Shearwater Looking for our old Friend
Friends,

I'll going out to the boat on Newport this monday. I want to see my computer out of my boat so I can guess some work later.

I got a two days and figure a way I might get a less boat..we'll see. Looked up at some older boats around 30' boats I looked for in San Diego. I'm waiting for a few months until my brain is addled when I seeks another boat later.

There's some nice boats on over 1970-80s that have good gear on old boats. Even the old girl on Shearwater 1988 needs a fixing now. We'll see.

Getting a simple slip/liveaboard for a boat in the $20k makes a simple life would make easy for me. Looking what I'll be able for EDD disability for a year..will see when we see some eggs from the government first when we actually gets..

Better even day I've feeling today. I
So far I'm getting a percentage like 1% ever even each day on writing and words. Optimistic. Hope all fog dispelled soon.

Thank you for my friends!
Soon I'll be making the old gabby person soon will be to make won't be too long.

"Shearwater" waiting dear old girl. She's waiting for me to get back some day.
Now Playing: The whole of the boat waiting for me some day.
My old plastic shell of my boat, has no one to here
to see with every one else gone.I left my whole of my boat was my life I've known of these sixteen years. Echos of all left another to broken of the worken stays, brown old teak, rusted of stainless hardware, that could call of the whole rigging to bring the whole mast to full once again it will never disaster again. How can I ever again once again cleaned, fouled, hull, scum come all new getting my broken parts still need to more once to make it renewed. All stories I had are like wind in the stays of howling ghosts waiting. When are beliefs are gone. Like an old dereliction of old letters, love was there but no more, but not never again. Old scraps. Old sail tatters of our sail repaired. Cannot I ever to make all what is only to be saved while a small mud and sand bank, while we are just a few feet of water almost all is to once to be be made against. Will I start a who whole start once again. How can I once again to see all is so more about me high over the flood I am to able. I'm enable to do what I did who I once was a person the same person I was read from a long time. How with all i be the same person as a new person that I used to be. Hope again. Can "Shearwater" once again to bring grace me again.

The Blog for Shearwater
Now Playing: Sail from Alamitos to Catalina and then to Newport Harbor
I tried to find a new effort to find a new mooring for Shearwater. The Two Harbor/Catalina Island Harbor would not allow us to leave the untended boat there. I had to sail from Alamitos for 24 nm to Catalina to get there first. It was a waste of our time. Always cruising a fun sail to the island, but we they didn't find a new port now.

We took another sail there for a forty miles of a sail to Newport Harbor. It took a sail with Randy Probst during a 18-20 knot, northeast winds, took for us from 9 am to 12 midnight to get there until Newport Harbor.

We had a fun trip. Will be able to get there for about twenty or sixty days for the moorings there. $5.00 for each day there. We'll see what we're going to do next time.

We may try Dana Point next for more for fifteen days there. We'll see next.

Thankful for Coffee
Now Playing: The Golden Hill Coffee
Today I was able to hang out the Golden Hill coffee shop at the diner. My son, Braden had once called it as the "greasy spoon" once. Of course, it was OK, nice people not really dirty. Nice OK. I made not to make so that he wouldn't hear me to say on my writings.

Great coffee. I only had four dollars, I let hear know what she could help me could give to do this. I didn't ask her what she could gave me. I told her what she get to me. I didn't know it might have given to me....I thought maybe it was a donut...she said it was a donut, what was it was? A sticky bun? Didn't tell me what it was to hear me. It was a biscuit, fresh! Butter, warm, jam...not bad. I need to ask next time. First time since I had a problem making sure I will have this. Waitress, just gave me the problem for me, he didn't I really solved me to help.

I've had it for crappy coffee from 7/11 for a days. The great coffee at the hospital, for four days of the rest of the hospital. The food at the hospital of the rubber food. The coffee was great. Two cups for every meal was to save my life at the hospital. Pancake and greasy bacon wasn't amazing for somebody that was supposed to be part of their way to die. I guess it's ok for them to die for dieticians. The two cups every meal was excellent for me. I add everything you gave me, spinach, zucchini, grey-looking meat, might could have been turkey, or not really for sure what you got. I ate it everything. Good or for bad. It's good for to help me when you nothing when you're to eat. I could have been dead, so I'm thankful to eat, or see what ever day what could happened.

