Latest information just in! Posted by Rita Savage 2nd September.
Wednesday, October 6 – Intimate Evening with Roz.
Vancouver Maritime Museum http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/ 6:30 – 9:00
Welcome Reception featuring generous appies provided by Finest at Sea seafood boutique http://www.finestatsea.com and welcome glass of fine local wine.
Price – minimum $80 donation, payable in advance. $50 of this will go directly to Roz’s Fundraising Efforts.
To reserve – email sbartlett@telus.net
Have found a few minutes between appointments in San Francisco to post a swift update before I disappear off to Burning Man. I am being told that the Burn experience will change my life. I thought I’d changed it quite a lot already, and I like it as it is right now, so I’m not sure how much this would be a good thing. But I am going in with an open mind – although not so open that my brains fall out.
Talking to the students in Bolinas
I rounded off my time in Bolinas with a talk at the school there. The students were a fantastic audience. When I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, we had an aspiring author, a marine biologist, and a boy who wanted to study otters. I went on to say that when I was little, I’d wanted to have a big adventure, and it took me a long time to figure out that a big bushy beard is NOT a prerequisite for being an adventurer.
Adventurer: beard not required
Over the weekend I was in Monterey for the Blue Ocean Film Festival – a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Mission Blue TEDsters such as Jean-Michel Cousteau and his daughter Celine, and Dr Sylvia Earle, as well as many other movers and shakers from the marine community. I thoroughly enjoyed the one film I managed to see between networking events – 180 Degrees South, featuring some classic lines from the say-it-as-he-sees-it founder of Patagonia Clothing, Yvon Chouinard. Also some gorgeous cinematography. Recommended.
With Jean Michel Cousteau, and a model "Sedna" made by Stan Miller
I was delighted that the prize for “Best in Festival” went to Michelle Hill and “Bag It“, a film about the perils of the plastic bag. Great to see that this issue is getting the exposure it needs. Myself, I was a proud recipient of a blue marble, for random acts of ocean kindness – for the significance of this, see the Blue Marbles website.
On Sunday I gave a brunch presentation in Portola Valley, an informal start to my speaking tour, and a great chance to catch up with friends old and new – and to do a short training ride with the other member of “Team Roz” in the California Climate Ride, Angela Hey. Thanks to Angela for hosting a wonderful event (and the super-healthy yummy salads!) at short notice, and to everyone who came – particularly all those who contributed to the Indian Ocean fund.
Yesterday I went for a hike on Bradford Island, an ecologically sensitive area an hour’s drive and a ferry ride east of San Francisco. Paul Valva organised the day – many thanks to him for the guided tour, and the explanation of the vulnerabilities of the area. The special guest of the day was Cynthia Ong, who I met for the first time when I was campaigning with her in
With Cynthia Ong of LEAP
Malaysia against the opening of a coal-powered electricity plant. It is one of the perks of my “job” that I get to meet some particularly inspiring and impressive people – and Cynthia of LEAP is high on that list, so it was great to see her again, and continue our discussion about saving the world. Hey, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! 
Tonight I leave for Burning Man. My justification to myself for taking 4 precious days away from writing my book and preparing for my speaking tour is that I think I can learn a lot at Burning Man. As well as looking forward to the outpouring of art and creativity, I’m fascinated to see how this temporary, money-less, self-regulating community functions.
My blue marble. Despite appearances, it does not have flowers growing out of it!
Oops, have to run. I have an appointment. Even (or especially) ocean rowers have to go to the dentist sometimes!
I will be taking my satphone to Burning Man so I can tweet. I will let you know how it goes!
PS Update for Event at San Diego October 7th – URL for the event: hors/
From September 7 until October 18 this year I will be touring the US in a series of speaking engagements. You might remember that a couple of months ago I put the word out on this blog that this was something I would like to do, partly to spread my environmental message and partly to raise funds for next year’s Indian Ocean Row (due to launch from Australia at the end of March).
