I’m Back

Flying over the Atlantic yesterday, over a similar route that we had taken with Dauntless just months earlier, was a strange experience.  This flight was Europe is one I have taken so many times in the last 15 years.  But this time, instead of returning to my normal life and its incumbent responsibilities, I’m leaving much of that behind. I’m coming home; but not to the burdens of the past: my mother, my school, now it’s more like a vacation.  I get to see friends, write, complete the writing of our Atlantic Passage and organize the pictures.  I only going to eat foods I can’t or wouldn’t get in Waterford: Korean, Southeast Asian, Chinese, and Bengali & Indian.

It was great that Julie got to spend a little time in Waterford and be on Dauntless in her winter haven. It’s wonderful being able to share many of the interesting and tasty things Waterford has to offer.  The bread, they call turnover, we call it Hobbit bread, because it just seems to fit.  It is the best we’ve eaten since Cuccio’s in Brooklyn.  Cuccio’s was a weekly ritual for the last 14 years I was taking care of Mama, so it was nice for us to find such tasty bread in Ireland.  The last three weeks in Ireland have certainly been eye opening.

I never expected to eat so well and in particular, I am really impressed with the quality and freshness of virtually all baked products.  Ireland has many less chain type establishments then even the Netherlands, and it’s clear that people value locally grown and produced products.

The croissants are as good as any I’ve had in France and that does say a lot.  Finding delicious bread and cakes are the icing on the cake.  Ireland is simply full of wonderful people.  My time in Castletownbere was the perfect ending to an Atlantic Passage.  Full of people who know the sea, it is one of Ireland’s five official fishing ports, I met many people and many fishermen fascinated with Dauntless and our voyage.

Waterford is looking like the perfect winter spot.

Having the dock right downtown makes it easy for me to walk pretty much anyplace I want to go.  I’ll be able to use my bicycle for longer trips.  The City of Waterford wants to encourage boaters to stay and they have made it very easy.  The Harbor Master is helpful and accommodating and the price for the six winter months is one third of what it would have cost me in most other places.

And then we found Hobbit bread.

Author: Richard on Dauntless

I’m an eclectic person, who grew up in New York, lived overseas for many years and have a boat, Dauntless, a 42 foot Kadey Krogen trawler yacht. Dauntless enables me to not only live in many different parts of the world, but to do it in a way that is interesting, affordable, with the added spice of a challenge. Dauntless also allows me to be in touch with nature. As the boat glides through the ocean, you have a sense of being part of a living organism. When dolphins come to frolic, they stay longer if you are out there talking to them, watching them. Birds come by, sometimes looking for a handout; sometimes grateful to find a respite from their long journey. I grew up on the New York waterfront, in the West Village, when everything west of Hudson St. was related to shipping and cargo from around the world. For a kid, it was an exciting place of warehouses, trucks, and working boats of all kinds: tugs and the barges and ships, cargo and passenger, they were pushing around. My father was an electrical engineer, my mother an intellectual, I fell in between. I have always been attracted to Earth’s natural processes, the physical sciences. I was in 8th grade when I decided to be a Meteorologist. After my career in meteorology, my natural interest in earth sciences: geology, astronomy, geography, earth history, made it a natural for me to become a science teacher in New York City, when I moved back to the Big Apple. Teaching led to becoming a high school principal to have the power to truly help kids learn and to be successful not only in school but in life. Dauntless is in western Europe now. In May and June, I will be wrapping up the last two years in northern Europe, heading south to spend the rest of the year in Spain & Portugal. Long term, I’m planning on returning to North American in the fall of 2017 and from there continuing to head west until we’re in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, where we will settle for a bit. But now, my future lies not in NY or even Europe, but back to the water, where at night, when the winds die down, there is no noise, only the silence of the universe. I feel like I am at home, finally. View all posts by Richard on Dauntless