Flotsam & jetsam
by Christine Kling
I’ve been sitting here for the better part of the morning trying to focus on writing my blog. We are back off the town of Majuro and back into the noise and chaos of the town. I try one blog idea, and it peters out. So, rather than spend the rest of the day here, I’m going to do one of my flotsam & jetsam blogs which will always be a compendium of the things on my mind, recommendations for great reads, rants or whatever.
First up, I’d like to give kudos to my husband-to-be Wayne for something he accomplished this past week. I really think it’s great when cruisers can give something back to the community ashore. And it’s better yet when helping them also helps us. We love to hang out at Eneko Island which has a little very rustic resort called Eneko Island Get Away that is owned by the Robert Reimers Hotel back in Majuro. We learned that the folks out there had a solar panel and four 8D gel batteries donated to them that they wanted to get hooked up to run their Internet hot spot. They didn’t have a solar controller, though, and they wanted to set up the panel and batteries on one building while the hot spot equipment was on another building. Missing parts and lacking know-how, nothing was happening. Enter Wayne — who donated a used controller he had kept as a back-up when he upgraded the boat, and then he spent three days ashore with his tool bag (and the heat and mosquitos) getting the whole thing working. He even relocated the wifi sending and receiving equipment. Now, the residents there don’t have to run the generator to get internet for themselves or their guests, and we get to have wifi as well out on our boat. Win-win.
Second, I have been growing more and more interested in weather and trying to learn how the wind patterns and cyclone seasons work out here in the Pacific. Our friend Philip on the yacht Blue Bie shares lots of weather links with us and this one is absolutely beautiful. Check out this animated rendering of the GFS prediction model of the world’s winds. You can click and move around the world. It’s great fun. Play with it!
Third, I’d like to help get the word out about a great deal on a Kindle bundle of books for any self-publishing writers. Called The Indie Author Power Pack, it is a fantastic deal – only 99c – and contains three top rated writer’s guides. I already owned two of the books, but I bought the set anyway just to get Joanna Penn’s book on marketing. Any one of the three is a great deal and it’s available on Amazon, Apple, B&N, and Kobo. The three books are:
Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
Let’s Get Digital (2nd ed.) by David Gaughran
How To Market a Book (2nd ed.) by Joanna Penn
If you would like more information about this bundle, and or direct links to all the vendor’s sites, check out David’s blog here.
For my last bit of cool stuff, I have another book. As one who subscribes to Lin Pardey’s newsletter, I learned that Lin is bringing one of my favorite sea story books back into print. It’s called Blown Away by Herb Payson. Herb and his wife were sailing in the South Pacific at the same time Jim and I were back in the 1970’s, and so I had to buy the original book when it first came out. This book is laugh out loud funny, and anyone who has cruised will identify with the fixes cruisers can find themselves in. Lin and Larry Pardey are bringing out a 30th anniversary edition of the book (including an ebook) that will be available on Dec. 15. I recommend you all put it on your TBR lists or on your Christmas gift lists.
Time to get back to writing my book!
Fair winds!
Christine
Share on Facebook