At the time I asked for volunteers to help organise events in their local communities. Many emails later, and after much hard work on the part of my trusty band of volunteers, this is the result. We have a variety of event formats in locations scattered across the US, so I hope you will find an event within striking distance of you.
I’d like to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to the amazing individuals who have put this whole thing together. Most of them I haven’t even met yet, and they have done this purely out of the kindness and generosity of their souls. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my dear old Mum, who stepped in to help when I became overwhelmed by the task, and has been doing a wonderful job of coordinating with the event organisers.
I hope you will show your appreciation of their incredible support for me by coming along to our events and making this speaking tour a resounding success. We hope that it will generate enough funds for next year’s row, leaving me free to focus on my environmental mission. I look forward to seeing you there!
Quick list of cities and dates – for details see below:
Durham Sept. 7 Duke University.
Asheville, NC Sept.8 Malaprops Bookstore
Greenville, SC Sept.9 Westin Hotel
Asheville, NC Sept.9 Laurey’s Restaurant
Atlanta, GA Sept.12 Brunch at Amuse
Dallas Sept.13/14 Details coming soon .
Washington DC Sept.16-20 No speaking events planned
California Climate Ride Sept.22-25 Still time to join Team Roz! http://climateride.org/
San Francisco Bay Area
Sept.28 REI Berkeley
Sept.30 Sacramento State University
Oct.1 Dolphin Club, San Francisco
Vancouver, Canada Oct.4 University of the Fraser Valley
Oct.6 Aquarium
San Diego, CA Oct.7 Birch Aquarium
Minneapolis, MN Oct.10 Sound Mind & Body Healing Center
New York Oct.11-18 No events currently scheduled.
If you would like to host an event for NY or DC, please get in touch!
Details:
Asheville NC – Wednesday Sept 8
Time: 7pm
Location: Malaprops Bookstore, 55 Haywood St, Asheville, NC 28801
Cost: Free
Details: Presentation and book signing
Contact: Laurey Masterton at Laurey@laureysyum.com
URL: http://www.malaprops.com/
Greenville SC – Thursday Sept 9
Time: 12:00 – 1:30pm
Location: Brunch at Westin Hotel, 120 South Main St, Greenville, SC 29601
Cost: $20.00, which includes lunch. Advance reservation and purchase advised.
Details: Book signing opportunity
Contact: Bill Burgess at bill@theburgesscompanysite.com
URL: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1255
Asheville NC – Thursday Sept 9
Time: 7pm
Location: Dinner at Laurey’s Restaurant, 67 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801
Cost: $60.00, $10.00 of which will go to Roz. People wishing to have beer or wine, add an additional $12.00 each. A 7% sales tax is applicable.
Details: Dinner will feature locally grown “Gourmet Comfort Foods”
Contact: For reservations, email Laurey@laureysyum.com.
URL: http://www.laureysyum.com/
Atlanta GA – Sunday Sept 12
Time: Brunch at 12.30
Location: Amuse! Restaurant, Bar & Lounge, 560 Dutch Valley Road, Atlanta, GA
Cost: Minimum $25 donation, payable through the Paypal button on Roz’s website, stating what the payment is for. The cost of a prix fixe meal (approx $15) is payable at the restaurant.
Contact: Cindy Abel at cabel@atlantismoon.com
Details: Advance RSVP to Cindy required, please.
URL: http://http://www.amuseatlanta.com/
Dallas TX – Monday Sept 13
Westwood School. Details to be announced shortly.
San Francisco – Tuesday Sept 28: The Commonwealth Club
Time: 11.30am check-in, 12pm program
Location: The Commonwealth Club, 595 Market Street, San Francisco
Cost: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students
Details: Carbon Warriors Roz Savage and David Kroodsma in conversation
URL: http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=1
San Francisco – Tuesday Sept 28: REI Berkeley
Time: 7pm – 8.30pm
Location: REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley – (510) 527-4140.
