Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 41
June 9, 2013
Crossing the Gulf Stream
By Mike Jastrzebski
The sun is setting on our trip to the Bahamas this year. Between the time we spent anchored in Ft. Lauderdale and time spent here in the Bahamas we have been living on the hook for four months plus a few days. We have spent no time in a marina during those four months.
I am writing this while anchored out at Green Turtle Cay, and when we leave here we will no longer have internet coverage until we get back to the States. Which is why I am writing this on Wednesday June 5th. Tomorrow the 6th we leave for Crab Cay where we will drop the hook and wait out a bit of bad weather before heading on to Great Sale Cay and then from there straight across the Gulf Stream to Cape Canaveral.
Last year it took us just over 24 hours to get from Great Sale to Canaveral, motor sailing most of the way. This year we are having engine problems and expect to sail most of the way back home, so it could take us a little longer this time around.
At any rate, if all goes well we will be crossing the Gulf Stream when this blog goes live.
June 7, 2013
Island time
Little Harbor when I last visited in 2008
by Christine Kling
Most of the time when folks use the phrase “island time” they are talking about how time slows down and people in the tropical islands aren’t in as much of a hurry as all those type A personality road ragers back on the mainland. Waiting 45 minutes to get your meal in a restaurant shouldn’t get anybody upset in the islands – it just means you need to readjust your internal clock to island time.
But for me, whenever I come to the Abacos, I also measure island time in a different way. Island time has come to mean change to me. Because I am only a seasonal visitor here, each time I return I see “progress.” More island time has passed.
This morning I am moored in Little Harbor all the way at the south end of what people here call the Sea of Abaco. We have been side-swiped here by the outer edges of Tropical Storm Andrea. The weather has been gray, rainy and gloomy for a couple of days, so I came inside here and picked up a mooring to ride out the strong winds in this protected harbor. Little Harbor is the home of Pete’s Pub and the Johnston Studio and Gallery. Randolph Johnston sailed his schooner the Langosta down from Canada with his wife and three sons and settled here in 1951. He homesteaded here building a home and eventually the foundry where he and now his sons have been creating world renowned bronze sculptures for more than 50 years.
The first time I visited this place was about 25 years ago. I was married to Jim Kling then and our son was about three years old. When we visited the gallery Randolph Johnston was still alive and we had a brief chat with him during our visit. Pete’s Pub was little more than a pile of flotsam with a bar in the middle and I there was no food being served. The roads from Marsh Harbor were not good enough to get regular provisions in. I love this old photo I have of Tim riding on his dad’s shoulders outside the gallery. It’s been 15 years since Jim died but whenever I come here, I am filled with memories of the good island times we had visiting as a family.
The last time I was down here was in 2008, and it was my first visit on my own boat. The dog with me was Chip, my dear old buddy. Since that time they’ve had several hurricanes pass over and the old dock is unsafe. They’ve built a new dock that stretches out farther into the harbor and when I came in through the narrow entrance yesterday and saw it, I knew that more island time had passed.
Late yesterday after donning snorkel and fins to replace my zincs on the Maxprop and shaft, I decided the Terror and I had earned a pub visit. There were few boats in the harbor and many of the folks hanging out at the bar were the regulars like Pete himself, his son Greg. I saw Wellington arrive with the wild boar in a cooler all ready for the Pig Roast for Bahamian Labor Day on Saturday. The character with droopy gray mustache that extended several inches below his chin sitting next to me — who introduced himself as Catfish — told me to let my pup run free, that no one would mind. So, I did. Barney raced around greeting everyone, running behind the bar, begging for food, and I chatted as I used to do when I visited with Chip. Then I realized it had grown quiet and Barney was nowhere to be seen.
Catfish said, “Don’t worry. He’s just run off into the bush. He’ll be back in a couple of days, long as he doesn’t run into a wild boar.”
I called him and searched and time seemed to slow even slower than Island Time. Much as that little dog is an enfant terrible, he has stolen my heart. When I was just about ready to panic, I saw movement deep in the bush. It was that red tongue panting and a bedraggled little Yorkshire Terror came trotting out. Soon as I tried to get the leash on him he darted off down to the beach, shook himself and began barking at me. As I chased him down the beach, I provided plenty of entertainment for the crew at the pub.
A great deal of island time has passed since I last visited Little Harbor with my well-behaved buddy Chip. But these days on the dog front, I’m wondering if I’d call this “progress.”
Fair winds!
Christine
Share on Facebook
June 4, 2013
Ninety-two in the Shade
It’s early June, the days are long and warm weather is settling into Southern New England. The sailboat’s topsides and decks are painted, the cabin sides and coaming varnished, and the boat will soon be lowered into the water and secured to its mooring. It’s now time to…head to Florida?
