Seriously, truly and really... I'VE WRITTEN A BOOK!

I know, I know ~ writing in all caps means I'm screaming at you, but truth be told, I totally am!

"18 days" is my book of 50,000 words, give or take. That's somewhere in the vicinity of 275 pages but that number changes pending your device and font size. It chronicles the days that took place as we planned and then executed a rescue mission for Banyan. There's photos to start every chapter. Why, it's an absolute pager turner!!

Don't hoist your sails yet, here's the Introduction:



So why did I write a book about our rescue mission?

When the Cap'n and I sailed to Guatemala two years ago, making Catamaran Marina Banyan's home, we immediately got involved with some of the other cruisers also berthed there. Relying solely on donations, "the Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala" are the hands and feet on the ground working directly with and alongside the Guatemalan people in remote communities: bringing medical supplies, food and clothing, repairing schools and orphanages, building desks so the children have something to sit on and write at.

Then? In October and November of 2020, two back to back hurricanes Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota, wreaked havoc in this area. Did you know that the UN's WMO (World Meteorological Organization) just retired the names Eta and Iota because of their devastating destruction? As of this posting some communities and homes are STILL digging out from all that flooding and mud, washed out roads, and with no access to food, drinking water or even shovels to dig themselves out and dry. Sigh.

On November 27th, when we returned to Canada following Banyan's rescue mission and began our fourth quarantine of 2020, we felt we wanted to do something as we couldn't be in Guatemala ourselves, volunteering our own hands and feet and time. But what could we do from here?

I knew I might write a blog about our latest "adventure" (aka rescue mission) but as I wrote the words evolved into something bigger and bolder and the idea of my first ever E-book was born. Then I had another idea ~ I would sell it as an e-book and send proceeds to "Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala""

What a learning curve all this has been (hmm, maybe that's another book in the making?), but the joy was truly in the journey. When I reached out to a fellow author for some words of wisdom, Mark told me that "writing is the easy part" and boy was he write, oops I mean right! What an S.O.B autocorrect is which could be a whole other book.

It's not as easy as one would think to just "hit" publish via the digital routes of Amazon and Kindle et al. It's somewhat cost prohibitive as well when my goal at the moment is simply to send helping dollars directly to the group we belong to and not have corporate giants swallow my hard written words with royalties and fees. I also didn't want to spend a year trying to release my story as I feel that my words are time sensitive and pertinent to now: COVID-19, daring to travel during a pandemic, crossing borders, rescue mission, diving with alligators... OK, maybe alligators aren't pertinent right now, but they're in the book!

Ebooks are great and a space saver when one travels, but there's nothing like handling a real book, turning real pages, all comfy cozy and drinking a cuppa. Eventually I would really like to have my printed book sitting on my coffee table in my living room. Better yet, I could be signing the inside front cover with my very own personal message for you, how cool would that be?

But for now, I'm sticking with an e-book and going all indie rogue. Y'all with me?

Being Canadians, it soon became apparent that this was going to be even more complex, complicated and a true P.I.T.A. Due to Pay Pal issues (I couldn't withdraw money from our PayPal account unless it's in U.S. dollars from a U.S. account in a U.S. bank. I won't tell you how long that took!), the solution was for me to set the cost of the book to U.S. dollars for everyone everywhere.

I researched Patreon but they've removed the one time purchase button, I turned to GoFundMe but I wanted more than what they offered. I looked at Shopify, but at the moment I have one item and no personal website, so the hefty monthly fees don't compute for my desired charitable effort. So on and so forth, I was totally pulling my hair out and reaching for another cup of coffee!

Then Siri, who was undoubtedly listening in the background, might've heard me mumbling about another coffee for all of a sudden the Universe nudged a new website my way: "Buy me a Coffee" (BMAC) Was it telling me I needed more caffeine to figure all this out? Hell yes!

Made for indie authors and creators, BMAC is a fun platform to use. You can follow me, support my words and work and if you feel so inclined, by 'buying me a coffee.' AND best of all I can offer EXTRAS for you to purchase, extras such as my e-book!

