Author: Linnea Hendrickson

Can We Save the Planet?

Rio Grande from Central Avenue Bridge, Albuquerque

If you have read We Ran Away to Sea, you know that Pam and Kent ran away partly because they were concerned about the environmental impact of America’s consumer-driven lifestyle.

Elder Activist Readers (EAR)

More recently, Kent and I have participated in book discussions in a small group we call EAR (Elder Activist Readers), spearheaded by Esther Jantzen, the author of the children’s novel Walk: Jamie Bacon’s Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago. Esther, like me, was inspired by her experiences as a pilgrim. Over the past three years, our little reading group has read eighteen books and become more knowledgeable about the environmental threats to our planet. We’ve also studied the history of our current crisis and have taken small steps to support people and organizations working on solutions.

Geoff Boerne

Pam and Kent encountered Geoff Boerne’s Lo Entropy in Mexico in the 1990s. Sailed by two young Brits, Ian and Alan, the ship seemed to be in dire straits the last time Pam and Kent saw her. Kent concluded his Lo Entropy story, “I would like to think Alan made a go of his venture in the end, but it certainly looked like Lo Entropy had run out of energy.”

So, what did happen to her?  I discovered a film on YouTube, The Cuba Connection by Claudio von Planta, telling the story of the ship before Pam and Kent met her. Lo Entropy was constructed mainly of recycled materials, although most of the steel had to be purchased new. Her first mission was a partly successful attempt to deliver donated supplies to Cuba, where people were suffering from the impact of the United States boycotts.

I discovered a website authored by Geoff Boerne, the majority shareholder and Managing Director of Celtic Cruises Ltd., whose only asset is Lo Entropy. Geoff and another unpaid director, Nick Rodgers, are endeavoring to keep Lo Entropy afloat as a wind and hydrogen-powered transport vessel.

According to the Transport Environment website, shipping produces at least three percent of the transport industry’s carbon. Googling “sailing and hydrogen” reveals numerous websites and articles about recent efforts to create “zero energy” shipping. In 2022, Geoff Boerne published “A Milestone for Sail Cargo Pilot Project: Goal and Hydrogen Concept.”  Cruise and transport companies such as Norway’s Hurtigruten (which plans to launch an energy-efficient cruise ship by 2030) are looking into zero-energy transport. A return to sailing ships, assisted by green technology, is a promising alternative to diesel fuels. Maybe in the future, we will all, like Greta Thunberg, be crossing the oceans under wind power.

Geoff wrote to me, “Lo Entropy’s sails are currently assisted by an electric motor that doubles as a powerful generator when the propeller is free-spinning or driven by the diesel engine. We hope to replace the diesel engine with a hydrogen-fueled (ICE) internal combustion engine. Times are changing. Toyota has now produced a hydrogen combustion engine, so we are considering eliminating the expensive fuel cell and using hydrogen to fuel a hydrogen combustion engine.” 

A hydrogen system combined with wind and solar will produce energy for a two-hour capacity battery bank that will convert the excess energy to hydrogen and store it for propulsion when needed. Geoff is seeking investors to help refit the vessel. He now lives in Denmark and can be contacted through his website https://www.greenseatransport.com/ or his email address, Loentropy@gmail.com) 

Lo Entropy, 2024

Peter Roberts

Peter met with EAR on February 29, 2024, to tell us about his work and its place in the future of green building. Peter has two web pages, and some wonderful videos have been made about his work. He recently completed his model masonry house, which is now available to rent through VRBO and Airbnb.  Peter also holds several patents.

Peter Roberts’ house in Alfred, New York

He gave a fascinating overview of what he sees as problems and possible solutions to the considerable amount of carbon produced by the construction industry. He told us that cement is one of the most commonly used materials on earth. Second only to water. The construction industry, which amounts to about four trillion dollars worldwide, is conservative and slow to change. However, there are new ways of making cement, using materials other than the traditional limestone and clay that are mined, ground to a fine powder, and then heated at very high temperatures. Peter explained many of the new techniques, including using volcanic material as the ancient Romans did to make constructions that are still standing after two thousand years. I confess that until I listened to Peter, I didn’t know that cement and concrete were two different things, even though we often use them interchangeably in everyday language. Cement is the binding ingredient that is essential in making concrete. There is much information available on all of this. A good starting place might be:

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/cement-most-destructive-material-world-or-driver-progress.

Conclusion

Learning about the work of Geoff Boerne and Peter Roberts gives me hope for a more sustainable future for our planet.  Please contact either of them if you would like more information or are interested in helping with their endeavors. Perhaps one day we’ll have zero carbon emission and create concrete boats propelled by wind and hydrogen?

