So Thursday, I passed my first car in a roundabout (aka traffic circle, rotary) and today, Saturday, I passed a few more.
That reflection of the arrow and line seems out of place in this photo because of the camera angle. In fact, by keeping the arrow near the center line, it helps me to not stray too far left as is the tendency.
What does that mean? Simply that my terror of driving in a right-hand drive car on right-hand drive roads is slowly decreasing as my skill of using my right hand to shift and left hand to steer is coming along nicely. I still let out the clutch a bit slower than normal, as there are still occasions of getting third when I want fifth gear or vise-versa. Even worse, in this car, reverse is to the right of forth and right where sixth is on some BMW’s), so when shifting to forth, I am really slow with the clutch just in case.
Crossing the Atlantic is still preferable, but while Dauntless is laid up, I need convenient transportation and that means renting a car. Knock wood. (Should I die tomorrow, or anytime this month, I hope someone has the decency to remove this post and not re-post on Trawler Forum, with the title, “I Told You So”.
These days, I am stay in a wonderful B&B in New Ross, close to JFK’s ancestral home, and I had a great conversation with the owner’s son about movies and series. The Unit by David Mamet came up, because for me, it is still the best depiction and most realistic military shows I have seen. So in looking for the DVD’s I discovered Amazon Prime streams them.
Passing the time watching The Unit, by David Mamet and reviewing World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell
I have been skimming through season four since yesterday and also grabbed my World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell from Dauntless. A must has, it’s a great planner for any passage in which weather matters.
As for The Unit? A must see that reminds us of the sacrifices many have made for the sake of ours and much of the world’s freedom.
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
Dauntless at Sea 