Cost: Free – to book a seat:
http://rozsavage.com/2010/08/20/roz’s-speaking-tour-usa-2010/.
Details: Presentation: Rowing the Atlantic and the Pacific: One Woman’s Extraordinary Solo Adventures
URL: http://www.rei.com/stores/12
Sacramento – Thursday Sept 30
Time: 6.00pm
Location: Sacramento State University (CSUS) Student Union building, Ballrooms 1,2 and 3.
Cost: Free
Details: “Adventure, Dreams & Ecology” Presentation
Contact: Outsidejay@gmail.com
URL: http://www.sacramento365.com/event/detail/440838165/Roz_Savage
This event available to the public on Facebook under “Roz Savage”.
San Francisco – Friday Oct 1: Luncheon Society
Details to be announced shortly
San Francisco – Friday Oct 1: Dolphin Club
Time: 6 -9 pm.
Location: Dolphin club, 502 Jefferson Street
Cost: Minimum donation $10 on the door.
Paying bar and refreshments.
Details: Presentation, Q & As. Book signing.
URL: http://www.dolphinclub.org/
San Francisco – Saturday Oct 2: Private Fundraiser
Vancouver – Monday Oct 4
Time: 7pm
Location: Lecture theater B101, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford BC. Canada
Cost: $15:00 in advance
Details: Presentation and book signing
Contact: Roger Friesen, 604-504-7441 ext. 4297, or roger.friesen@ufv.ca
URL: http://www.ufv.ca/home.htm
Vancouver – Tuesday Oct 5
Vancouver – Wednesday Oct.6
Wednesday, October 6 – Intimate Evening with Roz
Vancouver Maritime Museum http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/ 6:30 – 9:00
Welcome Reception featuring generous appies provided by Finest at Sea seafood boutique http://www.finestatsea.com and welcome glass of fine local wine.
Price – minimum $80 donation, payable in advance. $50 of this will go directly to Roz’s Fundraising Efforts.
To reserve – email sbartlett@telus.net
San Diego – Thursday Oct 7
Time: 6pm
Location: Birch Aquarium, Expedition Way, San Diego
Cost: being offered free to the public with the generous support of Birch Aquarium, the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, and the Helen Edison Lecture Series. Donations can be made to Roz through the Donate button on her website
Details: Light refreshments; presentation and booksigning.
Contact: roz.sandiego@gmail.com
Minneapolis – Saturday Oct 9
An evening with Roz Savage, Eagan, Minnesota – details to be announced shortly
Contact: Kevin Doheny at roz2010tour@soundmindbodystudio.com
URL: http://www.soundmindbodyhealing.com/
Minnesota – Sunday Oct. 10
Northfield, Minnesota – details to be announced shortly
Contact: Kevin Doheny at roz2010tour@soundmindbodystudio.com
URL: http://http://www.soundmindbodyhealing.com/
Seems that all too often I have to make decisions that are 51/49 either way. In 2007, whether to accept the USCG rescue that I hadn’t asked for. In 2009, whether to try for Tuvalu or play it safe and go to Tarawa. Now, in 2010, whether to get to the start of my speaking tour by taking the passage on the cargo ship as planned, or whether to fly to California instead.
It was never a straightforward decision. I wrote a blog about it back in June. Reading the comments afterwards, I was surprised how much support there was for my taking the plane – mostly so I would be on dry land and able to be online, but also backed up by some rather convincing arguments based on the hard facts of CO2 emissions.
Nevertheless, I had felt it was important symbolically to show that there are viable alternatives to flying, if one has enough time to take the slow boat (or fast boat, compared with mine!) from China. So I booked my passage (with CruisePeople, if you’re interested in doing something similar).
Then, a couple of days ago, the local shipping agent told me that the ship’s ETA in Long Beach was Sept 6, i.e. too late for the first date of the tour, I realised I was actually quite relieved that I would be able to fly instead. I was anxious about any delays, especially given my poor record of ocean-related adventures ending on schedule.
