[CQ-Contest] Fwd: Help wanted for a non-ham friend in EA8 land - read this, it is an interesting story.

[Brooke Allen]

Amylin, my friend stuck in EA8, has agreed to allow me to share our
correspondence with you, so here it is.

NOTE that now she wants to find someone to teach her Morse code and ham
radio since it is obvious ours is the perfect hobby for a traveler like her.
Anyone out there willing to take on a student?

--

Amylin,

First of all, I wonder if I can share what you've written here with my
fellow hams on our contesting reflector? It would be amazing for them to
hear that you want to learn Morse code, and the rest would help turn you
into a 3-dimensional person - the kind that people can have empathy for.

Secondly, I hope you won't let the Canaries throw you - this is one horse
worth getting back onto because, as I think you can see, she's going
somewhere. But if it all gets completely overwhelming, just let me know and
Eve and I will buy you and Dominic tickets to England and you can repay us
next time you're in NYC by giving us what you consider to be $250 worth of
your art. (BTW, Eve is a ham too, call: N2GSG in the States and 7J1AIU when
were were in Japan.)

Brooke


On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 7:12 AM, amylin loglisci <amalijaline at gmail.com>wrote:

> Brooke,
>
> This is a completely different new and amazing world you've placed before
> me for discovery.
> What can I say?
> I still don't know what to say.  I'm fascinated.
> I would like to learn the Morse code.
> However, I don't know if I'm ready to DXpediton _yet_.
>
> In another e-mail you asked these questions:
>
>
>> - Is it possible to salvage your Canary Island experience and get back to
>> plan A. By that I mean, somehow have enough fodder for fond memories between
>> now and when you get off-island in an optimal manner to make this just
>> another adventure with good and bad in it. Or is the only way to salvage
>> your sanity to leave on the cheapest plane to the nearest safe haven?
>>
>
> I'm not sure.  Truth is, if we _had_ found a sailing boat out of here
> toward the Caribbean/Panama/Mexico, we would both probably have "healed" on
> the journey.  Being at sea can do that -- give you peaceful time for
> reflection, as well as (potentially) plenty of crazy weather to illustrate
> that there are things much greater than yourself and how your tiny problems
> on land can pale in comparison.
>
> Part of me would like to temporarily ditch traveling for stability,
> especially in a continental sense.  Without the boat working out, I have a
> strong urge to go somewhere that I know I can stay long-term, in order to:
> 1. reflect and 2. recuperate.  Part of the recuperation would also be
> working toward buying a new laptop, as well as making artwork that I can
> sell (and feel good about -- for my own sanity).
>
> In the course of camping here, we've lost (in order of most recent - least
> recent): my artwork, our laptop, our tent, and 3 sleeping bags.  All and
> all, it has felt like a slow trickle of loss, rather than a natural
> disaster.  Which is psychologically more difficult to cope with-- I can't
> say.  It's one of those "Do you rip the band-aid off slowly or quickly?"
> rhetorical questions.  We've been verbally harassed by various types of
> police (nothing too serious) for not being the "ideal tourists"
> who patronize hotels, but rather sleep on the beach and carry our baggage
> around with us (because so much has been stolen that we can't leave it
> anywhere safely).  We've been woken up in the middle of the night,
> mid-dream, by loud dogs whose owners don't properly care for them; by bums
> who want to bum cigarettes; by drunken teenagers breaking glass a few meters
> away from our heads; etc.  Overall, it's just been too much.
>
> I do think that after a month or two, I'll have written a short story /
> illustrated a cartoon / or something about this experience.  But first, I do
> need to leave it behind.  The longer we stay here, the more damage we seem
> to be susceptible to, whether it's by default or the law of attraction that
> we can't seem to shake off.
>
>
>
>> - I've told some people you're a good cook. Am I right that if I get you
>> an invitation to be a guest in someone's home you wouldn't mind cooking some
>> meals for them?
>>
>
> I absolutely wouldn't mind.  It would be wonderful for me to have access to
> a kitchen again.  I'd really enjoy that.
>
>
>
>> - How much does it really cost to get to London? I see easyjet quoting
>> $121 one-way to Gatwick, although not if you have to go immediately. Is that
>> kind of money a stretch for you guys if you're just going to bail out of a
>> bad situation?
>>
>
> The money is a kind of stretch, but at the same time, having a plane ticket
> out (even if it's not immediate) would give me a lot of peace-of-mind.  I
> feel trapped here.
>
> We've also found flights to Bristol, where we have a friend who recently
> said "Come whenever you like -- you don't even need to ask."
>
> We haven't bought any tickets yet, and if we do, they won't be immediate;
> more likely for early March.  In which case, being hosted by the ham radio
> community would be a wonderful experience to conclude our last days here
> with.  In arriving to England, I would like to spend several months on my
> art, reflection, and thinking about what's next.  Then, in the future, I can
> consider the life of a DXpeditioner.  It sounds exciting, but I'm a bit too
> worn out to make a commitment at the moment.  I would like to feel balanced
> first.
>
> Alright, I've answered as best I can for now.  I'm going to double-check
> and see if Photoshop has properly downloaded on this computer (the "free
> computer" at the Sailor's Bar), so I can color-correct and post the scans of
> my stolen artwork (because I luckily had the foresight to scan them in
> before anything bad happened to them).
>
> Thank you for introducing me to a new community.
> And thank you for all the help and thought you've put into our situation.
>
> Amylin
>
>
>
---
Amylin,

