Navigating the winds of change
It’s been over three months since I last wrote about delivering Lance (the campulance) to our new home on Saturna Island, and our crazy story continues to change at a whirlwind pace.
Why is it that at some periods in our lives, the days seem to drag by ever so slowly, while at other times we find it difficult to imagine that so much has happened in such a short time?
I’ve been a sailor pretty much all my life. After learning to sail aboard my father’s various boats in Dana Point, CA, I served as the cook on my first delivery from La Paz, Mexico to Long Beach, CA in 1974, just weeks after my 20th birthday, on a boat built in the previous century that had a single-cylinder (one lunger) engine that had to be started with a firecracker!
A few months after that delivery on the Sylvia, I met my soon to be husband, James Kling, and sailed on the Kathi II across the Pacific to New Zealand.
On that boat we navigated by sextant, had a chronometer in a wooden box, only had an all-band receiver for a radio (no VHF), no refrigerator, an alcohol stove, a DIY self-steering device, and carried a mere 60 gallons of water that we hand pumped. The only electronics device we had was the Heathkit digital depth sounder that we thought was amazingly state of the art.
When I compare the Kathi II to our last boat, Möbius, a techno-wonder with a satellite compass, AIS, multiple GPS antennas, electronic charts, bottom-discriminating depth sounder, two complete electronic helm stations, more than 70 devices on our NMEA network, Starlink world-wide internet, a washing machine and heated floors — I’m astonished to think that I have lived to see so much change, and those days on the Kathi II sometimes don’t seem like that long ago.
So, there I was on Saturna Island trying to wrap my head around the idea that after a lifetime of sailing, we had sold Möbius and moved to a small cabin on a Canadian Gulf Island, when Wayne decided it was time to move again. Why? you might ask. That is such a good question.
Our plan had always been to stay nomads; we love travel but we simply wanted a home base. It turns out we found it at RavensRidge much sooner than expected — and at the wrong time of year. We are out of synch with the seasons. We knew that I, as an American, would only be allowed to stay in Canada six months of the year unless I became a resident. Our long term plan is to travel in the RV half the year mostly in the south, and to spend the other half (preferably in summer) on Saturna. To make that happen, we needed to build out the RV first. And while the cabin had a great woodworking shop, it didn’t have a metal shop, and that’s what we needed to start the build.
So, once again, we hit the computers and searched for a place to rent for 6 months or so where we could both work. There was also the fact that we were going to be buying lots of equipment and supplies for the build, and since Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax, we zeroed in on that state. We drove down on a search mission in late March and signed a contract to rent a funky little house in Klamath Falls, OR starting on April 15th.
We arrived in Oregon with our suitcases, a 2-inch memory foam mattress topper, an Ambo full of crates of tools, a few kitchen supplies, and zero furniture. We slept on the topper on the floor the first few nights, but I soon accumulated a dining table with two chairs, two easy chairs, an inflatable queen-size mattress, two desks and two office chairs — thanks to Goodwill, FB Marketplace, the Habitat restore, and Big Lots. And that’s about all we need.
Klamath Falls is at an elevation of over 4,000 feet and we have been surprised by how late the cold has lasted here. I took that middle photo above of the fire station across the street in late May — and yes, that is snow. Worse yet, today is June 15th, and we have a freeze warning for tonight. We are going to have to go back to Canada to warm up!
We have just passed the two-month mark of life in Klamath Falls, and we have adapted to this recent change better than expected. We feel like we have been here much longer than we have, but I think that is because we enjoy change and the unique quirks of each place we visit. Actually, this town is perfect for our purposes. There is a Home Depot and a Harbor Freight, as well as plenty of grocery stores. We’ve been able to get deliveries, and it turns out Oregon is full of outfits that service campers, vans, RVs, and off-grid lifestyle folks. I’ve joined the local YMCA to work out, and I’ve been riding my e-bike all over town. In addition, there are loads of trails and parks for walking and hiking.
