Bryson is just as enthusiastic about music these days as his little brother.  When Bryson discovers a new song he loves, he puts it on his playlist, hits the “repeat” button, and listens to it for hours until he knows the lyrics and rhythm by heart.  I remember doing that with “Escape (the Pina Colada Song)” as an 11-year-old myself.  Oh.  Except it was on a 45 record, so I had to keep getting up to move the needle back to the beginning!

He especially likes songs with a fast beat, a la the ‘80’s.  His current favorites are Mambo No. 5 (maybe because his mom’s name is in it?), Oye Como Va, Island Girl, and anything by Roy Orbison.  I gave pause at some of the lyrics in the songs he has added, but then I reminded myself of the questionable content of the songs I was allowed to listen to at his age.  I just draw the line at songs that are labeled “explicit”, which I am not old enough to listen to either.  Check and see if you can find some influences from his mom and dad…

 

Only The Lonely, Roy Orbison

Dream Baby, Roy Orbison

Blue Angel, Roy Orbison

I’m Hurtin’, Roy Orbison

Oh, Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison

We Got The Beat,  Go-Go’s (the first song I owned)

Billie Jean, Michael Jackson

Rock Me Amadeus, Falco

Centerfold, J. Geils Band    (questionable.  hoping it goes over his head)

Down Under, Men At Work

Homeward Bound, Simon & Garfunkel

Take It Back, Jimmy Buffett

One Particular Harbour, Jimmy Buffett

American Pie, Don McLean/Don McLean

Pump Up The Volume, MARRS   (can you say 1988 High School Dance?)

Cha Cha Slide, Mr. C

Sailing, Christopher Cross

Only Time, Enya

Piano Man, Billy Joel

F**kin’ Perfect, P!nk  (she doesn’t actually say it in the song)

My Sharona, Knack

Free To Be… You And Me, the album    by Marlo Thomas and Friends

Do any of my 1970’s friends remember album?  These were the first songs to influence my life: Free To Be.. You and Me, Boy Meets Girl, When We Grow Up, Don’t Dress Your Cat In An Apron, Parents Are People, Housework, Helping, Ladies First, Dudley Pippin And The Principal, It’s All Right To Cry, Sisters And Brothers, My Dog Is A Plumber, William’s Doll, Atalanta, Grandma, Girl Land, Dudley Pippin And His No-Friend, Glad To Have A Friend Like You, Free To Be… You And Me (Bonus)

If I Had $1000000, Barenaked Ladies   (all the fanciest ketchup….dijon ketchup!)

Lovely Day, Bill Withers   (I still put this one on repeat sometimes)

Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen

I Like to Move It, from Madagascar

I Love My Life, Demarco  (if you haven’t heard this one, check it out)

One Love, Bob Marley & The Wailers (we’ve done SOMETHING right this year)

Is This Love, Bob Marley & The Wailers

No Woman No Cry (Live), Bob Marley & The Wailers

Could You Be Loved, Bob Marley & The Wailers

Three Little Birds, Bob Marley & The Wailers

Buffalo Soldier, Bob Marley & The Wailers

Get Up Stand Up, Bob Marley & The Wailers

Stir It Up, Bob Marley & The Wailers

Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…), Lou Bega

Cool Change, Little River Band  (one of our theme songs for the journey)

Piove, Jovanotti

Low (feat. T-Pain), Flo Rida

Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra), Gotye

Love Is In the Air (Vocal Is In the Air Mix), Milk & Sugar

Rainbow Connection, Kermit The Frog & Muppets

Somebody to Love, Justin Bieber

Familjen Krokodil, Nu ska vi sjunga  (a swedish song about a family of crocodiles that I sing to the kids )

Hot N Cold, Katy Perry

Pata Pata,  Miriam Makeba

Me and Julio Down By the School Yard, Paul Simon

Papa Loves Mambo, Perry Como

Neutron Dance, The Pointer Sisters  (a Bestefar favorite)

Some Like It Hot (7″ Mix), The Power Station

Let’s Go Crazy, Prince & The Revolution

I Would Die 4 U, Prince & The Revolution   (he loves doing the finger movements for the chorus)

Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl), Looking Glass

Redemption Song, Bob Marley & The Wailers

You Got It, Roy Orbison

Oye Como Va, Santana

Hand Jivin’, The Bee Gees

Big Time, Peter Gabriel

September, Earth, Wind and Fire

The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels (all three kids know every word to this song)

Firework, Katy Perry

Take It Easy, The Eagles

Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins

Pumped Up Kicks, Foster the People

Cruel Summer, Bananarama

December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!), Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Viva La Vida, Coldplay

La vie en rose,  Edith Piaf (He LOVES this song.  So cute)

Hey Ya! (Radio Mix/Club Mix), OutKast

Informer, Snow

The Gambler, Kenny Rogers

I Go to Rio (Extended Version), Pablo Cruise

The Lazy Song, Bruno Mars

August Town, Duane Stephenson

Island Girl, Elton John

Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson

From My Heart, Jah Cure

Glass House, Peter Tosh

She’s Royal, Tarrus Riley

Girl I Want To Make You Sweat, UB40

Reggae Night

The entire Jimmy Buffett “Songs You Know By Heart” album.  ‘Cause we’re sailors…

Cheeseburger in Paradise, He Went to Paris. Fins, Son of a Son of a Sailor, A Pirate Looks at Forty, Margaritaville, Come Monday, Changes in Lattitudes, Why Don’t We Get Drunk, Pencil Thin Mustache, Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit, Boat Drinks, Volcano

For fun, I thought I’d let you take a glimpse at our Ship’s Log.  Following are some excerpts from some of our passages.  (single letters are abbreviations of our names; numbers with n and w are latitude and longitude; times are given in military format; additional info given in italics)

Patronus Ship’s Log

(excerpt from our 1441 mile passage: North Carolina, USA to St. Thomas, USVI)

11/4/12: 0728  Threw off the docklines.  Sailed away from the safe harbor.  Catching the trade winds in our sails.  We’re actually doing it!!!! (this is from a favorite Mark Twain quote of ours)

1100 nav station hatch open.  Wave crashes in and soaks everything.  Gulf Stream: ugh.

1900 fishing rod holder breaks

 

11/5/12: 1858 Dark squalls left and right of us. Cruise ship aft starboard side going to Grand Turk.  I Love AIS (note to readers: AIS is an electronic tool that gives us info about all boats, that have AIS installed, within a 48 mile range.  It tells us their heading, speed, and the approximate time of impact, if we are on a crash course.  We see the name of the boat so we can call them on the radio and politely ask them to not smack into us.  Big commercial boats are required to have AIS and it has helped us many times this year.)

Wind 16-20, Going 7 knots.

Cloud shape of man with open arms

Making mac and cheese a la Mema

Lightning at sea

 

11/6/12: 1200 Mutiny on Patronus.  Dad and kids do a pirate skit.  Perfect timing.  So much fun and cheered us all up.

 

clipping onto the boat in case we fall overboard at night

11/7/12: 0300 squall.

0530 jib halyard breaks at top of mast. Chris and I have to take down the sail in the dark.  Still shaking from adrenaline.  So glad we have jack lines to snap onto.

0858: flying fish lands in cockpit.  Hammer bar and race caps: Breakfast of champions.

1915: 655 miles traveled. 655 to waypoint. Yet not half way:(

1927: wind 15-20, gusts to 23, Wind 235, heading 122 some seas knocking us around, going 7 kts, 658 log, Latitude/Longitude: N 28 33 W 69 09

Looking for more squalls. Sky looks ok though for now

Have not fixed storm jib halyard

Dad and B snoozing on deck, CRP asleep down below

Had Kathy’s chicken and rice for dinner. Great

Did Reese’s hair in bucket. Took long time to get knots out.

Still no shower for me:(

 

11/8/12: 0320 shooting star, hot cocoa, two twizzlers

Playlist Cheek to Cheek, Via Con Mi, My Funny Valentine (Chet Baker version), She, Biggest Part of Me by Ambrosia (she’s the light that breathes in me)

Did Message in a bottle!!!!

