Author: wildernessofwaves

It's 5 am. There is still light wind from the wrong direction. We have been drifting north all night. I go to turn on the engine. She doesn't start. Then she starts and I throttle up and she dies. I open up the engine compartment. I put a little squeeze bulb just before the primary...

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I'm caught at the edge of a low and a high and it's a strange carnival. Just yesterday it was all cold and clouds, and today there is low wind from the wrong direction, sun and heat, and blue bottle jellyfish floating by. I started the day off in my freezer suit, but now I’m...

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I slept for nine hours straight last night due to a sore throat and general malaise. Chris held watch and a solid course throughout the evening. He is starting to sail Juniper as though he's always sailed her. Sometimes I would wake to the keel shaking and trembling and think, “I need to go and...

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I keep finding dead squid on deck. Is it disturbing and morbid that I think that’s exciting? I’ve had plenty of flying fish fly to the tomb of my deck, but never in seven years of sailing have I found a squid! I’ve found three thus far, with their sticky tentacles, iridescent bodies, and rocket-shaped...

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Juniper is sailing on a broad reach with a double-reefed mainsail and a slightly reefed headsail. I’m sailing slowly to avoid any seasickness for Ginger Jesus. The swell is a little over a meter and hitting us from the side and stern. The wind is gusting up to 17 knots. An albatross greeted us at...

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I just departed Namibia after spending three months and eighteen days among the moonscapes, the sea dogs, and the ancient crystal dunes. It’s all mist and cold out. I’ve got between 11 and 13 knots of wind at a 50-degree angle. You know I don’t like to sail this close to the wind, darling. I’m...

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I apologize for having disappeared. I have fallen into a ginger-colored undertow. The undertow’s name is Chris. You know, he’s that younger fella I met on the dock here in Namibia. His eyes are chalcedony blue, which is this translucent, cryptocrystalline quartz gemstone that is a soft, milky blue with a glassy luster. He says...

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Most of the week I have felt as though I'm in mid-air, as if I've had a chill and an ache I can't shake. Today, I'm crashing down. We put the new furler on. It took almost all day. Every little foil, dog-point set screw, drum, link plate, toggle. At one point Gert says, “Check...

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At this stage of my voyage I invite each of you to build a small shrine for Juniper in a corner of your home. Place a little homemade boat there made of origami, or toothpicks and newspaper, if nothing else. Surround it with flowers, a sea blue candle, and a bowl of saltwater. Treat it...

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If the furler saga was like a murder mystery, which by the way has been solved, the shipping of my new parts from South Africa to Namibia has been like a James Bond movie. You would think it was 1960 and I was trying to ship parts from Cuba to the United States. So much...

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