Contacts:

Geoff Boerne: website https://www.greenseatransport.com/ or his email address, Loentropy@gmail.com) 

Peter Roberts: https://www.masonryarches.com/ or his email address, roberts.peter01@gmail.com

EAR: What We’ve Read So Far (as of March 2024)

18) Thomas Hübl, Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World, pub 2023 (read Feb-Mar 2024)

17) Deb Chachra: How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, pub 2023 (read Jan 2024)

16) Edward Struzik, Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat, pub 2021 (read Oct 2023)

15) Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior: A Memoir(poet laureate) read ???

14) Sarah Augustine, The Land Is Not Empty, pub 2021 (read Jun 2023)

13) Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse, pub 2022 (read Mar 2023)

12) E.F. Schumaker, Small Is Beautiful, pub 1973 (read Dec 2022)

11) Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism, pub 2021 (read Oct 22)

10) Imbolo Mbue, How Beautiful We Were, pub 2021 (read Aug 2022)

9) Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass,pub 2013 (June 2022)

8) Kristen Olsen, The Soil Will Save Us, pub 2014 (read Apr/May 2022) 

7) Paul Hawken, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation,pub 2021 (read Feb/Mar 2022)

6) Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible, pub 2020—a novel (read Jan 2022)

5) asknature.org website —created by Janine Benyus, Biomimicry Institute (studied Oct 2021)

4) Kate Haworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, pub 2017 (read Jul/Aug 2021)

3) Arlie Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, pub 2016 (read June 2021)

2) Shalanda H. Baker’s Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition,pub 2021 (read Mar-Apr 2021)

1) Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K Wilkerson (eds), All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, pub 2020 (read Jan 2021)

Also, we’ve reviewed some articles and digital resources, including:

Jeremy Lent—Patterns of Meaning (Mar 2022) blog piece on climate change and capitalism NMHealthySoil.org
New York Times article on chicken
Kiss the Ground (video)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/a-first-step-toward-a-global-price-on-carbon.html?ugrp=u&unlocked_article_code=1.hE0.DJCu.rKomxiheliAm&smid=url-sharemProposal of a tax on carbon emissions for shipping by the International Maritime Organization.

https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/pages/IMO-agrees-possible-outline-for-net-zero-framework.aspx

Calling all Writers! Join me on a Shakespearean Excursion: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by our sun of York.” opening lines of Richard III

Background

Despite my efforts to be creative in promoting the book, I have been discontented these past months with the modest sales of We Ran Away to Sea.  I recently contracted someone in Poland to analyze my efforts with Amazon ads, upon which I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time and money with mediocre results.  I enjoy the creative aspects of promotion, but not the nitty-gritty details or keeping track.

This morning, a serendipitous detour led to some unexpected pleasures as I reflected upon “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by our sun of York,” the brilliant opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III. The link below provides an excellent analysis of the entire passage and concludes with a fabulous video of Laurence Olivier delivering the soliloquy.

https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/soliloquies/now-is-the-winter-of-our-discontent

My Polish Mentor

My Polish mentor suggested that the blurb which I revised several times with the dubious “help” of ChatGPT was more a synopsis than an invitation to read the book. So, I tackled revising the blurb, and I invite your suggestions and comments. I uploaded the revised blurb for both the ebook and the paperback onto Amazon last night, but I’m not satisfied with either. This morning, I wrote the following shortened version with no use of AI.

So, channeling Shakespeare again, Ladies and Gentlemen, please “lend me your ears” (Julius Caesar) and your advice.

(1) Revision March 22 (morning)

Frustrated and unhappy with their comfortable lives in mid-America, Kent and Pam sell the family home and all their possessions and run away to live on a sailboat. With no experience of the sea or sailing, they fly to England with their children in search of an affordable boat. Their first sail is across the Atlantic. In the days before GPS, they rely on celestial navigation to get them to the Caribbean. Are they crazy, brave, foolish, or all three? Would you or wouldn’t you do what they did? Told in two voices from different perspectives, Pam and Kent’s accounts of their lives at sea and at home will give you much to think about.

Run away with Pam and Kent and explore the unknown with them and within yourself.

 Or should the opening (continuing the Shakespeare allusion) be: “Discontented with their comfortable lives…”?

(2) Current Kindle version (as of March 22)

Would you voluntarily give up your secure, comfortable life for the unknown?

