Parade was Success!!!

0921 RI 1421UTC

July 5, 2007 HAPPY DAY AFTER the 4th!!!

Absolutely BRILLIANT, as spoken by the group of young British soccer players that gathered round last night at the pub to congratulate us for the parade, and for my sail around the world. The entire parade day was magic just as the preparation had been. Everything that could have gone right, did! We kicked Murphy into orbit. What fun. The THANK YOU's are enormous. I'll put them in order of when I met folks. Will Barbeau, the mastermind behind getting me invited to the parade. Who would have thought? Will Barbeau!!! Then it was Bill and Linda Knowles who first invited me to be able to arrive at the Herreshoff Museum Dock upon my completion of the circumnavigation. That was furthered by Will and the Museum celebration. To the Town of Bristol who graciously invited me to participate. Tom Brownell was the key man in making it happen when he volunteered his truck and trailer to haul Inspired Insanity around the streets of Bristol. Thank you Tom and Sharon. Then it was an old friend who had done the original painting of Inspired Insanity on the stern before I left to sail the world, Tom Weathers, who began the magic. He volunteered to paint "For the Love of Oceans" on the topsides of my boat. The magic surrounding my developing Youth4Oceans and For the Love of Oceans was begun by Jay Miller when he so amazingly offered to host me to Washington DC for Oceans Week. It began the momentum to create a grassroots advocacy project in America to augment my work with OceansWatch. Then it was Bill and Linda again, who offered my their home as a base to work from and gave of all their organizational talents and resources to get me off the ground. The Bristol Boat show was a kick off for Youth4Oceans!! Thanks Sean Sullivan and the harbor masters. Then whilst I was waiting at a bus stop in Barrington RI, on my way to meet Bermuda friends at the Newport Yacht Club, I got bored waiting. I wondered if I would get a lift if I hitch hiked in such an upscale town in RI. Lo and behold, Davison Bolster stopped and offered me a lift, restoring my faith in humanity as he opened his door. Davison has become a key component in facilitating For the Love of Oceans. He created logos for both For the Love of Oceans, Youth4Oceans and created the front banner design for the parade: Round the World For the Love of Oceans. The planning meeting was a great success. Ten days later, Tom and Porky (the driver for Tom) arrived at Bristol Marina, thanks Andy Tyska, to load Inspired Insanity. The creative process began. At every step everything we needed arrived, often before we knew what we needed it for. Kim Wetherald arrived with Manny Perry from Young Mariners. She jumped right in and asked what we needed. Well, she must have a huge garage as from it came huge bundles of blue tarps, all sorts of red,white and blue banners and flags, coolers, snacks for the parade day; more and more. Manny and his brother in law dreamed up a great solution to guards for the wheels, and constructed, from conduit, the rail that would end up supporting our overflowing water keeping it off the trailer wheels.. Tom Weathers was completing his masterpiece of For the Love of Oceans on the side of Inspired Insanity. Other young 'uns and parents came to help with the process, thanks Tye and your dad. Then the reality of the talent that stood around me set in as Davison began to paint and create life-like whales, dolphins, turtles, fish for the ocean. Gary Fish had found hundreds of feet of old fishing nets. Moment by moment, the float began to take shape. Then it was a visit by Tom and Sharon that re-directed our efforts, both for the safety of the truck but truly it set us on a better path. The water began to flow over the wheels, concealing them somehow, Tom Weathers found more energy and in his midnight hours began making banners, looking like old scrolls, all done absolutely professionally with vinyl, we were styling. Others offered help. Communication was a problem as I don't have a cell phone. Lots of people ended up trying to get involved but couldn't find us. Sierra Club was one of those, Lisa Allen too but somehow, amidst it all, the float came together magically. Herb Williams took on creating flag poles and found flags for us. The float became a rolling ocean, with a platform for me to sing on. Derek Escher would join me with mandolin and guitar. We worked out the sound system electric need by using a transformer off the cigarette lighter... miracles.

The day was approaching and I had a vision of writing a song, For the Love of Oceans. In a moment of energy 2 nights before the parade, the words came, a simple chord progression. When Derek and I got together that night to practice, the song was born. It worked..

The parade day was amazing as Tom, Sharon, their grandson, Porky and his wife and girls arrived at 6am., my mom and 2 brothers arrived ahead of us. The energy was gathering.. The first test was to get the float through town to the start without hitting any power lines. We had maxed every size limit with the float construction. 13.5' high and 10'wide. Will Barbeau met us at the start on his bicycle with camera in hand. Kids started arriving. T-shirts handed out. Snacks and drinks. Extra parents to go along side. Michelle and Jim. The kids, please forgive me if I miss a name: Ally, Stephen, Kate, Remmy, Tye, Geneva, Tye 2, Sarah, Charlotte, Teddy, and there were 2 more... sorry... but thanks so much all of you for being there, you were so so so awesome. They totally cooperated with our safety rules.

The parade was magic and it was televised. I sang For the love of Oceans all the way and stopped 2 times to sing America the Beautiful. We all had so so much fun and our message was heard!!!!

The response was phenomenal! Thank you Town of Bristol... all of our sponsors.

biggest hugs and loves, xoxoxoxoo d