Blog

*It must be noted that unless I write FICTION before a piece of writing, it should be assumed that everything on Wilderness of Waves is NON-FICTION. And thus, everything I have told and will tell you about my trip to Louisiana is true, in fact it is truer than true;...

* I traveled to Louisiana because it’s got saltwater and French roots and I was drying up and my skin was cracking in the landlocked state of Arkansas. PART I – The Alligator Kiss I’m about to kiss a wild alligator in the swamps of Louisiana. I’m standing on the...

I got a call from French Polynesia. The wind kicked up so hard in the lagoon that Juniper sawed and popped through one of her mooring lines. On top of that, my friends went to start her engine and the starter button fell straight through the panel, then she wouldn’t...

Hi Buttercups, I am still here in Arkansas. I was going to go to French Polynesia yesterday. I wanted to go. I needed to go. But I can’t go. People were getting turned back home as soon as they land in Tahiti. I heard that a plane came from Paris...

I left the pearl farm four Wednesdays ago. Goodbye blood, sweat, and oyster iridescence. The Ahe airport was it’s usual party scene; beers before noon, dancing, giggling. Someone kept yelling “Biden stole the election,” into my American face. I smiled back at their French face with my lips sucked tight...

“There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect’s wings.” Chief Seattle’s Speech – The Earth is Precious Chief Seattle’s speech hangs on the wall at the pearl farm. I first read it...

I can’t sleep. This light keeps turning on. It’s right above my head. Literally and figuratively. And last night I dreamt that someone put an armadillo in my hair. It wove it’s hard body into my strands and secrets started rising and I couldn’t get it out without getting bit...

Being here, in Ahe, is like being beneath an umbrella in a world without shade. New Years Eve is a splash. It‘s fish and fireworks and a dance floor full of florescence. Everything is decorated in palm fronds, and the moon wears her silver halo. A boat of nine is...

Now the moons flower is full. It’s light sinks down from the sky and stirs the lagoon into a field of yellow sparkles that leave me spellbound. Open-mouthed bliss, eyes swimming. Or rather my one good eye is swimming. The other is pink and puffy and swollen half-way shut. It’s...

We left Tikehau the morning of Christmas Eve. The wind was coming from the northeast, so we rounded the north side of the island and shot over from there. Sailing towards Ahe like an arrow, not like a long and lost lightning bolt, as I had sailed two weeks before...

I didn’t mind sailing to Tikehau a second time. I enjoy it there; the swell, the sun, the swarm. The surf was on its way up and so were the holiday spirits. As soon as the anchor drops, I swim to shore. A woman in the fishing village feeds me...

I am a boomerang inside of a wormhole. My indecisiveness has led me to begin again on a journey from which I just came. Even though I am turning in a circle, it somehow feels as though there is a fluid forward motion to it all. This I can’t fully...

We have laughed about being lost on the lagoon every day since. It became a joke that grew wings and flew from every lip and oyster on the farm. The farm sits stilted above the water. A wooden planked bridge connects it to the two motus belonging to the farm...

I have never seen underwater realms as alive as I have seen here in Ahe. It’s like swimming in outer space. From the fish, to the coral, to the oysters. I saw three sharks in water that wouldn’t go past your ankles. That’s how lush even the shallows are. Brianna...

I’m in a zone beyond all zones. I don’t know how my body is still moving or how the light bulb in my brain hasn’t burnt out. I have slept little… four hours in 48 hours. I am writing to you now at 10 pm and I’ve been up since...

After I wrote, what I last wrote to you, the winds got light, sometimes non-existent. And whatever wind is out here, is coming from Ahe. We are only 23 nautical miles away, but let’s go ahead and call it 2,300. This is the longest two day sail of my life...

It took forever to get around Rangiroa. So many tacks. We finally made it around at 11 pm last night. Trying to sail the direction from which the wind blows doubles, no triples, no quadruples, the length of any journey. We passed within a few nautical miles of the eastern...

I stare at the sky for hours. I watch the sun drop into the ocean. I watch as the blue heaven flowers from yellow to tangerine to pink to grey to black. I watch the stars pop bright against the moonless night. Such a glow, I feel as if I...

The new moon is here or near to here and the tide all around the motus is lower than low. We walk from one to the other along the break. The coral sounds like glass beneath my feet. The shallow pools of water distort the coral beneath me and at...

I found a baby gecko onboard today. I named her Beebee, after my cousin. She is brown. She is smaller than my pinky. She hides inside a wooden ledge above my nav station. I think she’s been with me since Tahiti. The waves went to sleep. Rain and rainbows come...

Brianna went to surf at sunrise. I wanted to go, but rain was building on the horizon and the voice inside my head shouted, “Don’t go, you must stay with the boat!” When it comes to sailing I listen well to that voice, it’s always ripe with wisdom. Not long...