Today is a significant date. First and foremost, it is my husband’s birthday. Aaron, the Captain of our boat and my heart, was born in 1964 and is 56 today. He unselfishly gives of his time and talent, and most of all, Love, to his friends and family. He is completely devoted to our three Grands and drops everything to care for them. He coaches Little League, builds props for my daughter’s photography business, mans the barbecue and is known as the “Tickle Monster” by the GrandBoys. He’s a great role model for Cody and Matthew, and Ellie is definitely a “Papy’s Girl.” This from a guy who never had children of his own and became a step-father when my kids were teens! We are blessed to have him in our lives.
Last year Aaron completed his 30th year as an IBEW 595 Union Electrician. He is now eligible for retirement but is still working to support our family until we are ready to begin our life away from the marina. He continues to work on essential systems on Sonho, study and play guitar, and is a desired crew member in the Estuary and Bay racing scene.
April 16, 2019 was our original Bon Voyage party date to cut the docklines and begin our circumnavigation. Aaron’s necessary hip replacement surgery and my daughter’s divorce kept us in the Bay Area and so we reset the date to April 16, 2020. Once again, our well-laid plans were way-laid: I became a candidate for a bone anchored hearing aid, which was implanted in my skull in March. I will need to be stateside for at least six months to ensure the wound has healed and the device is working before heading offshore.
And then the coronavirus hit. We are definitely glad that we are not in a foreign country and having to figure out provisioning while sheltering in place. Many countries won’t allow boaters to even leave their boat to swim and are very specific about how and when they can get groceries. So a fall departure is no longer our expectation. We’ll go when it is safe to travel and aren’t setting a date yet.
Finally, April 16, 2018 is the date I started this blog. I created it with the goal of writing about our preparation and then our travels on our circumnavigation, to share our adventures with family and friends. It has become my muse; my motivation to hone my love of words with story-making and the creation of recipes in my tiny galley. In the past year, I have posted a blog at the very least one time a week and have found so much joy and amazement in the statistics of the readership. I have no idea what qualifies a blog as successful, but here are my two year anniversary stat’s:
- 156 posts
- 8,942 views
- 4,923 visitors
- 2,435 views of my home page
- Top viewed Sonho posts are:
365 Days & Counting – My first post when we set the first date of April 16, 2019 to depart
Living the Dream … One Year Delayed – When we had to change our date of departure
Life Happens … Change of Course, Again – When we changed the date, yet again - Most read personal stories are:
Fear Creeping at My Heart – My story of my daughter’s life-threatening blood loss and emergency surgery after giving birth to our granddaughter (as my daughter says, “Everyone loves a good near-death story!”)
The Shape of Grief – My story of grieving the loss of my beloved Nana
Dancing in Heaven – My story of my dear friend, Kat Davis, and her final days on this earth. - For the past year I’ve rotated between posting a weekly recipe and short-story and the creation of both gives me tremendous joy and have been well-received and followed by complete strangers that have found me via the WordPress search engine.
- 8,095 viewers are from the United States
- 246 viewers are from the UK/Ireland/Australia (thanks, Benson Family!)
- Other viewer countries include just about every place on the earth … Germany, China, France, India, Denmark Switzerland, Israel, Malaysia, Croatia, Ghana, Latvia … just to name a handful and which I find fascinating!
Thank you to my sister writers from To Live and Write in Alameda … Bronwyn Emery, Marise Phillips, Robin Heyden … who nurtured, taught and held me accountable to meet my goal of creating a blog. They have become dear friends and continue to support my growth as a writer. Love you, ladies!!!
And thank you, dear readers, for taking the time to follow life aboard SV Sonho, read my short stories and enjoy my recipes as we Live our Dream!
Vivo O Sonho … Alameda today, the open ocean when the time is right!
