March 14, 2015 – by Anne – JOYFUL BEGINS THE BLUE PLANET ODYSSEY TOMORROW!
Glory hallelujah! Elation abounds on sailing vessel Joyful because tomorrow we begin Jimmy Cornell’s Blue Planet Odyssey (BPO) around the world sailing rally and continue with Mission Joyful! The Blue Planet Odyssey is a round-the-world sailing rally from 2014-17, which aims to raise awareness of climate change and the most urgent issues facing our ocean. Mission Joyful is Jeff’s and my endeavor to serve the Lord through art and music ministry as well as through other ways whether on land or at sea. We thank the Lord for making the BPO and Mission Joyful possible! We thank Jimmy and his team for orchestrating the BPO, and we thank the Lord for giving us an opportunity to use this circumnavigation to serve Him along the way with music and art ministry through Mission Joyful. We thank the six pastors who formally blessed Joyful’s participation in the BPO and her Mission Joyful voyage around the world. We thank our kinfolk, friends, doctors, church members, school students, teachers, administrators, and new acquaintances for their prayers, interest, and support back home, and the myriad of excellent workmen, who helped prepare Joyful for this endeavor. Each of you are part of the Joyful team! Welcome aboard!
If you would like to see further information (photos, videos, articles, etc.) about the rally and be able to actually track Joyful and all the boats on the rally throughout the world, please go to www.blueplanetodyssey.com.
PHOTOS:
I’ll include some photos in this blog entry, as well as in every blog entry, that hopefully you will enjoy seeing. Each photo, and its caption should be like a “thousand words”. I hope they will make you feel you are here with us!
CREW:
Clearly, all four souls on board Joyful, my husband, Jeff, two great friends and crew members, Bill and Ruud, and I, Anne, are quite excited to cast off from beautiful Key West’s Stock Island Marina Village, leaving the coconut trees, sea turtles, and lovely people of the Conch Republic behind, to return to Key West again after 2 1/2 years when Joyful “crosses her wake” to compete the circumnavigation of the world. Bill hopes to complete the circumnavigation, and Ruud hopes to sail on selected passages as his schedule permits.
A SPECIAL CREWMEMBER AND SHORE BASED CREW:
Oh yes! There is one other extremely important crew member aboard Joyful! Flat Mr. Davis. Flat Mr. Davis is a 12 inch tall flat paper rendition of Mr. Andrew Davis, principal of the Round Hill Elementary School of Round Hill, Virginia. Our awesome cousin, Taggert, attends the school, so we invited his school to be involved in the BPO’s Sail the Odyssey Educational Program. Flat Mr. Davis will be an active participant on Joyful throughout the circumnavigation, reporting back to his student body. There are two other schools involved with the program through Joyful; The Good Shepherd Academy of Theodore, Alabama, and the Hun School of Princeton, of Princeton, New Jersey. We are delighted to have the student body and staff of these fine institutions participate in the BPO as Joyful’s land based crew! We appreciate all of our readers, and we are pleased to share this once in a lifetime adventure with each of you through this blog!
MISSION JOYFUL:
Music and Art Ministry –
While we were in Key West waiting for Joyful’s start of the BPO, Jeff and I had the pleasure to serve the Lord by holding music ministry events at a convalescent center and hospital in Key West. I also was able to carry out art ministry in Key West, and begin an important aspect of how I can further utilize this circumnavigation to serve the Lord for for years to come. I intend to write, illustrate, and publish a book relating to how God is present throughout the world. My idea is to make a series of paintings incorporating a verse from the Bible within each design, which illustrate my impression of every passage between Joyful’s landfalls, and every landfall throughout the circumnavigation. When I called a major company which specializes in the manufacture of fine art materials to ask a technical question about one of their products, I was most pleasantly surprised by the kind lady from the company who volunteered to make a present of a large quantity of my favorite watercolors and brushes to support this Christian book I am making! I thank you again for your generosity dear lady, and for your shared love of Jesus. I will use
watercolor and Chinese stick ink, as well as silver and 24 karat gold leaf to illuminate each painting. One of the photos in this blog entry shows a painting of a sea turtle I made for my book, significant for Key West, Joyful’s starting location for the circumnavigation. The Bible verse which I interwove into the design is from Genesis 1:21 “So God created the living creatures of the sea… and God saw that it was good.”
