Anna's Page

Me and My Guitar  May 21, 2014

I am the star
Me and my Guitar,
That is the way
It will stay,
The strings make the most beautiful sound,
Not like a hound,
Its pretty and small
It sits in the hall
I like to play John Denver its fun
Don't try to run,
Don't touch the keys
Or the Guitar will sound like the bees
I am the star
Me and my Guitar



More Boat Poetry, By Anna

On Mother’s Day, I wrote two poems for Mom.

The Tongue Of The Ocean

The waves are starting to roll,

We are in the ocean hole,

The engine is rumbling,

We are tumbling

Not at the North Pole.

By: Anna LaDue

The Starting Of A Storm

The wind is blowing,

The waves are growing,

The sails are filling,

The ride is thrilling,

We are not rowing.

By: Anna LaDue

Passages

What is a passage?

A passage is the time when you move from one place to another.

 What do you do to prepare for passage?

To prepare for passage, you have to tie down

everything. We always make pumpkin bread and muffins.

What do you do on a passage?

On a passage you do everything

slow and we have a rule,

 ONE HAND FOR THE SHIP!!!

That means you have to keep

a hand on a handle or table or

 something strong. Finn and I play and sleep and eat.

What do you eat on passage?

We eat pumpkin bread, bread, muffins,

 pancakes, Fish, and Ramen noodles and cans

of soup and other kinds of things in cans.

                    Anna

Francis Bay, St. John

Today (4/6) we moved to Francis bay from Caneel bay. In Caneel bay, we swam with some turtles and I saw a baby turtle too, it was so cute.

 In Francis bay, we went to a beach and dad and I went for a walk down a big beach, to see what we would find. When we got to the end of the beach we found a trail that had two paths one was on a boardwalk and the other was dirt. We took the boardwalk path and it was cool to see the birds flying and the termites in their mounds … then I saw something moving in the bushes it was a Mongoose! It was so awesome to see the little pink nose and the hairy tale it was so awesome.

St. Pierre, Martinique, By Anna



St. Pierre and the Mt. Pelée Volcano

In St Pierre we learned that there is a volcano, Mt. Pelée, that erupted on May 8, 1902. There is a vulcan museum where we learned a lot of facts about the volcanic eruption. We learned that the burning, poisonous gas killed approximately 30,000 people with three survivors. One was in jail but still got severe burns. One that was found adrift in a boat and one that had escaped. There are now 5,000 people in St. Pierre. Where we were anchored there were people diving on ships that sunk when the eruption happened.

The Old Theater in St. Pierre, location of the jail cell.

We visited the old theater and the jail where the survivor was found several days after the eruption. At the theater you could see where the stage was, where the orchestra pit was and where the audience sat.

At the Vulcan museum there was the church bell from the city that was there when the eruption happened.  It was deformed by the heat and crushed until it broke.  There were other interesting things at the museum like sewing machines, huge rocks that had come flying down the mountain, and photos of the destruction.  There was even a skull.  An interesting part of the eruption is when the people fell dead they had their arms in the air and fell over backwards or forwards.  The temperature of the heat was about 2000 degrees and the flow travelled at over 400 miles per hour. The city was destroyed in less than a minute. 

 

 

Regarding Boats (March 14) 

from: The Wind in the Willows, By Kenneth Grahame (Latest School Project, read and typed by Anna)

'Nice?  It’s the only thing ,’ said the Water Rat solemnly,  as he leant forward for his stroke.  ‘Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing -  absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing  about in boats. Simply messing,’  he went on dreamily:  ‘messing – in – boats;  messing – ‘

'Look ahead, Rat!’ cried the Mole suddenly.

It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.

‘-  about in boats – or with boats,’ the Rat went on composedly, picking  himself up with a pleasant laugh.  'In or out of ‘ em it doesn’t matter .  Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you reach somewhere else , or whether you never get anywhere at all , you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always  something  else to do , and you can do it if you like,  but you’d much better not.'