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THE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUY MY BOOK ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG but wait, keep reading before you skip ahead.

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I want to thank you for buying my book and not just freely passing it around ~ remember the proceeds are for a good cause!

Speaking of thank you's ~ I'd like to seize this moment and this space to send special thanks to my VIP's: to Simona, for the idea of channeling my angst into words, to the Cap'n without whom this would not have been possible, and to Darren and Michelle, both of you provided me with a different type of encouragement. To all of you I promise to never again write a word with a capital letter unless it appears after a period. I'd like to send some extra sweet beignets to fellow adventurer and author of some really adorable Cozy Mysteries series Ellen Jacobson for her perfectly apostrophe'd comments and last but not least, a special thank you to fellow author Mark Piper, for the elephant in the room (just kidding), but your checking up on me and your words of wisdom touched my soul. You have all taken precious time and energy to read, proof and provide invaluable corrections. You've been vital in my journey and I appreciate every second of every minute of your honesty, motivation and encouragement!

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Please share the link to this blog, or the BMAC link on your social media. Facebook the hell out of this, Instagram it, Tweet on! Tell all your friends and family, so they can tell all their friends and family, and so on...

Can this be the newest best-seller? Maybe even a movie in the making? Hmm I wonder who would act the part of the Cap'n and me?

You never know but one thing I do know: ya gotta dream big, 'cause the Universe is listening. Exactement!

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HOW TO BUY MY BOOK

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Click this: "Link to Banyan Travels on the Buy Me a Coffee page"

You'll be directed to my home page and beside my "home" button you'll see the "EXTRAS" tab. Click it and you'll be directed to the EXTRAS page, where you'll see the large photo icon of my book.

Click on the photo. Follow the prompts. Basically with one "GET THIS" click it's available for you to purchase for $6 U.S. dollars.

When the payment is processed, you'll get a confirmation email from me.

Follow the DropBox link and you will find an 18 days folder that contains 2 versions of my book: Epub or MOBI.

If you're already a DropBox user, then great, you know what to do.

If you're not, you DON'T NEED TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT. Just click on the version you want, hit the download button and it'll transfer to your device. Open it and start reading !

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THANK YOU

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Oh and y'all know how much I love comments... Email me, message me, get in touch, I'd love to hear from you. And if you think I did some good, why not head back to my BMAC page, and "buy me a coffee?"


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Tags: Banyan, Sailors, Cruisers, Long term cruising, sailing lifestyle, cruising lifestyle, Travel, Jeanneau, Sailboats, Banyan, banyantravels, Snowbirds, Canadian Navy, Department of National Defence, the Chief, Cap'n, Admiral, Java Heaven, Coffee Snob, COVID-19, #wtf2020, Adventuring, Travel, Living your Dreams, Volunteering, How to retire, Plan your Retirement, Plan your Dreams, Live your Dreams, Reiki, Reiki Master, Chakra cleansing, healing vibes, Canada, Belize, Guatemala, Catamaran Marina, Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala, Slovenia, Germany, Quebec, Nova Scotia, PEI, Hurricane Nana, Hurricane Eta, Hurricane Iota. Armchair travel. Armchair rescue. Rescue Mission. Travel burnout. Coffee snob. Quarantine. Isolation. We live to adventure and we adventure to live.

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Well, what can we say about this last season other than... WOW and WHAT!?!

What enormous changes have transpired in just one year: AGAIN! Resulting in a total WOW and WHAT type of year, followed by WOW and What is going on in this beautiful precious world we live in?

Sitting here in true isolated comfort, pyjama pants on, in our third 14 day Quarantine period,



we are still and sadly shaking our heads every single time we listen to, read or hear of the news happening across the world. Emotions on a daily basis range from disbelief, shock, sadness, anxiety. And yet interspersed are smiles from witnessing incredible bursts of kindness, support and love.

We're privileged enough that on the inside life feels pretty darn normal. And when we look outside? EVERYTHING has changed.

