Aleria's Adventures

70.8% is the percentage of ocean covering the earth's surface relative to landmass. So it makes sense that some of us think about going to sea to see the world. It's an expeditious way to do so.  You can get from here to there with all your favorite things and without having to pack and repack all the time. Cruising by boat really is a great way to see the world. And at an average of 6 knots, you actually get to see literally everything and experience the journey without getting jet lagged. Crossing the North Atlantic

I am blessed in only getting slight seasickness on very rare occasions. Usually when I am below decks cooking in confused seas is when I start to feel it coming on. If I go back on deck and take the helm, that usually does the trick in getting the queasiness to subside. I can even read sitting in the back of a car without a problem. Lucky me. Others are not so fortunate. My husband, Alex is one of those people. It takes a few days at sea for him to feel completely free of seasickness, and even then a confused sea can send him into a downward spiral. He's learned to control it with a number of different options, but the one most effective for him is to take a motion sickness tablet, Bonine, at the first thought of upset.

On Saturday the 11th January we conducted a Happy Hooking seminar on  boat anchoring on behalf of the Great Lakes Cruising Club. We had 17 people strewn all over the United States tuning in to us in Ireland. Lucky for us that day the weather cooperated so our wireless internet connection held true. Sometimes, the gales here in the west of Ireland blow the antenna just enough off course to lose signal.  Half way through, nevertheless, the connection to the "webinar room" just shut down.

What a lovely time we had meeting up with now old friends from the Irish Cruising Club (ICC) in Oranmore near Galway just before Christmas.  Not only was it a nice venue for lunch, we are beginning to actually know some of the people. And one of our favourite members, Jarlath Cunnane, of Northabout fame, sat next to me at lunch and traveled home with us on the return trip.  Kay and Fergus Quinlan were at our table too so we felt right at home catching up with everyone. It's an interesting thing when you join a social club. The first year, you are feeling things out: the people, the politics, the etiquette, and the expectations. The second year, you begin to recognize people's faces and sometimes even their names. By the third year, you're a regular, contributing to the newsletter and annual, joining in on events, getting together with members informally, and so on.  At least that's how it has gone for us.

Sun Setting on the Holy Mountain The last day of the year is here. I tend to always reflect on what I've accomplished and where I may have side stepped progress. It helps me frame my mind set for the year to come. I am a goal-oriented person and I feel lost if I do not have some objective set for myself, something to strive for.  By looking back, I can gaze forward and see what needs to be done.  It's been a remarkable year in the world. The Ukrainian revolution is particularly poignant to me as I am of Ukrainian-American descent. There will be much written about 2013.  So here is the story of us.  

I wait for this day every year. For months, it has been getting darker, and noticeably accelerating. For a writer, this is not a terrible thing, as it means there are fewer distractions. I do not feel compelled to go outside after say 1530 when the sun has already sunk behind the hills and the loss of daylight is looming shortly. Last year, for the first time, I suffered a bout of depression through this period. All through the Fall I felt myself sinking into a depth from which it felt increasingly difficult to crawl out. This year, a whole different sense was about me. I started looking forward to Christmas and the Winter Solstice knowing that it was the turning point to another exciting year -- a year of promise and hope of accomplishments in business and adventures in sailing. Then I realized that something even bigger was happening. I realized that not only had I crawled out of the hole, I had scaled a mountain.  I found light and an understanding in the pagan sense that one mu

Or not.  I am a proud member of the Ocean Cruising Club, and have been drafted onto the Committee. As part of my responsibilities, I have taken on the very first PR Officer role, have become the head of the Communications Subcommittee, joined the Website subcommittee as a contributing member and co-chair the Awards Committee. Phew.  That last aspect, the Awards, has gotten me to thinking. Lots of people sail. Far more cross oceans than ever before. It's not enough today to circumnavigate the world the way Joshua Slocum or even Moitessier did. Today, to stand out as worthy of an award, one must really do something extraordinary. Last year's most extraordinary award recipients included Matt Rutherford. He crossed the Atlantic first because he felt driven to get to the other side.  He rode his bicycle across Southeast Asia before that.  Then he learned about sailing, so he bought a boat and crossed the Atlantic. He learned that CRAB needed funding so he then circu

There is a fascinating story of the attempts of family and friends of the people lost aboard the schooner Nina to locate her using satellite imagery.  They have secured assistance from many places including a service called Tomnod  to crowdsource review of the millions of square miles of ocean represented in the images.  They have 13,000 volunteers reviewing the images and tagging potential ships, liferafts and other objects.  The idea is that if enough people tag an item, they can then look at it more carefully to determine if it could be the Nina. It's a fascinating development in Search and Rescue technology.  The thought that satellites can help locate missing vessels is certainly intriguing. The point made in the article that if the SAR includes satellite imagery in the vicinity of a distress call, it could make a huge difference in located the vessel in distress in a hurry without putting rescuers in danger. This is amazing!  I've signed up. Give it a whirl if yo

Black Friday, traditionally the biggest shopping day in the US which marks the beginning of the Christmas "shopping season", has now crossed over the Atlantic  wreaking havoc across Northern Ireland.  Shoppers queued from 5 am at stores in anticipation of the bargains announced for the day. The stampedes caused at least one shopper injury and spread fear among the workers in the shoppes.

Stonehenge and Achill-henge. Image (c) by Alex Blackwell. Two years ago, Joe McNamara, one time developer and native of Achill, Ireland's largest island, frustrated by the rise and fall of Ireland's economy known as the Celtic Tiger, launched a mysterious plot. By the light of the moon on a cold Friday 25 November 2011, 30 trucks arrived on Achill carrying loads of concrete and building materials. They carried the materials up the hills onto commonage lands high above the village of Pollagh, obscured from direct view from roads and homes. By Sunday evening, under the cover of darkness, they had constructed a structure soon after dubbed Achill-henge. Walking up the muddy road soon after the construction.

