Back to the Blue!
Once the blue bottom paint made it to the island, I slapped on one coat all over and finished up the final touches to make her ready to launch again. Friend Jesse Horton, who I hadn’t seen since the submarine ride at Cocos Island, happened through the area on business the day Swell was ready […]
Ah, Rats!
Happy New Year!!! Still catching up… The rat battle wasn’t won easily. Each morning I’d arrive to Swell to find a new trail of munched and pooped on items. I imagined them at night, passing the cashew bait they’d stolen off the trap, kicking back on my pillows, chuckling and reminiscing about the good ol […]
No paint til next Tuesday…15, 30, 45, and 5=?
The repair is dry, faired, sanded, primed…all there is left to do is slap on another coat of anti-fouling paint on the hull, replace the prop zinc, re-seal the garboard drain plug, and mark and splice and stow the heap of new anchor chain! Hooray! Pedal pedal pedal to town, fuzzy with an oncoming headcold…a […]
Option A, B or C?
In an effort to make Swell watertight in the easiest way possible, Laurent helped me re-glass the area around the shaft log (Option A) after I’d ground, chiseled, sanded, heat-gunned and acetoned the holes in the tube and the bad area of glass as best possible. Option B would entail replacing the entire bronze tube […]
Creepy French Kissers
It’s as if I never left the boatyard: Taputu’s still as helpful as ever, midday lunches with the crew, blazing mid-summer heat, up and down the ladder till my feet ache, and how could I forget: the obligatory French kiss-kiss cheek greetings. The boatyard seems like a rather cruel place to uphold this greeting ritual, […]
Grime Under My Nails Again
Nov 15: My eyes open early and I’m full of energy to get this ship back in order. I’ve got a full a full day before everybody’s back at work, so I dig in. Haul the cushions and pillows out into the sun, commence 9 loads of laundry (the rats peed and pooped on EVERYTHING), […]
Home Sweet Home?
The sky is fading orange in the west as I wander about the deserted boatyard to find a ladder and haul it over to Swell. I struggle to set it vertical and slowly mount the 10 rungs up to the deck. All looks as it did when I left…oh so good to be home! I […]
Ketchup on the Presqu’isle
Here is a bit of everything from the last two months on the Presqu’isle… between my engine woes, the WCT circus, my recent submersion in a writing assignment (check out the upcoming October issue of Surfer’s Journal), a bout with Dengue fever (or Beamish flu?), a last minute haul-out, and the Ahuna-Marotta wedding in Hawai’i… […]
Rum and Nothing Better to Do
It was the last weekend of the locals’ two-week vacation and there’d been lots of action around the marina lately. My empty refrigerator had inspired a ride down to the ‘Snack’ which had turned into a spontaneous gathering of many who’d been in the Teahupo’o line-up lately. I rolled back to Swell on my no […]
Raimana’s Push
It’s another morning in the Teahupo’o marina. There is grass growing out from the cracks in the rotting wooden planks. Some are missing completely; the water pipe below the dock nearest Swell is cracked and constantly spewing freshwater into the sea. But the sky water spews constantly, too, so maybe that’s why no one around […]
