Go to the Places That Scare You.
Renown for it’s sharky waters, I find myself pulling my feet up on my board during sunset surfs in this region…During another bout of bad weather, I was lucky enough to be able to tie to a charter mooring right in the middle of a pass, cozy and protected from nearly all wind directions… This […]
Rock, rock, rock, and roll…
A limerick or poem to describe three days of an unexpected storm front while at anchor… there once was a captain named Lizzy her hair turned greasy and frizzy she couldn’t wash it cause the boat rocked and tossed it so now she’s both stinky and dizzy… Wind has swung an to unpredicted South 25 […]
Copra, the next olympic sport?
In the following weeks, I helped a local couple with their copra load, just to see what it entailed. I quickly understood why the local men were in such good shape…copra is their sport! Picking up bits of conversations in the village, I soon understood that the guys who worked in copra had a silent […]
The Great Shark in the Sky
Matai’s presence was commanding. He towered over me upon introduction by ‘Auntie Mary’, a local friend I’d made on the outskirts of the atoll. It wasn’t only his height and solid, muscular girth but his staid demeanor. He looked like a Puamoutu version of Hulk Hogan. “Matai is our local weatherman,” Auntie Mary said. “We […]
More to the Ciguatera Mystery…
Arriving at an atoll farther east, I brought my empty water bottles ashore and asked a local at the quay if he knew where I could fill them…He pointed me to the town hall building across the street where there was a tank with rainwater. “And do you know which fish are safe to eat […]
Biomimicry: Isn’t it about time we asked Nature?
I may be behind on the subject, but I recently came across an interview of Janine Benyus–specialist on biomimicry, as she coined it–a concept that instantly inspired me! She’s written many books, but one called Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, and since it’s publishing, has become a teacher for engineers, designers, chemists, architects, city planners, […]
The Preservation of Exploration
I often get emails asking why I don’t put my exact location on my website. I’ve never directly addressed the question, so here I’d like to briefly share my reasoning… Some of the finest moments on my voyage have been those where I discovered a spectacular place, a wave, a waterfall, a lovely stretch of […]
You’re my hero, Roz!
Roz Savage, 43-year old ocean rower and eco-campaigner is my hero. She recently completed rowing the Indian Ocean, making that the third ocean she rowed across over the last few years–Atlantic, Pacific, and now the Indian! All to raise awareness about the impending environmental crisis we face as humans… I followed her crossing as much […]
Nocturnal for a Night: Shine-eyes and rock pillows
No one put more wood on the fire, which I interpreted as a sign that we’d be going soon…Not home, not yet. Tonight I’d be following my local friends out to the reef to look for lobsters. Makae made no grand announcement. Just stood and gathered his gloves, then donned his homemade jerry jug backpack. […]
Whale Tale
Tucked into an inside atoll corner one morning, I felt like watching the open sea crash onto the reef so I took the dinghy in and anchored it on the lagoon side of the reef, then wandered the 500 yards across the island to where the reef dropped off into the open Pacific… The atolls […]