The hunt for the croakers begins...

Another nice weekend down here in Avalon. Friday we took the King Neptune out on a day trip for 6 divers. We had great weather and lots of sun. We headed west and stopped first at Hen Rock. From the deck of the boat you could see the bottom at 80 feet. It was amazing visibility. While the divers swam away from the boat, we soaked some squid hoping to catch some dinner. With the full moon coming and things starting to warm up, both on the surface and in the water, we are hearing reports of white seabass in the area so Ryan (the boat Captain) and I thought we should investigate further. Prior to our departure from Avalon, we traded out some fruit and sandwiches to the bait boat guys for a scoop of lively squid. It’s always interesting taking the net from the bait barge when it’s full of squid as they squirt ink at you and spit water angrily until they are placed back onboard the Neptune’s bait tank. Throughout the day our divers continued to enjoy themselves but we had no luck with the whities. During our second stopover, near Torqua Springs, Ryan spotted a bald eagle perched high up the hillside. I went into the wheelhouse and got the binoculars so we could all have a closer look. As soon as everyone had a good look, the eagle soared away from its perch and flew slowly to the west, right on cue. All day we were surrounded by sea lions, they seem to be everywhere at the moment. They are constantly rolling on the surface as the dive down, presumably to catch some baitfish for lunch. All in all, a brilliant day.

Saturday morning I had the pleasure of doing an introduction dive with a very eager 12 year old. She was awesome. Fired up from the moment she got in the shop, she couldn’t wait to hit the water. Of course we had to do the preliminary paperwork but managed to get into the water relatively quickly. People like her make what I’m doing now so much fun. Her enthusiasm is matched by her desire to learn and do it right, a perfect combination to becoming a good diver. On introduction dives, people are required to perform some very basic skills in order to proceed to the open water tour portion of the dive. She nailed all of her skills and we were off to explore the kelp forest. As we swam through the thick stalks of kelp, she pointed constantly at different animals. She will be a little hawk underwater someday, finding seahorses and frogfish at will no doubt. The absolute best part of the dive for me was while I was swimming backward at one point so I could keep an eye on her, my tank valve was wrapped up by some kelp. As I spun around and started to clear it away and free myself, this little fish chick swam up, signed for me to stay still, calmly unwrapped the kelp, and then flashed me a big OK signal with a smile. Simply astounding. 12 years old on her first diving experience and she is assisting her instructor to get disentangled. So cool. I only wish her and her family were able to stay longer so I could actually do the entire class for her and certify her. I’m sure by the end of the course she would have been teaching me!

This morning I took some people out on a snorkel tour through the kelp. They were great people, living in Florida and good divers. They were flying home today so they weren’t able to scuba but they wanted to snorkel and see the kelp forest. So they braved the 60 degree water to follow me through the dive park. Since they are experienced divers, we took along some weight belts so we could do some actual freediving. We ended up taking too much weight for both of them because I mistakenly assumed they would be wearing 7 mm wetsuits but oh no, they only had on 3 mm. I didn’t realize that the shop had rented them 3’s and I overweighted them (for those that don’t know, when you wear a 7 mm you are much more buoyant at the surface and need more weight to descend for scuba or freediving). Since I was wearing a 7 I took the excess weight and spent the rest of the trip wearing 25 lbs of weight. Lots of fun. Let’s just say I got my workout for the day treading water in between freedives to stay afloat. Also swimming back up with that much weight is no easy task with 50 feet of seawater crushing down on you. Lesson learned for next tour.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow I will dive the Valiant in the morning. A 163’ yacht that sank in 1930. After that I’m going to take the dinghy west and see if I can’t have some luck with a speargun hunting the white seabass. The moon is almost full so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. While I was freediving today I heard coming from the kelp the croaking sound the seabass make so I know they are out here.

My new buddy...

I'm back...finally

So I'm back. The last year has flown by and I can't believe it has been that long since I have sat down and wrote anything. Basically sometime in April of last year my laptop stopped working while I was in Bonaire and I didn't get it fixed until late in the year when I had returned to California. Starting just after my last post I did a divemaster internship in Bonaire that culminated in early June when I became a diving instructor. Right after that I visited home for two weeks, returned to Bonaire and started teaching diving. What a life it was. Good friends, good diving, and ok beer. I feel like I could write a book about all the crazy times and experiences just from that little rock. I was forced to leave in early October due to the fact that I had become an illegal immigrant. Really. I had overstayed my visa and because I had not formally obtained a work permit I needed to return to California. It sucked to leave because I had made so many good friends and was really enjoying diving there but no worries, I will return someday.

So after I came home late last year, I started looking around at different options. While I was idling I was able to stay with my sister and her family and spent some amazing time with my loved ones. It was great to live with my nieces for a while and get to see them everyday and tuck them into bed. I really needed that time. I'm very lucky to have such a great family. So late in January I contacted a dive shop in Catalina and after catching the ferry over from Long Beach I was able to get a job teaching for the summer season and staying on the diveboat. It worked out perfect and I couldn't wait to get over here. Then a week later I met an amazing woman and spent two really great months getting to know her. We both knew from the start that I was coming here but she was totally supportive and I couldn't ask for a better partner. So the day finally came when I had to say goodbye to my family and friends and head south again, back to sea.

