Marlene A. Sassaman's Blog (111)

Oh dear, with this dern cold lingering another day my feet are awful chilly. Is it because of the reality of how incapacatated one becomes when hit with flu like symptoms. Just like seasickness that quesy stomach, accompanied with a weird headache and inability to keep food or drink flowing through the digestive tract took control of me yesterday. I was able to function, albiet laborously with the cold symptoms. When my stomach got quesy though, my ability to focus on reading, watching tv or…

Back from the Catamaran Hotel in Rio Dolce, Guatamala, I keep asking myself, "Is this the right boat?, Is this really what I want?"

The cockpit seemed so confining, yet secure. The sails are in good condition, yet the main may need some sort of widget so when the sail comes down all of the little slides don't come out of the mast. The boat sailed a steady course yet we only had 5 - 8 knots to test her in. The brow over the gps on the port side of the helm has some cracks and is soft,…

Pardon my spanish, the first website link is where I will be in two days. The second website is what I will be surveying as my potential blue water cruiser.

Check out the location section of the Hotel Catamaran's website where "Good Enough" is docked. Notice that the little direction's map is animated and that all the boats in the harbor are multihulls!  Progress . . . .

http://catamaranhotel.com

 …

Hopefully I won't be plunging into the depths of hell but rather into the land of sunshine and rainbows. Fewer rainbows perhaps because rainbows need rain and rain conjurs up storms and storms can be deadly. Other things can be deadly as well. Yet friends and other beings of the human kind seem to relate sailing offshore as a sure method of meeting one's demise. Who thinks about a deadly car crash on their routine drives, or a heart attack brought on by poor eating habits. Regardless of the…

No, it's not. It's time to get off my duff and get back into my fitness routine.

No, it's not. It's time to get off my duff and get back into my fitness routine.

Overeating junk food, while the vegetables go to waste. My fitness program has disappeared, and my energy level is again very low. I want to get away from drinking coffee, but it seems to be the only known beverage to keep me awake during those repeatitive IEP meetings I frequently have to attend in order to hopefully afford the voyage of a lifetime.. My love for SPRAY has dwindled. She needs a good polish and buffing. I'm too lazy to figure out how to work the electric buffer; don't want to…

Wow, it's been two whole days since I posted my last blog titled, "Life is Good." It seems like a record that 48 hours later I can still claim that "Life is Good." Sure, sadness is a part of life. Sadness, though, makes us appreciate what we have had and what is yet to come. Take for example the Tree of LIfe. It was a gift from the faculty and staff to everyone, who has been loved and lost as a result of death, by a Palm Bay Elementary School Lil' Pirate. Each morning I park by the lovely…

At least for the moment life feels content. I reached my financial goal. In my checking account, from which I pay those nagging monthly bills, and in my daily spending account from which I buy boat things, grocerieis, widgets for the boat, clothes, registration fees for sailing events, maid service, boat cleaners, starbuck's, sailing gloves, dunkin' donuts, new sailing shoes, and well, you get the idea.

My sailing team, SPRAY's SASSY SAILORS had another bloopie race day last…

Jeepers Creepers where did all this dirt and grime come from, not to mention leaves and trees and pollen, and weeds, and dirt, and boat scum? Yuk, I've spent more time cleaning this past week and I still have a long way to go. It all started when a friend agreed to help with yard work for a nominal fee. Three of us spent 8 hours raking, trimming, and carrying debri to the curb on a beautifully sunny day. I was so determined to get the yard clean I failed to take water breaks and by Monday…

Jeepers Creepers where did all this dirt and grime come from, not to mention leaves and trees and pollen, and weeds, and dirt, and boat scum? Yuk, I've spent more time cleaning this past week and I still have a long way to go. It all started when a friend agreed to help with yard work for a nominal fee. Three of us spent 8 hours raking, trimming, and carrying debri to the curb on a beautifully sunny day. I was so determined to get the yard clean I failed to take water breaks and by Monday…

Looking for a new lifestyle, maybe change from an extroverted socialite to an introverted recluse. It's quite an experience as I find myself spending more and more time at home taking time to trim the hedges, organize my files, and keep the floors spic 'n span. Passing up two opportunities to sail in local events that just a few months ago I would not have thought of missing made me realize what an addiction sailing can be. . .

As defined by my 1951 Webster's Dictionary an…

Boy, my mood has been changing like I'm racing on a light air, shifty course. First I am ecstatic with our ladies' team's performance this past Saturday. The first time on a different boat and we did awesome. Finally, after many, many days on the water, they are efficient with their jobs. It was great feeling to hear all the kudos from fellow sailors.

Second, I am depressed and crying again because when I crawl into bed there is no one to wake up and tell about my adventure. Remember,…

Yet, I act as if researching names of folks I know on facebook and other links will bring me closer to my circumnavigation. It must be a need to connect with those I already know. Afterall I had a great day looking at a 42 foot trimaran and no one to share my experience with. Well, Sammy, my dog, is here. After a few tosses of her plastic, squeezey, shrieky dog bone, she curled up in her little bed. Then, there's Smokey the Bear, Danny's 54 year old snuggly who now shares my bed. He's a good…

Yet, I act as if researching names of folks I know on facebook and other links will bring me closer to my circumnavigation. It must be a need to connect with those I already know. Afterall I had a great day looking at a 42 foot trimaran and no one to share my experience with. Well, Sammy, my dog, is here. After a few tosses of her plastic, squeezey, shrieky dog bone, she curled up in her little bed. Then, there's Smokey the Bear, Danny's 54 year old snuggly who now shares my bed. He's a good…

For more than ten thousand and sixty five days I had one person who I admired more than any other and who admired me. Regardless of how annoyed we would become with each other he would put his arms around my waist and whisper, "It's O.K." Even when I dropped an outboard motor into the deepest part of the channel in the ICW after he had spent endless hours rebuilding it, he put his arms around my waist and said, "It's O.K." Then he muttered something about expecting me to purchase a new one.…

So, your feet got cold. Mine got cold too on Christmas Day while anchored at Manatee Pocket in Port Salerno, Florida.

But this week-end the Sassy Sailors from S3 (as in S cubed), did a 24 hour round trip sail from Palm Bay to Vero Beach. The weather was near perfect - our first night's anchorage just north of Sebastian was delightful, the calm wind shifted ever so gently a full 360 degrees by first light which made the hourly anchor checks interesting. After a casual wake up and sail…

Do this: spend an hour cleaning out my husband's office so I can make it mine.

Do that: get a rubber maid bin to store the non-racing essentials for SPRAY easily.

Do this: organize a match racing team for next week-end.

Do that: go to the Stuart boat show next Sunday.

Do this: walk over the bridge with neighbor

Do that: baby my smashed toe - the one that careened into a block of wood while walking down the…

My last blog contained pix of Flat Opti Saing Stanley and the rest of my crew, DanDee Bear and Sammy my dog. I e-mailed many friends and all of them replied that they were unable to open the pictures. I don't know why; I just opened the blog and all the pix were there.

Back at home I heard the little mouse sounding foot prints or gnawing near my front door the other night. Then, last night I heard the same sound outside my bedroom in the same area as previously heard. Now, tonight as…