Maxi 95 and Our Adventures
Hilary has Alzheimer’s and cruises on Caro Babbo. These are our experiences.
Hilary doesn’t yet visit me in my dreams but she will. When time enough passes that she and I should have seen each other by now, she will appear to fulfill that timetable. I wonder if she’ll speak or just be present, communicating by her heat next to my face.
Seattle, WA, 14-JUL-2019 – The radar is installed and working, so is the new autohelm.
Continue reading “One last round with Hilary”
Jennifer is starting a memoir about our time sailing with Hilary. This is a four-minute piece, when read out loud, that Jennifer wrote for a seminar she attended. The event described took place in 2016.
Date: Friday, May 3, 2019 at 1:35 PM
Topic: rough draft 4 minutes memoir
Hilary is my mother.
At the deepest extent of our swing we were in over 60 feet, but when the tide reversed we had drifted and settled such that our keel was two feet above the bottom. The next low was forecast to be three feet lower, so John and I set up a double anchor system, one off the bow in deeper water and the Danforth off the stern in shallower. We could thus pull ourselves out into deeper water if the clearance between the bottom of the keel and the ground grew too nervous-making for me. Positioned in this way, with the golden sun filtering down through the clear water and hints of fantastic wildlife just around every bush and boulder, John started the task of fixing the Webasto heater.
I was looking through the binoculars at shore watching for bears or another wolverine, and Hilary was puttering in her way: untying the stopper knots in the jib sheets and coiling the lines into kinks. Why not let her, I thought, as we weren’t traveling that day and it was so serene and lovely.
Continue reading “rough draft 4 minutes memoir”At 7:42 pm, Atlanta time, Jennifer sent a text: ‘‘30 breaths per minute, hard, normal is 12-15.’’ At 7:54pm, ‘‘37 bpm.’’
Lake Union, Seattle, WA, 5:30 am PT, 12-Apr-2019 – At 6:03 am this morning, Atlanta time, with Jennifer holding her hand, Hilary drew her last breath and breathed no more.
Her passing was as Jennifer has hoped, peaceful and quiet. Jennifer was with her and Hilary was not afraid.
7-APR-2019, Port Townsend, WA – Contranym – a word that is its own opposite. The noun mangle and verb mangle are life at the moment. A mangle is a machine with rollers that smooth cloth. I think of them as the wringer rollers on a washing machine, or the machines that iron sheets in a hotel. The verb is to destroy usually by twisting and cutting.
Hilary is dying. It blots out much of what I intended to write about.
Continue reading “Life is a Mangle”She stood in front of the temple and spread herself upon the wind, thinner and thinner, until only the wind remained.
Apollo referring to Hera in Star Trek episode 33, Who Mourns for Adonis
Decatur, GA USA, 6-NOV-2017 – Two months. I’ve never gone two months without posting.
I write enough about Hilary that this blog might be called Caro Babbo and Hilary, and so this post will primarily be about Hilary.
When I started writing this blog, Hilary was far along in her Alzheimer’s dementia, but she retained a lovely personality and was the star of Caro Babbo, remembered, loved and called to by everyone we met. Truly, Jennifer and I were known as the two people with Hilary.
By the time we left this year in May 2017, Hilary was disappearing. Hilary’s world was smaller and people we met would take Jennifer or me aside to tell us this was too much for two people to handle. Continue reading “Hilary in Atlanta”
Port Townsend, WA, 7-SEP-2017 – This year’s trip is over. Caro Babbo is in her slip at Lee’s landing. Jennifer, Hilary and I are back in Port Townsend for the next few weeks before we start our fall travels: We’ll spend most of the fall at my residence in Atlanta, with time in Phoenix, New York and, for Jennifer, Berlin. Continue reading “Trip over, Caro Babbo is in her slip.”
27-AUG-2017, just outside Pender Harbour – We’ve come to realize that the adventure is over for the year.
It is warm here, in the 20sC, 70sF. We haven’t worn foulies or even long trousers in a couple of days. The locals tell us its only rained for four days since May: It has been a glorious summer. Continue reading “Adventure over, Home waters”
This was written a few days ago and is being posted today, 15th of August, 2017 as we motor by Klemtu, while we have a connection. Other posts that have video and pictures may not make it during this window.
13-AUG-2017, Curlew Cove, Fin Island, Wright Sound, BC – Jennifer has become unabashed about getting us home.
The trip has deconstructed into life under siege: of the weather and Hilary.
I wonder whether Hilary is just the excuse for not being productive, for not having as much fun as I would like, for not enjoying the trip as much as we’d like, but I think it is not so much of an excuse as that we have started to buckle under the load. We need a reboot, a step away or a vacation. Continue reading “Denouement – heading home”
4-AUG-2017, Wrangle, AK – A quick status on this and that: Hilary is requiring more and more energy, both physical and emotional. Aside from some flares up between Jennifer and me, which are never related to Hilary, the only impact has been on blogging. I’m sorry.
The weather has turned into San Diego weather, hooray.
As I write this Jennifer has discovered we need to leave, NOW, in order to make a current change.
We’re good, the weather is fine and the stove is working again… Clogged fuel lines, of all things. Many, many great pictures to post.
The AIS has been signaling errors. I noticed this yesterday. The light on the unit is moving between red (possibly orange) and green.
We’re seeing the RSSI numbers move from high -90s to -60s on both channels (A and B) but generally it is B that has the problem. We receive oaky, but may be having trouble transmitting.
This could be an antenna problem, or a unit problem. I lean towards the unit because nothing that a I know of physically has changed and the unit has worked well the entire trip so far.
Continue reading “Some electronic issues”
