sailing in search of an endless sunrise
I see a man on a kayak in the shallows. I paddle over to him. His name is Jonah. He’s in his late 20s with a sunfish smile and he’s collecting sea cucumbers, which are penis-shaped marine animals that sit on the sea floor. He’s after two types of cucumbers. The brown and unappetizing ones …
The past week was a soaking wet mush mash and I felt like one of those eyeless shrimps that lives inside of a volcanic sea vent. The clouds were all thunderheaded and they rose up so high and crept down so close that you couldn’t tell what was what or not what from the water. …
============================================================== WETTER THAN WATER Happy year of the Water Tiger! Over here it’s raining cats and dogs and the wind is whooping like a tramp on a fast train. I can’t see anything. It’s all wet and gray and the sun has stopped rising and setting too, but I’m back at anchorage. Floating here feels …
I’m on my way to the funeral of a Head Man who was murdered by witchcraft. I know so, because everybody says his death was so mysterious that it had to be so. Even the fancy doctors in the capital of Suva. Even all the villagers in Vulaga. Even the pop stars of Fiji, I’m …
Here is my life in days..... TUESDAY I get a call. Jack Jack is ready to install my transmission. He brings wood planks and a ratchet puller and bangs on things with a hammer. The shaft gets pushed so far aft someone has so jump in the water to push it back through the transmission. …
I’m anchored off of Namotu Island. It’s five acres of sand in the shape of an avocado with bures (wood and straw huts) and boats and surfboards and baby turtles. The bottle blue surf of Swimming Pools breaks all over it. It’s a surfer’s slice of paradise. There are waves but I’m too weak to …
Hi. I’m still here. I didn’t disappear. The holidays were a plume. I saw snow in California and family in Arkansas and I orbited beneath a long full moon that made the dogs go ape and the humans sleep slow. After the festivities me and my five suitcases headed back to Juniper in Musket Cove, …
I was naked on my deserted spit of silver sand until a longboat pulled up with two tourists, lounge chairs, an umbrella, a hot picnic, and a bottle of champagne. I was vogueing my way around the shape of the shoreline to get my clothes back on. Imagine their surprise. Imagine mine. Bula Bula, hello …
I’m in the cockpit of Epiphany off an island called Mama (pronounced: Mana). I just blew the conch shell and said “goodnight sun.” Imagine the quack of a dying duck, that’s how the conch sounds when played by my lips. I see rolling jade hills against a salmon sky and the mango moon is on …
It’s a downwind spinnaker ride back to Denarau. The kite is baby blue topped by a sea turtle and it’s catching buckets of wind. Moving us like a cloud. I’m in the galley of Seaglub flipping hot cakes and wondering about the souls of sea gods when a squall creeps up. The spinnaker sounds like …
Wilderness of Waves 