I remember heading to the Keys one April when I was young. It was hot, even more so with the absence of air conditioning. Later, a friend often talked about how much he loved his trips to Florida in the middle of May. I didn’t believe him. I figured we had a different reaction to heat. That changed last year when Sally and I made a visit to southwest Florida in early May. Warm days, comfortable nights, and jumping tarpon changed my perspective. So this year we’re going to test the limits with a trip this coming weekend.
I am looking forward to the chance to see nesting sea turtles. I suspect that the weather and humidity will test my tolerances, but I will be curious, too. I have lots of questions and I am looking forward to some first-hand experience that will guide me.
Here are some of the questions I hope to answer:
Are the bull sharks and hammer-heads that come inshore as the water warms truly attracted by gold rings?
Do the Pizza Huts and Mr. Tacos shutter-up and close in the offseason?
If we drive the side roads will we see Floridians releasing their Burmese pythons and boa constrictors?
Will the airport shops mark down their unsold Coconut Patties?
Will TV coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs be pre-empted by NASCAR?
Will NASCAR be pre-empted by religious televangelist programming?
Will my white legs, and Sam Adams in my hand, give me away as a Yankee?
I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. As they say, life is for learning.
Share on Facebook
June 3, 2013
Kindle: Confused, surprised, but okay with it
I’m still surprised by my Kindle sales for “To Beat the Devil.” After receiving Mike’s email and a few from other writers asking me what I’d done to promote sales, I began finding out how to check for sales ranking and the list for the top 100 books selling on Kindle.
What even surprised me more was that “Stairway to the Bottom” also is on the top 100 list of books on Kindle. Both books get two rankings and I don’t understand that. It seems they are in different categories.
If some can explain to me how “Stairway to the Bottom” has better – lower ranking, think golf, the lower the score the better – ranking than “To Beat the Devil,” let me know. Now, “To Beat the Devil” is rated between 5,000 to 6,000+ and moves between the 60s and 70s on the list. “Stairway to the Bottom” is rated at 22,000+ and moves between the 40s and 50s on the list!
I can’t make sense out of it, but I’m not complaining, I’m just baffled. You’d think the rating would be based on sales and if that was the case, “To Beat the Devil” should have lower place on the top 100 list.
Anyone out there that can explain what Amazon is doing or Kindle is doing or how they do it, please let me know. I’m happy to have two books on the top 100 list, but I am also confused. Please help!
Share on Facebook
Heading home
We left Marsh Harbor yesterday and spent the night anchored off Guana Cay. Today we head over to Green Turtle Cay and from there we plan to go to Allen’s Pensacola then Great Sale Cay before heading out across the Bahama Banks.
When we leave Green Turtle is up in the air. Weather looks good through tomorrow, then it looks like squalls with 30-35 knot winds Thursday and Friday. Of course that’s far enough out that things could change, so for now we’ll sit and wait.
What this means it that I may not be able to post next Monday. After we leave Green Turtle we will not be able to get internet until we get back to Canaveral.
We’re still having overheating problems although if we keep our RPM at between 1000 and 1200 we seem to be able to hold the temps down. Then the problem is that as soon as we slow the engine down the temps jump up. Don’t know what the problem is but at least we have sails. Friends of ours from Canaveral were here last month and headed home when their engine crapped out so we’re not the only ones with problems.
We’re looking forwad to getting back in the States.
Share on Facebook
May 30, 2013
Cabin fever
by Christine Kling
The wind has been blowing non-stop since Monday and nerves here in the Abacos are as much in need of chafing gear as our anchor snubbers are. Why is it that high winds are so irritating? For one thing, when there are white caps in the anchorage, nobody feels like going ashore and getting drenched during the dinghy ride, so we stay pinned down on our boats. And we develop cabin fever.
According to Wikipedia cabin fever is a “claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do for an extended period. Cabin fever describes the extreme irritability and restlessness a person may feel in these situations.”
I know I have cabin fever when I rush to the VHF radio to switch channels and eaves drop on every conversation whether I know the people or not — even when it’s in a foreign language.
I know I have cabin fever when I make BarometerBob.org the home page on my computer.
I know I have cabin fever when I find myself not just playing tug-o-war with the Yorkshire Terror, but getting down on the cabin sole, taking the other end of Mr. Monkey in my teeth, and then whipping my head back and forth and growling so loud the dog lets go and retreats into his crate.
I know I have cabin fever when I entertain myself by writing my own one star reviews of my one star reviews on Amazon.
I know I have cabin fever when I am supposed to be writing but instead I am staring at the bag of dog treats in the net hammock on the other side of the main salon and wondering what Pup-Peroni tastes like.
I know I have cabin fever when I start giggling over the idea of using my iPad to make Skype crank calls.
