My life has been a volcanic jungle orchestra since I last wrote. It’s been a wild ride and there is much to tell. I must break it down into notes made of days and you can read it in pieces and parts at your leisure. Day 1 I am weighing anchor off of Espiritu Santo. …
MY LIFE IS A FLOATING SOAP OPERA
The daily death of the sun is such a pretty thing to witness, don’t you think? I wish I bled all pink and purple and tangerine like that. And I wish you could measure me by how colorful my clouds were. The Meskalyne Islands had beautiful sunsets and I loved them, but I couldn’t stay …
TRICKED BY A CHIEF
We pull up behind the island. The wind is mellow, but the anchorage is 25 meters deep! I don’t have enough chain for that. There is a mooring. I grab it. A red banana boat comes over to me. There are five men onboard. The man in charge is in his fifties and he looks …
I DRAG ANCHOR
For the love of sun, I’m hard on the wind again. I’m on my way to Maskelyne Islands. I’m towing my old Avon dinghy behind me and my fridge is still thirsty for fruits and vegetables and beer. It’s bloody early in the morning, we weighed anchor and left the magic island while the electric …
LAND DIVING & THE DAY AFTER THAT
LAND DIVING There is a man standing on top of a rickety stick tower, 30 meters high, arms wide, wearing only his namba (that’s a penis sheath, honey). He reminds me of Christ on the cross, not because of the way he is hung, but because of the way he is hanging. He’s covered in …
THE BLACK MAGIC FESTIVAL
There aren’t any other sailboats along this coast. If there were I’d ask “How deep did you drop?” I’m always asking that. I like to drop as shallow as I can. Five meters tops. This sea floor is made of volcanic black sand and a manta ray lives here, somewhere. John from the black magic …
A DAY AT SEA WITH ME
The water is purple. It’s 4:30 AM. I feel like I’ve been hit by a comet- glowing and fuzzy. Even in the dark I can see the outline of Emae. You know what this island looks like? Like a three boobed woman in a bullet bra. And she’s all densely wooded with conical rock and …
Seventh Heaven
I’m in seventh heaven, darling. This morning I woke up, looked outside and I saw a man in the water with a fat head. I mean his head looked like the freaking moon, all white like that too! And I was like who is that loon, because it’s winter here in the South Pacific and …
SLEEPING BANANA
It’s 6 AM. Juniper is a disco, fish are flying across the water, and the sun is a dusty rose thorned by clouds. I feel like I’m in some body of water swimming around, but I can’t see anything and I don’t know which direction I’m going, and all I want is to crash into …
CINNAMON SKIES
Sometimes I want to write to you, but I’m afraid of what is going to come out of my head, so I don’t. I just stare at the sea and the stars instead. I stare at them so long that they become shy and uncomfortable, as uncomfortable as you feel when the dentist’s disposable-latex-gloved hands …
