Renaissance yacht meets The Pirate

The Log: 23-06-2001

Once again I sit down to try and capture for family and friends what has occured over the last 24 hours. It is ceretainly easier to identify what I did not do. I didn't play golf, I didn't watch CNN, I didn't make three visits to Starbucks, I didn't spend an hour and a half at Lake Forest Health and Fitness, or read three papers, or spend endless time on the phone or attend one of the girls many activities. All these things are important in my life but out here I do none of these. We have a week old Journal on board which I still haven't read. It seems so urgent at home. Family and friends are with us and that is most fullfilling. The landscape is endless blue (really blue) water. The weather for the past few days has been spectacular. Mostly we are enjoying the experience and each other. The many small and large events which consume the day are less relevant than the context in which they occur. Maybe not so different from life at home. We have what we need with us.

We were spending a great deal of time this morning developing a strategy for the weather. It looks more and more like we will be stopping in the Azores, something like refueling on the West Coast before heading to Hawaii. This adds a few days and 400-500 miles but is likely to be the right choice. Another day or so before we make that choice. While fretting over the difficulties keeping us from just heading to Ireland, we hear one of the children yell "...Pirates..." Needless to say this put weather on the back burner and we all ran on deck.

A few hundred yards away was a yellow rowing boat. Remember, we were at 40 North Latitude and 55 West Longitude, a long way even for me to row. Our pirate turned out to be a man in his fifties rowing a yellow ocean craft called "Lun" registered out of Chicago of all places. You can make your own derivations of the name, we ceretainly did. If all goes well there should be some images on the site. He is a retired cardiologist from Northwestern Hospital who has lived in Chicago for 30 years. He is Yugoslavian by birth and his name is Nenad Belic, M.D. He left Chatam, Mass. towards the end of May hoping to get to Portugal, or as he put it "...anyplace, really...." Human flotsam, headed where wind and current dictate. We traded him a few oranges and other food for a quick health consult, asked if we could do anything, chatted for a bit more, and then it was time to go. Our impression would have been a totally normal guy if met in virtually any other setting.

Since I know a lot of the cardiologists in Chicago we had a mutual friend in Michael Lesch who was the Chief at NW for many years. If anyone who reads this knows Michael, you might give him a call about a mutual friend.

This put our weather dilemma into something of a perspective. Whatever we get will be much easier to live with than for Nenad. Even out here there are plenty of reminders about priorities and choices. I'm sure there are many friends who think what we are doing is not rational and could only be politely referred to as romantic. I present you with Dr. Belic. Whatever adjective you would use we all would agree with you. Look for him on CNN.

This incident led Tegan to thinking that we didn't have any rules for dealing with Pirates. I took a picture of the sheet she drew up and posted in the aft cockpit. In case you can't read it and have always wanted to know what to do with Pirates, here are Tegan's Rules:

Stick them with peanut butter, jelly and honey bagels; then have pillow fight.
Shoot flares at them.
Lash them with the fishing rod and tie them up with the line.
Torture them with jokes and sing this song: "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves...." You get the picture.
Finally, water torture.

No lack of imagination on this boat. Until tomorow....

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	The Log: 23-06-2001 Once again I sit down to try and capture for family and friends what has occured over the last 24 hours. It is ceretainly easier to identify what I did not do. I didn't play golf, I didn't watch CNN, I didn't make three visits to Starbucks, I didn't spend an hour and a half at Lake Forest Health and Fitness, or read three papers, or spend endless time on the phone or attend one of the girls many activities. All these things are important in my life but out here I do none of these. We have a week old Journal on board which I still haven't read. It seems so urgent at home. Family and friends are with us and that is most fullfilling. The landscape is endless blue (really blue) water. The weather for the past few days has been spectacular. Mostly we are enjoying the experience and each other. The many small and large events which consume the day are less relevant than the context in which they occur. Maybe not so different from life at home. We have what we need with us. We were spending a great deal of time this morning developing a strategy for the weather. It looks more and more like we will be stopping in the Azores, something like refueling on the West Coast before heading to Hawaii. This adds a few days and 400-500 miles but is likely to be the right choice. Another day or so before we make that choice. While fretting over the difficulties keeping us from just heading to Ireland, we hear one of the children yell "...Pirates..." Needless to say this put weather on the back burner and we all ran on deck. A few hundred yards away was a yellow rowing boat. Remember, we were at 40 North Latitude and 55 West Longitude, a long way even for me to row. Our pirate turned out to be a man in his fifties rowing a yellow ocean craft called "Lun" registered out of Chicago of all places. You can make your own derivations of the name, we ceretainly did. If all goes well there should be some images on the site. He is a retired cardiologist from Northwestern Hospital who has lived in Chicago for 30 years. He is Yugoslavian by birth and his name is Nenad Belic, M.D. He left Chatam, Mass. towards the end of May hoping to get to Portugal, or as he put it "...anyplace, really...." Human flotsam, headed where wind and current dictate. We traded him a few oranges and other food for a quick health consult, asked if we could do anything, chatted for a bit more, and then it was time to go. Our impression would have been a totally normal guy if met in virtually any other setting. Since I know a lot of the cardiologists in Chicago we had a mutual friend in Michael Lesch who was the Chief at NW for many years. If anyone who reads this knows Michael, you might give him a call about a mutual friend. This put our weather dilemma into something of a perspective. Whatever we get will be much easier to live with than for Nenad. Even out here there are plenty of reminders about priorities and choices. I'm sure there are many friends who think what we are doing is not rational and could only be politely referred to as romantic. I present you with Dr. Belic. Whatever adjective you would use we all would agree with you. Look for him on CNN. This incident led Tegan to thinking that we didn't have any rules for dealing with Pirates. I took a picture of the sheet she drew up and posted in the aft cockpit. In case you can't read it and have always wanted to know what to do with Pirates, here are Tegan's Rules: Stick them with peanut butter, jelly and honey bagels; then have pillow fight. Shoot flares at them. Lash them with the fishing rod and tie them up with the line. Torture them with jokes and sing this song: "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves...." You get the picture. Finally, water torture. No lack of imagination on this boat. Until tomorow.... Home Top
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