Tuesday June 22, 50th wedding anniversary, Dodging gales.

Written by Jack van Ommen on June 22nd, 2009

At 15.30 hour I was at 32.27 N 69.25 W with 237 miles to Bermuda. I am crawling east ward. Trying to avoid the 40 knots winds that will hit Bermuda, to-night through Wednesday. So, just sort of wallowing, rock and rolling, eastward at about 2 knots, without sails. The winds were only in the 15/20 knot range and sunny. I managed to get some rigging issues fixed. Read and slept. Fire works on the horizon last night and several showers. There will be a repeat to-night, judging from the towering dark clouds. Thursday will be a good day to enter Bermuda. What would I do without Herb Hilgenberg? A number of boats are on the South Bound II net that are returning to Newport, R.I. from the annual Newport-Bermuda race. And from the bits and pieces I could gather it apparently was a lively race. With some dismastings. Also, a French boat capsized near Halifax and one of the two crew members washed overboard, drowned.

In the “mass” mail, I asked for your prayers. Many of you responded with affirmations. Thank you! My faith is my primary anchor but we all prefer to keep that private and avoid annoying our friends of a different conviction. When I rode back on the bus from Santo Domingo (Holy Sunday) in the Dominican Republic on a Sunday, last March, there was this simple campesino, who asked the bus driver if it was o.k. for him to read a part of the bible to all on the bus. Then he asked all on the bus. Practically everyone approved. And I discovered that many more of you than I would have expected approved. I love you all!

To-day, 50 years ago I was married to Joan, we met in the chair lift at Mammoth Mountain in April 1958. It lasted 13 years. Could have, should have… Yesterday, was Father’s day. All three daughters remembered but the two sons, as usual, only remember their own birthdays. One of these days, I am going to research why so many boys in the U.S.A. do not separate themselves from their toys and games till they are middle age, or never, or a good woman shows them that there is a world beyond their play pen. I will not get in trouble for this because the ones who should heed this will be too busy with their games to bother reading this.

 

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