1630 on watch after shower and lots of rest today. Cranky. Feels like too much longer to go. Got to talk to friends on satellite phone nice. Reading history of Caribbean. Kids on deck playing. Dad and Chris asleep. Lasagna in oven. 808 miles down. 540 to go. 27 06 n 67 07 w

TTG (Time To Go) finally not maxed out at 99 hours 99 min:)

1815: waiting for squall

1900: 26 48 n 66 58 w

Lasagna a hit. Squall never came. Dad smoking. RP asleep

828 miles traveled

No stars or moon

 

Throwing out a message in a bottle at the 1000 mile mark.

11/9/12:  0335 On watch. “Moonlight and love songs, never out of date.” As time goes by.  Longer, Dan Fogelberg moonlight quiet overwhelmingly beautiful “longer than there have been fishes in the ocean”

1100 tried spinnaker. Worked well to 18 kts. Rounded up hard at 18kts. Caught small fish, threw back

E cleaned forward head and tidied up. Trying to dry wet towels and clothes so I can put in laundry bag

Kids working on another message in bottle.

Food free-for-all. Eat it if you can go down below long enough to get it!

1637 Bryson using math to calculate the percentage of fuel we used and have left.

 

11/10/12: 0130 on watch. So tired. Couldn’t sleep in our cabin. Too rough. Gusting to 30 kts. Main and jib reefed. Chris says EPIRB deployed from holder overnight but did not go off. Put in ditch bag. Scary! It fell behind fuel cans.  He heard it and grabbed it before it fell in water.  Thinking about how close we just got to having the Coast Guard fly over us! Just had an apple and a few potato chips and one twizzler. Traveled 1045.1 miles. 368 to go but not yet rhumb-lined. More 30’s. Gotta go.

0530 still up. Needed C to help reef so he hasn’t slept.

346 to go. Waiting for wind to go to 60 so we can head right at St Thomas. It got light out quickly but overcast no sunrise

Had to tie up fuel can that was coming loose.

0600 finally down to rest. Crashed in boys room with Porter and Bryson. Sun up so P got up shortly.  Rough trying to sleep but did and it was restful.

 

11/10/12: 1000 got up, ate breakfast, cleaned up things that flew around over night. Washed face. Brushed teeth

Back on watch. C and dad down below sleeping. Kids playing.

312.9 to go. 1111.71 traveled so far.  Wind 20-28 kts NE

Just had a spirited and lengthy conversation with the wind instrument.  Wind direction hit 150 and I may have asked it to marry me.

Heading : 190

Very rolly. Shooting starts: Most I’ve ever seen in life I think.

1140: Spotted bird.  Land must be getting close…

 

11/11/12: 0200 Happy First Birthday to Patronus!  On watch. Trade winds set in with rollers from behind. Heading right at St Thomas. 200 miles to go. Going 7-8 knots.  Hard work steering. Constant attention so we don’t jibe. TTG says 28 hours which would be perfect timing-won’t arrive in the dark.

Listening to iPod songs haven’t heard in months.

0324 crescent moonrise smile amazing

 

11/12/12: 1000 caught mahi mahi

Had dinner somehow in rolling seas.  Porter chicken with lemon, cous cous, corn.

1940 Dad sees red light off starboard side around two miles away. Hail on VHF.  s/v Liberty from Rhode Island on way to Red Hook in St Thomas as well. He left 11/1. Fun talking to someone from the rest of the world. Can’t stop looking at his red light.

 

11/14/12: 1236 last night watch! Got some rest in cabin but it is really hot and sticky. Had an apple, water, 4 twizzlers, 5 Swedish fish. Should be good to go for four hours:) Want to put up sail by myself but not confident enough. Will wait for Chris to wake up. Longest engine has been on in 8 days so I’m not complaining. Reading book on history of Caribbean. Dry. Squalls.

0200 Land. Ho.  43 miles to go.  Found ice cream at the bottom of the freezer. Happy:)

0247 last water tank almost empty.

