Day 5: Working Virtually (or Virtually Working)

Herb River, GA

We had an early night – our generator is acting up so we turned off most of our power (we kept our fridge on, as well as our anchor lights). It was 47° onboard when we woke up.  Propane heaters warmed us right up, though.

I am thinking that silence is overrated in terms of promoting sleep.  We usually sleep with a fan running to block out a lot of ambient sounds.  When the fan was off, we could hear everything – every creak of line, airplane flying overhead, even John’s whiskers on the pillow. Either we’ll get so tired or we’ll learn to ignore it and just sleep

Working remotely during a pandemic helped me prepare to be a team member on a virtual IB visit today.  I’ve learned that to really be ready I have to get work clothes and makeup on.  I have to prepare my area the way I would from my office: laptop, pens, notepad, and sticky notes at hand.  Today I even had the nameplate from my last job on my desk   I used headphones so I could focus on the meeting while John motored us to get gasoline for the generator and outboard, as well as diesel for the boat.

Technology is really amazing.  My team is comprised of members from the DC area, Ohio, Costa Rica and me on a boat in GA talking with educators in Mississippi. 

A challenge for us right now is power – how to keep my laptop charged for an entire day of Zoom meetings with a generator that’s been a little flaky.  Today John alternated running the motor with the generator when I got below 40%.  Two more days of meetings for this visit and we’ll have time to experiment with other options before another visit in mid-February.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed, texted, or commented here or on social media. We like knowing you’re along for the ride.