Late May: Half Moon Bay and the Sanctuary

Landing in the USA was freaky for me but we connected with my friend David Kubiak and headed down the coast to their little apartment in Half Moon Bay. It was great to see them and introduce Varsha to Rita (David's co-wife). Walks on the beach, lots of fresh Pacific seafood, fossicking in the community garden.

We moved onto the boat within a few days...not sure what image you had in mind, but this was a bit of a spin. The boat was a big ferro-cement ketch that hadn't been sailed in years. It has been moored there and used as a spare room by the owner who is none too fussy about tidiness.

Fortunately we had license to sort. The first day was non-stop shifting and cleaning. Caro sparkled her magical aesthetics and I did the infrastructure. Varsha Rose was most amused by a former resident's collection of stuffed creatures. In a matter of hours the chaos was sanitized, sorted, incense lit, and serene thread of gratitude was curling quietly around our new little home.

The time went quickly. I did a few days work with David and tried to get his computers sorted out. Caro remained amazed that people really do "talk like that" while we all were impressed with the gargantuan pickup trucks and quaint New England clapboard cottages massed randomly along the agrarian California coast.

We visited friends of David and Rita's (Richard and Katherine) who had an absolutely magical little property in the hills. Katherine is an amazing potter, gardener, etc. Never sits still.

He is a plumber (a good honest trade, like being a builder) but his real passion is gypsy caravans (a ridiculous folly, like being a playwright). Richard himself has Romany blood, and he has his grandmother's caravan from England in his shed where he's painstakingly bringing it back to life. After we left he made a trip back to England, bought two more caravans and a proper draft horse...madness. But splendid.

David left for Japan and India and we took advantage of the spare car to make trips to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods and to Yosemite to see the giant cliffs. Both were almost too much. Something about the super-saturated majesty of it all...like it's not enough to just have amazing scenery, it manifests on a scale and intensity that challenges the imagination to keep pace. Breathtaking.

And of course a bit of time in the city itself. Beautiful sourdough bread. And then the security key for the marina got lost. But a replacement VISA card showed up in the mail, so we were at least keeping a par score.