Anna's Snorkel Day (January 29, 2014)

We went snorkeling today in Martinique. We were in the dinghy and we saw a few brown spots and two yellow buoys. We found a sandy spot and put down the anchor and then got on our flippers, masks and snorkels and got in. We saw fish, enormous, ugly, fat sea slugs, a few kinds of coral and I dove down a few times and got some shells and sea urchins and two sand dollars.  My Mom swam over to a deeper part of the reef and she told me to come over and see. I grabbed the camera from Dad and swam over. She asked me to dive down to get a picture and I dove right down. She says it was 10 feet deep.

                                                                                IT WAS FUN!

Another Lost Tooth in the Middle of the Atlantic! 

Today I lost a tooth around the middle of the ocean. I was showing my mom how much I could move it and then it popped out and I caught it in my lips and told my mom “IT’S OUT!” Then I showed it to my Mom, Dad and Mark. Then I came and wrote this message.

Yesterday it was hot and I asked my dad can we go swim in the ocean? Dad said " Ok ". So we put a line out with a buoy attached to it and my dad dove in and then Finn got in slow and I jumped in and then mom and Mark. It was so warm and so blue.

After we got out and started moving again we set the fishing lines out and then FISH ON! My dad gave the rod to me and I brought the fish in and it was a MAHI MAHI! MMMMM! We are going to eat the fish today.

"It was HEAVY!"

Isn't it beautiful?

Anna's Nazaré, Portugal - Photo Journal (11/23)

The Lower Town and Beach

The entrance to the Harbor

The Beach, the cliff and me.

Drying fish on the beach

Dried fish and octopus for sale

Finn on the Funicular Rail Way

The top of the Funicular

The Plaza at the Upper Town

The Cliff Walk

The boys and the light on the fort

Inside the Fort on the cliff face

The biggest wave ever surfed was in in Nazaré during the St. Jude storm
when we were in Ireland!

Watching surfers on North Beach

North Beach from the Fort

The Church in the Upper Town

Finn at a Café

A model of a traditional fishing boat at the museum

More models

Oxen pulling in the traditional fishing boats, an old photo from the museum

Portuguese traditional dress

The Bull Fighting Arena!

Vigo, Spain
We are in Vigo, Spain. Yesterday we got free soccer balls, so...we went to a park. After we went for a walk and stopped to play at a playground. At the playground we met a little girl named Lola. She was two years old. I understood and spoke Spanish with her mother!  Then we walked to a restaurant and I ate about 30 shrimp. Then we went to a pool and swam for an hour and a half. Then we went to a mall and shopped for a while and for a bonus we got A&W Root Beer.

The waves are five feet
And I am ready to eat
Finn yearns for his power
It is the breakfast hour
We have this seasickness beat.
                    - Anna

Whales! (Bay of Biscy)
We got to see whales! A whole pod of them, we saw one do a little breech and others, we just saw their spout. One had a spout that lasted so long we thought it wouldn't stop. The next day we saw a pod of dolphins that stayed with us for so long and it was so fun to watch them rides the waves and jump and land in the water.

Les Petits Bretons

Teeth I’ve lost around the World

When I was in kindergarten, one of the first days of school, I was eating lunch and when I finished eating I started chewing on my zipper of my coat. (I can’t tell you why). Then, pop, my first tooth came out in school.

The second tooth I lost was at the Statue of Liberty. We were there on vacation and we were eating lunch in the shadow of the Lady. I was eating chicken and I felt my gum and said, “uh oh, I lost a tooth” and I never saw it again. 

In Ireland, we were at the Royal Cork Yacht Club and my Grandma and Grandpa were staying at a hotel.  I had a loose tooth, so when it came out I spit out blood. When I got the tooth out I was washing off the blood and dropped it down the drain, never to be seen again.

In Norway we were in the fjords and my tooth was loose and it was coming out. It hung out for a whole night by a piece of skin. My Mom and Dad let me stay up till it came out, but I fell asleep anyways.

Yesterday we went to Cobh (Ireland) and learned about the Titanic and we got to ride on a train. On our way back, we were eating toffee and I felt something different. I realized it was a tooth and everyone looked at me weird faced; I pulled the tooth out of my mouth and put it into a tissue and went home to the boat.