SPECIAL NOTE TO EVERYONE READING THIS BLOG:
We hope that everyone following Joyful around the world on the Blue Planet Odyssey and Mission Joyful voyage will, by reading this blog, enjoy themselves through the text and photos we present. So stand by with lots of sunscreen, a bathing suit, maybe some foul weather gear, and, most of all, an open receptive mind and heart to meet wonderful people and see fascinating places all over God’s creation. It’s time to have FUN!
1. In Rogersville, Joyful’s Blessing of the Maiden Voyage ceremony with Pastors Dennis, Otto, & Sallie led prayers.
2. In Huntsville, the Consecration and Commissioning Ceremony for Mission Joyful at the Huntsville First United Methodist Church.
3. BPO route map (some destinations have changed).
4. Anne with Joyful’s navigational books, British Admiralty & other pilots, cruising instructions.
5. Jeff and Rudd course planning.
6. Bill inventorying provisions.
7. Flat Mr. Davis representing the Round Hill Elementary School principal.
8. Flat Mr. Davis – back view.
9. Three schools in the USA are partnered with Joyful in the BPO’s Sail the Odyssey Educational Program – Round Hill Elemtary School, The Good Shepherd Academy, and the Hun School of Princeton.
10. Bill with Hun School of Princeton tee shirt.
11. All 500 students at the Round Hill Elementary School signed their names on their banner, and all 21 students at the Good Shepherd Academy signed their names on their banner. We love our land based crew!
12. Jimmy Cornell, Anne, Flat Mr. Davis, & Round Hill Elementary School.
13. Students at the Good Shepherd Academy.
14. Students at the Good Shepherd Academy following the BPO website.
15. Students at the Hun School of Princeton, NJ. will participate in the Sail the Odyssey Educational Program of the BPO.
16. Round Hill Elementary School students Harrison & Ryan with Secchi Disk. They and their mom and dad visited Joyful in Key West before the start of the BPO.
17. Ryan, Harrison, Anne, Jeff, Round Hill Bears, and Joyful’s Secchi Disk. Mr. Muldowney’s fifth grade science students at the Round Hill Elementary School made the disk for Joyful and signed their names on the disk! Thank you Bears!
18. Joyful at Key West the morning of her the start of BPO.
19. Joyful starboard side view at Key West.
20. Joyful’s stern view at Key West.
21. Joyful’s special blue colored bottom anti-fouling paint for her circumnavigation. A no barnicle zone for sure!
22. Joyful’s bow with the special blue colored bottom anti-fouling paint. It protects Joyful’s hull from barnicles, oysters, plant life, and helps her go fast!
23. Joyful’s top and inside views.
24. Joyful’s saloon & galley.
25. Joyful’s saloon facing aft.
26. Joyful’s saloon facing starboard aft.
27. Joyful’s saloon starboard view.
28. Joyful’s galley.
29. Joyful’s galley facing aft.
30. Joyful’s wet locker.
31. Joyful’s fo’c’s’le.
32. Joyful’s fo’c’s’le aft view.
33. Joyful’s fo’c’s’le starboard aft view.
34. Joyful’s fo’c’s’le with lee cloth deployed. Joyful now has white fabric storage boxes lining both walls above the wooden part for freeze dried broccoli, kale, red & green peppers, peas, carrots, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, & raspberries.
35. Joyful’s forward heads sink.
36. Joyful’s forward heads toilet.
37. Joyful – Anne’s side of aft stateroom with 88 key piano, classical & accustic guitars, & art desk.
38. Joyful – Jeff’s side of aft stateroom.
39. Aft stateroom looking forward.
40. Aft heads sink.
41. Aft heads manual toilet.
42. Music ministry – Anne playing guitar at First Baptist Church of Theodore.
43. Music ministry in Joyful’s cockpit.
44. Music ministry at the 1st Lutheran Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
45. Anne’s painting for her book she will publish reflecting passages and landfalls during the Blue Planet Odyssey. This was inspired by the turtles at Key West and represents the location of Joyful’s start of the rally.
46. Art ministry students made Easter egg holders showing their drawings of the Easter events.
47. Pelicans at Key West flying and sitting.
48. NOAA’s Shaun, hands Anne a NOAA drifter buoy which Joyful will deploy in the South Pacific near the Galapagos Archipelago.
49. Ruud is securing Joyful’s NOAA drifter buoy under Anne’s art desk in the aft stateroom. The drifter buoy weighs about 50 pounds.
50. Anne hoisting the BPO banner.
51. Joyful’s start of BPO at Key West. Anne and Jeff are holding the Mission Joyful blanket the congregation of Huntsville First United Methodist Chapel presented them during their consecration and commissioning ceremony for missionary work.