The next morning when we spoke, he told me he had made a mistake, and in fact the ETA was Sept 2 or 3, as previously notified. But mentally I had already moved on and started planning an alternative writer’s retreat in Bolinas, CA, to work on my next book, and was very much looking forward to it. So this now presented me with a dilemma.
This morning I consulted a couple of friends, summarising the pros and cons thusly:
Advantages of Bolinas:
- guaranteed to get to start of speaking tour in time, and avoid letting down my East Coast organisers who have put in so much hard work
- access to healthy and good food – no idea what it will be like on ship, but very unlikely to be organic!
- will have email and phone access for any last-minute inquiries from event organisers
- will have access to internet, to do any final research for information I want to include in my presentation
- will have peace and quiet and time to write
- I can get to my stash of stuff in my friend’s garage to pick up clothes and suitable luggage for the tour
- would get me to the start of tour in best possible shape
- met a director of Maersk the other day, and he has said he can arrange for me to travel on their ships in the future at a less time-critical juncture – quite possibly free of charge
- am frankly weary of travel and adventure for now, and would like to be “home” for a while, somewhere where the living is easy…
Advantages of ship:
- have already paid for it, and fare non-refundable. Extra costs would therefore be air fare and food for 16 days
- no distractions from email (or from social invitations) when supposed to be writing
- big adventure
- easier access to gym (although there are gyms in Pt Reyes and Stinson Beach, and of course some lovely walking around Bo, so lots of exercise options there too)
I asked my heart/gut/instincts for guidance, and they unanimously wanted to go to Bo, but I didn’t know if it was just fear of the unknown that was talking. So I tossed a coin. Bo won. And I didn’t feel a strong urge to do a best of 3. So Bo it is.
So having been so adamant that I was going to take the ship, this is a slightly embarrassing about-face. But circumstances – and appetites for adventure – change. I want a rest, and Bolinas is very therapeutic. And as my friend Jay says, “Those that matter don’t mind. And those that mind don’t matter.”
So that is my decision, and I will just have to live with it. But the sooner they invent teleporting, the better. It will save phenomenal quantities of CO2 and an awful lot of dithering.
With Doug Woodring and the committee of the RHKYC
Other Stuff:
Thank you to the kind friends who have been my sounding boards today. You’re great!
I’d like to say an extra-big thank you to Doug Woodring of Project Kaisei, who arranged for my accommodation here in Hong Kong and set up the two wonderful speaking engagements at the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Doug is a fellow “Climate Hero” for the United Nations Environment Program, and will be speaking at the Hong Kong TEDx in September on the same bill as Dr Jane Goodall. Project Kaisei has an ambitious plan to clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch, and I wish them all the greatest success in their mission.
Being presented with the RHKYC pennant (aka bikini bottom) by Geoff Booth
Check out this video from their Youth Ambassador, a famous HK singer called Get Everyone Moving (GEM). Doug is a busy, busy man – saving the oceans is a more than full-time job – but still found time to help make my visit in Hong Kong enjoyable and productive. Thanks, Doug!
Thanks also to Rupert and the committee of the Royal Geographical Society, and Koko and the committee of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, especially the AV tech guy without whom there would have been no V. Warmest best wishes to Eric, Geoff, Chris, Chris and Tim for being such excellent dinner companions, and to Mark and Kathy Greenberg – old Oxford rowing friends whom I hadn’t seen in over 20 years, who sprung a wonderful surprise on me by turning up at my presentation on Wednesday night. I’d like to think that none of us have changed at all!
With Kathy Davies Greenberg
Hong Kong - view from RHKYC
The Compass Room
Rather belatedly, I am going to round off the story of my fasting-and-colonics retreat in Koh Samui, Thailand. Technical and logistical hassles have kept me offline for a while, but now I am back, at least temporarily, and recognise that the tale needs a conclusion. You will note that I have absolutely abstained from making any ribald jokes about poo and bottoms, and you’ll never know how much self-restraint that took….
