Good morning…Bernard?
“Swreeee, skreeee, squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!” woke me from the deadest kind of sleep. “Where am I?” I thought for a moment… Opening my eyes, a squinted toward the sky, a mess of flapping wings. “Swreeee, skreeee, squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “What the..?” I sat up, wrapping the sheet around me in the cool morning air… I’d slept in the cockpit. […]
Vita-Wheats and Party Cubes
That night blurred into morning without sleep to divide the days. By the distance we had remaining, it would be a close race to make it to my destination with overhead sunlight to enter the pass. I revved the engine and felt the hull push through the oncoming waves, it looked as if it would […]
Bluewater Hiatus
The night wind persisted, shifting northeast, which forced us off-course by nearly 30 degrees. So I tacked south and could still made a bit of easting… “East is east”–I’d take what I could get. By dawn we were triple reefed, the headsail wound to less than half its size. See why I was so grateful […]
It’s the Simple Wonders
I motored most of the night to lay some solid miles of ‘easting’. The bright moonlight and light winds eased me gently back into the rhythm of a night at sea… The next morning, the sea was an enormous, regal blue sheet of silk billowing out in all directions. It felt so good to see […]
Takin’ off my Jitterpants
Swell was ready–dinghy on deck, gear stashed and stowed. My leafy companions—basil, aloe, mint, lemongrass, and sage plants were wedged securely around the cabin. The night was almost eerily calm. The Milky Way exploded across the sky from behind the silhouette of the island. Swell heaved slightly against the dock where I had come to […]
CELEBRATE OUR PLANET!! Words of motivation from John Muir…
HAPPY EARTH DAY!! Late, but hardly forgotten…as I celebrate the Earth EVERY day! I hope you found a way to appreciate our planet yesterday, and as often as possible…Whether it’s the sea or the mountains, the desert or the prairie, a canyon or even the weeds in your backyard…the natural world has so much more […]
1 + 2 + 3 + SIX BILLION(or MORE!)=ONE!
A human being is part of a whole called by us “the universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and […]
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY: 5th International Marine Debris Conference…Words from Roz Savage
When I set out on this trip, I thought there would still be places where I could see what the Earth looked like prior to human impact. Sadly, I think I was wrong. Every place I have sailed has borne painful evidence of humanity’s maltreatment of the Earth. The coral is dying, fish populations are […]
May There be a ‘Pipeline’ up there…
With a heavy heart I readied Swell for sea again this week, mourning the loss of friend and underground waterman legend, Sion Milosky. I often reflected on stories about his boating adventures during my tough moments at sea. I’ll try to live on in the light of your courage…My deepest love and sympathy is with […]
Photo Roll, New Zealand
After 10 days or so, only certain twisting movements still hurt my knee. If I maintained mostly lateral movement, I could go without pain…so I put off seeing a doctor, and instead did my own rehabilitation which included icing and elevating, hot baths, arnica massages, and bike riding…and a rake treatment by the DJ at […]
