Patrick at home

LEAVING FORT MYERS

We are getting the boat ready, leaving in a few days or so hopefully the weather will cooperate.  As usual we are fretting when we have to leave. It is always exhausting when you have to undue ropes, which have been tied too long.

We have been in Fort Myers for 4 months helping Sean settling his Doctor Rocket game online, learning about the gaming business and fine tuning the boat. Sean is going to come with us for the time being, working onboard on his business “rippleware”.
Acharne is nearly finished, with additional cushions, flooring almost done and many technical addition, especially the AC and the stabilizers, which are making a no roll boat. We will experiment with that concept !

                                                         Vince's cabin

 We also took a trip to Alaska to pick up Patrick who finished his year of study in Valdez’s high school. Patrick did not really need any “picking up”, at nearly 6 feet and a buff structure to complete the package. But his love for Alaska and the determination to continue his life in Valdez was to be investigated. We also wanted to thank and meet everyone who helped him going through his year in Valdez. We left Sean and Pencil and the boat in care of each other and took a very long plane  ride north. We arrived in Anchorage squeezed in our seats like unfortunate cattle stuck next to another low fare recipient.

 A very nice and spacious campervan awaited us and we met Alex,  Sam’s old friend living in Juneau, who took us to spend the night with his wonderful family .

It was such a nice welcoming, Alex’s sister is a real fire cracker and I think Jim and her will come to visit us.

                                                    The giants

                                       

Alaska surpassed my expectations. The mountain ranges were still full of snow and the giant river bed were gushing  powerful rivers of grey icy water. There was  tundra a perte de vue, and no traffic, not many towns and only the immensity of impenetrable summit. I love the special way some of the Alaskan seems to scattered their crap out of their cabins. It was a sense of freedom, the sense that you did not have to pick up your dog poop, what you saw, was what you got.  I felt that the power of the place was keeping some humility in the human nature, and also it was chasing away the crowds. The roads were empty and I thought, yes if I could get good curtain I could live here.  (I was already having trouble at night sleeping with the nearly daylight condition.)  I was also intrigued about the Alaskan winter.  I don’t know how I could take the darkness, but when I arrived in Valdez, and surrounded by the cortege of magnificent mountains, I was ready to move in…

We had a blast with Sam’s old friend Alex and Vince and of course I met Jenny Vince’s wife, the second mother of Patrick.  I think he was very much loved that  year.. living with the Kelleys.. I am very grateful to our friends.

 It was an hectic time for everyone but I watched Patrick in his element living a simple life dominated by the powerful weather. I saw that he was home, and that was a good feeling, he knew where he liked to be.

 After spending his younger life on his parent’s boat in the tropics, he was home in the cold rugged North. What a contrast !

The highlight of the trip was a boat trip to Vince’s cabin up an hour or so by boat from Valdez.  Elamar is a small settlement on the wild coast of Prince William sound.  There, only a few Alaskan who are living on the edge of the encroaching rain forest. The weather was turning cold and rainy and we picked up some beautiful northerly shrimp ( tasting more like lobsters) in Vince’s pot. Then drenched to the bones we dried up next to Vince’s stove inside his little trapper cabin.  The Cabin was surrounded by  Muskeg  a sort of moss type ground, squeeshy and weird. There were still so much snow everywhere and very beautiful stinky flower coming out everywhere. We went to visit Vince’s friend Calvin and Leslie  living in a cabin by the water ( a stunning waterfront spot )  trying to reinvent their life after 20 years living  in isolation on the edge of the mountains.

I loved the tight closed harbor of Valdez where a few boats (on the hard ) had been crushed on their stand by the  massive winter snow falls. We were reunited with Rodney and Catherine, cruisers friends met 20 years ago in Mexico.. and we had cosy time in their boat, next to the diesel heater reminiscing about how quickly 20 years can roll by..

Patrick will be returning to Valdez for another year, stay with the Cullens, Vince’s friends.   But for now, he is resuming his life on the boat until he must fly back in August to Alaska

We are planning to leave for Key West, maybe Cuba, Jamaica and Aruba. We also are considering going to Brazil where our old friend Joao on Guardian will be for 6 months, but for the time being , we don’t know where we will land for hurricane season. We only know that we want to be out of the hurricane belt.

virginie