Up the mountain ( Norway )

We were visiting a family in Høylandet at their farm. While we were there we also visited their cottage in the mountains above their house. There were six kids under four and it was crazy, my

Me with my walking stick

Dad leaned over and said …” do you want to go for a walk up the mountain?”  I said yes so we started up. First we had to cross a rock bridge. I was happy that I had my walking stick. The first little mountain was pretty easy, then it got harder.  We kept going up and up. Then I noticed some heather. Then we went down, down, down! Then we had to rest a little while. That’s when I saw a mountain lake; that’s when I remembered our water bottle and said lets fill it up. We kept on moving then we got tired and decided to go back. I saw a rock and said lets push it, so we went and pushed, pushed, and pushed, it did not budge. Then we started down. It was gorgeous as we went down. Then I saw a better way to go. There were two rocks and we went right through the two. When we got back we had been gone for four hours.

By,

Anna

 

NAMDAL AKVASENTER

(8/10/13)

This will be the first day of fourth grade. We went to the Namdal Aquaculture Center to learn about salmon farming. We went on a boat ride and saw the salmon.

The Rib Boat at the Dock

 We were in Flatanger Norway. We were visiting the Skei family. On August 2, 2013, we walked to the Aquaculture Center to learn about salmon farming. When we got there my mom, dad and I watched a movie about smolts, a fish that eats lice off the salmon, and salmon. It was also about how they grow and how they sell the salmon. At the end we asked questions.

Me at 45 knots

The next thing we did was get into GIANT suits and I felt fat! Then we went to the dock and went on a rib boat (40 - 45 KTS/ 45 – 50 MPH!) Then we went to another boat that was called the feed barge. We got to see video from cameras, they were in the fish pens, and then we went back to the rib.

At the net pen

We then went to the fish pens. There were 11 pens but only nine had fish in them but the other two were going to be filled when they move the salmon into them, when they become too big and fill the pens. After that we landed and watched the salmon jump, then we got to feed them it was so fun because the salmon were jumping and jumping and jumping.

 
 
By,

Anna

My new friend Emilie who turned 9 the day after me!

DOLPHIN SIGHTING
(Doolan, Ireland)

(6/17/13)

Today we got in the car and we drove to the ferry landing and we got tickets.

Then we went to the dock and we called the Dolphin by whistling.

Then I walked down some stairs and put my hand and I touched it.

It was rubbery. It loved its belly rubbed.

 ANNA

Anna's Events
March 25, 2013

STARTING THE MOTOR!

This is a picture of me after I started the dinghy motor for the first time ever!

The day before I started the motor, I told myself I was going to do it the next day…and I did it! Soon I will be able to take the dinghy out myself.

 

 

 

My brother and I sat at the Navigation Station to type with my Grandma and Grampa on Skype. I have been typing on instant message on Skype, that’s how we have been communicating in the Bahamas.  The Bahamas is a fun place. There is nice clear water and cruisers. Cruisers are people that live on boats and cruise around the world. They are all very nice. I have made a couple friends on the trip so far. There is a boat we are next to now called Amicus II. They have two children but they had four other children also onboard , just visitors. That is a lot of kids!

 I also climbed up winches to get onto the boom that the mainsail is attached to along with the mast. Now every day I climb up and Finn stays down and we play a game that we always play called Colin and Kailee.  

 

 

 

 

This picture is my Dad, my brother Finn and I in the bow on the banks. I was watching for coral heads. My Dad came up to check on us and my brother was up checking on me every minute of the day. There were lots of dark, vibrant coral heads. I studied coral reefs for school. Did you know that parrot fish eat coral even though they are vegetarians?  They eat algae but algae grows on coral so the coral they accidentally eat they poop out as sand, that is why there is so much sand.













Getting Up On Skis
March 2, 2013

Today my Dad asked me if I wanted to go skiing. At first I was a little nervous, but I said yes. My Mom was saying to me "Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain," which I got out of a fortune cookie at the beginning of the school year and taped to the front of my school book. When we went in the dinghy, we went over to a very calm spot. At first I did not have the skis together and I did not get up. The third time I tried, I almost got up. Then I fell. We went back to the boat and put the skis together. Then we went back to the flat spot and I GOT UP! We skiied all around the anchorage. When we went around the boats I felt very tall and confident. I liked it!

