WORK
Excerpt from essay "Sea Home" in This Is the Place, the new anthology from Seal Press:
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"Today we are anchored in a wide bay, the swell has dropped for a few days and the boat is pleasantly becalmed. When I climb out of bed and poke my head above deck, this is what I see: A dozen other sailboats anchored a comfortable distance around us. Low clouds waiting to burn off the humid mountains on the opposite side of the bay. Flocks of Heermann’s gulls and pelicans pestering fishermen as they drift by us, cleaning their catch from the night before. A lone paddle boarder, racing no one out to sea..."
To read more about the book and find links to purchase it, click here.
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"This collection, encompassing a spectrum of races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, political beliefs and classes, could not be timelier. The typical American household...has burned to the ground, and with it any simple definition of 'home.'"
-The New York Times Book Review
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"A diverse collection of essays that delve into the fraught concept of home as both a physical and emotional space." -Kirkus Review
Excerpt from the reading at last year's She Tells Sea Tales event, a fundraiser for the Girls' Boat Project:
"'Really? You’re taking your tiny baby to live on a boat? In Mexico? Is that safe? Or smart? What if he falls overboard? What if he gets sick? What if he hates it? What if, what if, what if?' This litany of questions usually wrapped up with, “Well, you guys are brave. I could NEVER do that.” Which seemed to translate to: you’re crazy and also bad parents. But there’s more to the story.
I was a boat baby..."
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Watch the entire performance by clicking on the video below.
Excerpt from the contribution to the 1st Annual Alaska Young Fishermen's Almanac:
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"When I was little, I hated salmon. This was inconvenient, as my dad was a fisherman. Salmon was a staple in our house, served frequently for dinner. When I heard the fat sizzle in the cast iron pan and smelled the salty tang wafting through the air, I would start inwardly pouting. At the table, my parents would instruct me to eat “five more bites, then you can have more cornbread.” I would begrudgingly oblige, wishing my dad did something normal for work like clean teeth or build houses. Then this unending onslaught of salmon would finally cease..."
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Learn more about the book-length publication spearheaded by the Alaska Young Fishermen's Network here and their partner the Alaska Marine Conservation Council here.
Order the book here.
Excerpt from my sailing blog, vivavelella.wordpress.com:
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"The view has changed outside my bedroom window. I used to wake to a brilliant blue square of sky, neatly divided by crisscrossing lines and often littered with circling sea birds. Now when I open my eyes I see waves of green, layer upon layer of tree branches with bright bursts of blossoms and behind, small homes clinging to the hillside.
The sounds are different too..."
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Read more about our aquatic adventures and our transition to land here.
Excerpt from an article in Latitude 38 sailing magazine:
"When we hauled our anchor aboard our Ingrid 38 ketch Velella Velella after two noisy nights in Cabo San Lucas last month, we had no goal but to get out of there. We ended up in San Jose del Cabo, about 15-20 miles to the northeast only because we’d heard they held an impressive Farmer’s Market every Saturday. A cruiser rumor worth following up on as organic produce had been hard to find since crossing the border..."
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Read the entire article with photos here.