When Pam and Kent make the audacious decision to sell their house and everything in it and embrace life at sea, they envision a harmonious existence on their sailboat, filled with adventure and togetherness. However, their dreams shatter early on when Pam and the children abandon Kent and their boat in Europe, leaving him disheartened and adrift. Undeterred, he embarks on a solitary journey through the equinoctial gales of the Bay of Biscay, accompanied by a hired crew. Weeks later, Pam has a change of heart and joins him with their ten-year-old son in the Canary Islands for the Atlantic crossing. Using celestial navigation in the days before GPS, they arrive in Antigua as planned. But little do they know that the challenges of their chosen new life are just beginning.

Pam’s vivid letters and Kent’s heartfelt stories document the grand experiment of their years at sea, their risky overland travels, and the struggles that threaten to pull them apart but bring them closer together. The book contains maps, photos, a timeline, and a glossary.

(3) Current Amazon paperback version (as of March 22)

Would you voluntarily relinquish your comfortable life and worldly goods and set out for the unknown?

When Pam and Kent decide to sell their house and embrace a life at sea, they envision a harmonious existence on their sailboat, filled with adventure and togetherness. However, their dreams shatter when Pam and the children abandon Kent and their boat in Europe, leaving him disheartened and adrift. Undeterred, he embarks on a solitary journey through the equinoctial gales of the Bay of Biscay, accompanied by a hired crew. Weeks later, Pam has a change of heart and she and ten-year-old Andy join him in the Canary Islands for the Atlantic crossing. Using celestial navigation in those days before GPS, they reach the Caribbean. Yet, their challenges are just beginning.

Although Kent yearns to sail through the Panama Canal and explore the vast Pacific, Pam harbors deep-seated fears, and fourteen-year-old Jake, who has reluctantly joined them in the Virgin Islands, craves the familiarity of friends back home. Despite memorable family adventures, Kent reluctantly relinquishes his cherished dream.

Nearly a decade later, Pam and Kent sell their home and possessions again, this time venturing through the Great Lakes into the North Atlantic, through the Bahamas to the Caribbean. For over six years, they travel to offbeat destinations and undertake daring overland journeys through Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia—a country then known for its perilous reputation. Kent remains steadfast in his desire to traverse the Panama Canal and sail the Pacific, but equipment failures, storms, illness, financial worries, and family complications often interrupt their idyllic moments.

Will Pam succumb to her fears, or will Kent embark on his grand voyage alone? Share their journey and the difficult, sometimes heart-wrenching decisions involved in living at sea.

So that’s it! Which of these versions or variations of them would entice you to read the book? What would Shakespeare write? Comments?

Leave a comment

Pamela or Panama?

Near the beginning of We Ran Away to Sea, Pam leaves Kent and the boat, taking the two boys and fleeing back to familiar Brookings, South Dakota. He is not sure whether she will ever come back. She does, but not for the long-term that he envisions. The tension between Kent’s dreams and Pam’s, between their love for each other and their different goals and perspectives is the essence of We Ran Away to Sea. Uniquely written in two voices, the reader experiences the struggles and the rewards of their love for each other and their determination to stay together despite their differences.

As Thomas Hübl writes in Attuned, “We could think of marriage as a process of learning and becoming aware of everything we missed about our spouse when we first fell in love.” (84)

I attempted to capture the essence of this struggle in the very short video, Pamela or Panama?

Home again and an upcoming event

Welcome to 2024! We are home from our six weeks in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, finishing with two days each in Berlin and Amsterdam. We met wonderful people (many helped us when we were lost, which happened a lot!), spent Christmas with families in Sweden, and enjoyed time on boats, trains, and buses. We loved the beautiful snow and endured some rain, dark days, icy walking, and record-breaking low temperatures.

Snowy night outside of the opera house in Riga, Latvia

Our “seat of the pants” travel had some surprises. The weather was record-breaking cold by the time we reached Tallinn, Estonia, which was beautiful in the snow with the Christmas market still going in full swing when we arrived on New Year’s Day. But, we soon realized we weren’t going to have time to see all the Baltic countries and make our way through Poland and Germany to Amsterdam unless we traveled nonstop, so we found a patient travel agent in Tallinn, who booked airline tickets from Riga, Latvia to Berlin for us.

We took a bus to Riga where we stayed in a hotel near the Latvia National Opera house. We had heard that the Latvia Opera was outstanding, and we were fortunate to get tickets to a stunning performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. We left snowy Riga before the first light in the continuing all-night snowfall. In Berlin, we rode buses and trams and visited two outstanding museums that were free on the first Sunday of the month.

