Sailing Solo in Search of an Endless Sunrise
It’s been a wild week on the water and I’ve been feeling like such a billygoat. It began with oil exploding out of my engine and ended with the bolts that connect my drive shaft to my transmission shaking loose and me running aground. I’ve been towed three times in seven days, and I smell …
It’s 7 AM. I’m in the water with my salt sister, Abi, and she’s singing songs about the stars. The sun is mighty bright and the boobies are flying ocean low. Black-tip sharks are roaming the reef, and the wind is blowing the crystals into long prisms that rain around my body. I see a …
It’s sugarcane cutting season in Fiji and the air is crisp and cool and perfect, like it always is in that space between seasons. I sleep beneath a wool blanket and wake up to a spastic symphony of birds singing against a hot pink sky, and the splashing swarm of a bait ball beneath my boat. …
You know what I love about the sailing community? You can be at a party and say, “Hey, let’s all go to Vanuatu!” And someone responds, “Yes and after that, Papua New Guinea, and then Indonesia.” And we mean it. And we’ll do it. Soon. I feel like a boomerang. I’m back in the Denarau …
I’m sailing away from the Kadavu lagoon. I’m leaving on a pure east wind and heading northwest. I must go with the wind. It’s always better to go with the wind. It’s always better to go with the water. It’s always better to go with the tornado. Name one thing in this every-loving natural world …
Last night I had a bad dream with a turtle in it. I’m still in Kadavu, attached to the Mothership. The coral beneath me is Easter egg colored and the sunset is a dusty yellow rose. I’ve got seaweed in my hair, sand on my thighs, and mosquitos are buzzing around my ears. Hot tip …
Continue reading "A BUSTED BELT & THE BROKEN-HEARTED FISHERMAN"
Some stories are hard to tell, because to tell it, is to relive it. This is one them. It starts out with me on top of a coral rock, howling like a banshee, and ends with a boat robbery, where I am again howling like a banshee. THE ROCK: I wake up with the sun …
Continue reading "THE ROCK, THE WHALE TOOTH & THE CACTUS MOON"
It’s six in the morning. I’m anchored over a sand bar with only 5 feet of baby blue water below the keel. I can see seashells and sea cucumbers and yellow leaves that lost their trees. The islands next to me look like a pregnant lady who is very circular or a turtle, depending on …
YANUCA (Pronounced Yanutha) I made it to the islands of fire walkers. I’m on a coral-skeleton covered beach on Yanuca Island in Beqa Lagoon. We are building a bonfire with drift wood and palm fronds. The sun just set and the teal water turned black. Heat lightning is flashing from every cloud in the sky, …
I’m sailing along the Coral Coast, towards the island of fire walkers and mongoose. Do you know how good the wind feels in my face? Like silk spun straight out of the caterpillar. Juniper’s not fully fixed but she’s fixed enough. So what if my 12 Volt power outlet is cooking cables and my autopilot …
