Globetrotting Puppets

So...about the project we’ve been working on.....

Rocky and Chloé from our play "Oh! Canada"

Back in 2011 when we took our offshore training with Mahina Tiare III  (http://www.mahina.com)  one of the goals was to always try to have a positive impact upon the places we visited and the people we met. Often crew would be encouraged to bring medical and/or school supplies.

 This got me thinking : What gift could we bring to the places we go ?  What is OUR area of expertise ? Um, well...I am pretty good at making a puppet come to life ?  And....Come to think of it.....Meg is pretty good at story telling ! If we could combine HER creativity and MY immaturity we might just be able to do wonders !!!

We started off by going to look at an old favorite puppet factory online (http://www.living-puppets.de) to see if any of their characters would jump up at us, looking for Canadian ambassadors.

So, this guy immediately made an impression

                  (Love his belly button...)

                                                                                                                      

We named this one Rocky

Then we found out that they were all out of this radical raccoon, and we quickly fell in love with an awesome  grizzly who even comes complete with a hump on his back and giant paws. The only way he could have been any more realistic would of been if he had a couple of australian campers in his jaws...Oh right...this is supposed to be a kid friendly show...

We found our Chloé

Next we found a beautiful girl puppet and we felt she was the PERFECT addition to the cast.

Finding names for our new friends was pretty simple. It was clear to us from the beginning that our goofy grizzly just HAD to be named Rocky and that our girl, well she just looks like a Chloé doesn’t she! 

Next we had to make these guys look a little more.. Canadian eh ? We thought of putting a Molson’s Canadian Beer in Rocky’s hands, or a “ I ♥ Justin Trudeau” Tank Top on Chloe, but again we have to remind ourselves that this is for kids, right. So we went for the painfully obvious Canadian stereotypes; Hockey and Toques.

Now; You may find this hard to believe but when you go shopping for clothe and you casually tell the person behind the counter that; “these are for my puppets”, you get a few raised eyebrows, but then when you take them out of your bag and let the puppets do the explaining to the salesperson, and it ALL works out in the end. No one called security on us or anything !

   It turns out that Chloé’s feet are a kids size 10 !

                                             

                                              

I think that the guy at the jersey store especially got a kick out of the whole thing...

What ??!!!  30 Bucks for a mini Habs jersey ??!!! Well, on the bright side, Rocky won’t be outgrowing it anytime soon.

                                                      

The final look for Chloé

And for Rocky

We are currently working on the script. This will not be completed for a while, as we are quite busy preparing our trip in other ways, but Meg and I sat down one evening and did a quick brainstorming. We had loads of fun bouncing ideas off each other, this is what we’ve come up with: 

Characters: 

Chloé; A sporty, Smart Young Canadian Girl from Aboriginal Descent. She’s bilingual (of course) and has been traveling on board a sailboat with her family for the last five years.

Rocky : A Goofy-Patriotic-Hockey-Loving Grizzly Bear, who is obsessed with Maple Syrup and who is known to spontaneously start singing “Oh Canada!” when ever someone mentions Canada.

Opening scene: 

Chloé is sitting on deck, binoculars in hand, when she suddenly sees a very peculiar sight: An Ice float drifting in the distance, carrying a bear, who is wearing a hockey jersey and frantically waving for help.

Our opening scene.

We later find out that Rocky was stranded on this ice float when he was visiting his cousin ‘Inukshuk’ the polar bear in the Arctic.

The story continues with the new friends reminiscing about all that they love about Canada...friendly banter ensues, yada yada...

What we really hope to achieve with this project is to find a way to build positive relationships with the communities we visit. We figure that kids, no matter where they’re from, love puppets and love to hear about other  countries. We hope to bring them a new outlook on the world, a chance to ask questions and maybe a few laughs too, by visiting their schools. Oh, and it might just fit in nicely in Meg’s school goals too AND it takes care of my puppet addiction.

Before signing off I have to give a shout out to the ‘Minister of Canadian Heritage’s’ office in Ottawa.I wrote to those lovely ladies today and they said that they would gladly help us out with a big bag full of Canadian pins to hand out on our visits to school and such, so nice !  THANK YOU!  Gee, I wonder how much that big bags of pins weighs.

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The countdown is on 

Busy.....being a landlubber.

I have been told recently that the point of having a blog is to keep adding new material on a regular basis so I must apologize to you on the small chance that you were eagerly waiting for some news, we have been busy here on land.