I had already decided that for the last 2 days of the retreat I would turn off my laptop. As with most things, I was getting out of the experience what I was putting in – and for the first 5 days my focus had been distracted by a tsunami of emails around the upcoming US speaking tour (of which details will be coming soon).
But even before I had signed off my final email, my laptop decided to take matters into its own hands. The screen went blank, and nothing would coax it back to life. I could still hear the music playing on iTunes, which gave me hope that the innards were okay, but with no visual output the usefulness of the laptop was obviously rather minimal. So I turned it off, sent it to bed with no supper, and hoped that it would come to its senses over its two-day holiday.
With no distractions, the final two days went much better. I relaxed, focused, and was able to enjoy the yoga and meditation sessions without the constant buzz of plans whirring around my head like a particularly irritating mosquito.
And something really odd happened. Up until this point I’d been quite disappointed that I had enjoyed no appreciable weight loss. But when I released all that tension, largely thanks to a wonderful session with a spiritual therapist, a few pounds appeared to melt away overnight. Of course, it could just be that the results of a reduced calorie intake and daily colonics finally kicked in – weight loss is never linear – but there did seem to be something more to it than that.
So, ultimately, it all came good. I achieved what I had hoped to achieve in Koh Samui – I rediscovered a sense of inner peace to draw on when the going gets tough, I rebooted my eating habits from unhealthy to healthy, and dropped the 7 pounds I’d gained eating all that yummy fried food in Malaysia and the Philippines. I left feeling cleansed physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually.
(Note: Although I felt rather embarrassed to admit to taking colonics, a couple of friends have come out and admitted that they, too, find them tremendously beneficial. There is apparently no scientific or medical justification for the practice. Just the fact that many people find it makes them feel a lot better, brighter and lighter.)
For the record, I was at Dharma Healing International in Koh Samui, Thailand. The 7-day retreat cost the equivalent of $600, and included around 30 hours of classes on nutrition and yoga, and two massages. I stayed at Soonthorn Bungalows, which cost $18 per night. More luxurious accommodation is available at the nearby Siam Resort for around $100 a night. I would highly recommend Kwan Jai International for a professionally administered colonic. Chalong is a master of his art!
The “fast” was not total starvation. We took various cleansing concoctions, and also two coconut waters a day, and a hot broth in the evenings. I did feel hungry, but there again, I always do!
Speaking at the Hong Kong Royal Geographical Society on Monday
Other Stuff:
There is a theory that life never burdens us with more than we can handle. So just as my ability to handle stress goes up, life has upped the ante. The container ship that I am due to take from Hong Kong to Long Beach, California, is running at least a day late. Which is good, in that it gives me more time to sort out the really rather onerous paperwork (Chinese visa today, yellow fever vaccination tomorrow), but also cuts into the very limited “wiggle room” I have between arriving in Long Beach and needing to be on the East Coast for the start of my speaking tour. Tense times in Hong Kong.
My laptop has enjoyed at least a temporary revival. It still refused to work after its 2-day hiatus, but on arrival in Hong Kong spontaneously decided to work again. But for how long, who knows? A San Francisco friend, Ian Jefferson, has very kindly offered to lend me a spare laptop just in case this one goes belly-up in mid-Pacific, so I won’t end up having to write my book in longhand.
The Brocade, shortly to be renamed to her pre-Pacific name of Sedna Solo, has now arrived safely in Fremantle in readiness for next year’s Indian Ocean row. This is good news. The not so good news is that there was an unexpected bill for $4,000 for the freight on the final leg of the trip. We are negotiating….
Much to keep me busy in Hong Kong. Gave a presentation to 150 people at the Hong Kong Royal Geographical Society on Monday night (pictured), and tonight I speak to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.