I've been on the island now for going on 3 weeks and it has already been one adventure after another. We left onboard the Prowler, a 44 foot sportfisher out of Marina Del Rey that belongs to one of my Dad's buddies. It's an awesome boat and I am grateful to Leon for giving me a lift over here. I was able to bring my spearfishing kayak and my dinghy over so that was killer. I moved onto the diveboat and the next day my girl arrived. The plan was to spend my first week on the island together with her, doing some camping and hiking and getting used to diving here. She braved 60 degree water with me for a week and completed her Open Water course so now I have a hot blonde for a dive buddy. Sweet huh? Of course, our week finally had to end and she had to go back to the mainland but we had a great time. Since she took off I have immersed myself in trying to learn the new boat I'm on and all the ins and outs at the dive shop. I have managed to get a little work in but the island is still slow. I'm ready for it to pick up. In my spare time I have been cruising around to different dive spots and doing fun dives on my own. I'm trying to toughen myself up to the water temp. I grew up freediving here but I have become a spoiled sissy from diving in 80 degrees for the past couple of years. It's getting easier though. The white seabass are showing up so we have the spears out and as soon as this weather we have passes on, it will be early morning hunting for the croakers. Last weekend we had a few full days of technical diving off the boat which was super cool. We did deep dives on Ship Rock on Friday and then Saturday we were off to a secret set of GPS numbers where a squid fishing trawler sank about 4 years ago. It's 165 feet so it's not really that deep but it was a great dive. I did it twice on Saturday using a single tank and was able to get the helm out of the wheelhouse. It's a great dive and I'm looking forward to being able to explore it properly with a bunch of bottles so we can have lots of bottom time.

The day before yesterday was incredible. Early in the afternoon I was going to head into town and I walked out on deck to get into my dinghy and found that I had a surprise guest. A sea lion pup had pulled itself up on the skiff and was enjoying a nice nap in the sunshine. It was just snoring away. I popped a few pics of the little dude. When I got into the boat he barked at me but stayed in for a little while as I headed towards town. He finally jumped off and I had to laugh. What a trip. But then later in the afternoon, I decided to make a dive before sunset so I zipped around to the east and dropped into the water. As soon as I descended a pair of dolphins rocketed right past me. It was truly awesome. I have snorkeled with dolphins before but I had never seen them while on scuba. Less than a minute into the dive and it was already bad ass. Then during my cruising around I found two sailboat wrecks. One in 60 feet and one in 30 feet that is really eerie looking because all the running rigging is floating around it and kelp is growing around the entire hull. I peered through one of the holes in the hull and found a bunch of lobsters hiding in there so you can bet that when lobster season rolls around, I will be diving there again. After an hour I surfaced and climbed back on board my dinghy. This crazy looking dude came up in a really shitty old skiff and introduced himself as "Skooter". He was just staring at me and smoking a cigarette. I asked if he was alright and he asked me "how do you like my dog?" I looked to where he was pointing and in his lap was a freaking sea lion pup. He was petting it like a dog. It was nuts. He said he woke up in his boat and the thing was inside. It had climbed up the rear and into his cabin. So the kook was taking it back into town to see if the Harbor Patrol guys would take it. As he pulled away, the thing dove off his boat and swam to mine and jumped aboard. He literally climbed over my dive gear and onto my lap. It was nuzzling me and staring at me with big brown eyes. I couldn't believe it. We got it back onto his boat and the thing did it again. After offloading it a second time, Skooter sped off towards town. I was talking in town with some people and it seems that maybe a couple of pups have been left behind or lost from their family and are freaking out here in the harbor. We'll see what happens with that.

So for now that's it. I will start posting as things happen. I have a couple of dive boat trips this weekend so I will try and get some pics up from that. I'm waiting for the nice weather to return so I can do some hiking into the interior of the island. Right this moment, we are getting hammered with gale force winds and it's cold. Sucks. Come on sunshine.

Hot Aussie girl = writers block

Ok so I have been sitting here for a bit trying to get some linear thought together so I could post an update about the last few weeks here in Curacao but it is just not happening. I have been enjoying myself way too much here. The past few weeks have been filled with lots of scuba diving, exploring this great island and making lots of great new friends. I will write about all of it soon but I just don't think it's gonna happen tonight. At the moment I am on a catamaran with a tall, hot, bad ass Australian girl who is cutting up a killer salad for us. Hopefully you understand my lack of desire for typing.