As an intuitive empath, this has been a very strange year for me. An odd discomfort weighted my spirit last year and I have felt totally out of balance. I felt like the planets were not orbiting around my head or my heart. Nothing has felt right for a long time. The best way to express my soul is that I felt like I was standing on the cusp of an abyss: that almost dreadful feeling that comes before change happens.

So the current state of affairs finds me inside in Prince Edward Island, at Kindred Spirits, in my pyjamas, writing this blog. Almost exactly where we were planning and hoping to be at this time of the year, except that there are now some new words in my vocabulary. Words such as Quarantine, Pandemic, LockDown, Isolation and Social Distancing to mention but a few.

So, Season 8, eh? On the Adventurous side it's been an Amazing WOW. Unfortunately it comes along with one helluva WHAT?

If you're just joining us, why not get caught up with our Seven Seasons of Past Adventures written up in a Side Effects type of Blog:

Season One: Untitled
Season Two: "Out of Control"
Season Three: "Ho-Hum"
Season Four: "Jus' From"
Season Five: "OnOn!"
Season Six : "ZoomZoom"
Season Seven: "The Year of the Cookie"

And that dear Family, Friends and Followers is where we last left you: Delivering {{ and Eating! }} Cookies !!

It was fall and the Tourist Season that is PEI was winding down. We had an amazing summer: friends and family came to visit and we couldn't spend as much time with as we wanted because? We were "working!". And best surprise of all? We throughly enjoyed our time *working* so we signed on to return here next year. WOW.

We were excitedly making plans to drive our MoHo to Texas somewhere {{ flights out of Texas to Guatemala were direct, easy and cheap! }}, and once there we would find a storage facility to store her, and fly out to our lovely Banyan, which was waiting for us in the RIO DULCE, Guatemala. WOW, right? I mean {{ jumping up and down }} how awesome a Season was this shaping up to be? Aren't you excited or What??

Then we listed our MoHo for sale {{ sigh }}. Wait, what?



We posted some photos and blurbs, and quietly spread the word. These things take time, we knew, and we sort of figured if it was meant to happen, it would.

We really loved our time with our Leisure Travel Van, and we really, really wanted to keep her: she is/was THE PERFECT ADVENTURE VEHICLE of all, and for us, and we wanted to keep adventuring with her, but. But... we had long range plans that we needed to/wanted to make happen, and somehow, something had to give in order for it all to... happen.

Anyways, nothing was happening. Until? It all happened at once. A whole bunch of emails from a whole bunch of people, all wanting to see her over one weekend... wow! Talk about stressful! The end result was... SOLD! What ?

It all happened so fast, so easily and so effortlessly {{ isn't that when you know you're on the right path?}} but best of all? MoHo went to a lovely couple who we know will LOVE her as much as we do {{ did }}, and when we went to deliver? Found out that we all had friends in common, what fun!

Then? Devastating Hurricane Dorian!! Which turned into Post-Tropical Storm as it smashed through Cavendish, PEI. What?



We had @RoamingAbout friends touring through that got stuck here with us,



but we couldn't even show them around or visit properly, because? Storm! No power, and all hands on deck. Picking up logs and branches and leaves, helping out in any way we could. The beautiful trails to the beach were... impassable. And the tourism industry shut down a few weeks early because of a Hurricane in PEI.

Now that we didn't have wheels anymore, we had to find a different way to get to Guatemala. We found a cheap flight out of TO, then needed to figure out how we would get from Nova Scotia to there. So... Train! What?



I'd never been on one before, so we had a bit of fun planning this Adventure. The Ocean line, with an overnight sleeper cabin



on the train from Halifax to Quebec,



for time with family, that included all sorts of fun: like dressing up for a Murder Mystery Supper;



and especially thankful for Thanksgiving Turducken.



Fall Fun of all sorts of colours.



They really do yell "ALL ABOARD" to get passengers onboard!!