I know I have cabin fever when I decide it would be a good idea to try to floss the dog’s teeth.
I know I have cabin fever when I take the last cold beer out of the fridge and then start eying the EPIRB.
And finally, I know I have cabin fever when I decide the hell with getting wet, and I grab the dog and jump in the dinghy to go visit Mike and Mary on Rough Draft.
In fresh air, good conversation, and friendship — at last I find the cure.
Fair winds!
Christine
Share on Facebook
Scandalized in Atlantic City
C.E. Grundler
Over the years I’ve acquired a few vintage postcards from New Jersey; they’re charming time capsules both visually and by the amusing little messages they share. This is easily one of my favorites,with two graceful gaff-rigged sloops under sail and three more waiting scandalized at the dock.
Scandalized? Did they do something immoral or shocking? Absolutely not. But reducing sail area of by lowering the gaff or raising the boom is known as scandalizing. As I understand it the expression originated from the term ‘scantelize’, from scantle or ‘make small’. See? You never know what you might learn here.
The other amusing detail on this card is the message. Look close and you can read, “My dear little boy - I hope you are being a very good boy and having a nice time. Be good to Mildred – Mother”
It sounds to me like mom got away for a few days and left Junior at home.
Share on Facebook
May 27, 2013
Revising Stranded Naked Blues
By Mike Jastrzebski
On the writing front, our trip to the Abacos this year has been a success. I completed a first draft of my next Wes Darling Book, Stranded Naked Blues, and and have written a good chunk of what will probably be two YA fantasy novellas that will eventually be a series of 4 or 5 novellas. The YA series would best be described as Lord of the Rings meets Lord of the Flies. It’s something I’ve wanted to write for over twenty years and I am writing these novellas at the same time I am working on Stranded Naked Blues.
I am currently working on the rewrites of Stranded Naked Blues. For me, rewriting is the real writing of a novel. I typically do 4-6 rewrites of my books. Part of the reason for this is that when I write my first draft I skimp on detail. All I want to do is get the story down. The first draft of this book came in at only about 37,000 words, hardly long enough to be considered a novel.
On this first rewrite I will add description, fill out my characters and try to create scenes that make the reader feel as if they can see and feel what Wes Darling sees and feels.
That first rewrite is the most time consuming of all my drafts, and also the most satisfying. After that my wife, who does all of my editing, will go through and begin picking it apart. Typically she’ll point out inconsistencies with time lines, scenes that don’t quite work for her, similarities of descriptions, and of course spelling and gramatical errors.
After she’s done, I’ll then go through and make the corrections. (We have been known to disagree on some elements of the book. I take all of her suggestions into consideration, but I do have to occassionally remind her that it is my book and I reserve the right to ignore her suggestions.)
After this rewrite it’s usually several more passovers for errors, a few arguments about where we disagreed on the previous draft, then the book is ready to prepare for publication.
Any suggestions or comments from other writers out there who have a different rewriting process would be greatly appreciated. I’m always looking for a better way to do things.
Share on Facebook
May 23, 2013
Location Independent
Talespinner, center, at the dock in Marsh Harbor Marina in front of the JibRoom restaurant and bar.
by Christine Kling
I’m not a Facebook power user but still, lately, I haven’t much liked going to the site ever since they changed the design (again!) and now the About section on the upper left side of the page keeps demanding the answer to this question:
That’s not an easy question. Do you mean today? Next week? In two months? Because it changes. In the photo at the top of this post you will see the place I live right now. It’s not a city. I suppose you might call Marsh Harbor a town — it is the biggest settlement in the Abacos with a population of 6,283, not counting the boaters in the harbor. But I don’t think I should tell Facebook I live in Marsh Harbor because that’s likely to change next week.
Limbo time at the JibRoom
It isn’t only Facebook. Since I am here on the dock, I decided to go up for the JibRoom’s famous Rib Night last night. The ribs really were great and I got to listen to the Rake and Scrape and watch Desmond do the limbo. I also met lots of new people who asked me the same question. In all the years I’ve been coming to the Abacos, this was my first time at the famous Rib Night. I’m working here – not partying.
In the Abacos there are locals, cottage people, and boaters. At times like last night when meeting cottage people for the first time, they will ask, “Where are you from?” Then they look at you funny when they see you’re not sure how to answer that. To them, it’s not a trick question.
Now the cruisers are location independent but sometimes that’s only for the short term. Cruisers can be divided up between those who are traveling — the retired folks, those who are taking a sabbatical from work, and the seasonal snowbirds who return north to work when things thaw — and those who are still working while they cruise. I fit in that category and there are n’t very many of us.
