Category: book

Goat, Boat, Encore

October 3, 2024

The Goat and the Boat

The goat has gone back to its original owner. As was evident to our neighbor and all the neighbors, the fencing around his property was inadequate. I admired his independent streak and was charmed by his fixation on our front door. Goodbye, goat! I hope you will find a more suitable new home. Anybody want a goat?

Our friend Jim decided his health wasn’t up to heading across the Pacific in a sailboat one more time. He was right, and shortly afterward ended up hospitalized in intensive care.

If you’d like to support Jim, look for three books: Windswept by his late wife Ginny Sollars, A Bachelor’s Paradise, and the Yamamoto Affair. The first is an account of the family’s years sailing the Pacific; the second is about Jim’s adventures in the Pacific as a bachelor; and the third is a gripping novel of suspense and intrigue inspired by his own diving experiences and the historical World War II Japanese admiral, Yamamoto.

As far as we know, the boat is still in San Carlos and for sale.  Anybody want a boat?

The Book

I keep adjusting the ads on Amazon, and the book continues to sell an average of 20 books a month, not (yet) more than the cost of the ads. We’d like more readers to discover the book. It’s gotten more ratings on Good Reads and Amazon, but we haven’t had a new review in several months. Hint, hint! You don’t have to be a great writer; just share your honest reaction. Even star ratings help, but a few words are much more meaningful to us and readers trying to decide whether to read or buy the book.

The three copies at the Albuquerque Public Library continue to circulate.

Events

If you’re within hailing distance of Albuquerque, Kent will read at Books on the Bosque this coming Saturday, October 5. We hope to see some of you there. Books on the Bosque is a lovely, relatively new independent bookstore with many activities worth checking out.

Kent will also speak at the Tony Hillerman Branch of the Albuquerque Public Library on Saturday, October 26, at 1 pm., a shorter version of his illustrated January presentation at Oasis.

Book Awards

We Ran Away to Sea is a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award finalist. Winners will be announced sometime in October.  We’ve also submitted the book for a few other awards

The most unusual is The Wishing Shelf. Based in England, the award is chosen by reading groups in London and Stockholm, Sweden. Unlike most awards, where you send in your application fee and wait for award announcements, this one asks for a book description before allowing you to submit a book for consideration.  The invitation from the award administrator felt like a mini award.

He wrote: “Thanks very much for contacting us. I had a look at your book on Amazon, and I thought it looked very interesting. I very much liked the look of the cover and the blurb, and the Look Inside seems to flow well. I see you also have a number of reviews, which I read with interest. So, yes, please send me a PDF of the book plus a JPEG or PDF of the covers.”

Other Stuff

Since I didn’t get a newsletter out in August, I’m doing a lot of catching up here.

  • Kent and I are editing stories we left out of We Ran Away to Sea, but work is going slowly because …
  • I’m finally working on my book, working title “Once a Pilgrim,” about the first half and maybe the second half of my first Camino.

Picture of Vézelay Courtesy of luctheo on Pixabay

  • We’re planning travels after being home all summer: next week to San Francisco to see family, and on October 28 to France, where we intend to walk the less traveled Voie de Vézelay, which begins at the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Vézelay and eventually meets the Camino Frances in St. Jean Pied-de-Port at the Spanish border. We won’t manage more than one-third of the 900 kilometers in just over three weeks of walking. Weather will be unpredictable but probably not hot, and many pilgrim lodgings will have closed for the season. I’ll try to post on my blog, Caminobleu.com, or at least on Facebook because writing blogs on a cell phone after a day of walking is not easy. And there may be days with no internet.

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Two Old Men and a Boat

Two old sailors. Will they know when it’s time to quit?

In late July, Kent and I (Linnea) drove from Albuquerque to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, to see a 1977 Chung Hwa thirty-six-foot ketch listed at a bargain price.

It was a hot trip, with stops for green chile cheeseburgers at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, NM, and an overnight at the historic Palace Hotel in funky, picturesque Silver City, where Kent got a haircut and we watched karaoke at the friendly Little Toad Creek Brewery. Everybody was friendly in Silver City, including the guy who must have slept somewhere on the street.

