Hibernation is my excuse for a nearly 2 months gap since my December 28 post. The Arctic Blast has kept the temperature here under freezing at night and barely above during the day. I slept on the boat for a few days after the launch just after Christmas. My friends, the Orzos, took me in again. Jeannette let me use her car to pick up the folding bike from Rhon Nelson in Kinsale in Northern Virginia. I also picked up the used Furlex furling drum, I bought last summer, from a boat salvage store in Maryland on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay bridge that connects to Annapolis. The furling drum is meant to replace a broken part on the Amsterdam “Fleetwood III”.
The folding bike is nearly new and it is identical to the West Marine bike that was given to me on April 1st 2009, in Fort Lauderdale, Fl, by my friends Marlys and Greg Clark as a birthday present and replacement for the folding bike that was stolen on my birthday in Puerto Rico. This is the Ninth bike since my April 2005 departure on my global sailing adventure. The 2009 version was put to good use during the Europe visit and went down with “Fleetwood I” on November 16 2013 in my first shipwreck, after having served me well through 23 countries.
Number 9
Number 5
It is a difficult to imagine that we are iced in when we are here below the 38th latitude. Same as Tunis. We were watching the Super Bowl at a friend’s home, a beautiful southern mansion, built before they insulated the walls and floors. Most of the rooms had little or no heating. Our room had some but we shivered under blankets and Santa Clara, where the Seahawks clobbered the Patriots, is at the same latitude, and playing in short sleeves.
Stuck in the ICE
There is still a fair list of chores to get the boat ready for blue water sailing again. The earliest appointment I could get to have a primary care doctor check out a few concerns, through the VA, is on March 5th. About two weeks ago I noticed that I was having vision problems. It turned out to be a flare-up of Herpes-simplex virus. The first problem happened about 30 years ago and was mis-diagnosed and left my right eye with permanent scars. The VA turned out to be useless to help out. The ophthalmologist turned out to be referred to after I have my 1st visit with the primary care doctor. By that time I’d be walking with a red and white cane and a guide dog. Yesterday, I shelled down $480 for a tiny tube of gel cream. But it almost instantly improved my vision. The VA could have saved me that expense if this had happened a month later. Or if this had happened near my home port VA where I had my check-up the day before Thanksgiving.
The next date for any possible action on my court case, against the crook who sold me the boat in Holland, is March 11. This may affect my plans for a possible visit to the Netherlands.
Since the summer I have had problems with my Facebook account. I was required to login and receive a security code, which they sent to my previous email address, without a way to access my account. So, I opened a new account but that turned into a mess, but I managed to get into my old account again. But now I have lost a number of my friends. I have all the names I lost. So, if you receive a friend request from me and wish to stay part of my friends, please, accept the invitation. Facebook refuses, until now, to let me delete the newer account. I have posted on it that this is not the Real Jack van Ommen and the link to the Real account: https://www.facebook.com/jackvanommen?ref=brem
Wishing my Asian friends a Happy Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse.
This is happening on my twin brother’s 89th Birthday:
