11/18/2009, Titusville, Florida
Oh ... the manatees, 30-40 of them gently drifted between the docks finding hoses running accidently , not, as we all watched with amazement . Their bellies and mouths turned up as 3 adults and 2 babies took turns enjoying a fresh drink of cold water. They danced, mated and entertained us daily as we thanked them with a much loved belly scratch with a boat brush, lettuce and a gentle stroke of the head. I even put my hand in their toothless mouth, being careful not to brush my hand against their whiskers . Someone there said they were related to the elephant and sure enough their smooth, grained grey skin , rounded fingernails and majestic presence had striking similarity to an elephant.
An osprey woke us each morning sitting on the radar of the boat next to us. As I openned the hatch and peered out he , spread his wings and gracefully took to the skies for another day of adventure on the Earth.
Got to go to sleep... love you all and will write tomorrow about
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11/18/2009, Titusville, Florida
Stories, Stories and more Stories!
Everyone has a story. I imagined yesterday, adding a twist to the blog and writing about other peoples stories. Diversity, spontaneity, passion, love and plain life on earth is incredible. I feel so blessed and thankful to be alive this moment feeling the rush of abundance in the warmth of the sun, the gentle breeze caressing my cheek, my hair sweeping in front of my face tickling my chin teasing a soft smile of delight mmm... being a human is quite a delectable menu of tasty sensations that can be so yummy if we stop, just stop to experience them fully , whole bodied.
My fingers tremble with anticipation and a search for words to describe our experience in the past 24 hours. I feel the swelling in my throat as my body wants to express and I remember to surrender and allow the words to bubble to the surface.
An old gentle seasoned soul, not one but two found us through gaze, the odd gesture and a word that brought our souls together at the end of A dock at Titusville Marina, Florida. Picture the ultimate classroom experience, two "Lived" souls casually beginning a dance with us with an array of fishing rods, trips to get bait , more bait and then more bait. Baits buckets of crackling mini crabs that vibrated your hand on the bucket to stinky shrimps brought an evening of firsts for our littlest quietest and most timid angel, Chantelle.
Not so quiet and shy after a few hours of indoctrination into fishing with Bob the gentle giant of silent love . Bob(Santa, who is a real Santa 5 weeks of the year starting next week) pulled out of his live aboard boat , a fairy light fishing rod whose magic matched Chantelle's. That was just the beginning the magic to come . Chantelle grinned with delight pulling fish and fish out while 5 boys hovered around the waters where she was , hoping to catch one fish . Chantelle's true nature of courage rose up in full force as she then without hesitation pierced the mini crab with her sneaky curved hook and picked up smelly shrimp. Intently she watched closely as the fish heads were sliced off, and excitedly waited her turn in line filleting . Not quite finished with firsts, hook removal or should I say ripping as I cringed with one eye open watching in amazement of her actions. Her wild juice flowing all in the presence of the gentle voice and heartfilled guidance of Santa(Bob). I stood once again wide eyed as Chantelle stood eye to eye with a Sheepshead fish after taking the hook out and said"I want to keep this one and fillet it grrr... "
Staring the fish in the eyes she proclaimed "He looks angry." , then dropped him In the bucket. I was astounded to see this side of Chantelle. All the things she would never do before with fishing and here she was just doing it.
All 6 of us sitting on deck boxes, old fold up chairs and the dock brought an evening of story time that yielded a dive into deep exchange of parenting experiences. Santa , also Army Medic, PowerSquadron Instructor, Chief of Police, Jail Guard , roamer of US by RV with 3 horses , sailor from age of 10, had stories that kept us all laughing , crying and opening our hearts. I am not an army person, know nothing about the life of an army person, had my eyes opened and was amazed to hear that the attracting reason why men and woman embrace the regiment, often painful system is that it creates a brotherhood where you would die for the person next to you without thought and if you wouldn't you would be forced to leave or was killed. Imagine this kind a brotherhood and sisterhood of bonding and caring in our communities and world without the threat of violence . Ironic isn't that violence , ignites the creation of brother/ sisterhood. Darren, a walker of the world , started each encounter with us reminding the boys, "Now remember what I said... Take care of your sister" , an echo of exactly the same words of Danielle from another boat , Majie, that we kept connecting with throughout our trip.