Silver City haircut.

Palace Hotel in downtown Silver City. And we sold a book to the bookshop next door!

We bumped along bumper to bumper through downtown Nogales to cross the border into Mexico on Saturday morning. After three or four hours and a few wrong turns, we found our way to Hermosillo and San Carlos.

We had an hour to look at the boat, still filled with the belongings of the deceased owner. When Kent saw the storage fees for the Marina Seca and the amount of work the boat would probably require, he decided to forget it.

Checking out the dreamboat

We spent two days exploring what San Carlos has to offer, visiting a scenic overlook, a couple of beaches, and some funky places beyond the paved road. Our modest motel had good air conditioning and wifi and was within a fifteen-minute walk of the restaurants, shops, and bars along the marina’s waterfront.

Beached sailor Kent in San Carlos, Sonora

But, when we got back to Green Valley, Arizona, after an almost two-hour wait to cross the border into the USA, Jim Sollars, another sailor and native of Sheridan, Wyoming, was excited about the boat. We’d first met Jim in February through his brother Sheldon, Kent’s high school classmate.

Jim had sailed the Pacific twice, once alone and once with his wife and two daughters. His late wife, Ginny, published Windswept, the story of the family’s three years aboard their boat, Holokiki. Jim more recently published A Bachelor’s Paradise, filled with wild tales of his years as a young, single sailor.

After pizza for dinner, Jim and Kent stayed up late, drinking homemade rum, telling stories, and convincing themselves that two old men could take off into the Pacific on an almost fifty-year-old boat that may need considerable work.

“It would make a good story, anyway,” I said as I headed to bed with a good book, leaving the octogenarians to their plans and dreams.

“Maybe I’ll meet you in Puerto Vallarta, Hawaii, or Fiji.”

Kent has an appointment with the Neptune Society this week.

“Ask them,” I said. “If your body is lost at sea, will you get your money back?”

Stay tuned.

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?

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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?

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.

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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!

Successful Event at Treasure House Books in Old Town, Albuquerque

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday at Treasure House Books in Old Town, Albuquerque. If you are looking for books on the Southwest or books by New Mexico authors this is the place to go!

We enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Who would have guessed how many old sailors end up in New Mexico? Despite worries that we’d be disrupted by a gun rally on the Old Town Plaza, all was peaceful and our event was well-attended.

Our next scheduled reading and signing will take place at the new Groove Artspace at 300 Gold Southwest in downtown Albuquerque at 6 pm on Wednesday, October 4. We hope to see some of you there in this beautiful gallery surrounded by lovely art.

Kent waiting for customers at the Treasure House
Kent waiting for customers at Treasure House

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Book Signings, Readings, and Reviews

Kent reading We Ran Away to Sea

Kent reading in downtown Albuquerque

Join us at Treasure House Books and Gifts in Old Town this Sunday, September 10, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for a book talk, reading, and conversation. Come and go as you please since the space is small. Books will be available for sale.

We hope to have future events for those who cannot make this one.

In the News!

We were happy to see David Steinberg’s “Book of the Week” article based on his thoughtful reading of We Ran Away to Sea and several phone conversations over the past couple of weeks. We were pleasantly surprised to be chosen as the Book of the Week, given the presence of several much-published and well-known authors at events this week. The link to the Albuquerque Journal article is below.

Setting Sail: Memoir offers an intimate look at one couple’s life on the seas

Report on the Travel Bug Presentation on August 26

Unfortunately, we forgot to ask someone to take pictures of the talk and reading at the Travel Bug in Santa Fe last week that was attended by twenty enthusiastic people. The presentation shared by Kent and Linnea was accompanied by a slide show with a few special effects. We won’t be able to show the slides this week, but we hope to find another venue where we can repeat this performance.

Thanks for Your Support

We appreciate all of your support for this project that, like the Covid pandemic that accompanied it, often seemed to have no end. Please think about writing a few words on Amazon about your response to the book. Ask about the book at your local bookstores, and tell your friends about the book.

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