In the last several years it has become very hip to claim to be location independent. These folks call themselves digital nomads, and they make a living by blogging or web design or affiliate marketing. They work as they travel the world. Just try Googling “location independent” and you’ll get close to half a million hits. These blogs and books and websites will offer to tell you the secret to only having to work a four hour week or how to live off your laptop while traveling and sipping tropical drinks in Maui. Frankly, I think most of them are in the business of selling a myth.
But wait, you may say. Isn’t that the same dream we are selling here with our motto “So you want to quit your job, move onto a boat and write”? I don’t think so. You see, we try to tell you here that writing is work. I would much rather do that work here with the beautiful water, where I can watch the turtles surfacing around my boat, where the world moves at a slower pace. But I still have to work. The myth is that digital nomads can travel (and spend) like vacationers and also get work done, or that sailors can party like cruisers and still write their books. Without that retiree income or that half-season job, we have to work if we want to eat.
This afternoon I met some folks on the dock here and they invited me over to take a tour of their boat. I mentioned that I had been considering returning to the Carolinas this summer, but that given my fast approaching deadline, I’d decided not to go. I explained that I couldn’t afford to spend all that time sailing. But it only takes a few days, he said. But they are lost work days. Here in the Abacos, I can travel for a couple of hours and still get work done. I can’t work at sea.
So while I do live a location independent lifestyle and I can’t give Facebook the simple answer they’re looking for, neither am I just a nomadic traveler who can “do the Bahamas” in a matter of weeks. I’m a working writer — but the view from my office is hard to beat.
Fair winds!
Christine
Share on Facebook
MFA? WTF?
C.E. Grundler
A big part of life, of existence, is trying to figure out answers, often when we don’t even know the questions. But these days I do have one answer: “Author.” That’s what I’ve finally learned to reply when asked the ever-popular, “What do you do?” It’s taken years to reach this point. But the part that makes me laugh is another question that usually follows. “Where did you study?”
Uhm? Study? Seriously? Hell, I pretty much stopped paying attention half-way through high school. Not to knock the public education system, but 1.) I planned to sail to far ends of the earth, and I saw little value in much of what they were teaching, and 2.) anything of interest that they were teaching I more or less already knew. I’d been reading ahead in textbooks for years, and within the first week of class I’d usually read the year’s lessons from cover to cover. By time the teacher got around to each chapter, I’d already been there, done that, moved on to some detective novel and could care less about the class discussions. In the end I could ace most of my tests, but was labeled a problem student who rarely paid attention or contributed. Looking back, I suppose perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention in English; I’ve been told I have issues with my Oxford Commas… but that’s why editors exist.
Fast forward to a few years back, when I’d first completed Last Exit in New Jersey, (and I say first, because that story has gone through numerous reworkings before becoming the book it is today,) I optimistically set out in search of my ideal agent, certain my debut work was a blockbuster in the making. Hey, when you’re dreaming, you might as well shoot high. And the first step involved composing a killer query letter, so I dug in and did my research. I read books, blogs, and online articles, versing myself in what I’d need to do to make my query enticing and intriguing. The blurb was easy, but regularly I’d read that I should include the writer’s organizations to which I was a member, as well as where I earned my MFA.
MFA? WTF is an MFA? A bit more research yielded an answer: a Master of Fine Arts degree, something that would have required years of study beyond the Bachelor’s degree I never obtained. I needed an MFA to write a book? I guess I missed that memo. No, I’d been out there, living life. I hadn’t spent the requisite time between university walls; I was out in the world, paying my tuition in a different way and learning my lessons by living them firsthand. Losing my first car to a flood. Losing my first apartment to a fire. Driving around in a $100 Buick held together with pop-rivets. Discovering at twenty-one, as my peers were partying, I was going to be a mother. Buying fixer-uppers – cars, trucks, boats, homes – and then fixing them because that was the only way to afford these things. I’ve worked as everything from a commercial driver to a lobby ornament/receptionist in a high end corporation, a commercial illustrator, a boatyard manager, along with various other unusual jobs in between. I learned to learn from everything, both at the time and looking back. That talent from high school carried over, I’d learned if you give me a manual and a day or two, I can teach myself nearly anything from VI Editing and UNIX to rebuilding an outboard and how to keep a diesel engine running.
As I’ve come to notice how many of my fellow writers hold MFAs, I began to wonder if yet again I’d zigged in life when I should have zagged. My education has come from years of triumphs, failures, gains and setbacks – and often I’ve learned more from a single failure than from multiple wins. I’ve learned to learn from others around me, to pay attention to those who are ‘doing it right’ and pause to consider how and why. And while I don’t have a diploma from the School of Hard Knocks, for better or worse, the degree I’ve earned comes through in who I am and how I write.
A fellow writer, Vincent Zandri, offered his writing advice on education and it certainly gave me a smile. And here’s some grammar rules from Vampire Weekend.
Share on Facebook