Going off watch. So tired. 30 miles to go. When I come back up we will almost be there. Yay.

 Somewhere over the past few months, the Caribbean has melted away my sharper edges, allowing me to float along with the love/sand/heart/ocean of this lower latitude paradise.  My ship log entries have changed as well.  The facts, figures, and numbers that used to be important to me have been replaced by thoughts, feelings, and impressions, both deep and irreverent.  These are what I now deem to be important.

Well, that and our boat speed, of course!

 

Patronus Ship’s Log

(excerpt from 261 mile passage: Dominica to Grenada)

1/28/13, 0824 Depart Portsmouth after saying goodbye to Titus, Anything Goes, and Virginia Dare.  Kids doing school.  Fishing lines out.  Sad to be leaving.

0950 cleaned floors and cockpit

1147 winds light.  Titus texts us to tell us he can see Patronus and Anything Goes sailing from Roseau.  It feels a little better to know that someone is standing on our perfect island, watching us leave.  Noticing.

1513 10.1 knots baby!  Caught two bonita.

194: Not everyone gets to watch the gold moon rise giant in the black sky from the cozy cockpit of a sailboat blasting along at 10 knots in a beam reach. Feeling grateful.

2049: What the &%@# do any Stevie Nicks songs mean?

2100: Trying to like Radiohead because Craig says they’re good.  But it keeps reminding me of Pearl Jam.  Or is it Nirvana?

2239: extendo-blinking to Heart and Soul by T’pau.  Hit 11.4 knots several times.

 

Patronus Ship’s Log

(excerpt from passage: St. Maarten to Tortola)

 

we pass the largest sailboat in the world

4/19/13: 0147  En route to Tortola from St. Maarten.
Racing Enchantment of the Seas to Tortola:) ten miles to beam of us. Not for long! Big Dipper gigantic above my head. Soft breeze. Downwind
at 8 kts. Twizzlers. water. Book. Headlamp. Clipped in. Under blanket on lazarette. Had to leave Anything Goes again. Had to leave Kelli.  Off to read.
0316 wondering about the difference between those who study the stars
and those who look to the sea. One looks outward from the planet. One inward. But
perhaps the important distinction isn’t about trying to find the
merits and results of each of these pursuits but in celebrating the
looking.

And our most recent passage:

Patronus Ship’s Log

(excerpt from 552 mile passage: British Virgin Islands to the Bahamas)

4/21/13: Virgin passage. Quit soda, again, for 12 hours. On watch for 12 minutes.
Already about to cave in. Chilly. Sturgeron (seasickness medicine) working. Took at 1517. Had pizza for dinner.  Cloudy. Wind 80. Sog 6.5. Heading 300 for Great
Inagua.
2130 huge warm (ugh) water and three twizzlers. Trying to stave off the
soda. Pudding queued up and ready for my 2200 treat.
Reading Jimmy Buffett’s A Pirate Looks at Fifty. Had my water and pudding. Closest we’ve been to a cruiseship at night. 4.4 miles away. Looks so big. Trying not to look sideways to the sea where giant rolling waves blot out the horizon and seem out to get us.
0200 all done. Completely spent.

night watch. checking the instruments.

4/22/13 1917 sunset clear. kids playing so great. Felt headachy then better after Motrin and taco dinner. Correcting schoolwork. Kids ready for bed
1951 kids asleep. Checked instruments. Turned on tri color. Got flashlight ready. Gemini first stars I see. Moon almost full. Bright out. No targets on AIS for 24 miles. All alone out here. We are just north of Dominican Republic. Wish we were stopping there. Wind 97 at
17 kts. 6.3 sog. Heading 305. Nice to have compass lights working.
Listening to fave songs: Emmanuel. Over the rainbow. Bubbly. From my
Heart to Yours.
2130 ate an orange so I don’t get scurvy.  LOL.
2315 wrap jib around head stay trying to go wing on wing. C hurts toe
going on foredeck.