OnOn to family and friends in Ottawa, then friends in Oakville, then a plane ride with amazing views over Long Cay, LightHouse Reef, where Dave declared "I"m going to sail Banyan there!"



Finally landing in the intense heat that is Honduras, where we had a 4 hour drive that got us back to Banyan, and our Catamaran family.



It took us almost a week to get out of our air conditioned cabin and into our boat before we could even think about acclimatizing. No air conditioner, remember? And none to be found and bought for three weeks!

We helped Steve, the Dockmaster, rebuild parts and pieces for the El Bongo Schooldesks



so that the children have something to sit on, write on, and be at when {{and if }} they get to go to classes.

This was followed by an intense three weeks as the Cruisers of Catamaran marina pulled together to refurbish a school in the community of El Amatillo for a project spearheaded by David and Janice, our friends on Livin'Life.



It was a lot of work,



and without a doubt the most humbling and yet



soul-filling thing we have ever done in our lives. Sure makes you reevaluate EVERYTHING about your own life.

We settled into a wonderful routine and loved every minute of it. I even taught Yoga/Pilates, how fun was that?

We had family come visit us over the Holidays,



and then friends arrived,



and we had many laughs and Shenanigans {{ was there a doubt? }}



as we Adventured about Guatemala with cough syrup and a box of Kleenex in hand.

Mayan Ruins?



OMG



and layers upon walls of rocks that, when exposed, left us viewing even more marvel,



which really made us wonder about this culture, and just WHAT happened to these people? {{and for my reading friends, get your copy of "The Lost City of the Monkey God" by D.Preston. You'll read it and go WHAT?? True story! }}

Where I had an incredibly spiritual experience helping this Mayan lady with the blue headscarf,



climb up an uncountable number of stairs on her own Spiritual Journey,



to the top of this Temple.

Let me tell you there is nothing that gets you running out of a hike faster than hearing Howler Monkeys!



And walks included a whole different type of traffic



In Antigua there was talk of climbing one volcano to look at another,



but we didn't quite find ourselves ready for The Big One.

So we found another active volcano to hike,



one that had us roasting marshmallows by the hot fissures



Wow!

Then talk turned to leaving the Rio for a bit of a cruise... friends were flying into Belize, and we were planning to converge in Caye Caulker to meet up with them for a week of fun!

Our plan was to leave the Rio, clear out of Guatemala, get tipped {{ shudder }},



sail to Belize and clear in, then sail straight up to new cruising grounds: let the fun and games begin!



After our cruising, we would return to the Rio for some work we'd arranged with RAM Marina, fly home for our daughter's wedding and a second summer of work at Kindred Spirits, and in delighted anticipation, had flights booked for May 1st. Sounds good, right?

During all this time, my anxiety hit an all time high, and there was nothing to ease my... unease.



There was some talk about a Coronavirus happening *out there*, you know.. in some place called Wuhan? Someone had eaten a bat or something? I don't know.

After our friends left, I nattered about taking the March high tides back into Guatemala, get started on our work earlier rather than later. But we talked ourselves out of it. I mean, blue skies, blue waters and Belize, right?

We cruised, and sailed, and met up with old friends. Made new ones. And we heard and read the news which was getting a tad... more alarming? There were cases flying to North America "of course". The Caribbean was fine "this too shall pass" we said, although we kind of wondered at the tourists flying into here on a daily basis. Schitt started to feel real as we shopping the many Chinese supermarkets and noticed people walking around with masks.

We disconnected ourselves from the collective and went adventuring in Belize's outer atolls, with some magnificent snorkelling experiences,



sailing in some pretty shallow pucker factor waters as I stood on the bow and pointed directions to Dave as he oh so carefully and oh so gently glided Banyan's keel over the magnificent reefs at Lighthouse Reef, just like he'd hoped. WOW!

We anchored by, swam and snorkelled Jacques Cousteau's (in)famous Blue Hole.


(Photo Credit: SV Vela)

Sat in our cockpit under diamond studded night skies, skies that looked like they were alive and breathing with the pulse of our combined awestruck breaths.

