Will it Overripen? A Few Environmental Observations
Though the French Polynesian fairytale is still ripe and glittering, modern ways of life are visually taking their toll here. I get the feeling that people think they are so far away from everything here in the middle of the vast Pacific ocean, that environmental problems will affect them. But imported goods flood in everyday. […]
An Outsider on the Inside: What DOES a Chicken Say?
In the words of my Aussie friend Damien, the French really “pecked the eyes out!” of the world during maritime colonialism. Doing this grand repair in French Polynesia has given me an excellent excuse to stay on this small jewel of the Pacific. From my view, the Tahitian-French lifestyle is a lovely fairytale of fresh […]
Use it or Loose It
There are days when I just can’t find the motivation to keep working. I look up at the hull and feel totally overwhelmed and hopeless. “It’s never ending…” I think aloud. But then I look left, and see, Ives, my hero of a neighbor who has worked relentlessly from dawn to dusk for 2 weeks […]
Round and Round to the Watertight Finish Line
I woke the next morning to clear skies and a breeze strong enough to blow out the surf. After a strong cup of coffee, I lowered my bag of epoxy supplies, rollers and brushes, latex gloves, and acetone down to ground level. I was pleased to find my scaffolding from the day before hadn’t yet […]
A ‘Hole’ Lot of Hull
I set to work to fix the part of the hull that had cracked around the cutlass bearing. I ground off the paint, and opened up the crack with my dremel tool. To my dismay, as I ground down the length of the crack, it just kept going. Finally I sanded the paint off of […]
The SWELLing List
Lot’s been done since I reported on boat project progress, but for the last few weeks it seems like whenever I finish one thing, another gets added to the list. Sometimes after lunch, the guys in the yard come over to have a look at what I’ve been up to. They poke around or answer […]
Saying ‘Yes’
I’ve been working so hard lately, that I haven’t had the energy to write in the evenings, so I’m posting this piece that a friend, Cameron, wrote about his recent adventure to the Marquesas to rescue his sister’s 25ft Falmouth Cutter that had been sitting in Taioahae Bay for the last 2 and a half […]
A Saturday ‘Sundae’: Off on a turquoise motorscooter adventure
Bright greens whiz through my peripherals as I slice through the balmy air after pulling away from the corner store. My right hand grips the throttle while my left rests against the other handlegrip, simultaneously clutching a heart-shaped, chocolate-dipped ice cream on a stick. Its heart shape thrills me beyond reason, but I don’t fight […]
Back to Cold Showers and Warm Beer
“Back to cold showers and warm beer?” a friend in the yard asked as I crawled up the ladder to Swell draped in bags containing a month’s worth of accumulated stuff.”Yep.” I replied with a curious cheer, dropping the load as I reached the opening to the port deck.In the last 3 years, my recent […]