It has been go-go-go since we have come back to Calgary after a much needed visit with friends and family out East this summer. We tried to see as many people as we could while there...sadly we missed a few, but crammed in as much quality time with as many people as we could while there. Since our return to cowtown it seems that our days are filled with so many things to do! The countdown is definately on ! It looks like March 21st is the day we will use our one-way tickets.

This may seem like a long time, but when I break it down into ALL the things we have to do before we go, it propels me into a frenzy of packing and list making....

When he is not busy flying solo across Canada :)  Mark has been spending alot of time settling the estate, selling off his mom's house and land and getting our house ready for renting. (This means all those little home improvements we have been putting off for so many years -paint, carpet, deck, doors.... are finally getting done). He also spoke to his boss last month and made a formal request for some time off (phew). He is also overseeing the final preparations needed for Amelie, ordering parts and materials  for her maintenance and upgrades. In November he is looking forward to going back to St Lucia for a "Guys Only" trip which will include getting the boat back in the water and some trecking around the local islands. I am not sure if he has warned the boys that each of them will be bringing one extra bag with them when they come down......

Meg doing her open water training in Bequia

Other than starting grade 6 and her usual swimming, choir and drama (classes!), Meghan is busy with completing her online PADI diving course (theory). She had taken her "introduction to diving" while in Bequia last spring and it seems she shares her dad's enthusiasm for the sport, so this is the next step. It is alot of work
 (2 hours/week) and she is doing very well !


 Matthew has been actively busy achieving puberty, and he is doing an excellent job at that, consequently keeping us all a little bit busier ! He gets an "A" in Escape Artistry as we have had to resort to using our "Amber Alert" Locating GPS Device more often these last few weeks ! Everything is bigger and louder these days as Matthew grows more and more into himself and seeks indepence, but he never ceases to amaze me as he emerges from childhood into this beautiful young man he is becoming.





And the "great culling" we started in the spring continues as we attempt to sell/give away/throw out more and more things, including our beloved "OrionSky" in August. This little sailboat had been an excellent- albeit at times ruthless and unpredictable-teacher to me; teaching me be to be more self assured sailing on my own, as well as how to get out of all sorts of adrenaline enducing predicaments! I have had many beautiful and  memorable moments with her and she will be missed ! Since we still have alot of things that need to find a new home, we have decided to organise  an "Everything-Must-Go-Give-Away-Weekend" for our friends and collegues in Calgary (Stay tuned for announcements in February gang). We hope that this will take care of most of the material stuff we will still have by then.

Matthew's squish machine

So what else do I do with my time ? Other than making endless lists, exhausting inventories  and breaking down schedules into elaborate time lines; I recently dove into school preparation for the kids by revisiting Alberta Education Programs of Studies for grade 7-9 (my old stomping ground) and also by setting goals for Matthew. I have been enjoying getting back into this and gathering material....especially the science and math stuff (if anyone can figure out how I can succesfully pack a compound microscope and some test tubes into our luggage-and convince Mark that these are needed-I would appreciate the input). Luckily Matthew's program material is mostly easy to pack (well except for his "squish machine"....which will sadly not make the cut).



In my spare time I have also been ordering all sorts of gadgets from WestMarine and MEC stores, gathering the necessities for the emergency "ditch bags" (the evacuation bags we hope to never use)  and making a "general operations manual" for the boat.

This month I will also be focussing on some more medic training with a friend who is a paramedic here in town and in November I will be taking a "Survival-At Sea" course through our Blue Water Association. I must say that I am looking forward to getting into THAT life raft !

Soon I will be practicing in one of these

There is one more special project I am working on but I will tell you all about it in the next blog.

 I am quite excited to share this with you soon. Can't give it all away in one day !

So, for now, this is how we are staying BUSY. I have to say that not having a TV helps alot!  I get my kicks monitoring the "National Hurricane Center" online instead. It is quite a disconcerting hobby at this time of year as tropical storm systems seem to be popping out like gum balls out of a machine. I have been keeping an eye on Hurricane Humberto, he is on his way and he looks like he is one angry hombre

The sun is rising now and the kids need to go to school, so I will sign off  but
I promise that I will try to keep this blog new and fresh at least once a month until we leave and then after that, hopefully more often !

The things we have to give up

Our great garage sale, Calgary 

                      

It’s official !

 After 20 years of accumulating useful things (such as raccoon skin hats, didgeridoos, wooden fruit, emu eggs and “penis gourds”/true story, look it up)......we have started the MASSIVE undertaking of de-cluttering our home......after removing the considerable layers of dust...we make a big pile and go through it all... no item escaping scrutiny.... each being sorted into either the “Garage Sale Pile”, the “Throw Away Pile” or the “Give Away Pile”.


