Kristina Stanley

The Start Of My Sailing Life

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

“Bond, James Bond,” my husband, Matt, said. It was our first ever cockpit happy hour and we’d anchored  our charter boat amongst several mushroom-shaped islands. The day started in Phuket, Thailand and ended . . . with a dream.

James Bond Island

I raised my eyebrow at him, thinking he was trying to be as cool as his drink. “What are you talking about?”

“Right there.” He pointed with his glass. “James Bond Island, from the movie ‘The Man With the Golden Gun.’”

I turned and looked. Near the closest of the limestone islands, I saw something more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Bond, but a sailboat with San Francisco written across her stern caught my eye. She was anchoring right next to us.

“How did that boat get to Thailand?” I asked.

“They’re cruisers.”

“What do you mean, cruisers?” The answer changed my life.

“They live on board their boat and are sailing around the world.”

“People really do that?” I looked him in the eye with genuine curiosity. I had never read a sailing magazine, had no idea the cruising lifestyle existed, and more importantly did not realize it was my dream. “Honey, why can’t we go cruising?”

That was the moment I first heard the ‘Call of the Sea’. It occurred aboard Sweet Robin, a Jeanneau 39 chartered by friends out of Phuket. We were the ‘crew’, invited along to help do a bit of sailing and a lot of living. It was day one of our fourteen day charter, and our attitudes were already changing. After a delicious cockpit dinner of jumbo Thai prawns washed down with a Singa Gold beer, I repeated my question, “why can’t we go cruising?”

Over the next thirteen days we accidentally anchored in a ferry channel, swam to a rustic hut on an expansive white beach for the best ever sweet and sour fish, tried to barbeque while waves splashed into the cockpit, sailed out of sight of land without a GPS, and spent a very bouncy night on a lee shore. We had a moment of panic when the six-year-old on board yelled from below, “is there supposed to be this much water in here?” Relief followed as we tracked down the leak in the head. Through it all, the dream took hold.

We returned to living as expatriates in Tokyo and would be there another couple of years. I avidly read about other people’s sailing adventures and the world of cruising. Halfway through our next assignment in Germany we committed to each other that we would make the dream happen.

We took a ‘Learn to Bareboat” course in the Florida Keys and chartered in the BVIs and in Turkey. In 1999 we bought Allura, a Niagara 42 sloop, built in St. Catherine’s, Ontario.

Allura
Allura

We spent the summer on Lake Ontario learning to sail Allura and headed south in September with all other Canadian boats. We made it to Georgetown, Bahamas, just in time to celebrate the millennium with all our new cruising friends. After two seasons exploring the Bahamas, we sailed to Bonaire and ended up in Aruba for a year of windsurfing. In 2003 we cruised back to the Chesapeake, sold Allura and returned, for a while, to land life.

Now we are on Mattina, and love her just as much as Allura.

I kept the photo of the boat from San Francisco to remind us that dreams do come true, and I often wonder what that family is doing now.

Canadian spelling?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

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 . . .

 

Farley’s Friday: How a Dog Beats The Heat

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

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.

bahamas 2010 112

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.

Afraid of Heights: Try Repairs on a Sailboat Mast

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Every sailboat needs repairs or maintenance sometime. A small event like sail tape coming loose on a spreader means a trip up the mast.

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 . . .

 

 

Farley’s Friday: Cold Front Happiness

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

Farley here.

I love a good cold front, but Jasper stole my stick. I want to run with it and he wants to pull at it. We both have lots of energy because it’s cold. So not cold really, but only seventy degrees instead of eighty.

stick

“Let go!” I bark.

“No way, dude,” Jasper barks back.

I get my teeth deep in the wood and pull hard.

“Yikes,” Jasper barks. “Where’d you go?”

I run behind a tree, dart to the side and behind a another tree, but whoa . . .

There he is, waiting to take my stick again.

“No. No. No,” I bark, but he gets it and takes off.

The chase is on. Gotta love this cold weather.

Woof Woof.

 

 

Writing: Speeding up a Scene

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

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 . . .

Farley’s Friday: My Doggie Eyes Communicate

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Farley here.

So this week my human is reading The Genius Of Dogs: How Dogs are smarter than you think.

