surf
After rising to our great challenge, the sea rewarded us with smooth sailing through the afternoon until the wind dropped off entirely and we motored on into the calmest, starriest night I could ever remember in this wind-worn belt of the Pacific.
Rotating on 3-hour watches, I relieved Crystal just… Read the rest
I limped off the plane and found myself in a new land. I limped onto the ‘people mover’ and the escalator, contemplating the bewildering speed of air travel. The Auckland airport was cool and neat, and the Queen’s English leapt boldly off the lips of airport officials, tickling my ears…… Read the rest
I heard a voice outside calling my name, and popped up to see Raimana and Tim and Eric in the familiar orange poti marara. “How’s it going? Are you safe? Everything okay?” Raimana asked.
I filled them in briefly on the boatyard complications and promised to see them in the… Read the rest
I’m sitting on a South-facing porch, watching the shadows disappear along the rooflines in the Bavarian themed town of Leavenworth, WA. The filtered sunlight is bright enough to require sunglasses. It’s a refreshing contrast from Bellingham where the rain has been falling at a steady rate for most of May.… Read the rest
The plan was to go surfing. My brother and I decided that we were tired of always going out to the same lame locations (namely Westport) and were in the market for something new. Washington had a lot of coast, and although there was little more than word-of-mouth to lead… Read the rest
And then one afternoon, when my faith in the male gender had plummeted to an abysmal low, I turned in and saw Bali talking to a guy on the inside. He was the best surfer in the water. He took his waves but wasn’t greedy. He looked at me as… Read the rest
At some point during the last few years of empty or mannered line-ups and my endless surf blessings, I’d lost the drive to fight this type of crowd. It ruins surfing for me. Here we were in this drop-dead gorgeous place where dreams linger on after you open your eyes”¦… Read the rest
Bali Strickland arrived from Oz smiling and in full form, ready for anything Swell and I could throw at him. As chance would have it the surf was up, the anchorage was a sandy 25 feet, and the sun was shining between puffy white clouds that burst with rainbows over… Read the rest
To my own disbelief, I had correctly wired in the wind generator and watched with glee the next morning as the ammeter on the board showed amps coming in with each gust! Without further celebration, I got back to work to remount and rewire the solar panels. My ‘albatross’, arrived… Read the rest
Round two started off all wrong. I mistimed the paddle out, taking 3 or four in the impact zone and found myself way down at the ‘first crack’. I caught a fat, walled right and then paddled against the current down to the reef. Only just arriving to the peak,… Read the rest
