

But most of the gifts were for me.

Dark chocolate and coffee, I’m so predictable. And almonds and Lara bars.  It’s so funny to see what you crave and miss, taking up a whole suitcase. What would be on your list?

Of course James was the best gift all ( You can start the vomit noises now.)

PS  He also brought back this very fancy clipper set. Stay tuned for the great hair shave of 2011.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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It finally stopped pouring rain and the sun came out, just in time for Lucy, John and Kailey to depart.  After three weeks of seven souls aboard they have left a lot of empty space. It feels oddly quiet and we keep setting too many places at the table.  When the alarm went off on the water maker at 2am last night, I really missed having John asleep at his computer in the salon (he was on call for his business in Canada).

But we are finding our rhythm as a trio. We are slowly tidying up, reclaiming the space, enjoying the sun and getting used to pleasing only ourselves.

And I totally admit it, after they left we cranked up the music and had ourselves Risky Business moment, boat style. It involved swabbing the deck and spraying each other with water and definitely no socks.

Of course these days you have to be careful what you do when you think it’s just you, because your mother just might put in on a blog

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All of the pictures below were taken on the same day.  They are an incomplete snapshots of the incredible variety of foods that can be found/grown on Dominica.

Dominica is incredibly fertile.  Most of the islanders appear to grow at least some of their own vegetables.  And many make a side living by selling what they don’t eat at the local market which in Portsmouth happens every Saturday starting at about dawn.  We’ve been told that no one is poor in Dominica because everyone can always get plenty to eat.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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As the sunsets on another year, I want to wish you all A Happy New Year and introduce a new ritual via Soulemama.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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Vaporean is so fun.  It is so fun that it is like a roller-coaster.  Did I say roller-coaster?  I mean the funnest roller-coaster.  Or if you don’t liker roller-coasters, it is like whatever you love.  It is also like whatever your favorite food is.  Doesn’t it seem so fun?

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Ever since Paloma discovered that sailing boats have masts, she’s wanted to climb them. She knows I get vertigo, but that just eggs her on.

When a boat pulls into port, you are supposed to raise a yellow flag (the “Q” flag) until you clear customs and immigration and then you’re supposed to raise a “courtesy” flag of the country you are in when you are clear. It’s Paloma’s job to lower and raise these flags. When we came to Guadeloupe, Paloma had to lower the Q flag and raise the French flag, but somehow the halyard (the rope that raises the flag) got loose and the end or the rope was at the top of the mast. The only way to retrieve it: someone had to climb the mast.

So I will ask you what I asked Paloma: was that an accident? Or did that happen on purpose? Check out the pictures and you decide for yourself:

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Here are a couple of videos that we took on the way down south. They are very short clips. I think we can do better in the future as all three add up to less than sixty seconds, but this’ll give you a feel for what it’s like to Sail Ondine in the open ocean.

Ronan makes a sneak appearance in this first one:

Here’s Ondine without any special appearances:

And here’s how fast we were going and where we were (Lat/Lon) when the video was taken.

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Paloma and my first snorkling expedition a week ago in Antigua just of Great Bird Island found tons of these crabs in the most beautiful shells.  We all loved them especially Ronan.

But in the end, he had to be put back into the ocean with his buddies.

As you can tell, Ronan doesn’t like to get out of his PJs if he can help it.  We’ve taken to calling him Hugh (short for Hugh Heffner) which he HATES.  But he doesn’t dislike it enough to change out of his PJs.  They are just too comfortable.

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When we were in Antigua, there was a boat show.    And I thought, hey, this’ll be cool.  I’ve been to a few boat shows, and usually, there’s the big and the small, the beautiful and the ugly, the sophisticated and the simple, and you always learn something.  So I was looking forward to the boat show in Antigua.

Then I found out it was a “charter” boat show.  In other words, showing off boats that are available for charter.  So I still thought.  Hey: that’ll be cool.  I imagined that it would still be like most other boat shows.  Maybe they’d even have another Lagoon 55 (Ondine) for charter.  That really would be fun.

And then the boats sailed in.

Let’s start with the Maltese Falcon.  The biggest sailing vessel in the world!  And NOT the biggest boat in the show!   It turns out that the boat show was all about super yachts of the power and sail variety.   Before I owned Ondine, the boats I had or had use of were a Beneteau 1^st 31.5 ft and a Pierson 26 (ft).  Oh and dinghies.  Now Ondine is 55ft long and 30ft wide.  So she’s pretty much as wide as the biggest boat I’ve had before.  But my GOD, Ondine was puny besides these monsters.  We were absolutely the smallest vessel in the marina!

So much for having a “big boat”.

Our boat may not be as big as theirs, but she’s a catamaran, and she can move pretty well through the water.  I’m proud of the speeds she can achieve.  We can do 200 nautical miles a day if the wind is above 15 knots (that’s an average of over 8 knots, which is pretty respectable).  And we’ve done 10-12 knots for extended periods of time in 25 knots of wind.  (Multiply about about 1.2 for miles per hour).

But now I don’t think that means much either, because after Antigua, we sailed to Guadalope, and as we went into the Marina, there was another boat show of sorts: multihulls (trimarans in this case) and monohulls that had just completed the “Route du Rhum” (Rum Race) from France to Guadalope.  The winning boat had made it (3,500 miles) in 8 days.  That’s an average of 400 miles a day or 18 knots.  That is enourmously fast for a sailing boat.  It means the boats must have been travelling and over 20 knots for a significant portion of the trip.  And that is so fast that you can’t be outside or you’ll be blasted by the sea spray.  You’d have to wear goggles just to see forward.

So now I know.  We’re a modest little 4 cabin boat.  We can putter around at speeds that everyone reading this can out-run: well not on water, but you get the picture.  But hey: our cabins are nicer than the racing yachts, and we can still sail as fast as those mega-yachts, well as long as they don’t turn on their engines we can.  So I’ll take that and sail on to our next destination.

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Picts Emma-Kate and Paloma took as we sailed away from Antigua towards Guadalope.  The guys are me and Chase.  Rowan and Chase helped us sail from Westbrook to Bermuda and we met up with them again in Antigua and they joined us to Guadalope.

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A few pics of Ondine that we took from the Dinghy as we motored by on our way to the beach.  The day was beautiful, the clouds were fabulous, and Ondine seemed in her element.

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Finally we’re on land. You would feel the same way if you got seasick or even went on a passage. We just finished our passage from Bermuda to Antigua. It took us 6 days to get to Antigua! I got seasick witch made it very uncomfortable and we had a problem with the rudders (steering devices that turn the boat) that sent us in 2 little circles in the middle of the Atlantic because they were not in sync. No mater how silly this sounds it’s true but there were still some good things that happened on the passage like when I thought that there was no life the dolphins decided to play with Ondine. They would tease us by just letting us get close enough then zoom off, they would also make it look like we would smash them when a wave would bring us down then they were just fast enough that they would pop out the other side. I can’t really describe the show though so here are some pictures.



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Enjoy the photos.  They’re better than words.  Thanks to Jerry Clements for all the night shots.

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Paloma completed her third year at the Manhattan Sailing School this year. She’s probably now the most experienced sailor we have.

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