Wayne has been working away on Lance. When we first arrived, he spent more than a week getting the gigantic garage pressure washed and set-up as his workshop, and doing research to buy himself a new welder. Then he spent a ton of time working in Fusion 360 first making an exact model of all the interior framing of the aluminum box, and then designing the interior that will be framed with 80/20 extruded aluminum. From the model then, he measured all the lengths and profiles in order to submit that aluminum order. During that period, we had to research and find the sink, the cooktop, the fridge, the windows, where the tanks will go, what type of head will we use, what sort of batteries, solar panels, etc. The more he can get done in the model, the easier it will be to order everything and build. The entire process really is very much like building a smaller Möbius.
But building a new boat didn’t require all this demolition. Ambulances have all these fantastic compartments that are accessed from the exterior doors, but they do cut into the inside space. We are leaving some at half their previous size, as you can see in the middle photo. When Wayne welds in the new wall, you open that compartment to an aluminum wall up top and storage on the bottom.
Before Wayne can weld in the new aluminum cabinet walls or put in the insulation, he had to remove all the wiring. As Lance was built in 2016, he was a very high-tech rig with five roof antennas for radio and GPS, three touch screens, five control modules for switching everything from lights to radios to oxygen control or locking doors. Some wires we will need to re-install for things like electronic door locks, brake lights and most of the exterior lights, but others we won’t need. He’s spent hours untangling, removing looms, labeling every wire, and coiling them up. After we get the insulation in, he will re-run the wiring inside the new cabinetry.
So, while Wayne has been very hard at work and making significant progress on Lance, I have been working at reviving my author business. With all the traveling, boatbuilding, sailing 8,000 miles, selling the boat and buying a new house — I had stopped paying any attention to my book sales and my writing was at a trickle. When we got here, I dove back into the world of writing and marketing, and what I found was a very different world. Artificial Intelligence has arrived!
Three or four years ago, I took courses on how to make Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads, and I had a whole slew of software that I had purchased for writing, editing, plotting, creating ads and tracking my sales. Now EVERYTHING has changed. New versions of the software nearly all now incorporate AI, and advertising is no longer asking us to find keywords to show our ads - the AI is finding the audience for us. I was really back to square one, and the new versions of all the software I used to use, as well as the new AI tools, required hours of YouTube tutorials and practice.
For example, the impossible struggle I once had finding stock images of women on tugboats has changed with tools like Midjourney that generate original images. This is the image that I always had in my head for the tugboat that my character Seychelle owned.
Today, I can experiment with creating all kinds of images. You simply describe (prompt) what you want in the image along with the style and presto, it offers several possible versions. Though I still haven’t managed to get Midjourney to come up with anything as lovely as Hero, nor the tugboat captain Seychelle and her black lab, Abaco that live in my imagination and in the pages of my books, I might consider using some of these images for advertising.
The not-so-great part of all these recent changes I have been exploring is all the controversy surrounding the creation and use of Generative AI. When I decided to restart my life as an author/entrepreneur, I went back in to my Facebook groups and started listening to podcasts. I discovered the world of creatives, writers and artists, was as divided as our political world. There were those who were pro-AI and those who were anti-AI and temper tantrums, name calling and lawsuits were the order of the day — plagiarism, not-ethical, end of the world, Oh My!
I am reminded of the arguments that arose when computers first arrived on the scene. Or when painters said there would never be anything called “fine art photography” because all photographers did was push a button. I have heard some authors talk about the fears in terms of abundance vs. scarcity. It’s as though they believe publishing books is a zero sum game, and if author A gains in her career, then all others are bound to lose. I’m of the abundance mindset, and as a techie, these new tools are really cool and so much fun to play with. I believe that most readers just want a good story to read.
As I am seeing AI rapidly becoming embedded in all parts of our world, I do not believe it is going away. I’ve had to handle a fair amount of change in my lifetime, so once more, I am going to figure out how I can make this new tool fit into my creative process to make me more productive and a better writer. As a sailor, I see this as a big storm, but this too shall pass. We will navigate our way through to calmer waters.
Fair winds!
Christine
So lovely to find you here Chris…still full of energy and passion. Libby
I really enjoyed today's newsletter. what an interesting life you're leading! I especially like your pragmatic attitude toward AI and how it's a rough patch in the road that will eventually smooth out. and, of course, that you will be writing again!