A few SCUBA pics from Bonaire, thanks to my friends in the class

Driving tour of Curacao and Sea Aquarium pics

Curacao and Carnival pics

Venezuela to Bonaire pics

Update from Curacao

Sorry for the lag in my updates. I’m currently in Curacao and although Bonaire and here have been some of my favorite islands so far, one of the few downsides has been how tough or expensive it is to get internet access. In Bonaire it was 50 Gilders for a 15 hour prepaid card and you spend the majority of the time fighting the damn thing to stay connected. Oh and one U.S. dollar equals 1.78 in Gilders, another conversion I have to constantly work out in my head. Well as usual a lot has happened so I will launch into it. In my last post I talked about getting my scuba cert. Well that ended up being a terrific experience and although I wish I would have done it years ago, I’m glad I waited until now. I took the class through a shop on Bonaire called Wanna Dive and I couldn’t have been happier. From the first day our entire class and our instructors hit it off and we had a blast. It was such a chill environment, class room was a picnic table on the beach with a palapa and then a short walk to the pool for skills. We did a total of 4 open water dives and they were all great. I was very happy to have the freediving background I do because I was completely comfortable the whole time and was able to enjoy every aspect of the dives. The funny thing is that the only real problem I was having was NOT holding my breath. I’m so used to breath hold free dives that I found myself looking around and then starting to the surface for air before I remembered that I had a regulator and could breathe. I met some wonderful people from all over the world in our class and we even were able to go out during the evenings and enjoy some good old Polar beers together. So by the end of the week I was enjoying myself so much that I knew that I had to figure out some way to keep diving. After talking with some of the instructors I found out about their divemaster internship program. Our head instructor Marleen (a smoking hot Dutch chick) introduced me to the owner of the operation and after a short conversation with him I was in. This was last Thursday. Basically for the next 3 months I will be working in the dive shop for free but earning all my certifications and diving everyday. After I complete that, I should be at the level of divemaster and then I will have to take the instructor course. So I’m hoping to have that done by summer and then explore more options from there. The only dilemma that left me with at that point was that we were planning on leaving that night (Thurs) for Curacao and I needed to talk to Brian about things. He had originally planned to keep the boat in Curacao but had not been able to reserve a slip in the marina he wanted. I had decided that if he still wanted it in Curacao that I was going to find a cheap room on Bonaire and stay there but after talking with him, he was cool with keeping the boat in Bonaire at the marina right next to the beach I will be working at. I was so stoked I couldn’t believe it. So as of now, Brian flies out on March 9th and I will leave that same day to sail back to Bonaire to put the boat in the marina. Should be sweet being in the marina because I will actually be plugged into power and also not have to worry about conserving water as much. I also will be able to kayak to the beach every morning to work and dive because it is so close.

We had a better weather window to head to Curacao on Friday night so I spent the rest of Thursday afternoon sorting out getting a reservation for the marina and making sure I was all set to return in March. The following day we finished up all the last minute stuff and I got us underway just before midnight. We had a great night of cruising and arrived in Curacao the following morning as we planned. In fact we made a little bit too good of time and when Brian’s watch started at 6 AM he had to zig zag back and forth a bit to wait for the light so we could come into the narrow entrance to Spanish Water where we are anchored now. After arriving here we had to set about our next project of getting the retard of a crew member that Brian found in Grenada off the boat. I was in the States during the holidays and all of January and while I was gone Brian found some dude on one of the internet crew lists looking for a boat to help on. He happened to be in Grenada at the time and said he knew how to sail, had mechanical background and also spoke Spanish. Well in a nutshell, he didn’t have any of that, he was a fucking mutant and like my ex-girlfriend, would lie when the truth would help him. I honestly don’t know how some people make it in this world sometimes. He is the one who gave his backpack away the second we got jumped in Venezuela. Well his dumb ass was carrying his drivers license and debit card (and camera) in his pack. I carry a pack usually but I never have anything important in it. All my money, cards, etc are kept in a pocket with Velcro and a zipper in the shorts I am wearing. Camera is in my pocket as well. I usually have water, sunscreen, chapstick, etc in my pack. Anyway, this moron lost this stuff and it all went downhill from there. While we were in Bonaire, Brian lent the guy 100 bucks to get by until he could get his new debit card sent down. Well the dumbshit blew through that in about 2 days using it to dick around on the internet and buy drinks for any girl who would talk to him. A few days later his Mommy sent him another 100 to get him by, again, he bought credit for a local cell phone, a phone charger, internet access, you know, all that important stuff. The whole time he is telling us about ten different stories about how the money is on it’s way, oh but somehow he is the only person on the fucking planet that moneygram/western union won’t work for and my favorite was when I told him just to wire transfer money to my account and I would pull it out of the ATM for him, a few days went by and I asked him if he had done it yet and he gave me a song and dance about how his bank (US Bank, a huge fucking chain) won’t let him wire transfer money because he doesn’t have a business account. Yeah. See what we were dealing with. So I had taken enough of being lied to and basically just ignored the prick. He pulled a lot of other shit but it isn’t worth writing about. Ultimately, we got to Curacao and I thought he was gonna cry when Brian told him last Sunday that he needed to pack his shit because he was off the boat Monday morning. We went into town and of course the money he said would be there, wasn’t. So we waited in some plaza while he called his Mommy again to bail him out. He told her all about the mean men that were kicking him off the boat for no reason and how it was our fault he got robbed. Priceless. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of the face he made when I finally snapped and told him that we were leaving and to meet us the following day in the same plaza and that we were keeping his passport until he had Brian’s money and a copy of an airline ticket off the island. Because he came in on this boat and I am listed as the Captain it falls on me to prove that he is leaving the island. When I check out of customs/immigration they ask for your clearance in. On that form it shows that you came into the country with a total of 3, me and two crew. Well to prove you didn’t just leave people on the island, when people leave the boat you have to take a copy of their flight itinerary down to the office and the agent has to sign them off your crew list. After hearing his whiny talk with his poor Mom, it was clear that he had no money at all (which I figured) and that she would have to send him the sum to pay back Brian as well as buy his plane ticket. So anyway, we left that dumb ass sitting in the plaza with all his shit, no money and no passport. The following day we met him as planned and he was sitting at the same bench talking to some teenage girl from South America with his Spanish translator book in front of him. We got everything sorted out and he met us at immigration after paying Brian back and I got him signed off my crew list. One small sidenote I thought was funny, he was big talk about how he didn’t care about leaving the boat and he would be flying to Bogota to backpack through Colombia and live on 8 dollars a day. Well when I took his passport and copy of his flight to immigration, I found it interesting that his flight was for the following morning back to Los Angeles. Guess Mommy finally got wise and told him she wasn’t financing his trip anymore and that his bitch ass was going home. Good riddance. Word of warning to any young girls in the Petaluma area, if some dipshit is telling you stories about what a great sailor he is and all about his travels down here, you might want to ask if he even has money to buy you a beer.