We have offered many of these prized possessions to friends and family with, curiously, very few takers.....so now I just show up at people’s houses, object in hand offered as a gift.....I won’t lie to you, there have been a few raised eyebrows and some nervous/ shaky thank yous ! It goes something like this: “ Hi there ! ....I found this angklung (Indonesian Instrument made of bamboo) in my living room and I thought this was the perfect thing for your home.....You are welcome my friend, you are welcome .... 

Garage sales have been successful so far, but only because we have resigned ourlseves to let things go for ridiculous prices....it is amazing to me that what was a valuable work of art on display in our house for 10 years, when picked up and carried twenty feet to the garage suddenly gets demoted to "junk" in an "Everything for $2 !" cardboard box. Oh well....we just grin and bear it as we haggle over 25 cent with our neighbours....and as I feverishly try to tell the new owners all the stories that go with each treasure, and some kind souls actually hang around to listen, bless them!



Now there are a few MUST haves that I can not bear to be parted with which will either go to storage or come on board with us, one of them being my dear old friend, my classical guitar...which sounds like it has a wet blanket sitting on it when I play, but I love it anyways ! It has been with me everywhere and I will not leave it behind. I have images of me playing it under a palm tree somewhere, or when we are stranded for days in the doldrums (dead calms) of the Atlantic Oceans.

Today in his infinite wisdom, our captain came home with a replacement for my guitar, something that will take up “less room” as he says! I think he just likes it because its new and kind of a cool gadget, it needs NO amplification, I have to admit that it does look pretty gnarly.

This got me thinking about all the things we need to give up, or replace for reasons of storage space and practicality.

Make no mistake, the guitar is coming....

Our extensive DVD collection gets replaced by a single hard drive

Our elliptical machine is replaced by a resistance band

My night lamp becomes a head lamp

This marvel of engineering becomes this, slightly damper, one

   

Even the view from my bedroom window gets transformed !

The Moments in Between

I was thinking the other day how most of our posts could easily become repetitious, with me gushing about how beautiful the islands are, how the sunsets are as breathtaking as the rum dangerous...we are having a great time yada yada yada....it could get old fast for anyone who care to read about our adventures...”No” I thought “ I should tell them about all the other stuff”....what happens in between all the paradise moments....you know...LIFE ?!  In many ways life stays the same for us “out there” it is just that the challenges might look a little bit different. I will use our latest two week trip from St Lucia to the Grenadines (Bequia (pronounced Bekway)and St Vincent as an example. Of course it was beautiful and all that, but if you want to hear the “pretty” stuff you are welcome to see the pictures I post on Facebook. 

Sunset in Martinique

Take for instance the WICKED sunburn I got on my lips: waking up the next morning looking like Bubba Gump....pain and blistering for days ! Oh and that rolling anchorage off St Lucia (Souffriere), where the boat rocked so much we were almost airborne in our bunks trying to sleep and dreaming about roller coasters......that of course is the night where we did not secure the mizzen boom enough and the resulting creaking noise became the bane of my very existence...You think you will go insane  at first telling yourself that you will get used to it but then finally at around 3:00 am you give in, swearing under your breath at that “useless piece of metal” that now seems to be moving just to spite you....as you try to crawl out of your hatch without waking your husband....you are halfway out when, feet dangling, you realize that the ceilings in your cabin are 7 feet high and your bunk will not boost you high enough to make it up on your own....then, reluctantly you wake your (snoring) captain to ask him to give you a boost.....(I love the way Mark does not even bat an eye or ask: “ what in the hell are you doing ?”....he just gives me a boost and goes right back to sleep).  You secure the line and go back to your bunk, sightly less flustered than before....you close your eyes and then you hear the other line....hitting against the mast.....

When we are on our way it can get exciting....really fast !  One moment you are sitting in the cockpit enjoying the excitement and the speed of your boat as it picks up the wind and flies through the waves, the next moment your captain asks you to go to the foredeck to release a genoa sheet which has got caught up on the end of the genoa pole......up you go (one hand for the boat and one hand for yourself of course)....and what you see when you get up there is that the Genoa sheet has somehow transformed itself into a very angry, terribly strong sea serpent that is striking anything that comes near it, it whipping around threatening to hit you in the face, on your legs,your body, it moves so fast and with so much uncontrollable strength you are not sure which end to try to tackle first.....eventually you tame it and you make your way back to the safety of the cockpit, sweating and shaken,  feeling like you have just been in a brawl....you need a beer.