Inside the Latvia National Opera House

Stairs to nowhere, at the Riga airport

Enchanting pastoral scene by Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central train staion)

First view of Amsterdam, looking back toward the train station

We took the train to Amsterdam, where we stayed in a lovely, quirky old canal house hotel with stairs that were almost like climbing a ladder.  We spent an entire day in the Rijksmuseum, where I loved watching the docents working with school children. One energetic young man had the children so excited by the details he pointed out in Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” that they stood up, crowding around him to get a better look. Even though I didn’t understand Dutch, I, too, discovered details I’d never noticed before.

Home at last, we’re plunged into taking care of things ignored for six weeks, connecting with friends and family, and working on Kent’s Oasis talk, which is going to be brilliant!

In some ways, he succeeded; in others, not. Kedl reveals what he learned about himself and the world during seven years of adventure – crossing the Atlantic, cruising the Caribbean, sailing through the Great Lakes; and traveling overland through parts of Central and South America. Listen and learn about the grand experiment.Kent Kedl is the author of We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Letters. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon and taught at South Dakota State University for 22 years. After returning to land in 2000, he taught philosophy for two more years in South Dakota. He moved to Albuquerque in 2011

For more information and to register click on the Oasis link below. Class number is 224, Cost is $12 plus a minimal registration fee to join Oasis


Oasis

Book Reviews

See new reviews of We Ran Away to Sea posted in the book review section.

Also, good news! The book is now available at the Albuquerque Public Library and there is a waiting list for the two paperback copies we donated: The call number is 813.54 KEDL. Please request they order more copies!

If you know any place that would like to schedule a book talk, please let us know.

Christmas Greetings from Sweden 2023

Logo

This is not our usual Christmas letter since we have been traveling in Scandinavia since December 1, with 12 days on the Hurtigruten Coastal Express from Bergen to Kirkenes, Norway, and back, then to Oslo and Sweden where we’ve been warmly welcomed by my cousin Ingrid and her husband Hans Ove in Norrköping and Olov and Lena in Karlstad where we are spending Christmas.

Despite some disappointing rain, we’ve had beautiful snow, first on the day after our arrival in Bergen and again these past two days in Karlstad.
I’m reminded of my Upper Michigan childhood, with snow on the ground for five to six months. Will snow will become a rare experience with global warming?

For much of 2023 we worked on publishing and then promoting Kent and Pam’s book, We Ran Away to Sea. We’re still working on the promotion, but have been gratified that so many of you have us you have enjoyed the book. For those of you in Albuquerque, Kent will be giving an illustrated talk about his sailing years at Oasis at 10:30 am on January 19, 2024.

Other News: We walked parts of the Camino Mozárabe from Alméria to Mérida in Spain during March and April. The terrain was rugged, and at 79 and 82, we are no longer walking the pace we managed ten years ago.
From Karlstad we’ll go to Stockholm, then Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia; and after that a week “somewhere” before we fly home from Amsterdam on January 10.

Polar Night: In the Arctic, we discovered that even during the polar night, when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for months, the night is never totally dark, but lighted by reflections from the atmosphere, the white snow, and the moon, stars, and planets.  Dawn and dusk follow each other in the space of two or three hours. May we each experience lightness and hope this coming year, even amid the apparent darkness of our polar nights.


Kent and Linnea Christmas in Sweden
Copyright (C) 2023 Jacana Press. All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe

Greetings from the Arctic: Entering the Polar Night (edited so you don’t have to click on the link)

Here’s what we’ve been doing on board the Hurtigruten Polarlys.

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=7330108cf69d34631ac3811b1&id=f1ab7598ca

If the link above doesn’t work try this one:

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=7330108cf69d34631ac3811b1&id=f1ab7598ca


http://eepurl.com/iFJzzEEmail sent from Jacana Press from the Arctic December 8, 2023

The Polar Night
W

We crossed the Arctic Circle at 8:05 am, entering the Polar Night.  Kent and Pam never got here in Jacana or Coot, but we took the opportunity to celebrate We Ran Away to Sea.  The polar mark was lit up as we passed.
We told one of our dining partners about the book, and she whipped out her phone and ordered a copy on the spot!   We hope some of you will do the same!

Yesterday’s polar night was more like sunrise and sunset compressed into a few hours, with no actual day in between.  As a photographer it was like having the blue hour for two or three hours, not just 20 minutes.
In a few hours we will tie up in Tromsø, the gateway to the polar regions. We’ll be in this darkness and semi-dark for several more days.  I’m glad we’re not sailing in Coot!  My fingers would be too cold to write!










Svolvaer.  It’s definitely polar night.


Polarnight daytime, l’heure bleue.

Another short video:  Christmas on a sailboat is different. In 1994, Pam and Kent celebrated at Exuma National Park in the Bahamas. Read about it on page 126 (Chapter 12 Going Foreign) in We Ran Away to Sea. Sail with Pam and Kent on  YouTube, Instagram and TikTok!