After getting rid of that dead weight, we caught one of the brutally unreliable and beat to hell buses from Willemstad back to Caracas Bay. We had met the owner of a local marina and he offered to give us a ride into town for the last night of Carnival and the big parade. Brian and I accepted and rode into town in the back of a stepside Chevy truck. There were 6 of us total and we had a great time watching the parade. I have some pics and video I will try and post soon, when I get a decent enough connection. We finished up a few errands yesterday and today I am headed out to go scuba diving on some wreck nearby. One of the other cruisers is gonna pick me up soon and we are supposed to ride scooters over to the dive shop. This weekend we are planning on having a few people to the boat for dinner. I’m also headed over (this afternoon or tomorrow) to see the local aquarium they have. I read an ad saying they have huge sharks but I’m skeptical. They do have a dolphin encounter thing that I am going to do where you swim with and learn about how they train the dolphins. This is a good island. A bit big for my taste. It’s tough to get around without a car and the buses just suck. I don’t mind riding them but they run weird schedules and are usually late. We are here for about 11 more days. So that catches me up. I’ll do my best to do shorter updates more often but as I said, getting internet is a bit sketchy here. Once I’m back in Bonaire I will be able to update regularly as I will be in the marina with wireless connection (and hot water!!! Hooray!!)

Wanna dive???

So tomorrow I am finally going to start the class to get my SCUBA certification. I have been SCUBA before with buddies who had extra equipment but I just never have gotten around to taking the course. I have to admit I am really looking forward to doing this class on this island. The diving here is unreal. I haven’t even really had to go very far because it’s pretty much good all over. I decided earlier last week to sign up for this course because I think it’s ridiculous that I have lived in the Caribbean for a year and still don’t have the cert. Those of you that know me know that I am a freediver at heart but I really am drawn to doing deep dives as well as wreck diving. I have been to 100 feet (over 30 meters) on a breath hold freedive but obviously I wasn’t down very long. On the average, I usually only freedive to around 50 or 60 feet, look around for 30-45 seconds and then head back to the surface. Since spearfishing is strictly forbidden in most of the islands I have been to it has kept me from really diving as much as I would like to. I’m hoping that I can start logging a lot of dives after I finish the class. I do have to say that on Rum Boogie, Brian bought a system that is known as a Hookah or sometimes is called SNUBA. It’s basically a small engine with a compressor that has two 60 foot air hoses with regulators at the end. Basically it’s SCUBA without all the other gear. Strap on fins and a mask, jump in the water, put the regulator in your mouth and you can swim down to between 35-50 feet and breathe normally. I’m embarrassed to admit that in the year I have been on the boat I have never used it. In fact, it had never been used until yesterday. Brian had talked about it but never got it out and I just never bothered because I figured it was gonna be more trouble than it was worth, hell I can freedive deeper than that and I don’t have to set all the stuff up. Man was I wrong. That thing is F-ing cool. Brian put it together yesterday morning and I got in the water with him to help him test it out. It was great. I even ended up treating myself to a few new pieces of dive gear to make it more enjoyable. When I got back with the new stuff (new fins and mask) I went out solo with the unit and was down around 50 feet for probably 20-30 minutes. Just cruising through the reefs checking out everything without any cumbersome gear on was cool. It always amazes me all the diversity in sea life you see at different depths. At about 35 feet I found a decent sized octopus and spent some time following him as he changed colors attempting to camoflauge himself until I caught him and got ink shot all over me. Good stuff. I found a moray eel that had been killed by something that took a big bite out of it but I also found plenty of live eels as well. Rays, parrot fish, turtles, it’s all out here. I truly can’t wait to get started on the class tomorrow, pretty cool to have the choice to get certified in Bonaire huh? If you want to see some great dive pics from this island check out this link http://picasaweb.google.com/fwremers/BonaireJanuary2009

Thanks to Fred for the comment and sharing these pics from his recent trip to Bonaire, looks like you had a great trip man.

Hello again...