Playlist for Sunrise, by DJ Jazzy Erica:
Predawn song: These Arms of Mine, Otis Redding. Groovin, The Rascals
First light: Happy Together, Turtles
A Taste of Honey. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana brass. (Decided that is
the first song I will learn on the trumpet. Just need a trombone player
to play with me.)
Baby I’m Yours, Barbara Lewis “till the stars fall from the sky”
Miracles, Jefferson Starship “if only you’d believe in miracles so would I.”
Whenever I Call You Friend, Kenny Loggins. “I see myself within your eyes.
Sweet love showin’ us some heavenly light. I never seen such a beautiful sight.”
Sunrise: Aquarious. “Let the sun shine. Let the sun shine in. The sunshine in.”
Venus, Frankie Valli
True Fine Love, Steve Miller Band
These are Days. Natalie Merchant
Beautiful Day. U2 “The heart is a-bloom. On the road. But you’ve got no
destination. You’ve been all over. And it’s been all over you.”
0655 Porter pops up on deck. Life jacket on. Crawls onto stbd lazarette and
stares at the sails.  He is so cute.
0722 called dad. Anything Goes about 70 mi behind us.
0945 made blueberry muffins and thought about the song Funky Cold Medina.  I should download that.
1630 Playing memory with kids
1838 leftovers for dinner. Spaghetti w meat sauce. Fresh guacamole and
pineapple. Dolphins jumping high. Sailing right into Awesome sunset
2045 instruments turn off and on. E noticed AIS turn off. Went to autopilot
and tried to steer back but main jibes and breaks block on boom.
Bends preventer.  Another nighttime journey to the bow for Chris.  So scary.
2344 can’t read anymore. Finished a big part of my iTunes clean up
job. Not in the mood to correct kids’ math workbooks. Air very humid. Trying not to
freak out that we might jibe any second. 15 minutes till I am off watch. No boat targets.

4/24/13 1621 running along south shore of Great Inagua. Not in Kansas
anymore. Looks like Anegada. Flat and white beaches far as you can
see. Cleanup on boat. Showers. Working on iTunes. Have all blogs written
through Dominica.  Super.  Now I’m only 14 ports of call behind…..

We are like, totally FAMOUS!

Back in August, we entered tiny Tenant’s Harbor in Maine.  As soon as we dropped anchor and hooked up to the local wifi, we got an email from Bert Whittier, a vacationer staying at a house on the harbor.  He had seen our boat as we came in and googled us due to our Harry Potter-themed boat name.  He found our blog, read a little bit, and reached out to us.  We have enjoyed a lovely new email friendship throughout the rest of our journey and we gained one more website follower.  Well, not just one more….

As a teacher, Bert was eager to use our voyage as a tool in his classroom.  His students began following our website and were given the assignment to write an informative article based on our 1,440 mile passage from North Carolina to St. Thomas.  The resulting essays show an excellent grasp of writing, editing, and comprehension.  I am pleased to share one of the student’s writing pieces with you.

Many thanks from our whole family to all of Mr. Whittier’s students for following along with our journey.  We look forward to hearing about your own adventures someday!

“I’m glad I chased my dream, and encourage you to pursue yours.  As you do so, remember that no matter how much you prepare for the worst, there is simply no way to guarantee that things won’t turn out to be absolutely perfect.”

–Dean Abramson, in Sail Magazine, July 2012, in an article about his long-awaited and diligently-prepared-for first overnight passage (which went perfectly)

Eight Days, One Hour, Fifteen Minutes

By Anna

It is hard to imagine what it would be like to go on a boat with my family for a long period of time. I think I would feel seasick the entire time and would not get along with my siblings well at all! The Conway family is on a year-long journey, but first they had to survive sailing for eight days, one hour and fifteen minutes from Beaufort, North Carolina to St. Thomas. This was a complex trip. The Conways accomplished it because they had a plan and they were prepared. The parents already had experience with sailing and they used key strategies to help them get along while working. Earlier, Mr. and Mrs. Conway had gone on a trip for a week with their friends and that inspired them to take this incredible trip with their family. They made it happen!