We need more reviews!  Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words.

We Ran Away to Sea is now available at The Treasure House, Organic Books, Books on the Bosque, Bookworks, and Page One in Albuquerque. NM; The Travel Bug and Collected Works in Santa Fe, NM; Calamity Books and Sheridan Stationery and Books in Sheridan, WY; Two Dog Market in Leadville, Colorado; and at Books by the Bay in Sausalito, CA, as well as on Amazon in both paperback and ebook.Upcoming Event: Kent will be presenting at Oasis in Albuquerque on January 19, 10:30-12, 2024. If you’d like him to give a presentation somewhere near you, please let us know. Have book, will travel!

The Wooden Boat in the Woods

Read about the Wooden Boat in the Woods and Other News

Transcript of the sign is below: Fritz and Kent. Sailors meet at the Boat in the Woods.

When our neighbors Charlie and Heather read Kent’s book, they came over excited to talk about it and brought with them another book written by an author with an Albuquerque connection —  Fritz Damler’s Ten Years Behind the Mast.  Furthermore, the very boat that the author had sailed and lived on for ten years, was now on permanent display at the Tinkertown Museum in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque —  a  most unlikely location for a sailboat.

“Let’s go see it, “ I said.  “Is the author there? Can we meet him?”  I tracked down Mr. Damler, now dividing his time between rural Wisconsin, where he builds guitars and writes novels, and a home in the Bahamas, but he said he’d be visiting Albuquerque during the October Balloon Fiesta.

That is how Kent and I spent an enjoyable afternoon by the boat with Fritz. On his next visit in the spring, we hope to arrange a joint book talk and signing.

Tinkertown, a one-of-a-kind museum that has its own amazing story, will soon be closing for the winter. Here is a video of Fritz and his wife Mari Anderson, discussing a book they wrote together, Plunge: Midlife with Snorkel, which Kent is currently enjoying.  Like We Ran Away to Sea, it is written in two voices. 

Here is a transcription of the hand-painted sign next to the boat (shown in the picture above):

In 1981 Fritz Damler heard the call of “universal freedom. ”He quit his job & traded his house for the boat you see here…The winds became his “utilities.” The seas became his “supermarket.” Sailing at approximately 4 miles per hour, he lived on this boat for ten years.  Others joined him at times & sometimes he sailed alone.

He came to know the variety of people on the earth & to truly know himself. “Theodora R” built in England in 1936 has now become an exhibit here at the Tinkertown Museum. This display is dedicated to Mr. Damler’s quest & to yours.

 “Life is short. Follow your heart.”

Danger in the Equinox

See the latest short 90 second video on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok!

Reading, Book Signing, Exhibit of Pam’s Art and Maybe a Slide Show

Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words. Post on Amazon

The Story Behind the Book Cover

Pam’s Rough Draft of a Collage was the basis for the cover design

We spent months working with cover designer Sara deHaan, who patiently made cover after cover for us. Somehow, none of them seemed quite right. Even when we decided on the final cover, we had our doubts. In our Christmas letter we asked for votes on two cover choices, and only two people chose our final cover as their favorite.

Kent and I wavered in our choice, but Sara urged us to go with the blue cover we finally decided on. Pam’s collage expresses what is perhaps the main theme of the book: the relationship between Pam, Kent, the boat, and their boys, and Pam’s struggle to reconcile those loves, and her ever-present longing for home, as represented by the cats snuggled together on the lower right, and her love of art (in the upper left and right corners), for which there was no room on their small sailboat. Pam was practicing moving heads in Photoshop, so a photograph of her head is attached to the the figure slumped in the chair to the right of the boat, while Kent is given the be-wigged head of the dogmatic Puritan, Cotton Mather, both of whom, fairly or not, were characterized as stubborn and fanatically dedicated to what they believed to be right. Sons Jake and Andy sit on a log, their backs to us, and the curving lines connect all the elements of the picture with each other and with the boat, Coot that is the central and dominant image.

Pam and two artworks from the collage that represent her love of art, home, and her boys.

Leave a comment

New Video on YouTube and New Book Presentation and Signing Coming Up

We finally launched a new video: A Storm at Sea , and we are excited to announce a new book talk and signing at the wonderful new Groove Artspace at 309 Gold SW in downtown Albuquerque on Wednesday, October 4 at 6 pm. More information to follow. Save the date!

Meanwhile we had a wonderful visit with the family and grandchildren in San Francisco over the weekend. Here is just one photo with Zia and Grampy reading We Ran Away to Sea on the shore in Sausalito: More to follow!