One thing that became quite obvious from the first day out is that our children will have to get used to hearing their mother using “less than desirable language” when dealing with winches and sheets....as I said before, on a powerful boat like ours, thing can get ....well...intense!  Like that time when the wind went from 20-35 knots in a few seconds and the sheet got jammed around the winch (again) !  I have found that I have absolutely no control over what comes out of my mouth at those times.....now I know why they say: “Swearing like a sailor”. Yeah, I get it. Maybe someday I will be able to better restrain myself, but for now I just consider it as the uglier part of the kids “education about the world”  and hope that they never repeat !

Don’t get me started about the time when Matthew stepped on to a sea urchin in St Vincent and we all tried to get the spikes out of his toes, but they kept breaking off (as we later learned; they are designed to do). There we were the three of us surrounding him with a giant magnifying glass, some tweezers, antiseptic solution and Meghan handing over an endless supply of  easter candies to Matthew to help him ease the pain.....We had conflicting advice. “Local Knowledge” (ie the boat boys) was that he needed to “pee on himself” and that the “spikes would just “slip out”...the guide book said to use vinegar or lime juice to dissolve the spikes, so....we tried both !  Matthew was in pain at the beginning and we wanted to get him comfortable as fast as possible...hence the candies and the Tylenol.....The meds helped, but not as much as the candy did. 

Another challenge of course is dealing with Hurricane Matthew’s destructive potential. He has a real knack at finding things and ...well....wrecking them. The most recent storm occurred as we were underway between St Vincent and Bequia. He was sitting quietly in our cabin below as we were all up top in the cockpit. The “quiet” bit should of been my first clue that something was up. It's never a good sign....like the calm before the storm. It was several hours later when I discovered that Matthew had found a red pen...and as he has been learning to take pens apart lately, he of course was practicing this new skill out , in our cabin, on our bed, in my BRAND NEW silky sheets that I had brought down from Canada and was so happy with !  Well.......now my light grey silky sheets have a perfect, large red circle in the middle of them...when I hung them up to dry on the foredeck later that day it looked like we were flying a large Japanese flag .....wow....what a talented young man !  You can’t care about material things too much when you have Matthew on board with you.....he is teaching me to let these things go.....

Meg and "Bob", our man overboard dummy

As safety is a huge issue on board, we are taking the time to practice our emergency drills. To that affect we were doing our “MOB” drills (Man-over-Board) with our new swanky “LifeSling3”  and I thought it was a brilliant idea to use an old laundry detergent bottle (cap on) with a stray white shirt tied on as our MOB volunteer. 

We even drew a face and christened him “BOB”...all was going so well....Bob had flung himself overboard, we had Meg on watch and captain Mark at the helm, the Lifesling3 worked beautifully, as we rounded on back to Bob, reassuring him that all was well and that he would soon be on back board....that’s when we heard Meg cry out.....BOB is sinking !!!!  And he was......turns out, in my enthusiasm to use the laundry bottle I had forgotten that a week before I had punctured it to get the last of the liquid out.... ooops.....so much for not polluting the water with plastic!  My only consolations is thinking about the look on the divers faces when they meet Bob down below......

There have been many other funny/challenging moments on board in these last 10 days, but I will leave those for another time 

We have hauled Amelie out of the water now and can only start counting the days before we are back on board.

Until then, fair winds to you all......

Amelie getting a lift in St Lucia

6 more sleeps before we are back on board......

Happy that all 8 bags made it last December ! 

The Pitons, St Lucia

Le Diamand, Martinique

Martinique

Rodney Bay, St Lucia

Meg and Clement in Marigot Bay, St Lucia

Sunset in Martinique

In the Beginning...

Matthew, Marie Claude, Mark and Meghan on board Amelie in 2013

S/V Amelie in Martinique 2013

 Ahoy  !  If you don't already know us  please let me introduce ourselves: we are Marie-Claude, Mark, Matthew and Meghan and we would like to share with you all our experiences onboard our beloved Amélie . We hope to have many trips and opportunities to explore new cultures and open our children's eyes to the world . As a family we hope that these experience will ultimitely bring us closer. 

Amélie is a worthy vessel. She is an Amel Super Maramu 53. She is a solid blue water cruiser, a ketch, built in France in 1994.  We (the 4Ms) are a family from Canada who hope to be as worthy sailors as she is. We have been talking about buying a boat and sailing it around on and off for the last 15 years. Mark and I have sailed since the early 1990s and in one way or another have been preparing for boat ownership from the beginning. In the next few blogs I hope tell you more about each of us but first......