Darren spoke of his life til 35 now from the military, being on the Swat team, Nasa protection, police officer and quit from the stress. The stories are too many to start to explain. He had the boys completely glued to the the edge of their seats, no movies, video games, just stories of life which brought laughter, debate, crying and fun. And me too...He often commented how amazing he thought the kids were with such little discipline and force. He shared his harsh parenting techniques and openly admitted that after observing our family that he had a different take on the whole parenting job thing. We do not take the credit for who they are, simply ask that they be told how amazing they are. As I tell them often, I do not know how to parent at all, I just follow my heart and experiment and if it works continue and if it doesn't I go back to my heart and ask for guidance. Treat people the way you want to be treated is a motto that I continue to strive to speak from and just Love , Love , Love them and all else flows with perfection. It feels true and my heart is warm when I live this way with others and myself. Wow, how did I get so philosophical suddenly... well I guess this is all life and one of the most challenging jobs of our times, parenting. I say this loosely , because I believe that it is only challenging if we allow it to be and if we feel that we need to control all and know all. See what Darren inspired. He has such a huge heart that his body just cannot contain it. He poured on the abundance of bait to offering of rides, use of car, copies of DVD's, scuba equipment and the list goes on... Every time we saw him his hand was out giving. I felt such genuine heart to heart love that we all swam and soothed in. Hugs to you Darren .
We had some friends from back home , Palgrave, The Millers(Lara, Charlie, Robbie and Holly) wrestle the alligators from Tampa for 4 hours to be with us. It was so nice to see people from our home community. I had a few twinges bringing me back to Palgrave for a few moments as we shared our experiences, joys (sun , fun, nature and the wonderful diversity of the American culture in food and tradition.
Bob's farewell walk on the marina docks was completed by a treat of ice cream for his angel eyes, Chantelle and a box with a hidden porcelain 1932 Canada Santa for me.
Dylan's plan to bombard Darren and Bob with water balloons using the slingshot that Bob gifted us was overruled and they had to settle for several hugs and thank yous at the dock as they helped us gingerly wind our way out of our tight dockage.
It really is difficult to put into words the heart bonding of generations and souls in Titusville. What a loving , caring world we live in!
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11/18/2009, Cocoa Beach, Florida
November 16, 2009
We went into Cocoa Beach and went into town. We found a shoe store and bought some funky flip flops for the cruise, white with beads on the strap.
Mama bought some Allstar Converse(shoe company according to Bryn) running shoes They were buy one get one free so she got two pairs. We went to a magic shop down the street and they were closing right when we got there, but one of the guy didn't need to leave, so he showed us some magic tricks and Karl got a DVD. We had a great time in Cocoa Beach.
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11/13/2009, Miami , Florida
A new aquisition for mmm... for a short time, 5 days to be precise. We are off to board yet another yacht on November 29 til December 4 . Got my cocktail dress and heels and ready to dance and enjoy not having to anchor this one or secure items onboard.
Too tired to say more. Will blog tomorrow.
Love you all!
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Love to each of you,
Kathryn
11/12/2009, Titusville, Florida
We are having alot of difficulty with internet so I am not editing before posting. I will edit once it is uploaded
Just a short note to let everyone know that we are safe and far from the devastating flooding, winds and destruction in Virginia, NC and SC.
We spent 2 days with my sister, Heidi with two children Chantal and Michael and Mama who are on vacation in Orlando for a week.
