who answers when you talk to yourself

It seems the polish is worn off and the excitement of Magpie and the travels, explorations and cruising life have fallen to the wayside and everyone is back to their busy lives. So I am talking to myself here, which is not a bad thing. Magpies often don't notice, or slow up to take a breath and let another speak so it matters little that there is no intelligent life out there. I am here in the Dominican Republic and have my daily adventure, my daily lessons in spanish, culture, humidity and sweating, scruffy street dogs, beautiful beaches, cleavage, beer and rum, burros and chickens, coco frios, mosquitos, langostinos(big mosquitos!) and life in the slow lane. I am in a primarily european community, with ancillary dominican and haitian folks milling about. There will be more and more americans I think, but overall this is french, italian and german territory. Many of the french speak little or no english, some not much spanish either, trying to maintain their small circle of smoking haggard silhouettes, with their dainty frilly french farm girl fashion. Alittle odd to me after having been on a boat, then a rural farm, and now the most northeastern tip of the island, Samana Peninsula. There is even a french mob here, with the newly arrived russians trying to get their feet in the revolving door. I miss the campo, with just country people, simple and unchanged in their resolve to work just enough to get food , and drink for the day , and a long midday nap. school is only half a day, if you are made to or can afford to go. And there is plenty of time left to socialize, pull up a chair , and discuss the neighbors. Or listen to some chest vibrating dominican polka music...

She's Back

well, its been a long time, more than three years, and many things have happened, many changes to the physical, the emotional, and all that was stable and sure... three long years. Or three short years that flew by packed so full, that if this Magpie should feel any emptiness it is purely feeling sorry for ones own condition.It is something Magpie does more than she should, hand in hand with worrying about things that are no more than a wrinkle on an elephant. My responsibility in relaying all that is Magpie is forlorn and ragged, full of apology for the time so long and silent. And so unlike the raucous magpie, rarely silent or apologetic. But even magpies change, and some of the twists and turns, or just plain twisted turns have made a change in magpie as she no longer floats freely in the waters as planned. As vessel Magpie has found herself in dire straights, to do with her engine and some of the more ancient parts that no longer allowed herfree motion, she made two passages in search of a new owner: first from Luperon to Ft Lauderdale, FL in May 2010, then after a lonely year behind a nameless crumbling Florida subdivision home, a story unto itself, Magpie motored to Hilton Head , SC (another adventure on the high seas, full of danger and romance) where she found a talented fellow to pay a pittance and tinker on her at the dock. She is forever a part of this magpie: a vehicle, a dream catcher, a sturdy soul of the sea. So in a nutshell magpie the motoryacht has limped gracefully off stage after playing a magnificent part to many hearts, many encores, many lives changed and bettered. I definitely should have gotten more money for her!!! But this is not the end of magpies travels, and many adventures came about around her and she played a part in the present as strongly as if she were moored off the beach right here and now. Because this magpie is still tied to the water and to the adventure that began March 7 2009.