The Great Napoleon Breakdown
That same week I spent hanging out with the fishes under Swell, I watched locals return day after day to fish the same spot in the reef. I could see them hauling up Napoleon wrasses. This great wrasse is an instrumental reef species, which can grow to nearly 400 lbs! One of the old men […]
The Coral Question…
I’m back!Ā Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!! :) The swell was running a few days late, leaving me plenty of time to spend with my underwater neighbors. The coral is alive just here below Swell. I made a mooring with a piece of chain wrapped carefully around the bottom of a coral head, […]
Gone Sailing…Hang with Thich
Iām on a passageā¦not sure when Iāll find the world wide web again, so until then, Iām leaving you to ponder my favorite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanhās early journals in Fragrant Palm Leaves: āClinging to what you have learned is worse than not learning it in the first place.āĀ āLet compassion pour from your […]
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 rollā¦
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 shapeā¦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
Mataiās presence was commanding. He towered over me upon introduction by ‘Auntie Mary’, a local friend Iād made on the outskirts of the atoll. It wasnāt only his height and solid, muscular girth but his staid demeanor. He looked like a Puamoutu version of Hulk Hogan. āMatai is our local weatherman,ā Auntie Mary said. āWe […]
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 themā¦He pointed me to the town hall building across the street where there was a tank with rainwater. āAnd do you know which fish are safe to eat […]
Biomimicry: Isnāt 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! Sheās written many books, but one called Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, and since itās publishing, has become a teacher for engineers, designers, chemists, architects, city planners, […]
The Preservation of Exploration
I often get emails asking why I donāt put my exact location on my website. Iāve never directly addressed the question, so here Iād like to briefly share my reasoningā¦ 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 […]
