Packing today; flying back to the US east coast tomorrow for several purposes:  Dean, a member of the Joy Duck Club, kindly offered an opportunity to crew aboard his Diesel Duck 382 MV Jubilee from Solomons MD to the 1,000 Islands on Lake Ontario.  Also it's a chance to visit with my youngest brother Tom, and his great kids Fred and Valerie.  And there will be collateral visiting with my cousin Tom, his wonderful family and other Nagle cousins who I will write about more later.  Most imminent though, is a visit with my Uncle Jim.  Jim is, as he describes himself "the last of the Mohicans" as far as my father's immediate family; my dad, his parents of course, his brothers Tom and John and sister Helen Bernadette have all passed.  A NYC family one generation post-immigration from Ireland, they grew up poor but tough (but also kind).  Both my dad and his brother (the uncle I'm going to visit) Jim, attended Rice HS (a Christian Brothers school at W 124th & Lennox in Harlem) .  Dad was in the first graduating class at Rice, after being kicked out of St Tolentine HS (I did mention they were tough kids) and into the US Army and paratroops out of HS.  His brother Jim, graduating a year later, entered the Marine Corp and on the night before Dad was being shipped out to England, prior to the D-Day invasion, Uncle Jim went AWOL from his USMC training at Camp Lejeune to hitchhike to Dad's camp at Bragg or Benning (I don't know witch).  Jim wanted see his big brother before he got shipped overseas, and took his punishment for going AWOL.  Anyway, Uncle Jim's getting a bit fragile, and it's time I went AWOL myself to go see him (before he ships out).  [Update** I am unable to post photos on the blog at this time, but I've posted pics on my Facebook account -- DavidEllis Nagle Boat -- of the NYC Nagle family then & now]

Really looking forward to the cruise aboard Jubilee with Dean and my friend Roger.  Chesapeake Bay > Delaware-Chesapeake Canal > Delaware Bay > round Cape May NJ > up the Jersey Shore > round Sandy Hook into the Hudson River (NY Harbor) > up the Hudson and into the Erie Canal > Lake Ontario.  Perusing the charts, I see many place names that I know are historically meaningful (though I can't seem to dredge much up from memory).  I'll be Googling the heck out of things as we go, to get a sense of where we are, and the significance thereof.  I'll be back to Sonoma County in time for g'daughter Jenna's high school graduation (and niece Molly's also) and will also be a g'father again (courtesy of daughter Kate.  

The last couple weeks have included guests: Lisa E, great friend from UC Santa Cruz days; Karen K, Sonoma Co realtor and grape-grower morphed into yoga guru and kite-surf aficionado; Scott & Dee W, SCSO from another era and Rich & Bob, SCSO from a more recent era, but nevertheless days gone bye.  The annual Bodega Bay Fisherman's Fest happened, complete with food, crafts, music, big winds, sunshine, llama & dog parade, fishing boat parade decorated with giant crabs, squid, salmon and King Neptune, flags and families.  More friends seen at the festival: Mike F & Sarah, Mike W and Dep. H-M.  

As I promised several projects completed before leaving Dorothy on DE, I did finally get a new LED light installed in the galley...yeah!

I know the last post -- "0300 Thoughts"  was a bit of a downer, but sadness happens in real life, and here's some more:  many people have a teacher or mentor they can point to and say that man or woman had a lot to do with who I am today.  For me, one of these was my JC football coach Marv Mays.  Marv passed a couple of weeks ago, but his memorial service was last week.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend but I do remember Marv and am grateful to have been one of his boys.  

Marv had a full, long life and that is contrasted today with the sudden passing of my friend Kevin Flanagan.  I trained Kev as a research diver at UCSC, or maybe it was his NAUI Instructor Course but at any rate, he was a stand-out as a gregarious, kind, capable kid.  Later he became the Diving Safety Officer at Univ of Hawaii and most recently at U of North Carolina.  He's gone way, way too soon.  I'll miss his calling every six months to pump my ego up, telling me what a great mentor I was to him.  Kind of funny the symmetry of these things.