Ireland & Italy

Twelve hours from now, I will be snugged into an aisle seat on Delta Airlines, watching the minutes drag by like hours.

As many times as I have taken the red eye to Europe over eh past 30 years, I still dislike it, a lot. In fact, I’d rather go to the dentist.

Now, I do like my dentist, a lot. Sometimes I even dress us just for her.  One has to stay in the game, even if only in the dugout. When I stop flirting with people, it’ll be time to swim with the fishes.

Speaking of which, in spending more countless hours trying to get my pictures organized once again, I ran across some of our Atlantic Passage pictures.

The water was so blue even with the wind causing some white horses, as many Europeans call whitecaps.

I know it was only months ago when I was gazing at the map in dismay, seeing I have over 1200 miles to do, alone, in September. With summer long gone and autumn rearing it’s windy head I was not looking forward to those miles.

Now I miss it.  I can’t wait to get underway again.  Listening to the purr of the Lehman, the quiet swish of the Krogen hull cutting through the water like a hot knife in butter, is truly music to my ears.

But I still have 5 months for that to happen.

Tomorrow morning, I will arrive in Dublin, even rent a car, for the first time in years in Ireland.  I need to go to New Ross, check on Dauntless, so some winter stuff, minor stuff, defrost the fridge, etc. Talk to the people working on the hull making her look pretty again. And for the right price we will even paint below the cap rail.  On Wednesday, I’ll go to Waterford (about 20 minutes away, 3 hours by boat) for two days.

But as much as anything, I am going to Ireland for these four days just to be there, to wish a Merry Christmas to so many of the wonderful people I have met in Waterford.  I spent about half my winter last winter in Waterford.  IT turned out to be a good mix (half in US, half in Waterford).  This year I am already a bit bored in NYC.  There is only so much I can do here.

So the plan is New Ross tomorrow, Wednesday & Thursday Waterford, then on Friday fly to Treviso and drive to my friends in Budoia, the little town, very little, that is as much as my home as NYC is.

Three weeks in Italy, almost all with friends will be wonderful, though to mix it up slightly, Julie, who join me on the 23^rd, and I will spend New Year’s Eve and day in Venezia. Then taking the water bus to the airport on January 2^nd. That will be a first for me. I hope it’s foggy, fog is fun when someone else is doing the driving.

The pictures of interest column on the right posts my Instagram pictures and I will try to post a picture a day to give you an idea of my latest hi-jinks.

And the dollar is getting stronger and oil is in freefall.  Can’t ask for much better than that when you have a motorboat that still must cross two oceans and a few seas!

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