My brother and his family are visiting and I lend my windsurfing gear to Peter. Off they go . . .
My husband and brother go out for a day on the water.
All is good.
And then — not so much.
Thanks for reading . . .
Windsurfing: The Crash
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Cruising and Blogging
As we travel through the Exuma islands, we get a lot of this . . .
But not a lot of internet.
I can blog ahead of time and upload my posts — as long as I’m organized.
I can usually find a connection that’s strong enough to support an email connection, but not strong enough to post or reply to comments.
I love to get comments on my blog, and I try to respond to each one, so I have to say it can be frustrating when I receive a comment via email, know it’s on my blog and I can’t respond.
I guess like many, I’ve become accustomed to the immediacy of our lives and when I don’t have it, I feel disconnected.
Then I remember where I am and what I’m doing and laugh at myself. Life is pretty good in the Bahamas.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Farley’s Friday: Where Are My Puppy Friends
Farley here.
I have lots of friends, but sometimes they disappear. Where do they go? Do they live on sailboats too?
Take Piper for example. I met her the same day I met my owners. She has different owners and she has an attitude.
Piper is a border terrier, and she’s cute, but really, look at her whispering in my ear. She told me her owners were nicer than mine. Ha! I don’t think so. We’d only been with them for five hours, so how could she know?
I’ve travelled across Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. I don’t think she’s done that.
I’m with my owners most of the time. I get walked at least twice a day and sometime more. I get real meat added to my dog food.
I may have to live on the sailboat, but she has to live in a backyard. So I ask you, aren’t my owners nicer?
I spent 5 weeks with Piper this summer, and we went camping together, with both our owners, so I have to admit hers are pretty nice too. Piper still has an attitude, but she quickly learned Kristina spoils all dogs and settled right in with us.
Woof Woof.
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Canadian spelling?
If you’re a Canadian writer and spell the Canadian, I’d love to know what you do about a forty-two inch flat screen television.
Canadian’s use the metric system, so should it be a 106.68 centimetres? Or maybe 1.0668 metres?
Both seem rather silly to me.
I think using inches is okay in this case.
Any opinions?
Thanks for reading . . .
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Farley’s Friday: When I Was A Wheaten Puppy
Farley here.
Some things change. Some things don’t.
Kristina brushed my hair today, and I noticed it was all blond. I don’t look in a mirror very often, so I was a little surprised.
I’m pretty sure I was born brown and black, and I don’t die my hair . . . so what the heck?
I guess my hair changed colour. But what didn’t change?
You can see by the photo below, where I’m 8 weeks old, I’m not exactly excited by a ball. Well I’m still not.
Sometimes my owners throw a ball for me, and I might chase it, but I will never pick it up. How humiliating. That’s for humans to do.
Do you pick up a ball for your owner?
Woof Woof
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Farley’s Friday: How a Dog Beats The Heat
Farley here.
Cold fronts, warm fronts, what’s a dog to do?
Some days it’s just to hot to bear, and other days, I love the cool weather. The cold front passed through and we’re back to high temperatures.
The first thing that happens is my owner cuts my hairs. She’s always worried about me overheating, I just wish she’d taken classes on how to groom a Wheaten Terrier. I need to look my best when I head to the beach to meet the girls.
I don’t like to swim in water over my head, but there’s nothing like a cool walk in the water. So I have a little sand on my face. What’s the big deal? This shot was taken before Kristina ‘groomed’ me. I’m too embarrassed to post the after shot.
Woof woof.
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Afraid of Heights: Try Repairs on a Sailboat Mast
Every sailboat needs repairs or maintenance sometime. A small event like sail tape coming loose on a spreader means a trip up the mast.
When sailing the in Bahamas, there are enough calm days to ascend the mast in safety. This weather came right before a cold front.
Safety being the key. The work has to be done, but it doesn’t have to be dangerous. A good harness and bosuns chair, two halyards, two people manning the halyards, tools tied to the belt, and up you go.
Thanks for reading . . .
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It Was Only A Glass Of Water . . .
I’ve had a bit of a setback this week.
Water, water everywhere . . . and not where I want it to be. An innocent little glass of water and presto – no more Macbook.
If you’re reading my blog, you know I’m living on a sailboat and nowhere near a store or something as luxurious as a Mac store, so when I spilled a glass of water on my Mac it brought tears to my eyes.
I shut down, ripped out the battery and hoped for the best. Days later, I’m not having any luck.
After the terror subsided, I remembered I made a back up the day before (phew), and that my husband loves me. The second is a very important point. When I asked if I could have his computer for the rest of the season, he happily said yes. He would use the tablet. Again phew.
We have backup equipment on the boat for almost every part, and I’m very happy that this extended to a backup device for my Mac and an extra computer.
Now I just have to get used to the keyboard!
My message: don’t forget to backup your work.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Cold Fronts In The Bahamas
It’s not all sunshine and warmth in the Bahamas, although you might think it is when looking at the photos I post.
The clouds roll in, the temperature drops, and we have to get out the warm clothes. Then it’s time to switch from water activities to land activities and take the dogs hiking.
We don’t go in the water, but the dogs do. On this hike, Jasper, the springer spaniel, was stung by a spotted eagle ray. Really it was his own fault, since he picked it up. The ray escaped unhurt, but Jasper needed treatment, and I think it was painful.
But back to cold fronts, the wind clocks around so it can be hard to find a protected anchorage. When the trade winds blow and the wind comes from one direction, it’s easy to drop the hook in a safe place.
When the wind is going to come from more than one directions, most annoying at night, it’s more of a challenge to hide. Sometimes we just have to suck it up and take the wind and waves, but usually we can tuck in and be mostly protected.
On the good side, rain can come with a cold front, and it’s a free boat wash for us.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Writing: Speeding up a Scene
So you want to put your scene into overdrive? Here’s one way to work on it.
I recently read the opening scene in CJ Lyons’ Nerves of Steel. It’s a fast paced scene that takes the reader along for a bumpy ride.
I wanted to know what made this scene speed along like a comet crossing sky.
I reread the scene, looking at each word very carefully. And it seems to me, the verb choice drives the speed.
CJ Lyons uses action verbs. She doesn’t use uncommon verbs that take a reader out of the story, but she does use specific verbs representing movement.
Here are some of them:
- Thundered
- Chopping
- Gusting
- Tugged
- Tore
- Shredding
- Ricocheting
You get the idea, so if you think your scene is slow, why not check the verbs and see if they are fast?
What do you do to make your scene rip?
Thanks for reading . . .
