Return to Seasons

For the past few days, I have been suffering through a bit of writer’s block. There are a wealth of topics I want to write on, but I am repeatedly failing to get exactly what I want to say on paper. I thought I would be able to simply and freely be able to put words to the page when writing for the blog in a way I can never do when I am writing academically. But I am finding that I have a different set of hang-ups that make blogging nearly as difficult as getting a couple pages of a chapter down.
Continue reading →

This is the third in a series of posts about a trip I made to the Chesapeake on my old Catalina 22, Helbent, during the summer of 2011.

My folks had recently sold their house on the island, so when I first put the boat in the water, I had to sleep on her. That is not normally an issue, as I sleep on her in the slip a couple times a summer. But the arrangement was a little less conducive to a comfortable night’s rest when tools, rigging, parts, and everything else, including the mast, which was not yet raised, were all over the deck and cabin. Continue reading →

While reading Lin Pardey’s Care and Feeding , one recipe in particular caught my attention: the salmon loaf. I am a sucker for canned fish, and I have experimented enough with canned salmon to have created a few meals I like. Continue reading →

This is the second in a series of posts about a trip I made to the Chesapeake on my old Catalina 22, Helbent, during the summer of 2011.

After driving twelve hours from New Mexico to Arkansas, I woke up the next morning and hurriedly took care of a number of things, including packing. By mid-afternoon I was back on the road for the seventeen hour drive to Jersey. As I drove through the night, I kept a pad next to me, writing quick notes about what needed to be done before we could depart. Despite a lengthy catalog of such things, my optimism held, and I continued to believe we would be setting sail in three or, maybe, four days.
Continue reading →

This is the first in a series of posts about a trip I made to the Chesapeake on my old Catalina 22, Helbent, during the summer of 2011.

The origins of the trip seem shrouded in mystery. I imagine the planning must have begun during any number of sails with Jonny in the summer of 2010, my first with Helbent. Undoubtedly, a few solo overnights on the bay, some telephone conversations, and a little research on cruisersforum.com fueled the idea through the summer and, after I returned to Arkansas, the fall.
Continue reading →