Well I'm back. As life has a way of doing, the last few months have flown by. A lot has happened but that if for another time. As for me, I'm on the island of Bonaire now. I ended up going back to California in December and returned to Grenada and the boat at the end of January. As usual there some projects to finish prior to us leaving but since the internet service I'm using right now is sketchy, I will save all the fun details for another blog. For the time being, here's the down and dirty of what I have been up to. We set sail from Grenada on the 3rd of February bound for the offshore islands of Venezuela. We sailed to Los Testigos first, about 88 miles from Grenada and we spent the night on the anchor near Playa Real beach basically in the same spot Boogie was when Jaymie and I stayed there back in July. After some debate we decided on heading to Porlamar on Isla de Margarita. The same place I bought diesel back in July for 6 cents a gallon. We arrived there the next morning and got fuel then headed in to check with one of the yacht agents about the checking in procedures. After finding out how extensive and ridiculous the customs and immigration circus is we decided to just go to the grocery store and then set sail the following morning. Well I typically do fine on my own finding chaos around every corner but when you put Brian and I together, there is always something insane in store. We were told by Marina Juan to take a cab to the store but we decided to walk. Well I don't know if it was my 6 weeks back in the states or what but I wasn't being very heads up as we just kept on walking down a street we shouldn't have been on. As we were approaching the bend in the road that led back to a main street I was grabbed by a guy who was speaking to me in rapid Spanish. I turned and as I was looking at him and trying to decipher what he was yelling about I saw that he was holding a knife. Just a basic small dinner steak type knife. I was still lost as to what was going on when he swiped at the chest strap from my backpack. It finally clicked what he was trying to do. Brian picked up another guy in Grenada as crew while I was gone and he had been walking behind us and was attacked first. They forced his backpack off and one of the guys ran off with it. By the time I realized fully what was going on the guy tried to cut the chest strap again and I grabbed his wrist and shoved him back. I was trying to figure out what to do but I didn't want to take my eyes off the knife and honestly I was kind of just frozen in a stand off with him. I yelled over to Brian because he seemed to be about as stunned and confused as I was and when he heard me he snapped out of it and found a big piece of wood on the ground to swing like a club. He yelled at the guy and after a few moments the dude ran off with the rest of them. None of us are sure how many guys there were, we think 3 or 4 total. Whatever the case, we ran out on to the main street and jumped in a cab. Turned out Sam only had a camera, his drivers license and a debit card in his pack so he was able to cancel that online right away. All in all, we got off pretty lucky. If one of us had been hurt we would have been fucked because we were basically in the country illegally and while we were down in Venezuela we heard that Chavez was on the radio actually encouraging attacks on Americans. Needless to say, we set sail that following morning for Los Roques.





We arrived in Los Roques last Sunday and were planning on spending most of the week sailing around this beautiful area but Monday morning we ran into problems with the Coast Guard guys there so we just ended up bailing completely and heading on to Bonaire. This island is incredible. We have been really enjoying it here and have been hanging out with some of the crew from a yacht that is berthed here. The yacht is called Octopus and belongs to Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. It's 414 feet long, has 2 helicopters, 2 submarines, 7 tenders and all kinds of jet skis and other toys. It has a cinema, gym, basketball court, etc. It holds 224,000 gallons of fuel, about a million and a half dollars to fill up. It operates on a 20 million dollar a year budget. The thing is awesome, check it out on google or wikipedia. The crew members are real cool and are from all over, it's been a blast hanging with them. I'm going to try and post some pics soon but the internet connection is pretty dodgy here so I may have to wait until Curacao. We are staying here until next Thursday night. We will set sail for Curacao that night to make it over by Friday morning. Carnaval starts that following Monday which just happens to be my birthday so I'm sure we will have a good time.

America in the "Global Century"...

The last few days I have read two incredible books that both really got me thinking about all sorts of subjects: politics, race, religion, economies, etc. First I read Pico Ayer's amazing travel memoir, Video Night in Kathmandu. I couldn't put the book down. From the first chapter when he talks about the fusing of cultures and the phenom of the 80's when everything American was all the rage in Asia I was hooked. Great read, especially for anyone who likes to travel, and when I say travel I don't mean get on a flight, land, take a shuttle to some all-inclusive resort behind guarded gates so that you can sit around drinking cocktails by a pool when you are 100 yards from an ocean. Or never leave the resort other than to go on some excursion where you are herded around like cattle from bus to attraction to bus back to the cozy resort. That isn't traveling. I digress. So his book rocked and then I started The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. Wow. Another one I couldn't put down. The book has been around for more than 40 years so I know this isn't news to anyone but man I truly wish I would have read it sooner.

So after I read a book I really enjoy, I typically end up online looking up information about the author, gotta love the wikipedia and old google. Obviously there is ton of info about Malcolm X. I watched several of his speeches on youtube and read several transcripts of various speeches and lectures he gave. There is good stuff in regards to Iyer as well. One of the things that I found that stuck out was a small article he did about meeting Obama (while Iyer was hanging out with Paul Theroux, another bad ass travel writer) in Hawaii 2 years ago. Here is a great passage from the article that really hit home for me:

"Everywhere I've been this year - from Jerusalem to Japan to Colombia to Italy and back again - I've heard people essentially say that America is an overweight, white plutocrat who is not only out of touch with the world but also shows no signs of wanting to grow closer to it. This is as unfair as any image - contradicted at every moment by the kindness and curiosity of many Americans - but it remains a potent one in a world where people communicate more with images than ideas and assumptions travel faster than truths. The best way to begin to correct it is to show the world a leader who can't really say how much he's African or Asian or American or just a product of their mixing in Hawaii. The point is not just that Obama will bring globalism to America; in his name, his face and his issues, he'll bring America back to the globe."