I can understand the healing power of the seas, although I have only
experienced it second-hand.

2.5 decades ago, when Eve and I were dating, we gave two young female
hitch-hikers a ride from Montreal to NYC. I'll call them Sally and Sue.
Sally was an experienced sailor and Sue was not. Sally was taking Sue to
Miami where they were to crew on a yacht for 6 months.

Sally had her own Canary Islands disaster story and she has you beat by many
miles. She was crewing on a trip from Quebec to the Canaries when, soon
after setting sail for the return voyage they were caught in a storm. The
boat capsized and sunk. Three of the six just disappeared and she heard one
die caught under a sail. She and another fellow made it into a life raft
which capsized a few days later in another storm and they lost what was left
of their food and water. They were down to one flare having dissipated the
others trying to get the attention of freighters that were traveling by
computer without anyone on watch. They let many ships pass and finally got
one to stop when they landed the remaining flair on its deck.

At that point Sally was so disgusted she never wanted to see the sea again,
but after a few good meals and nights' sleep, by the time the freighter set
port in the Caribbean, she was ready to set sail again. Sally's friend Sue
couldn't wait to learn first-hand what she was talking about.

Get a warm shower and some sleep; cook some meals and see how you feel in a
few days.

Brooke

---

Brooke,

Feel free to share my emails with the ham radio community.  You're right
that it might help to understand us better and see us as 3-dimensional
people.  Actually, it's funny that you even use that term because several
weeks ago, I wrote an e-mail to a friend saying "I haven't met any
3-dimensional people here from the local community; it's only the sailing
community that feels 'real' here to me."  If we could break this spell of
flatness, it would be a big breakthrough.  There must be people out there
who are sympathetic to real travelers, right?

The story of "Sally and Sue" is amazing.  I have a friend who died at sea --
maybe about 2 years ago, she was an 18 year-old Slovenian girl -- on a boat
that had only one survivor (out of, I believe, 7 crew).  I took that into
account before starting this journey.  At the same time, a big part of me
would rather have everything lost at sea than at the hands of a (in my
perception) two-dimensional humanity -- Does that make sense?

I'll take your advice for the warm shower, cooking food, and rest.  I also
know that at this point, it is too late in the season to find a viable boat
to cross the Atlantic on who is still taking crew.  We're both too tired and
would like to fly to England to start again -- perhaps wait the year out and
try the crossing next year at an earlier date.  The benefit we have in
coming here is that we have some sailing experience now, and we know what to
expect here.

I'll write back a bit later.  I should stop hogging the Sailor Bar's free
computer.

Amylin