Impulse Research Corporation, Los Angeles, USA conducted a survey of nearly 1,100 Americans on-line. The survey queried 542 boat owners and 536 non-boat owners. The survey commissioned by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) finds boat owners report higher levels of satisfaction in marriage and romance than non-boaters. In addition, many key areas of life, including overall well being, friendship, spirituality, health, work, leisure, sleep and finances, are more likely to be rated "excellent" or "very good" by boat owners than by their non-boat-owning counterparts.

Subtropical Storm Melissa seen from the GOES East satellite. Considered the last storm of the season. (Photo Credit: NOAA) When I read NOAA's Atlantic hurricane season summary yesterday, I wondered how they could the pronounce the end of the hurricane season almost a week before its official ending on November 30. This from their report: "The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on Saturday, Nov. 30, had the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982, thanks in large part to persistent, unfavorable atmospheric conditions over the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and tropical Atlantic Ocean. This year is expected to rank as the sixth-least-active Atlantic hurricane season since 1950, in terms of the collective strength and duration of named storms and hurricanes."

The Salty Dawg Rally has caused a maelstrom of discussion on the cruising forums.  It's easy to second guess the decisions made when you weren't there making them. We like to give the benefit of doubt, but we are most certainly not proponents of organized rallies. None of us can cross oceans with any guarantees. But the choices we make can have a big impact on the results. In our cruising experience, we have noted that people who were on a schedule were often the ones who encountered problems. Schedules make you compromise. Schedules can make you do things you might not have otherwise done, like rushing to get off before you are ready or before that storm system passes by. It applies equally to sailors who have to meet crew at specific times in different places and to those who cruise in company on a schedule. 

I noticed a note in my inbox in Facebook. Then I noticed the inbox next to it that says "Other". I remembered that this is the box where Facebook stows stuff it thinks you don't want to see. I wish Facebook would just stopping trying to think for me. They always get it wrong. In it were multiple messages from friends and one astonishing one.

I admit it. I really hate air travel. This was no exception. Our trip from Paris to Ireland West Knock could have been disastrous. It turned out okay, but a story nonetheless. The time had changed overnight from GMT+1 to GMT. 'Spring ahead - Fall back' is the mnemonic I always use to know which way the clocks change.  Well, Alex's mother had different ideas. Many of which just did not correlate with being on time in the morning. Suffice it to say, we got up at 6, were at breakfast by 7 and on the road by 7:30.

Alex and Meike at the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysee I don’t really like cities, but Paris is an exception. I don’t like how dirty it is. One feels grimy just walking around. The streets are littered. The buildings are turning black. But there’s a je sais quoi about the place that is unlike any place else. Alex and Meike arrived Wednesday late. Thursday morning we went to the Orangerie to see the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit. I was glad to see Frida had top billing.  We could not get in. The cue was at least 5 hours long to get tickets. But I discovered there was a shorter cue for people with tickets…less than an hour long. So we went to the Musee d’Orsay instead, bought tickets good for both exhibits and vowed to go back the next morning bright and early. Paris museum strategy. Very important. 

The Dome of the Galleries Lafayette Shopping Center It's about 20 degrees C ( that's room temperature) in Paris and sunny. You wouldn't know it's so warm because everyone is wearing coats and scarves and boots. That's what one wears in October in Paris. I have a meeting in the morning and then the rest of the day is mine. I have decided that shopping is in order. I walked and walked and walked today. That's also what one does in Paris. It is somehow very reassuring to come to a foreign city and know your way around. Alex and I were here just a couple of years ago. We went everywhere on foot and by Metro. We stayed at a small boutique hotel and because we liked it we chose to stay in the same hotel again this time.

Me at Dublin Airport How very different air travel is from sailing to a destination on a cruising sailboat. Here I sit in the airport having struggled with baggage from car to train to bus to airport. My flight is 4 hours from now. At least the airport has wifi to entertain me. And I have everything in reverse to look forward to at the other end after traveling in three dimentions across thousands  of miles in few hours. Groups of children are huddled in corners with their iPads waging their next intergallactic war. I am surrounded by tourists of various shapes, sizes, colours and tongues. There is the rather large German Zha Zha Gabor wanna be who never was. The aging American flower children stuck in the California of the 70s. The vast Canadian ordering multiple triple decker sandwiches. The African immigrants making a pilgrimmage home. And on it goes. The world is vastly multicultural and airline travel accentuates every aspect.

As Pirates Attack a Super Tanker in the Indian Ocean, Naval Forces and Sailing Groups Warn Yachts to Avoid High Risk Areas A British based group of naval and cruising organizations formed a working group called EUNAVFOR Somalia to tackle piracy and its threat to yachts transiting dangerous waters. Today, the group has issued a new warning against yachts going there.  You can read the text and view the evidence supporting the position here .  The Ocean Cruising Club , one of the organizations involved and of which I am a member, is developing additional resources based on the collective experience of our members.   Check here for updates regularly.  

Buskers on the street ... love, love,love Galway! Putting  Aleria  to bed and taking in the city In the morning, the harbourmaster's team took away the boat that was in our slip.  Then we had to maneuver Aleria from one slip into the other. No easy task for our lady of poor reverse. Usually, springing her around allows us to bring the stern around. But there just wasn't enough room without bow thrusters.  Alex managed to get her close without bumping into anything and thankfully, Brian came down to assist.  I threw him a spring then the midships line and jumped ashore with the stern line. Piece of cake. Now about a half hour of adjusting docklines until she was just right in the slip with chafe protectors in position and we were set.