Coffee for the that or for a bisquit. Thank you for all we get and all the begin of the sun all of us.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: I could have lost....once again I will Survive!
STROKE Aphasia is a total or partial loss of the ability to use words. The loss may be caused by brain injury or disease. It's most often caused by a stroke that damages the brain's language center. Some people quickly and completely recover from aphasia after a stroke. Others may have permanent speech and language problems. * Speech problems can range from trouble finding words to being unable to speak. * Some people have problems understanding what others are saying or have trouble with reading, writing or math. * In other cases, someone with aphasia may have trouble talking but can understand what others say. Each person's speech and language problem is unique. A language professional can help set up a treatment plan and help others understand an aphasic person's needs. Here's difficult. Shows reading as a way the problems I have: It is very difficult. I can't words easily, for in emails, the Blog, words any sentences what used to be a breeze. If I were to talk to you, verbal, eighty percent, you might have seen everything believed. It makes months to learn. It was never to learn...I don't know if it will happen like a child again...but, all of my wisdom is still for me. We'll see what was happen. I'm fighting if I must try until if takes me years to get it better. What else I can do until I try it. I could get better, I may never get everything...it may never perfect... knows what will happen. It's only five days now. We'll see later. Only for an hour just to try this is very almost where I couldn't see a small for the small sentence. I was foggied to do nothing at all when I first. Now of the words didn't even a problem twenty a minutes. Hopefully, I'm getting therapy with my Son for very simple like words as if I were six year child. Simple things, such as things like words such as "window, doors, lamps, etc." I can look some of these things I don't even help me to of many things. There's a "hole" in my brain. I'm finding new ways to get the words putting the "digital", memory to get myself for another place for those where the words can try another place to use it. Anyway, let's see if it happens. One more opens a day. Could be better? Will see what happens. I'm quite there terrible sentences. We'll see what happens for October 28th. I couldn't do my songs. Musical couldn't do that any more. LOL! Somebody maybe I had a problem for music/songs anyway. I'm getting my music some day. I'm very discouraged...hopefully I will find this someday. I'll take all of the problems for all of you will see what is happened...perhaps we'll see. Soon we'll see....Talk phone to see what I'm able pretty normal. Noel Diotte San Diego, CA 310 376-7057

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Getting to Work By Bus, Bike and Train in The Rain

It poured buckets of rain last night in the first rain of the season. Thunder and lightning woke me sometime in the early hours.

By 4 am the rain had stopped in the harbor. I switched on ABC's local coverage and took a look at their Doppler 7000 radar coverage which usually shows nothing in Sunny Southern California.
I've used their images and other on-line satellite photos to sail around weather during big breaks in the on-shore flow.

I could see another front with a mean red colored center just off shore of Seal Beach. Figuring the wind was light, I thought I might have at least a half hour of clear skies to ride the electric bike to the train. On Sundays, there are no early buses running even if I wanted to leave the bike at home.

I wrapped the battery in plastic and put strips of gaffer's tape over the cooling vents of the motor cowling. I made it to the train with no problem. As I settled in the the train, the rain started again.

I'm due at the Regeant Beverly Wilshire at 8:30, you've seen the hotel. Where Pretty Woman was kept by Richard Gere. Where Axel Foley stuck a banana in the tailpiipe of the Beverly Hills cops waiting outside for him in a car.

Don't know what the film is today.
I spent the last two days with a sick Hugh Grant on a press junket for the sequel to Bridget Jones' Diary. Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason is based on the second book.

Hugh spent much of the day blowing off personal questions by drooling female reporters, who were besides themselves meeting the man, some to the point of laying professionalism aside and offering themselves to him in no uncertain terms.

Now, this might become a bit much even in a randier mood. But, when you're sick and drugged on Nyquil, it had to be intolerable. No wonder Grant keeps promising that he's giving up acting. He wants his life back, some normalcy. He's bored with acting and doesn't need the money! He says.

He's played roles that are pretty much variations of his own witty, charming self. A few reporters suggested some roles as a villian, a mass murderer.
He said, "I quite fancy that idea. I'd like to stab some people." His good looks and middle-class politeness would add to the power of a sinister role.

The are quite a few people on this train that are settled into their seats, with arms inside jackets and hoods over their heads, as if they may have ridden all night to stay out of the rain.

Across from me is a young, pudgy Latina woman with a two year old boy asleep in a stroller. A number of older guys that may have drank their way into this morning are rousing themselves to start all over again...one more day of life.

Raced down Wilshire Blvd. to do a day of interviews for yet another Chucky (that evil doll) sequel, SEED of CHUCKY.

The best thing about the film is a very pretty, expressive, young British actress, Hannah Spearritt, who plays a loyal but abused Production Assistant to Jennifer Tilly who plays a diva-version of herself in the film. I was thankful to roll tape in her room rather than Chucky, the doll's. Yes, he had his own interview room, believe it or not.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay to The Inner City

To my friend, Tom I answer:

Thanks once again for the encouraging words about my writing and making a submission to The LA Weekly for possible publication.