Through the different Cruisers information networks, we were starting to feel that something was growing and pardon the pun, spreading. News was getting a tad more frantic, numbers were increasing. Borders were starting to close, countries were shutting down. There's a fine line of balance between being disconnected and imaging that it will all be "fine" and blown over by the time *we* get back to land, and looking at each other with some bit of anxiety as we tried to get a good grip and feel for exactly WHAT was happening.

Cell service in Placencia allowed for a stream of messages from family and friends, dinging in rapid succession on our respective devices. The RIO had shut down: OK, we're not getting back there {{ besides with a deep draft boat, even if we could, the timings were all wrong.}} The Belizian airport was shutting down Monday: OK, no chance of getting a flight out then. We still felt we were in safer waters on our own boat. We would just reprovision and head back out for a couple of weeks, right?

Home from one such provisioning spree, we were simultaneously storing things in galley cupboards and checking the news. The Canadian Prime Minister urging Canadians to come home. Our family and friends nervous for us. They had a better handle of the situation than we did, but here, there were still no cases on our islands.

Then a FB post from the Canadian Embassy scrolled by. The Canadian govt had sponsored a WestJet Charter Flight to help bring stranded Canadians home. {{ We looked at each other: Stranded ? }}

We fact checked and sure enough it was real news. There were seats available, the prices were reasonable. However we still felt that the safest place would be on our boat, isolated, waiting for this storm to pass.

We revisited our options:

Take the flight in three days: Could we ready the boat? A {{ rushed }} yes. Would there be another flight? Who knows {{ We were now officially *stranded*. We definitely didn't want to be *those* people that didn't take the opportunity when it appeared.}} What do YOU do when your government tells you to "come home". Where would we go? The flight was into ON, where our boys lived. They offered to take us in. My sister had already offered up her place in Quebec.

We talked about sailing Banyan back to her home in Halifax, Canada. We talked about staying put.

And if we stayed put? We would be healthy on our boat, for now. But. What if one of us falls sick: would these islands have the infrastructure, tools and adequate facilities? We were already a little weary about some personal health issues that we were waiting to address once back home this summer. What about access to land? Access to food? And although we deal with weather all the time, we did know that H-Season was out there, looming its ugly head.

We sent emails to our summer employers saying we were heading out of WiFi range, but still intended on taking our already booked May 1st flight home. To our family that we were fine but would be out of cell range for a few weeks. It was all going to be ok, right?

And we digested our decision over lunch.

Through a series of events, one that included a meltdown, we, in a matter of seconds did a 180. WOW, what?

The Marina in Sapodilla had room for us. We booked. The flight (three hours after we first checked) had two seats open. We booked. We weighed anchor and motored into the wind and waves for four hours in an attempt to get to the Marina before sunset. When we tied up alongside,



we immediately went to work using every available hour of light to our advantage.



The next morning, Randy the manager, was to come check us in. He didn't show. We continued to work. There was talk amongst the cruisers about a staff meeting, rumours of the marina shutting down. We continued to work with thumping heartbeats. What if we were told to leave?

Finally around lunchtime, Randy walked down the dock towards us, a phone in each hand, clearly perturbed. His first words were to confirm that the marina was, as of that morning, closed. For the next two weeks. No one was allowed in. But... we were allowed to stay. I don't need to tell you that twice, in the space of two days, I cried. Wow.

Preparations for Banyan's storage, marine and C&I formalities were proceeding well. All that food we'd bought? We gave it all to the Security Staff that had volunteered to self isolate, away from their families, in the marina, for the next two weeks.

We were also trying to find a way to get to the Airport. The puddle jumper could leave Dangriga, but because the airport was closed, they were not able to land. The Canadian Embassy could not help us. We tried every available taxi service until one WhatsApped back with a yes. Met fellow Canadian snowbirds who didn't even know about the flight and they too did a 180 and in the space of two days cleared their house and we offered them a ride in our taxi: masks and hand wipes and all.

