Mark Tietig 1983 aboard La Calma
On Facebook, my spiritual brother Jeffery Stone asked a great question: “I’ve been pondering life and my journey, thinking about how I am defined by my life experiences and those moments that molded my character. I thought about how so many things could have worked out quite differently had things not changed on a dime or been different by a mere two degrees … good, bad or indifferent … So I’d like to ask that you think about and share what you feel has been a significant defining moment in your own lives … I know that we all have so many ...” GREAT QUESTION! After pondering, I shared, “In 1983, I went on a 3 month sailing trip from Miami, FL to Anapolis, MD with a friend who’d been blinded in a sailing accident four years earlier. Afraid of the ocean and being near large submerged objects, it was a daily test for me of faith and trust. It culminated in me doing something I would never have considered doing months earlier: My blind friend set out on a solo sail with his guide dog using his 33′ Cheoy Lee sailboat’s voice feature for the satellite navigation system. We’d be filming from a boat behind him. I was on the crew that sailed him out of Government Cut in Miami, the channel out to open sea. Once in open waters, we transferred on to the other boat. That means standing on the very bow of the boat, about 3 feet away from the other boat, and waiting for the waves to sync up before jumping onto the second boat, without falling into the deep ocean in between. Continue reading →
How ridiculous to debate someone’s dress size when you don’t take into account that sizes differ in different countries, and change throughout the years. Here are Marilyn’s measurements from her dressmaker in current American inches:
Height: 5 feet, 5½ inches