If you want to read the whole article check here http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081108/us_time/mychanceencounterwithobamainhawaii

I think both books spurned me into scouring the internet for several hours reading news reports. Aside from internet, I am completely disconnected from news outside of this island. Granted there are papers here and tv, but I don't have a tv and most of the stories in the papers only deal with local news and the occasional big stories from home. A few hours was all I could take though. Even though I came across the occasional gem such as Iyer's article, most of the headlines were bad news I just don't want to know about and since I don't give a fuck about what Britney Spears and the rest of the mutants are doing, I was forced to keep searching for INTERESTING news from home. The one that finally did it for me was when I read that last Friday a Walmart employee was trampled to death as he was trying to unlock the doors to the store.

This is the kind of shit that leaves me scathingly angry and is pretty much why I hate X-mas but that is a different subject. I don't really want to go on a rant here but basically I think that after reading two books like this and feeling optimistic about America growing into the "Global Century" to see a story about this rampant and ridiculous frenzy of consumers who are so intent on beating others to the racks to buy a bunch of shit they really don't need and they end up leaving some poor dude (who was working for a temp agency no less) dead as they run right over the top of him to save a few dollars. How do you explain this type of insanity to people? How can I justify actions like this by people of my home country to the people in the countries I visit, people who aren't ridden with lust and insatiable greed, people who only buy what they NEED and can AFFORD? Still to this day I end up buying more than I need when I go grocery shopping. 30 years living in a country full of excess is not easily shaken off. For the time being I will remain hopeful that during his presidency Obama may help to diffuse some of the old ways and maybe people can start realizing that there is a world outside of our own little bubbles and that there are a hell of a lot better things to do with your time and money than camping in a Walmart parking lot and being part of a mob that is responsible for destroying someone's life. Fuck me, this is why I usually ignore the news, where's the rum?

Thankful for my hammock...

The pic above I took of the sunset tonight. It was truly one of the best I have seen down here. It went from a true vanilla sky into a fiery red, just freaking awe inspiring. The pic does it no justice.

Happy Thanksgiving. As you can see from the pic taken just before sunset tonight, I had a rough day. Not much to tell you about from the last week. I've gotten the majority of the work done that was on my list, save for a few things that I'm waiting on parts for. According to my pals at the boat shop the parts I need are being shipped in the next container due the first week of next month, I'm not holding my breath. The anchorage here is starting to fill up with boats. The cruisers who went home for the summer are starting to arrive and each day the boat yard drops several boats back in the water. The cruising season has started. Most of these people haul their boats sometime between May and June and go back to their respective countries to work or visit family and basically just wait out the hurricane season. It has provided a little entertainment as I have been watching several boats come directly from the launch out here looking to anchor up and some of the couples get at each other. They yell at each other for all kinds of reasons, mostly because certain things aren't working on the boat and they didn't bother to fix them in the yard, they just flew in and splash, back in the drink they go. Then they get out here and the windlass won't work, they can't get the anchor to set, engine trouble, or my favorite, I recently watched from the comfort of my hammock as a couple from the UK blasted into each other because the little headset/microphone setup they use to communicate while anchoring apparently wasn't working but neither of them could hear the other one shouting because they didn't bother taking the headsets off. Funny shit when it isn't happening to me.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The cruisers put on a nice pot luck over at the Tiki Bar today to celebrate Caribbean style. It was a nice setup though I didn't stay long. I have been content lounging around the boat, swinging in the hammock reading all day. The weather has been perfect with just enough cloud cover to keep it from being brutally hot and a fresh breeze blowing all day. The last few days (prior to today) on anchor I haven't left the boat, haven't even got into the dinghy, it's just been so peaceful. Although Fabian is back from St Vincent and the Grenadines and it's never quiet for long with him around.

He had six people on his boat doing a two week dive charter and they left almost two weeks ago to head up to St Vincent and start sailing back, stopping at several islands to dive and explore so I haven't seen him until today. I guess my jail time has made me somewhat of a legend in our little circle so he stopped by to give me shit and earfuck me as usual about being a dumb ass American. But it turns out during his charter he had some bad luck as well. I guess while they were visiting the island of Bequia (Beck-way, don't ask me but it's how they say it around here) two of his guests, a man and woman went into town to get dinner. On their way back they were assaulted by some local punks. The man's wallet was taken and the poor woman got smacked in the head with a rock. From what Fabian told me, the Coast Guard there in Bequia would not take her to the hospital in St Vincent until 6 AM (I guess it was around 1 when this happened) so they were forced to take his boat back to St Vincent (an hour and a half trip). From there the woman was transferred by plane to the hospital here in Grenada and he said that she is still there under observation. Fabio also said that there have been a few attacks recently reported there in Bequia. Don't know what is going on there but when Brian and I visited, it seemed like a pretty chill place. Anyway, sounds like she will be alright but it sucks hearing about that kind of thing happening.

Again, Happy Turkey Day and to my family and friends, hope you had a good one today, miss all of you.

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."

Mark Twain

If...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

Still one of my favorite poems. You can also check at youtube for some video of Dennis Hopper reading this poem. There is also another reading by Robert Morley that is good.