I spent alot of time feeling the intensity of the winds and its path on the earth on the east coast. My heart hurt and as I held it with my hand, took breaths, created a WEB that lay on the whole eastern coast area affected and brought PEACE to the centre of the WEB and then exhaled LOVE that spread from the centre outward on the WEB. I could feel the turbulance of the winds and asked that the breath just go with the turbulance with the intention of it moving through the area affected. Each breath took me deeper into the experience, in a trance state, not feeling my own body, and being energetically at the heart of natures intense emotional expression. A triangle formed at the centre of the WEB and two other souls of wind joined to bring strength and intention to the energy of PEACE and LOVE.
Random connections with other people that I knew back home and around the world awakened synchronized breathing from the base of spine up , PEACE..., and then ballooning and creating a huge white heart(LOVE) that continued to expand limitlessly from our unified Beings. Images of common forms of communication like computer and phone flashed infront of me , almost like my connection with this form of communication was short circuiting , desolving somehow. News of 39 mile an hour gail force winds and mass flooding in places we were just a week ago, illuminatedthe contrast of experiences and the body started to tremble and fear of fellow boaters was under my skin.
As a family we prayed for all the people on the east coast and particularily those who are in boats with little to no source of protection from the extremes. Archangel Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Aurial were called to the four directions as well as the guides of all the souls facing fear and loss.
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11/12/2009, Fernandina and Daytona Beach
Maple Syrup Walnut crusted Mahi with fresh picked green beans and rice was the treat creation of Chef Karl and Dylan in the Fernandina Beach Bay on November 5th. We picked up a few more boys from boat Magie who had come in after a 24 hour sail on November 5th and mom and dad were ready for a well earned sleep. The boys, Felipe and Vincent and our children took a 3 mile stroll to the beach which proved well worthwhile with all body surfing within minutes of our arrival.
Chantelle and I were the last out finding the bodysurfing warmer and more inviting than the cool breeze outdoors. A touch football game, some good old canned ham sandwiches and chips and of course, ice cream finished our trek to the beach off perfectly.
Phil and I rode bikes another 3 miles to the grocery store and found our trip there filled with surprises, like a jack in the box, including a great bike store that lent us a pump, waxed and lubed both bikes for free and a consignment store that had the perfect long high slit, ruby red sparkling cocktail dress with my name on it promising elegance at Christmas on the boat and yes, maybe a last minute cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale late November, for a family Christmas gift week away.
November 5th we arrived in St. Augustine strong winds and currents carrying the boat unpredictably through a very narrow swing bridge opening. Heart pounding was not enough, so... a little shoal surfing was on the menu as we circled the anchorage area, and watched Biouchus with Richard and Robyn slam into an unmarked shoal. We couldn't figure out why Robyn was at the bow (front) jumping up and down. We thought this was some kind of a new anchor dance, but she was just trying to shift the weight on the boat as they tried unsuccessfully to motor off the shoal. Not to late for us to surf we stopped dead in the water on yet another unmarked shoal.
We surrendered and returned to the north side of the bridge to attempt an anchorage in much more choppy windy waters. Well , next was the trick getting back through that double bridge under construction which due to construction only had one side swing up, a barge in the channel taking up 1/3 of the space , leaving us about 3 feet either side of mast to manoeuvre upstream the current and strong winds. Ok, with more pounding heart, we squeezed through and anchored successfully for the night.
The next day, November 6th, we decided to take a slip at the Municipal Marina (first slip since the Erie Canal). What a great idea that was. Chantelle and I went shopping, with no plans for me to really shop for anything until we came to a clothes store that I ended up coming out with 2 bikinis and a small sleeveless dress with rainbows and a big smiley face. Chantelle got the cutest tops in yellow, white and green stripes. We feasted on pizza, walked the streets being entertained by street musicians, an art walk and many friendly locals sharing the stories of the town. The marina docks were lined with people having group or private parties finding something to laugh about and enjoying life.
Daytona bound, we arrived here November 7th about 3pm. We will stay another night and maybe hook up with a family that hailed us coming out of St. Augustine when they saw all the children. They have two children and were looking for young families to connect with. They offered to have us stay at their private club, raft onto them and enjoy an evening of chat.
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