August 2016 Our pantry stocked with a few fresh vegetables, we slipped our mooring in Neiafu at one o’clock in the afternoon and wound our way peacefully through Vava’u’s mosaic of emerald islands under a sky speckled with cumulous clouds. The beauty of the Vava’u group is undeniable, and left no mystery as to why […]
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August 2016 It’s dawn on our first wake up in Niue. I clamber to the cockpit, wrapped in a Turkish towel for a blanket and feeling the after-effects of just a bit too much “hooray-we-made-it” celebratory rum. I’m hoping to spot a whale or two, and I do, far in the distance. –Jessie When we […]
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August 2016 My handsome captain is naked; well, almost. I insisted on it. I want to get this photo right. I’ve been waiting for this moment, for this pelagic fish. Since sometime before we embarked on our voyage, I have wanted to recreate the image that covers The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing, the authority on […]
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August 2016 Prowling for behemoth crustaceans Torches in hand, half a dozen of us followed Harry and Pae through the palm trees. The moon shone fondly over the sea, but the paths beneath the canopy were a web of shadows and tripping hazards. Neil and I were sharing a flashlight, and I stuck close behind […]
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July – August 2016 A disheartening start Our sojourn in Suwarrow did not start as we expected. Tired from our passage from French Polynesia, we set our anchor, keen to get some rest but knowing the first order of business was to clear into the country. Rangers Harry and Pae, a friendly father-son duo dressed […]
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July 2016 Nine-foot breaking waves clawed at the reef and mammoth swell surged on either side of the disconcertingly narrow pass through the reef—the only way in or out of the lagoon. My fists were clenched tightly around the helm, and I was trying my best to steer Red Thread along the line we marked […]
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July 2016 It’s black out, pitch black, aside from a delicate, sparkling necklace strung along Bora Bora’s shoreline and a single incandescent pearl set in the heavens. It’s 1 am, and it’s raining. Behind a duvet of heavy clouds, a sea of stars is obscured, but the full moon refuses be disguised tonight. Ping, ting, […]
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July 2016 Eastbound Sometimes passages are to be settled into, like a long road trip; others are just about getting somewhere, like driving a car across town. This was the latter. We had bypassed several of the Society Islands during our passage from Moorea to Bora Bora during Mark and Helen’s visit, and although we […]
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June 2016 What if I want to stay…? If you had told me I’d be sitting in the cockpit in French Polynesia, snug in a sweatshirt and fleece blanket and cradling a cup of tea, I’d scarcely have believed a word from your lips. But here I am in Raivavae: faded sorority hoodie, blanket, tea. […]
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***SORRY FOR THE BLOG DELAY…our computer died, and it has taken us a while to get a new one, so we can continue posting our South Pacific tales!*** June 2016 I’m sweating but not hot. Dewy foliage tickles my bare arms, and my trousers, which are too long, are now damply limp and heavy from […]
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May 2016 Perhaps it was because our arrival came at the end of the most tranquil ocean passage we’d ever experienced, a far cry from the guttural relief we felt at the end of our passage to the Gambiers. Or perhaps Raivavae is just that beautiful. A more spectacular landfall can hardly be imagined. Raivavae […]
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May 2016 Like the hem of a silk nightgown dancing delicately in the breeze, the foot of our spinnaker sashays in the twilight. A three-quarter golden moon dangles teasingly amid billowing clouds, cascading gilded ripples across the sea. The moon reappears beneath the nightgown’s hem just before the bow dips ever so gently, curtsying again […]
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April 2016 Our passage from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the Gambiers Islands of French Polynesia was one of extremes. For nearly four days, we soared beneath our genoa alone and made over 6 knots average! On the flipside, we were pummeled by two back-to-back gales that made our last five days challenging and exhausting. […]
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April 2016 Bad things come in threes After 17 tremendous days of hiking and exploring Rapa Nui, day 18 felt like a triple-decker crap sandwich. First, we awoke to a cacophonous grinding echoing through the hull. Our anchor chain was wrapped on a coral bommie on the seafloor, some 80 feet below. Like string between […]
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March 2016 At dawn on day 15 out of the Galápagos, the outline of Rapa Nui—Easter Island—etched the horizon and the scent of flora lingered in the air. The craggy outline grew larger as the sun climbed to its zenith and then ducked behind a mass of heavy, leaden clouds. The vista exceeded images we’d […]
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"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
Author, Poet, Satirist, Social Commentator
follow our family on our sailing adventure.
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
gad·a·bout ˈɡadəˌbout/ noun a person who travels often or to many different places, especially for pleasure.
Story telling with data and pretty graphs
A publishing project of SF Creative Writing Institute
Sharing stories about how the pandemic is affecting you.
Musings and tales from the high seas
Sailing in Search of an Endless Sunrise
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
The Adventures of SV Cariba and her crew.
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
A family of four traveling the PNW aboard our 40-foot sailboat
Sailing adventures and photography
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
Sailing around the world, can't open a tin!
Nomads. Full-time RVers. Former cruisers.
Sail with the Flo - from England back to England - via the rest of the world
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." –Isak Denesen
Sailing the world with kids
The adventures of Mia, Jon and Teo on Itchy Foot
Life is too short to say later. And winters suck.
s/v The Red Thread 