Yes, I really read this much

The weather here has been shitty pretty much all week. Lots of wind and rain, with the swells constantly changing direction in the anchorage, have been moving the boat around quite a bit. Aside from my "hard time" (see previous post) I have been taking it pretty easy and getting a lot of reading done this week. I have done a few little basic projects on the boat but nothing out of the ordinary. I am currently taking a break from reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and it got me to thinking about how many books I have read since living on boats. There were so many books that I always intended on reading but never got around to. Now that I have the chance I have read many of them and continue to do so. So I figured I would start posting now and then a list of books I am reading/or have read. I want to do this partly as a record for myself to remember and also because I have received a few e-mails asking me what I do read. Anyway, I'll start small and list what I have read in the last couple of weeks.

smile when you're lying (confessions of a rogue travel writer) by Chuck Thompson

-this was a great book, especially if you have travelled a bit and can relate to some of his misadventures, and written honestly by omitting the bullshit you read in travel brochures and telling you what life on the road is really like, good stuff.

The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho

-I can't help it. Coelho is bad ass and I dig his writing. I have read some other opinions about how contrived and regurgitated his quotes are but I relate a lot on a personal level to his characters. This book tries to answer the question, why do we destroy the things we love the most? (taken from the back cover but it is the most accurate description). I couldn't help it, read it in one night. If you have a tendency to sabotage yourself (as I often do) you will like this one.

Adventures of a Continental Drifter by Elliot Hester

-cool travel stories from an ex-flight attendant that sold everything and went on an "around the world excursion into weirdness, danger, lust, and the perils of street food". Good fast read.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

-sick, twisted, I loved it. One of my favorite books is Fight Club (still the name of my little fishing boat back home) by the same author. It was hard for me to put this book down. I just dig the way this guy writes, in your face, real, harsh, he even makes me cringe sometimes and that ain't easy.

Why We Hate Us by Dick Meyer

-good commentary on the "American discontent in the New Millenium" the author attacks rude people on cell phones, kids being taught to market themselves on myspace/facebook, cheating in sports/business, reality TV and many other topics that many of us bitch about but seem to keep rolling right along taking all this shit every day.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

-probably don't have to say anything here, I've never read it so I finally did. I found a bookstore here in Grenada that had this one as well as the three books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I bought all four of them.

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolken

-same thing as above, unfortunately I had never read any of these but like everyone else I have seen the movies. I am really enjoying this one (The Hobbit kicked ass as well).

I think that's about it from the last two weeks or so. This weather sucks so bad I think I will be running some errands in the morning, checking out of the country and sailing North to either Union Island or possibly St Lucia, haven't really made up my mind I just want to get the hell away from the rain.

I can now say I have been in jail...

Now I can add going to jail in another country to my lengthy resume of insane situations that I have been a part of. Here's what happened. Sunday afternoons, a lot of people gather at a small beach bar on Hog Island called simply Roger Bar. At Roger, beers are 5 EC and for 20 EC you get a big plate of food. So this last Sunday I had told some new friends of mine that we should go hang for the afternoon in Roger. As is customary there on Sundays, the afternoon quickly turns to evening and the beers keep flowing. When we finally decided to pack up and go, I was heading back to Prickly Bay to the West and they were headed East to where their boat was moored. I sped around in my dinghy to another spot to say hi to some friends there and ended up drinking some wine with them until about 11. I said goodbye there and hopped back in the dinghy, at this point, I'm feeling pretty good and hadn't reached that retard drunk stage, so I decided just to head back to the boat and get some sleep. I was cruising through a cut in some reefs headed out to go around the point to Prickly when the motor of the dinghy died. This outboard motor has been a champ and run strong the whole time. I checked the fuel, good to go, fuel line was attached, nothing on the prop, pulled and pulled but it would not start. Now the weather here for the past week has been pretty shitty and we have had lots of wind and rain. Basically, I was screwed if I couldn't get the motor started because there was no way I could paddle around the point and all the way to the boat in the sea conditions. So after 20 minutes or so I was starting to drift onto the reef near a small beach. I pulled the motor up so it wouldn't hit and rowed the dinghy to the sand. After pulling the dinghy up the sand a bit I tried to monkey with the motor a bit more but in the dark and having no tools I didn't think I would make much progress. So I decided to tie the rope to a tree and just crash out on the beach.