To prepare for their vast journey, they needed to be ready for any possible circumstance or glitch. First they got their boat, Patronus. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms and other spaces in case they needed alone time. Second, they planned their schedule and route, deciding not to stop for this leg of the trip. Due to their experience in sailing, Mr. and Mrs. Conway knew they could handle many days at sea. Chris had already completed the Trans-Atlantic race, and Erica already had experience in racing. Finally, they needed enough supplies because they weren’t stopping for up to ten days. The Conways brought 220 gallons of water and enough food to last that long. They prepared and froze food so they could easily heat it up for hot meals. Also, they had medical supplies, even things like seasickness patches in case they got seasick. Life jackets were mandatory. In addition, they needed school supplies for the children’s boat-schooling. After all this preparation, no wonder the Conways had a positive outcome to this part of their trip.

In order to sail from North Carolina to St. Thomas they needed to plan every step of the way. Everyone had jobs to do, especially the adults. Erica and Bruce, the grandfather, took turns steering, with four hour shifts. Chris was available to fix anything that broke and steer the ship when the seas got rough. The children’s job was mainly to stay occupied and not get in the way. No boat-schooling was scheduled because Erica was busy steering the boat and because of the intense seas it was too hard to write. Instead, to keep the children engaged during this journey they gave them a gift every day. For example, one day they got a puzzle, another day they got colored duct tape. The Conways needed strategies to make the supplies last up to ten days, with water being the hardest to conserve. A sign was put up at the sink saying, “STOP! 220 gallons of water, 6 people, 10 days!” Wipes were used for washing hands whenever possible. Salt water showers replaced fresh water showers. Even though it was a long eight days, they were successful because of their plan.

This long stretch of their tremendous journey taught them many things, not only about how to live on a boat but how their family works as a team. They got through this 1,441.08 mile journey by helping each other and working together. They survived ten foot waves by entertaining each other with skits about mutiny and even had costumes! Erica writes about her extreme pride for her children for cooperating and playing together without complaining. Each family member had equal responsibility to help make this trip a success. This part of their venture wasn’t just a vacation but work filled with challenges they had to overcome. Conserving water, food and electricity, not having a washing machine and crammed space for eight days in a row all made it challenging. However, nothing beat the sight of the beautiful Caribbean mountains, which made every hardship of the trip worth it.

Sailing from Beaufort, NC to St. Thomas was a success for the Conway Sailors. They anticipated any problems that would happen on this long, difficult journey and with their plan in place they made the best of it. Thanks to their endless supplies and careful preparation beforehand, their trip went smoothly. With the help of some special strategies that they had in place such as a job for everyone and having things to keep the children occupied, Erica and Chris Conway and their children made this a triumphant trip. Though it was demanding it was worth it because now they can say they have been on a “real” ocean passage. Their family has sailed one thousand miles without stopping, which means they qualify for the Ocean Cruising Club! This will definitely be a trip the Conways will remember and cherish forever.

Thanks again, Anna, and all the students who spent time writing about our family’s journey!  We loved reading your articles!

No matter how far we sail, we are constantly reminded that the world is indeed a very small place.  Last week, we were hunkered down in Soper’s Hole, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, getting ready for our passage to the Bahamas.  One day, a catamaran took the mooring right next to us in the very large, boat-filled harbor.  One of the people on the boat saw the name of our boat and recognized it from Harry Potter.  She pointed it out to the teenage boy on board and he said, “That’s the boat we’ve been reading about in Mr. Whittier’s class!”  Sure enough, young Peter is one of Bert Whittier’s students.

We paddled over and had a lovely conversation with this super family.  They had just finished ten days sailing all over the BVIs on a chartered boat, a long-time dream of Peter’s father.  They had ducked into Soper’s Hole for a few hours to get out of the strong winds en route to Norman’s Island.  It was really something else to make this connection down south in the Caribbean, to a friend we made all the way back in Maine.  The few moments we shared with this family will not be forgotten.  We were happy to meet them and thrilled that they enjoyed a wonderful time together in the beautiful Caribbean!