I did have a copy of The LA Weekly in hand to find the submission info but some actress snatched it to put under her little English Bulldog's fancy food dishes in our shooting suite during a recent press junket shoot

Besides that, he attacked me and latched on to my pants leg three times that day..Me! The Friend of All Dogs. So, you see, it's kind of like the old " the dog ate my homework" excuse.

It's also hard to get any work done when you are commuting five hours a day. The first six miles are done on bike from Los Alamitos, next To Seal Beach to First and Pine in Long Beach. My first rides in to he city started out at 4:30 am. Now I'm leaving at 5 and 5:30 cause I know what I'm doing transit-wise.

Speeding past the closed shops of Belmont Shores and along Ocean Avenue, I'd arrive for the first Blue Line train at 5 am. I can usually write my piece before I hit the Red Line transfer. I try to do a spell check before I hit the streets on the bike at Hollywood and Highland. Another half hour of downhill rolling on La Brea or Fairfax, some pedaling along Melrose or Santa Monica to 3rd and Doheny in Beverly Hills takes another half hour. I can usually make the whole trip in under two and a half hours.

So, you see I have plenty of time to write. And believe me, I'd rather write than stare back at all those hardworking faces that can't figure out what a white man with a wierd looking bike is doing on their train in their neighborhood at that hour.

Perhaps the Metro Rail has more white-collar riders towards 9 am. I don't know. But, so far, the evening ridership doesn't look anything like San Francisco's BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) riders, which is mostly office worker types.

Picked up mail tonight in Marina Del Rey and took the Green Line out of LAX. I got off at the Rosa Parks Station, you know of "I won't sit in the back of the bus no more" fame?

Well, the later night riders are a little bit different in that kneck of the woods. Some cool-looking kids weariing lots of bling were getting on the train. A few glassey-eyed ones with I- kill-people-for-fun vibes got on too. They made a lot of the riders nervous. Lucky for me, I was just some old, white wierdo to them. They instead gave a hard stare-down to a Black sister in a TSA uniform who checks baggage at LAX for the Feds.

The trains seem to be sort of a social center in the inner city. There's a lot of youth hanging at the stations and more greetings that usual on the train. Three bucks gives you an all day pass. Although, I've never been asked to show my ticket but once in six days and 24 boardings. It's certainly a safer place to hang out than on the streets.

Transit Security have been riding with dogs trained in smelling ammo and fired guns. And though there's warnings to potential criminals about undercover cops on board, I've been seeing some big, bad-looking cops in full uniform lately walking the cars lately.

Most of the people are pretty nice and I do have a lot people ask me about my bike. But, that's about it.

I wouldn't advise many of you to sell your cars just yet and embrace LA's rapid transit system just yet.But, I will say this. It's fairly clean, dirt cheap and on time.

It's raining now. Some little low curving in from the Southeast, rattling the rigging. How I'm going to get to work in the rain on an electric bike on a Sunday when there's few early buses is something I'm too tired to figure out right now. A little plastic. A little gaffers tape. A little good timing? Luck. What do they say?
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?

I'm looking forward to leaving off this daily marathon of traversing the city. Next week: South to Dana Point or just across the Channel to Avalon.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay - My First Boat
First Boat

I bought my first sailboat back around 1977 for fifty dollars.

It was a 12 foot sailboard of aged plywood covered with fiberglass. About seven inches thick with a square bow and a shallow footwell and a big lateen triangular sail rig, it was barely seaworthy.

I slid it in to the back of a 64 Pontiac wagon and brought in down here to launch it at Belmont Shores Youth Sailing Center.

With a pregnant wife and a sixty pound Golden Retriever on board, water was forced up to the space betweern the top of the daggerboard slot and the top deck.

Unbeknownst to us the boat was taking on water at a rapid pace. After draining the boat on shore, I set out by myself and got the boat moving across the water.

The rotten nylon sail soon started parting along seams and tears. Pretty soon I could make no way and had to beach the boat and drain it once again.

I managed to roll the car over a mast on the ground and flatten it. The boat trailed water behind it all the way back home.

I ultimately donated the boat to a pre-school's sand box. Even there it hurt small children with it's sharp edges and delaminating deck.

I've had many boats since then, Sabots, Lidos, Hobies, Del Reys they all had their flaws and their needs to be made into something bristol.

I live each day tolerating the flaws in the Catalina 34 my home of 16 years. I wish I had the money to perfect every part of her. I'm not sure if I would have elbow grease enough to match her needs even if I had plenty of funds.