When we neared the airport, it was strange to see it all so empty. West Jet was the only kiosk open,



distancing was in effect, and health questions were asked.



Where we realized we had done EVERYTHING to get ready, except think of food for ourselves for the day. We had brought water but honestly, were afraid to drink it, as we didn't want to have to use the bathrooms. WOW. WestJet had no food: after all, they'd arranged to repatriate us, not feed us1

Would you believe that we had found some N95 masks on board Banyan {{ that we had bought for bottom job purposes}}, we had our own wipes {{ Huggies baby wipes with a bottle of Alcohol poured in}}.



We landed in Toronto, grabbed our bags from the very empty airport terminal, got handed a Covid FactSheet, and picked up our Rental Car. Seriously? Talk about Smooth Sailing.

Driving the midnight hours of darkness, we were instantly aware of how empty the roads were. Starving, we stopped at the first EnRoute Rest Stop we saw, a place that is usually full of travellers: tonight? There were two people there. Tables and chairs had been security taped together so you couldn't sit. Thankfully the bathroom was open, but just how do you spell anxious relief. The A&W clerk took our order, and a few what's were said as we tried to not only speak, but understand each other through masks.

You'd never seen two happier people as we ran back to the safe confines of our car with our burgers, onion rings, fries and Root Beer: our first food of the very long day. We wiped everything down, inhaled our food, and Dave drove the last two hours to reach our son's place by 2 a.m. Where we spent six weeks in ON with our boys, who had agreed to Quarantine along with us.

And sad that we couldn't visit with our dear friends who lived just around the corner.



We were coming to terms with the results of our choices. Had we done the right thing? Our cruising friends were still having fun in the sand, surf and sun. However life in the islands for many cruisers was changing: COVID19 had come to the Caribbean. Boats were being restricted to the anchorage they were in. They couldn't go ashore. They couldn't leave their boat. They couldn't even go swimming, some rules just didn't make sense, like WHAT?

And on land? Numbers everywhere were climbing. The days flew by and we sat there looking out the window watching the snow melt. It was the first time in 8 YEARS that we'd seen, touched and felt SNOW. When our 14 days were up, we could walk ever larger loops around the block. We were free to go to the grocery store, where only one person per family could enter, and where I stood in line in the rain, six feet behind the person in front of me, shuddered every time someone sneezed, and waited for my turn to buy... Toilet Paper! {{ OK, just kidding, but they were all out of flour! }}



We amused ourselves by celebrating birthdays, building birdhouses with whatever materials we could find,



played games, and ate way too much.

Then it was time to make a move. We reserved a spot on the train, got asked a series of health questions, and satisfied with our answers we were allowed to board. Once again, with our masks and newly made disinfectant wipes, forgot our premade lunch,



but a {{ free }} Food Box saved the day. Another two week countdown started.

We were used to the drill now. This time we amused ourselves by celebrating birthdays, sewing masks



playing games and eating way too much.

Our kindred spirits at Kindred Spirits had offered to be our sponsors and PEI Health Department approved the application. We packed our bags, got into our rental car {{talk about deals for rental cars these days !!}}, where the first checkpoint was, surprisingly, in Québec:



We got asked WHY we driving around and where are we going? A second checkpoint at the NB border: where were we coming from and where were we going? The letter helped to allow access and we were given permission to go right...



Right into NB but "drive straight through without no stopping anywhere" {{ They sort of raised their eyebrows when we told them we'd need to stop for fuel }}.

And finally, the last checkpoint just after the bridge in PEI, where without the letters we never would have been allowed in. Nine hours later we got out of the car, brought our bags inside, and closed the door.

PEI Health called us every day. Our sponsors are delivering food. We are safe, we are MORE than comfortable, we are EXACTLY where we were hoping to be this summer. We are extremely grateful and unbelievably blessed.

And that dear family, friends and followers is how, after nearly two months of isolation, lockdown and three sets of 14 days of Quarantine apiece, we are now free to open the doors...



Now what?