Blog

I’ve been sailing all over, from island to island. I’ve been close-hauled, and beam reaching, and on the very brink of dead down wind. I’ve had too much wind and too little wind. And I’ve sailed into passes that I never want to see again. I sailed back to the...

A man named Keventon, who is good at catching coconut crabs and other sea creatures, tells me that Kokomongara means “Water Shell.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it sounds nice. I am leaving Vovohe Cove for another anchorage on the Water Shell. There are the dripping...

Levan swims Juniper back out to a mooring. It rains all day and there is not even one blackbird in the sky. I’m going a bit mad being inside the boat, I need a change of scenery, I need to spread out my roots and move my flower in the...

My bag arrives to Honiara four days after I do with everything still in it. Ten minutes after it lands I am on a flight headed to Gizo. It is raining and I sit in the way back of the little plane next to a cop. Not just a cop...

Life has been a swirl, darling. Such a swirl that I’ve hardly even had one itsy bitsy spare moment to read my horoscope, which I’m rather fond of doing. Save me the rattle over that one, I know, I know, you think it’s hocus pocus.  Anyway, I hope this new...

Hi darling, I have another fiction story for you. Writing these is my little escape from all of the studying and work I am doing for the race. This one is about mermaids. Speaking of mermaids, there will be 4 real live Netflix-featured mermaids plus some of my films &...

A Work of Fiction – Dear Caroline, I love that you found the sky. I wish I could say the same for myself, instead I write to you from this grey-walled piss-smelling prison. And I can’t sleep, not one wink. I just sit here stoned like a black dog while...

I’m on an uninhabited island with a machete in my hand and I’m about to go full metal jacket on a sprouted coconut. The sun is a whisper of a thing and somewhere the sky is raining, yet still, somehow, the sea has got the sparkle of a disco ball...

Life in the Coral Triangle on somebody else’s boat is bliss. I don’t have to worry about sea nymphs rocking my rudder, it’s just all rainforests and reefs, blue fire skies, white sand beaches that vanish at high tide, and waves that peel across the water like a gold bone...

I pack my bags, lock Juniper up, and climb into a longboat headed for Gizo. Everything aches, even my eyeballs. The boat ride exists inside a swirl of rain. I arrive, dog wet, and walk to the Gizo hotel- it’s not far from the only hospital this side of the...

I was attacked by jealous Fairies. That’s what the locals think. At least that’s what they told me as they were pouring fresh coconut mixed with bush lime down my throat and searching for sand to rub on my face. Then again, they blame the Fairies for everything. You see...

I hardly slept, narrowly escaped another cargo ship, and got escorted by dolphins in the golden sunrise. Seeing dolphins never gets old. Nor does the sun rising or setting. Nor does the vision of a flyingfish flying. When those things get old I suppose I’ll abandon the waves and move...

I am on a deserted island in the middle of the Solomon Sea where the mama Hawksbill turtles come to lay their eggs. I feel like I’m trespassing into a world both sacred and bizarre. The island I am standing on is a sunken volcano. Imagine flat sand cays in...

I’m loosing my mind. Where is it? I left it back there with the dolphins as soon as the wind shadow hit me off of Saint Isabel Island. There I was in the New Georgia Sound a.k.a “The Slot,” making good way. I had just passed the Buena Vista Islands...

A wave just threw me off of the throne, or head, or toilette, or whatever you want to call it. I left Port Mary at 5 AM. It was still dark and there was a man fishing underwater- the green glow of his flashlight pulsing as I headed straight out...

It’s a new day. There is sun and blue. The conditions are the same as yesterday, but the wind has a bit more guts to it. Enough guts to go skydiving if it wanted. Sometimes, after the squalls, the sea feels like sludge. It gets all lumpy and Juniper and...

I woke up at 4:30 AM with moon eyes and a gooey honey head. The limitless guru that lives inside of my dreams didn’t want to let me go, but I have good winds to get going and going I’m gonna get. An hour later I’m gone and leaving an...

It’s sunrise and raining and the entire sky is a dusty yellow rose. I’ve never seen the moon look like this before. It’s like I’m staring at the whole wide world through hip sunglasses or one of those colored visors that black jack dealers wear. I throw a kiss at...

As I sail up along the west side of the bunny rabbit the wind really pipes up. 22 knots and climbing. I’m still head sail only and juniper is moving good, but in this wind the mainsail would really set her in her groove. For instance, sometimes I’ll catch a...

This is my 57th time to see the sun rise alone at sea. I am scared all the time out here. My heart was like some magic jumping bean and my stomach was all tornado twisted just before I left Vanuatu. I don’t know why. It’s not like this is...

It’s 4 in the morning and I can see an alien-green tinted star out of my bow hatch. I’ve never seen a star that color, maybe it’s not a star at all. Whatever it is it reminds me of Christmas. The other day a woman on top of a waterfall...