Old Goat





One of our loyal followers wrote to ask me why I hadn't written a blog post in a couple days.  It's a fair question.  I write posts in my head during the day so I have some idea of what I'm going to say when I sit down.  I often forget whether I've actually written something, or just thought about writing it.

 So… sometimes I have to go back and reread prior posts to figure out what I've said and what I haven't. The whole process is a little more time-consuming than it might be if I just sat down and wrote something, which is to say if I was more efficient.

It's also the case that I'm usually trying to do the writing while I'm either making dinner or helping with dinner, or doing dishes or helping with cleaning up. Or  downloading weather or navigating for the next day. There are a lot of distractions. During last night's engine check, I discovered I needed to retention the fan belt. That involves digging out the tools, removing the companionway ladder, etc.  

I'd like to say our adoring fans are in an uproar over missing a couple days, but truthfully the number of followers is probably in single digits for this trip. There just aren't many who have noticed. So those few of you who still enjoy reading this blog can thank Bob for being the vocal one to get me off my posterior and do some more writing.

When we did the Inside Passage trip up to Glacier Bay, passing through Frederick sound we saw many many humpback whales. One day they would hold their tails high in the air and bring them slapping down on the water like canon fire heard miles away. On another they'd breach clear of the water to come crashing down again. Kay got so rattled, she started banging pots on the hull to scare them away. I mentioned all this drama because we saw breaching whales again yesterday. More distraction from writing. The first breach we only heard. The second we saw..  I got my phone out to ready it for the third breach. The breach that never came. Oh well.  Back to writing.

We cleared customs today. The customs officer was a wiley old goat. Not by looks,but by demeanor. It was a video interview, so I never actually met the man, but he was awfully grumpy with me for having food on board that I didn't tell him about. I told him we'd spent the better part of three weeks traveling through his country by boat. How would we not have bought any food? What I meant was we didn't buy any food beyond what we intended to consume. "Next time you should answer my questions the way I want you to answer them."  He didn't actually say that, but you know he wanted to. Several times it was: "Next time…"