The basic theme of my blog is travel, but not like a guidebook, more a journey of discovery, so come along. I post a new blog every week-end so you can start the week with a new post. This week, I’m providing brief excerpts of the first three blogs posted as many of you have come on board later and you might like to see some earlier blog. But I’ve also included a new excerpt from my book, Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a Ten-year Circumnavigation about travel at the end of this post and different photos. To read the whole blog just scroll quickly through to the last page and the title and date indicated here.
Blog 1 Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a Ten-year Circumnavigation May 15, 2014
It starts with the beginning of my travel memoir, Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a Ten-year Circumnavigation, published by Sunstone Press, the worst storm we have ever experienced sailing. But sailing around the world is much more than surviving storms (Yes, we did survive). There are stories of people, places, wildlife (such as in dives of the scuba kind rather than the bar kind), interesting tangents of history, and lots more to keep you interested. I’ll be posting a few stories from Voice of a Voyage in this blog, but also some stories not included in the book, as well as information about presentations, book signings, and other events.
Our beautiful S/V Bali Ha’i III anchored in Tonga.
Blog 2 For me, this voyage was about learning to see in a specialized way June 11, 2014
This blog contains an excerpt from “Chapter 2, Central America: The Multifarious Nature of Seeing.” and, as you will see, it is about seeing. Think of all the expressions we have about seeing, as in “I see,” meaning I understand and sometimes understand more than has been said! “See what I mean,” “They cannot see the forest for the trees,” “We see eye to eye,” “See a world in a grain of sand.” Add a comment with some of your favorites!
The old blind turtle who “saw” in other ways in Bequia and loved to be petted.
Blog 3 I’m leaving on a jet plane—is there any other kind? June 16, 2014
My grandson and I took off this morning for Japan. He just graduated from high school and starts college early this fall. I told him I would take him on an international trip of his chosen destination—not as an extravagant gift, but as part of his education, as he has not traveled out of North America. His choice: the Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan. So we travel to Tokyo then Hiroshima and Kyoto, followed by Siem Reap, Cambodia; Thailand; Bhutan; and India. In each country we will have home visits with students Ethan’s age as well as the usual sight-seeing. Some of the places we are visiting I have been before, a few several times, but even if not new to me, they will be new as seen through Ethan’s eyes and impressions. So it will be an educational trip for both of us, but like jet planes, is there any other kind?
Read more about Ethan’s experiences during this remarkable journey in my blog next week.
Ethan at Miyajima outside Hiroshima.
First the epigraph for “Chapter 3, The Longest Passage: What It Means to Travel” that I refer to in my excerpt:
To live is to see, and traveling sometimes speeds up the process.
—Edward Hoagland, “Heading Out from Home,” The Tugman’s Passage
Travel, wandering, dispersal; they add up to moving on for different reasons, different causes. But it is all of these that have created this beautifully diverse planet we inhabit, that we need to preserve, that we need to see, that we need to understand, that we need to save. Species, cultures, traditional knowledge, diversity—it is all worth saving. It is through travel that, as Hoagland wrote in the epigraph for this chapter, the process of seeing, of living speeds up. I would add that it also enables us to understand the need for survival, not just of ourselves.