s/v Field Trip

The New Normal Well, it's been eight weeks since the quarantine regulations were put in place.  Gradually, the resort has closed, leaving only a few staff left.  Our Covid-19 family has dwindled as people have found rare opportunities to travel back to their homes.  In some ways, it feels like just yesterday when all this started.  In other ways, it feels like it's been decades. The focus for me has been to maintain routine and a realistic perspective during such global upheaval.  It feels weird, though, to continue living life as usual when so much of the world around us is changing and is anything but usual.  I try to take it one day at a time.   What can I do today to boost morale and maintain momentum?  Here are some of the ways we fight the boredom/blues bug amid the monotony... Playing Monopoly Marathon! Our onboard game cabinet hasn’t seen this much action since our 20-day Pacific Ocean crossing.  Some old favorites...

This photo sums up my kids' personalities perfectly!   Easter 2020 Blame it on Corona virus or lockdown or parental lack of planning ahead, but the Easter Bunny took this year off.  I’m not sure if he is laid up in one of the thousands of hospital beds using one of the precious ventilators on his cute, twitchy bunny nose, or perhaps he is about to go bonkers inside his burrow in lockdown with his precious little Easter Bunnies-in-training.  Heck, maybe he saw the chance for a vacation from all the egg-hiding, and is binge-watching Tiger King with the rest of you lucky unlimited data streamers.  Whatever the reason, there were no baskets full of plastic grass or chocolate bunnies or (my favorite) Reese’s Pieces Eggs aboard Field Trip this year.  Does this even count as Easter?  Do I still get to maintain my ‘Mom’ title, or have I forfeited those privileges with my blatent child neglect? In the morning, when I realized this would be the first year wit...

January 25, 2020 at 8:44:17 AM GMT+8 Surfin’ It, Shreddin’ It! I was so nervous! I was about to go surfing for the first time in my life! My instructor walked around a corner holding the longboard I would be using. He was young, and had a bit of dyed blonde hair on top of his curls. He set the board down on the beach and showed me how to stand up on it from laying down. Once I did it two or three times, we started out on the water. “Okay this one!” he said and turned my board around (with me on it) and faced me towards the beach. Suddenly he gave me a shove and I felt myself speed up as the wave pushed me forward. “Up! Up!” I heard him call out. I pushed myself up with my hands and stepped forward with my left foot and then with my right. I was surfing! I heard my instructor whooping and clapping far behind me. I laughed and exited the wave by sitting down on my board. I glanced over and saw Dad plummet into the water and his board fly out of the wave behind him. HA!...

Leaving Boat Lagoon In Phuket, Thailand - only my second time ever driving the boat out of a slip! A quick note before I begin -  I’ve lost my voice.  I’m not sure what I have to say anymore, or even what I had to say before.  What did I tell you about?  What do you wonder about?  Our life aboard after seven years has just become normal to me.  I forget that it isn’t.  I know I take it for granted.  To the rest of the world, our lifestyle is unique, unusual, exotic.  But to me, it’s just everyday life  and I sit down to write, stumped by what in the world I could possibly say.  So, I have decided to ‘just write’ anyway - to meander through recent happenings and insert my inner thoughts as I share, fighting against those voices that tell me how mundane it all must seem to you.   Anyway, here goes… You mean this isn't how everyone buys their groceries?? Back...

Adventures in the Similan Islands, Thailand View of Sail Rock from below I made a running leap up onto a large rock, and all the other kids were like, “HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET UP THERE??!!”. I have to admit, I was a bit proud of myself! But then I had to wait for the other kids to find a way up!! Yesterday we went ashore to play with another kid boat called Rainbow Safari!! There was this giant rock that had a whole cave behind it, so Niki (9 years), Robby (5 years) and I (11 years) all went exploring behind it. We found a lot of treasure troves full of (sadly) trash and lots of pieces of coral!! Then we walked all the way over the rocks at the end of the smaller island. We found a cave in between two large stones that led far back in a narrow tunnel. We didn’t have time to explore it, because we were going on a hike! We went to this trail that led to an immense balancing rock called Sail Rock. On the path was a massive monitor lizard that quickly scampered aw...

Photo from hubpages.com Living in land-locked Colorado didn't lend itself to a lot of fresh seafood dinners.  Sure, we could feast on buffalo burgers, venison stew, or elk medallions, but pelagic fish cooked up at a Colorado restaurant could hardly be advertised as  fresh.   And sushi?  That was just asking for trouble.   On board, however, the sea has become our supermarket.  And fresh?  You can't get any fresher than hauling a tuna aboard and slicing off a piece of sashimi to nibble on while you fillet the rest.  Again, I will say, I'm not an adventurous eater, but I'm willing to try anything.  Well, sea turtle cooked in coconut milk?  No way.  (yes, this was offered to me on more than one occasion)  Okay,  almost anything.   Since visiting New Zealand, I have had my first tastes of raw oysters (not again... ever), steamed green-lipped mussels (yum!), and raw scallops (double yum!).  Our palate...