Lee Stocking Island
February 28, 2013

Today we hiked up to the tallest peak in the Exuma chain. We saw three or four beaches. It was very hot today which made it hard. But at the end we stopped at a nice cove-beach that did not have any breakers. At the tallest peak it was 123 feet above sea level.

On the way up the mountain we were hiking through grass, brush and seeing many lizards. As we were going along, I heard my Dad say hello to somebody so I went a little faster to catch up to him. He had met some ladies collecting palm fronds to make hats, bags, etc.  The two ladies live on Barreterra island and invited us to a barbecue on Saturday. When we got to the highest peak I looked for a shady place. There were no shady places.

February 12, 2013

Thunderball Grotto

Yesterday, Me and my dad, went to Thunderball Grotto. When I first got in the dinghy, I was a little nervous, but when I got out of the dinghy with my flippers, mask and snorkel on, I was very scared. Then, after a while, I got used to it. When we swam into the cave, there were lots of fish. Some of the fish were sergeant majors. They came within inches of my face. I held out my hand and they swam away a little bit, but then they came over and it looked like they were sniffing it. When we got past them, I saw a kind of conch shell. I pointed it out to my Dad. He dove down and picked it up. He said, “It is still alive in there.” We looked and there was the foot sticking right out at us. My Dad went back down and set it on the ground gently. He swam back up and we kept swimming. We swam on and we saw some other fish, coral. There was another little hole where we could come out of the cave but we would have had to dive down. We swam to a little ledge and rested. We talked for a minute and decided we would go out and explore the outside of Thunderball Cave. We went out and saw some fan coral, we saw brain coral, we saw another kind that we don’t know what was. There was a fish that looked like it was sleeping on that coral.  On the way back to the dinghy, after we were done, we saw a giant grouper. It was a Nassau grouper. They are very rare. Then the current started to come up and it was harder for me to move around. My Dad shot out in front of me and I tried to keep up with him but I was tired. I took my flippers off and put them in the bucket in the dinghy and rested on the swim ladder for a minute. It was cold! We then got in the dinghy and headed back. I loved it! I am going back with my Mom today.

 

January 31, 2012

Hatching Lizard

It’s Anna.

I was chasing lizards. “There is a white egg… a lizard egg. IT’S HATCHING!” I put the egg in Spanish moss and then it started hatching. First the tale, then the back legs, then the front legs. The back was gray with black dots. He rested, well he rested I ran around looking for a place to put him. I found a palm tree that was low enough for me to reach. I went to the lizard, the head was almost out then it came out! It was so cute.

THE END

 

November 20, 2012

I Hope this Boat Floats

Today was very exciting. I woke up and forgot that we were going to put this boat into the water. Last night I lost my tooth and we all woke up and did not talk about it until after breakfast. We went outside and I played with Finn. Then we watched my Mom, Dad and some friends put the dinghy on Midwatch’s deck. We have been here at the boat yard for seven weeks and we were happy that today had come. Our friend’s boat was going in the water and then another friend and then it was our turn.

We were all very nervous.  We were all holding our breaths that the boat would not sink and the motor would start. Dad was in the boat checking if the boat was leaking and if the motor would start. We were all holding our breaths, Mom, Finn and Me. We looked at the boat and then I said, what are all those bubbles? There were a bunch of bubbles in the water and then all of sudden there were dolphins near us. Then my Dad and one of our friends got the boat out of the hoist and drove around a little bit and all the boys were pushing and pulling and getting the boat tied up to the dock.

We are sleeping in the boat tonight at the dock, in the water. I hope I do not fall out of bed.

 

September 6, 20112

Hi, We just moved from New York and I wanted to make a blog post about these four different things.