Well I could have told her that. Kristina keeps reading me tidbits that I already know.

This is my best "fedd me" stare. How hungry to I look?
This is my best “feed me” stare. How hungry do I look?

Here’s what I do when I need to tell her something:

  • Tap on floor with my nails during the night if I need out. That seems to wake her up, but not my male human though. He sleeps through everything. If she won’t wake up I breathe in her face. First time I did that she seemed a bit startled. Humans don’t like to be woken up with someone breathing in their face I guess.
  • Whack my water boil against sliding glass door when I need water. Seems to really get her going at 3am.
  • Stare at cupboard, then at Kristina, then at cupboard where my treats are kept. She knows this means she should open the door and hand me a treat.
  • Give her my most intense stare when I’m hungry. I can even do this in a run by stare and she knows it’s my “feed me stare.”
  • Press the top of my head on the sliding glass door when I need outside quickly (if there’s an emergency – I don’t like to throw up inside.). Kristina wants me to bark in this case, but that’s too undignified for me. I’m not a barky kinda guy.
This is my "I'm not getting off the trampoline and you can't make me" roll.
This is my “I’m not getting off the trampoline and you can’t make me” roll.

I can even ask Kristina questions with just a look.

When we’re hiking, if I come to a place on the trail where I have to make a choice on direction, I look back at Kristina and she points, telling me where to go. I’m a big eye contact guy, but I do know words too.

If we come across strangers, I glance at Kristina. If she waves away from the people, I don’t approach them. If she says “okay” I run and greet them.

Kristina says her last dog was more word oriented, and that I do better with hand signals. Whatever . . . I’m still a genius.

How do you communicate with your humans?

Woof Woof.

Keeping Fit While Cruising: Swimming Laps

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

If you’re getting the feeling there are endless ways to keep fit while sailing around the Bahamas, you’re getting the right feeling. This week’s suggestion: Swimming laps.

It’s hard to take a photo of myself swimming laps, so I thought I’d show you the water I swim in.

Water

Things to consider:

The water temperature is around 73 degrees Fahrenheit, which can cool a body down, so I wear wetsuit shorts and a rash guard. I find a full wet suit too restrictive for swimming laps, and the rash guard prevents sunburn.

Since there are sharks in the area, I don’t swim at dawn, dusk or in murky water, and I don’t splash around as if I were a fish in distress.

I don’t wear anything shiny in case a barracuda is sharing my water space.

I either swim with a buddy or have a partner follow me in a kayak to reduce the risk of a dinghy hitting me.

Salt water is hard on the swim goggles, so I bring several pairs to last me the season.

It’s a great way to keep fit if we’re in an area that doesn’t have a beach good for running.

Thanks for reading . . .

Writing Targets

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

I’ve read some authors write to achieve a specific word count per writing session.  This doesn’t work for me. During the time I allocate for writing, I might write, edit, proof read, research, or read. Setting a word count adds to much stress to the joy of writing. I can write to a deadline, I can write for the fun of it, I can write for creativity, but if I set a word count for a session, I obsess about the number of words and not about the quality of the writing.

While I’m doing other things with my writing time, all related to writing, an idea will often pop into my head. When that happens, I make a note of it. I’ve learned that if I don’t capture an idea, I won’t remember it later. I get right back to whatever activity I’ve been doing.

For me the writing life doesn’t mean writing all the time, but it does mean I shouldn’t get distracted from the task at hand. I believe all these things (editing, proof reading, researching, reading) make me a better writer.

Any thought?

Thanks for reading . . .

Cruising and Keeping Fit

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Like most things in life, keeping fit is more fun if you have friends to keep fit with. I’m not going to talk about New Year’s resolutions, because I don’t make any, but I often get asked how do you keep fit while sailing. It depends on where we are. I run on the beach, swim laps, windsurf, kayak, walk, and with so many choices, I find yoga is an easy one to add in.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

The cost of equipment is low. If you don’t have a yoga mat, a towel is fine.

Yoga can be done almost anywhere, but a shady spot to hide from direct sunlight  is best.

It doesn’t matter what skill level you are at, everyone is welcome to work at their own pace.

Having fun is the most important part.

Thank for reading . . .