Logical path?

It’s amazing how quickly time flows by. This summer found Shawn in California, Chris in Idaho, Grizzly in upstate NY, and Tao in Sonora, Mexico. Our family could hardly have been further apart, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Chris was guiding and making money on the wilds of the Salmon River, Shawn was negotiating the city jungle housesitting and doing preparatory yoga in Berkeley, Grizzly was enjoying non moving space at Shangrila-de-Judy in Ithaca, and Tao was fairing well through Chubascos in San Carlos. To most people this might not seem logical with our purported goal of sailing across oceans this coming spring but we like to think it all makes “perfect” sense. We are still focused on sailing, but at the same time are trying to balance many additional variables in our lives. Our crazy schedules this hurricane season are allowing us to visit family and friends reinvigorating relationships as well as providing us with time to provision and outfit once again from the states while also cultivating other life ideas for future tending and adding more skills to our traveling tool box.

August presented more twists and turns in our lives. On Chris’ final river trip of the season down the Main Salmon River, he had an unlucky incident in which he disconnected the pectoral muscle from his shoulder. He was evacuated the next evening and started the slow path (6 months) toward 100% recovery. Surgery was scheduled and right before it we managed a well timed rendezvous at Copper Mountain in Colorado for a Agnes and Jared’s wedding and spent time with the much missed Fun Zone crew from graduate school (yes that includes you too Terra!).

We parted ways again, Chris to Boise for surgery and Shawn to Berkeley for more yoga. Chris’ tendon was surgically reattached and he had a painful first week of recovery staying with raft-guide-turned-lawyer Jim Vogt to whom we owe huge thanks! From there he began his trans-continental physical therapy visiting family along the way. He’s now had sessions in Boise Idaho, Blue Hill Maine, Hyannis Massachusetts, and Palos Verdes CA. While Chris has been recovering, Shawn has been in Clear Lake, CA getting some pre-Bikram-teacher-training training from Lynn Whitlow, Jeff Renfro, Margery Bailey, several traveling teachers, a pack full of dogs and puppies, a wake surfing machine, and the Lake County community at large. There’s so much more to it than you’d ever imagine and she is very fortunate to have had so much help already on the path to her goal of becoming a great teacher.

September has been quite rough for all of us. Shawn’s grandmother “Bamp” finally got her way and passed on after nearly 94 amazing years. She was feisty until the end, will be sorely missed, and Shawn plans to carry on her adventurous spirit. As Shawn’s Mum spent much of her summer up in Kingston, Grizzly is ecstatic to now have her back in Ithaca. Concurrently, hurricane Jimena tracked right over Tao in San Carlos. We wonder if this was a goodbye from Jay a sailing friend from Outkast who lost his life this summer in a swollen Alaskan river. After much worry from the States, we were reassured by several friends in Mexico who took time to check on our dry-stored-home. Thanks especially to Chuck of Pura Vida, Adam and Kris of Estrella, and Marina Seca who very professionally dealt with the massive damages to infrastructure that 25-inches of rain in 24-hours and flooding arroyos creates.


The 23rd of September was a momentous day as we finally came back together for 10 jam-packed days! Shawn drove down from Clear Lake to pick Chris up at SFO and we drove on to Palo Alto where Julia and Jacob from Pisces have been staying this summer with Jacob’s family. Much thanks to the Wenegrats as we spent several nice days there enjoying whiling away hours talking about future life plans, sailing in the upcoming season, and of course what to eat next (with refrigeration and warm running water the options really are endless). We’ve just made it all the way down to Chris’ dad’s in Rancho Palos Verdes in Pepe-the-wonder-car/truck (who is sporting a new muffler that Shawn replaced during her 3-day WFR recert) filled to the gills with sailboat gear. We plan to spend a few much needed days together here as well as prepare and organize for sailing and yoga apart over the next couple months. Shawn’s 9-week Bikram yoga teacher training, based in Las Vegas, starts October 4th during which time Chris will be chipping away at our never ending list of boat projects down in Mexico and vigilantly doing PT. Keep in touch and we promise to be better with blog postings.