We are in Eureka.  Arrived late Wednesday, August 29th,  planning to rest up on Thursday and then leave on the next morning’s 7 a.m. slack. But, the day we intend to leave is a Friday, and sailors never begin a journey on a Friday.  Our voyage has been full of stops and starts, trials and surprises. We decide not to irritate Neptune any further. Are we superstitious? Maybe.  We’ll leave tomorrow.

Cetacean had been moored in Eureka – without us – for most of August. We spent a lot of the month visiting family. Those visits gave us pause.

In Denver, we welcomed our first grandchild.

Madalynn Dawn Anglin

We celebrated Madalynn’s arrival with Lisa and Mike and Mike’s parents, marveling at this tiny individual, so new and yet so familiar.

We also traveled to California to be with both sets of our parents. Time is a river endlessly following the circle of life.

The last weekend of August, we returned to our little house in NE Portland and did final packing in preparation for new tenants. We then drove our car – stuffed to the gills with things we hope we can still find room for aboard Cetacean – back to California. We’ll have to let go of some other things to make the new things fit. Another puzzle needing a solution.

Our Wednesday, August 29 journey back to Eureka was highlighted by events and characters encountered on BART and a dilapidated Greyhound bus. Putting all the events in perspective, I quote Norah Ephron’s mother: “Everything is copy.” Notes were taken.

Heading out for a walk through old town Eureka, we note that our Woodley Island dock is decorated by hundreds of sandpipers and their “artwork”. We watch them as they congregate and then take flight, annoyed by our clumsy presence, like a reverse snowfall.