But, I am fixing where I can. Feeling guilty for the $200. purchases at chandleries, not really able to afford it, but knowing I will curse my cheapness when systems fail at sea.

Little by little I will make her beautiful agaim. A little stainless polish, rust remover, methel-ethyl-keytone and the varnish ritual will make me proud of her again. Already, I realize what a nice boat I bought. I'm thankful I still have her. I will do her right, little by little in time.

Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay - On the train again. Going to work.

Sorry about the multiple emails. I got them too. Even this morning T-Mobile is trying to send to one AOL recipient's mailbox that is not working.

Ultimately, I will set up a list serve, so this type of thing may not happen.

Of course feel free to opt out at any time from receiving my drivel.
I know some of you enjoy it. But, we all are busy....and hitting delete or never reading is OK. No response from you is ever expected.

Look at how many newspapers with hours of research and writing blow about the streets, abandoned in the wind, walked over, used as fish wrap. As The Stones sang, "Who wants yesterday's paper?"

It's merely a writing exercise for me. I'm taking advantage of all this new technology to self-publish, to practice free speech.

The same goes for the radio station. Six years ago I couldn't broadcast my playlist of dream-fodder, songs of ocean/island life to the world. Now, I'm heard in more than 30 countries. Although the numbers in each of the countries are about as high as Bush's Coalition of The Willing, nevertheless there are people tuning in. And that's pretty exciting.

Now, to make it all pay. I have to get off my kiester and find advertisers for the station and a publisher for these writings. Then, I'll have the funds to go further and give reports a little more exciting than Fairfax and Wilshire.

If I stay in LA long enough and on the hook, that is moving from place to place, I want to do a small book on Living On The Hook in LA. It would include practical info as well as the aesthetic properties of each port or anchorage.

Well, I'm off to work with a cold to help promote yet another multi-million dollar film. Safe travel to you all in your efforts to make a buck.
Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Four Scenes - Sea & Land


ONE: On my way to Los Alamitos last week in the early morning Fog. I was a little disoriented by the fog. I made a great effort to trust my navigational plotting and the compass since there was no shoreline visible.

I saw a small fin sticking out of the water and turned the boat to starboard to look. It was a large Sun Fish wallowing sideways to the surface, soaking up the bit of sun peeking through the fog.

They're a strange looking fish about three to four feet long by a couple of feet wide. They look like a giant fish head. They have a snub tail, not a long tapered tail like most fish. They have small pectoral fins relative to their body size. Look up a picture of one. Pretty Strange.

TWO: An hour later I was joined by a huge group of dolphin. Several raced along with the boat. Some jumped out of the water. The jumps were kind of awkward. Must have been some young ones who haven't honed their dancing skills yet.

THREE: Got off the Red Line train on Hollywood Blvd at 6:00 am. I rolled past the new Kodak Theatre and the famous Chinese Theatre. On my bike I rolled over the stars embedded in the sidewalk of famous people, actors, entertainers, both dead and living.

I came upon Christopher Reeves' star in front of the Hollywood Actors Museum. He had passed the day before. On hearing of his death, I had taken to heart that he was born in the same month and year as myself.

A number of Catholic candles, the kind with the Virgin Mary on them lit the sidewalk in the early dawn. Flowers, handwritten notes and signs were arranged around a large portrait of him propped up over his star. A photo someone had taken with Christopher years ago had been left. No doubt a message was on the reverse side.

In silence, a Latino day laborer and a black woman stopped in the early morning gloom to read the notes and observe the peaceful scene with me.

FOUR:
A few minutes later I rolled downhill on a narrow sidewalk on La Brea Blvd. which was still quite dark. There was a young black man in the way ahead, standing still, looking across the street.

I heard a gunshot and looked across the street. An LAPD cruiser was stopped at an angle at the stop sign, it's headlights pointing at the corner of the curb.

Two men were sprawled face down on the sidewalk, arms and legs spread out at their sides. A cop stood behind them. I didn't see a gun drawn.

I stopped and asked the young black man quietly, if one of them had been shot.
He said, "Yeah, I've never seen anything like it in my life". I told him,"That's what they do...guy, must've made a move and got popped". The guy bummed a smoke from me and lit it nervously. I rolled on to work feeling the taste of violence and death, acutely aware of the danger in the dark streets of LA. I'm still not really sure someone had been killed or possibly accidently murdered or what happened. I didn't want to find out. It was way beyond my threshold for violence. I never heard an ambulance siren on my way down the hill.

Makes the ocean and it's dangers preferable. Shows how fragile life is. Show how blessed we are to lead relatively sane lives and enjoy day to day freedom from harm.


Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.