My latest posts on this blog (nearly a year ago) were lighthearted thoughts about the weather, the Super Bowl, and languages (beside English) that are spoken in the UK. I made a one sentence mention of our concern about my ordination situation in the Church of England, but left it at that.
After March 13, things started to fall apart in that regard. My CoE discernment process (whether they wanted to ordain me or not) unravelled pretty quickly. It was discovered that there were going to be some issues in getting us a visa that would allow me to start my training. We initially thought it was going to be something that just need some extra creativity on our part to reach a solution. With the help of some folks at Cranmer Hall in Durham we were able to be extra creative in designing a course of study that would satisfy the UK Border Agency's requirements, and in theory the study requirements of my sponsoring diocese.
We prayed and brain stormed and came up with an even more creative solution. We were schedule to meet and discuss it with our vicar and the diocese on May 9th at 2pm, Erica's due date being May 12th. When Erica woke up early May 9th in labour, it looked like we'd have to cancel the meeting, but Rory came quick and after seeing Erica stitched up and in a recovery room, I went straight off to Canterbury.
There, we were told that they would not agree to our solution, and thus we would be moving back to the US in approximately 8 weeks time.
Rory's birth took a lot of the sting out of the meeting, but it was still an overwhelming day.
Our church family sent us off with a wonderful farewell party (and a new iPad) at the end of June and on the 4th of July we returned to the U.S.
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We visited my family in Ohio in July and had a wonderful visit where Rory got to meet his Ohio grandparents and we just relaxed. We went west in August and have settled down in Erica's hometown of Napa.
Our initial goal was to earn some money, pay some bills, get our feet back under us and have a long term plan by the end of the year. Our long term plan didn't develop in our original time frame, but we achieved the rest of the goal. Rory smoothly transitioned into our daily life, Erica continued doing her design work, Clive got settled into two-morning-a-week pre-school, and I went to work for Erica's dad.
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Erica's parents had started two businesses and co-owned a third. Their primary businesses are PJ's Canvas, where they make custom made awnings and Adventure Cat Sailing Charters, which takes folks out on the San Francisco Bay, and under the Golden Gate Bridge on a 55' and a 65' Catamaran Sail Boats. They've been doing awnings for over 35 years and the Catamarans for nearly 25 years.
I helped out in the businesses' shared office updating some of their procedures and trying to stream line and modernize at lot of their practices. Then Jay recruited me for his newest venture. The Wing.
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Wind+Wing Technologies is the attempt to offer a solution to two big problems, rising fuel costs and the rise in pollution. What we hope to eventually create is a wind-assisted commuter ferry in the San Francisco Bay. Currently large diesel powered ferries criss-cross the bay delivering commuters and tourists to their various destinations all while burning almost 70 gallons of diesel per hour. Our goal is the same reliable product in terms of transportation while cutting fuel consumption in half.
How are we going to do that? By putting a wing on it.
That is a trimaran with a wing on it. It's a demonstration vessel which we hope will show the effectiveness of the wing and lead to grants and investments to build a full size ferry.The wing has it's own brain with which it senses the wind and puts itself in the best position to harness the wing for maximum thrust. The vessel is wind-assisted, so we can use the engine in low wind situations and back off the engine when the wind picks up.
My current role is to monitor and troubleshoot nearly 40 sensors that are on the boat and help the captain get us on and off the dock. We're out on the bay nearly forty hours a week gathering data ranging from fuel consumption, to wind speed/direction and anything else that will be helpful.
I've learned to tie and few knots and know that on a boat you use the head and not the toilet, but I still have a ways to go, but whatever happens, it is certainly interesting.
After March 13, things started to fall apart in that regard. My CoE discernment process (whether they wanted to ordain me or not) unravelled pretty quickly. It was discovered that there were going to be some issues in getting us a visa that would allow me to start my training. We initially thought it was going to be something that just need some extra creativity on our part to reach a solution. With the help of some folks at Cranmer Hall in Durham we were able to be extra creative in designing a course of study that would satisfy the UK Border Agency's requirements, and in theory the study requirements of my sponsoring diocese.
We prayed and brain stormed and came up with an even more creative solution. We were schedule to meet and discuss it with our vicar and the diocese on May 9th at 2pm, Erica's due date being May 12th. When Erica woke up early May 9th in labour, it looked like we'd have to cancel the meeting, but Rory came quick and after seeing Erica stitched up and in a recovery room, I went straight off to Canterbury.
There, we were told that they would not agree to our solution, and thus we would be moving back to the US in approximately 8 weeks time.
Rory's birth took a lot of the sting out of the meeting, but it was still an overwhelming day.
Our church family sent us off with a wonderful farewell party (and a new iPad) at the end of June and on the 4th of July we returned to the U.S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We visited my family in Ohio in July and had a wonderful visit where Rory got to meet his Ohio grandparents and we just relaxed. We went west in August and have settled down in Erica's hometown of Napa.
Our initial goal was to earn some money, pay some bills, get our feet back under us and have a long term plan by the end of the year. Our long term plan didn't develop in our original time frame, but we achieved the rest of the goal. Rory smoothly transitioned into our daily life, Erica continued doing her design work, Clive got settled into two-morning-a-week pre-school, and I went to work for Erica's dad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erica's parents had started two businesses and co-owned a third. Their primary businesses are PJ's Canvas, where they make custom made awnings and Adventure Cat Sailing Charters, which takes folks out on the San Francisco Bay, and under the Golden Gate Bridge on a 55' and a 65' Catamaran Sail Boats. They've been doing awnings for over 35 years and the Catamarans for nearly 25 years.
I helped out in the businesses' shared office updating some of their procedures and trying to stream line and modernize at lot of their practices. Then Jay recruited me for his newest venture. The Wing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wind+Wing Technologies is the attempt to offer a solution to two big problems, rising fuel costs and the rise in pollution. What we hope to eventually create is a wind-assisted commuter ferry in the San Francisco Bay. Currently large diesel powered ferries criss-cross the bay delivering commuters and tourists to their various destinations all while burning almost 70 gallons of diesel per hour. Our goal is the same reliable product in terms of transportation while cutting fuel consumption in half.
How are we going to do that? By putting a wing on it.
That is a trimaran with a wing on it. It's a demonstration vessel which we hope will show the effectiveness of the wing and lead to grants and investments to build a full size ferry.The wing has it's own brain with which it senses the wind and puts itself in the best position to harness the wing for maximum thrust. The vessel is wind-assisted, so we can use the engine in low wind situations and back off the engine when the wind picks up.
My current role is to monitor and troubleshoot nearly 40 sensors that are on the boat and help the captain get us on and off the dock. We're out on the bay nearly forty hours a week gathering data ranging from fuel consumption, to wind speed/direction and anything else that will be helpful.
I've learned to tie and few knots and know that on a boat you use the head and not the toilet, but I still have a ways to go, but whatever happens, it is certainly interesting.
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