The Farm

 When we moved to the farm, I started doing farming and maybe two weeks later we got two little baby pigs. I named them, a white one named Inky, a girl. I named the other pig, Marble, because he has black and white swirls. Marble got stuck between two pieces of wire while I was in the pen with them, he ran right into it. He may have got a few scratches but he will be fine. My Papou fixed it so it will not happen again and so that the pigs won’t get out. While I have been on the farm, I have learned how to ride my bike! It is very fun. Now I can go through the grass and dirt but I have not gone through any puddles yet. I can also ride way out in the fields.

Maine

 

I went waterskiing in Maine. It was the third time I have gotten up on skies.  Have you ever waterskied? We also camped out in Maine and I got to do homeschooling there! We’ll talk about homeschooling in a little bit.  My brother Finn was supposed to be quiet so we would not disturb the neighbors at night and in the morning but he got away with it.

This is a fish my Mom found and Dad caught. We don’t know what it is called. We researched it but couldn’t get any answers. If you know what it is please email us.

Midwatch

 

This is my bunk on our boat Midwatch. I have a beanbag. I think I will use it in a corner, stuff it in the corner and I can read a book. My long pillow will be good for rough seas so that I won’t get bonked into the side of the boat.

Homeschooling

Homeschooling is very fun. If you are doing homeschooling, you know what I mean about fun! This is a picture of me learning how to weave. It was fun. I was at Strawberry Banke in New Hampshire. I have been studying geology. That is the study of the Earth. I think it is very fun. My Mom and Dad and almost all of my family have only done it in College.  A week ago we did dyeing for homeschooling, we dyed this yarn with Concord grapes. I want to make a hat with the yarn.

 

August 2, 2012

Hi! I have been fishing! I caught three speckled trout and it was awesome! The first speckled trout I caught bit my Dad on his finger and he did not cry. Then my Mom and Finn went to the potty and back to the boat. Me and my Dad quietly walked down to the other floating dock. Then I let my Dad have a few casts. On his second cast he caught one speckled trout, then he let me have a few casts. Then I had a bite, I hooked him and caught him! That is three awesome speckled trout!

We were heading down tonight to fish. My Dad caught site of a dolphin. We went running down to the dock and were going from dock to dock to find the best place to see the dolphin and we kept wondering where my Mom and Finn were. Turns out they were inside watching the Olympics. My Dad went to find them and I saw more dolphins and they came within 20 feet from me, I was so glad but wondering where my Dad, Mom and Finn were. I sat there for five minutes then Dad came back and I was happy but then I asked where Mom and Finn were and he said “they are on their way.” After we watched for quite a while we tried whistling and they came up to within 20 feet again. Then my Mom, Dad and Finn fished and I watched for a few more minutes and I started fishing on my own spot and my Dad came over to see how I was doing; and while he was there, my Mom and Finn caught a fish! My Mom yelled for help (speckled trout have big teeth) so my Dad went and helped. I had a few nibbles and I tried to hook them but it didn’t work. So we went back to the boat and that was it for today.

June 11, 2012

Have you ever been to Maine? I have. There are crystals there and other minerals. Do you like crystals and minerals?

I went with my Aunt, named Sue, to the Press Room and I played my guitar. Then I went to eat pizza. It was good! I ate five pieces. I also had a recital with my guitar on Sunday. I played a duet, which means two players. 

 I also went to my Yaya’s Farm in New Hampshire. They have pigs and chickens. The pigs are funny and there is a pig that I named Caramel. She stands inside the food bucket which is funny. We put a tire swing in the pig pen. I used to go in when the pigs were little and I would swing on the tire swing and every time I would stop I would wait for a pig to come up. It was usually Caramel. And then I would wiggle and bump her with the swing and SHE WOULD SQUEAL!  There is also a very nice pig that my Aunt and Uncle named Oreo. Oreo is the nicest pig, he gets bumped around a lot by the other pigs, and I feel bad for him.

My Aunt Sue has a dog named Peewee. When we get the eggs from the chickens, I usually set them down in the grass. Peewee comes running up and grabs the egg carton and goes running off with it with eggs flying out. She tears the egg carton up into little pieces and there were pieces all over the ground!  One egg made it but the others broke on the driveway.

Anna, Age 6, Summer 2011