26-50.504N
082-15.624W
Docked, G-24
Gasparilla Marina
Placida (Near Punta Gorda), Florida
Sunday, January 23
The life experience on a yacht has all the highs and lows of life anywhere.
In the midst of idyllic outdoor views are the basic challenges of
life and the influences of family and friends. Some of these are downers;
others are fantastic uppers.
Yesterday, in the midst of recovering from a series of personal challenges,
we joined The Gasparilla Marina's first annual Pirate Party, with free food
and wine, good companionship, and the arrival of pirates on a large trawler.
This was an upper. A dozen or so people rented pirate outfits and
skull & crossbones flags. They looked great, and sounded good
too, preceded by the county sheriff's Boston Whaler, and carrying a fire
arm making periodic loud explosions. Earlier in the day, we had visited
this trawler to ask a few questions about how to deal with tonight's low
temperatures which will be below freezing for a few hours. On board,
we found Park and Toni, owners of the relatively new "Two by Two," who,
it turns out, are from Danville, Indiana.
After two delays, we arrived aboard Thursday. We first delayed so
that Chichi could fly to Denver, then believing that our daughter Cindy Fall
would be in Denver hospital two or three months, awaiting birth of her twins.
A few hours after Chichi's arrival, one of the twins passed away. A
few hours after that, physicians determined that the life of the other twin
was in danger, prompting a surgical delivery less than an hour later. By
midnight or so, Ethan Michael was born at slightly less than three pounds.
Cindy returned home Thursday, and the funeral for Calvin was held
in Boulder, at a bucolic mountain location. Chichi returned to Indianapolis
on Saturday, feeling both euphoric and sad, having experienced a week of
high highs and low lows.
On Saturday in Indianapolis, John went out to lunch with Bolivian friend
Julio. The minestrone soup and the small salad tasted terrific, but
by 3 p.m. he (I) was incapacitated. With the help of Alex, Ginny Forbes
and Kay Kelly, plans to pick up Chichi at the airport were changed, and
John continued through the inevitable cycle of probable food poisoning.
The next day, we decided to delay our departure from Monday to Thursday.
During Chichi's absence, John helped Alex try to find a job, a stressful
time for both because Alex has been dealt an unusual number of challenging
and unproductive playing cards.
Pachamama looks great. Her repaired wind instrument arrived smoothly.
It appears to work fine now, after John took a trip up the mast to
install the wind transducer. A repaired Genoa sheet lead car also arrived.
A minor job awaits: painting the support feet of the diesel engine
to retard rust.
Friends Ron and Sharon McGuire will join us on board for dinner. We
visited with them in December on the night before our departure to Indianapolis.
They gave us a wonderful dinner and relaxed evening in their Punta
Gorda home. They will help us today by picking us up at The Avis car
rental location in Port Charlotte. We want to leave for Venice early
in the week, but low night temperatures might cause us to remain here where
we have shore side electricity to power our space heater. At anchor,
we have no source of cabin heat.
And here is a downer/upper. After crossing the toll bridge from Placida
to Gasparilla island, we saw the glorious red and white flashing lights
behind us: 52 in a 30. Ooops. Downer. Here is the
upper: the officer issued only a warning, because this was our first
time on the road, and because he was a fireman from Pike Township, Indianapolis.
Aaaahhhh.
As mentioned in December, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte took the brunt
of a hurricane. Damage is evident, and repairs will require years of
work because both supplies and labor are scarce. When we look at this
damage, and we imagine the personal dislocations, and we consider the hundreds
of thousands killed and the millions dislocated by the tsunami in Southeast
Asia, we feel lucky and blessed.
------ (This typed slightly later.)
Following departure of our friends, Ron and Sharon, we tuned into NBC, viewing
there a "special" about the career of Johnny Carson, not realizing that this
was not a routine special, but a tribute. Our moment of realization
prompted tears and hugs, because Johnny was the first television star for
Chichi, who arrive here in 1968, and learned English by watching television
and listening to radio.
"Johnny" was as important to our lives as any entertainer. He was
great.