It started getting cold and with the drizzle I was getting soaked so I walked up a hill a bit until I found a small villa. I found a nice little corner under an eave to keep me out of the rain and I crashed there for a bit. I was woken up at 1 in the morning to a flashlight and several voices. I stood up thinking I might be in for a fight when I heard them say "Police!" After shaking the cobwebs from my head I asked what the problem was and apparently, the bitch who runs the property wasn't happy about some random dude sleeping on the beach so she called the popos. I apologized, tried to explain about the boat being broken down and blah blah blah. They asked if I had any weapons or drugs and of course I said no. They asked me to empty my pockets which was no problem. I reached into my right pocket and pulled out the EC money I was carrying. Out of my left pocket I pulled out a small piece of foil. I was confused for a moment because I didn't remember having this in my pocket but it only took one of the cops a second to snatch it out of my hand and open it. When he asked me what it was I had to look to remember. So here is the fun part. It was weed. A friend of mine had been given this small amount of marijuana from another person while we were out drinking that afternoon. As she had no pockets and we were all drinking, she asked if I could hang on to it until we got back to their boat. I said sure and pretty much forgot about it. So now I'm standing on the beach trying to explain this to cops at 1 in the morning. Not only that, but I'm not carrying any ID on me. Time to go to the station house. I get escorted to an SUV and sit in the far back. They wouldn't even let me grab my sandals out of the dinghy. We get to the police station sometime after 2 AM and the interrogation starts. Do I sell drugs, where do I buy my drugs, blah blah. Let me say for the record that I have never smoked weed in my life. Not because I have some moral stance against it, I am too scared that like most things I do, if I start smoking I would take it to excess. Just simple self awareness keeps me too scared to smoke. At 2 AM when you are buzzing from a day of drinking, standing in a police station trying to explain this to cops just doesn't really sound convincing. I swear though, it is the truth. So after being questioned for an hour, I'm told I have to spend the night there because they need to confirm my story the next morning. The only place I can lie down to sleep is in a holding cell so they take me down to a cell, barefoot and all and show me my accomodations. I did my best to get some rest on a narrow wooden bench in a cell that reeked of urine and was infested with mosquitoes. At 7 AM, one of my cellmates woke me up because our ration of food was being given. A cold sandwich and a small cup of tea. No thanks, I gave it to another guy in the cell. At 9 AM, the "Detective" assigned to my "case" arrived to escort me to the Coast Guard so he could confirm my story of living on the boat and that I had nothing on board to hide short of my speargun. For his "protection" he needed to cuff me (this is the first time I was in cuffs) for the ride to the Coast Guard. He spent an hour bullshitting with some of them while I sat barefoot and cuffed in the SUV in the parking lot. He finally came to get me, took the cuffs off and we were off in the Coast Guard boat with 4 members, 3 of which were holding automatic machine guns as if I were a threat. This whole situation was so fucking surreal that I couldn't help but keep laughing at them. We got on the boat and he "confirmed" that I was in fact telling the truth, no drugs or weapons on the boat and he saw a photo hanging in my cabin of me with my old truck crew from Station 3. He asked if I was a firefighter and I said yeah. This seemed to make him relax a lot and I was glad for that. I asked if I could rinse off and change and he was generous enough to give me 90 seconds to do so. I got some shoes, a red bull, a breakfast bar and some water and after that we were dropped at a dock near the beach I slept on and were picked up by the SUV to go "investigate" the area I tied the dinghy at. After searching around for a bit and listening to the lady that ran the place act like I ruined her life, the cop was finally satisfied that I had been telling the truth the whole time, I drank, the boat broke down, I was gonna wait until morning to figure out where I was and get a bus in to figure out what to do, blah blah. From this point, apparently I was now a friend and the cop asked me if he could come out sometime and hang out on the boat with his family. I couldn't believe it. I asked if he could leave me there so I could work on the dinghy and he said they would wait because I needed to go back to the station to be cleared of any charges and given my property back (the money in my pocket). I messed with the dinghy for a bit and figured out the problem. Somehow the vent on top of the fuel can worked it's way shut, just enough to choke out the motor and cause it not to start. Being fairly deep in the beer and wine I guess it never occured to me to check that. I laughed hysterically because I could've avoided the whole mess if I had simply unscrewed the vent a bit. I told the cop and he laughed to. I was really tired and hungry at this point and just wanted to take a long swim followed by a shower to rid myself of my jail cell funk but instead of going straight away to the station to clear me out, I got to go along with the cops as they ran their own personal errands. We stopped by the grocery store to buy milk, sugar and bread followed by a stop in at the laundry. Then we stopped by another crime scene where someone had broken into some building. After we finally reached the station, I spent another hour waiting for the jackass guy at the desk to write a few lines in a book and ask me four times my name and age. I got my money and after the guys finished their lunches (that they bought at the grocery store), they were gracious enough to give me a ride back to my dinghy. After dropping me off, we said our goodbyes, one gave me his card and told me to call him if I ever have any problems down here. I thanked him and headed to the beach.



The property owners had managed to drag the dinghy quite a ways up the beach so I spent about 20 minutes wrestling the damn thing down to the waters edge. I finally got it in the water and spent another 15 or so minutes rowing out to deeper water so I could drop the outboard and motor along. I fired up the motor and headed over to my friends boat to tell them the story and explain why I hadn't showed up in the morning as we had previously planned. I had offered to drive them around the island if they wanted to rent a car for the day and they said yes. We planned to leave yesterday morning but due to my incarceration, that just didn't work out. We all got a good laugh after I told them the story and showed why I am Captain Chaos. I sped back to the boat and after a good swim, a long shower and some chow, I fell into a deep sleep for the rest of the afternoon. This morning I got up and went to rent the car. After I rented it I realized I needed to update my temporary driving license from here so I had to return to the police station. When I walked in, the guys just started laughing and after messing with me for about 45 minutes I got my license updated. So the irony here is that I can probably say that I am the only person in the Caribbean who doesn't smoke weed but I have been detained (since the detective informed me that I was never under arrest) for possession. Only me man, only me.



On another note, I spent all of last week in the lagoon tied up at Port Louis Marina. I was getting the bottom scrubbed, the boat washed and polished, the interior cleaned up, batteries charged, oil changed, generator serviced, etc. It worked out good and it was nice to have unlimited water and power for a few days. The part that really hurt was getting fuel. I wanted to sail to Trinidad to get fuel because last time I was there it was less than a dollar a gallon. My buddy told me that he just came from there and there had been some problem so they are now charging foreign flagged vessels the same rate that you pay in your native country. So F that. So I was forced to buy fuel here at 16.45 EC a gallon. After filling up both tanks, the dinghy and the reserve gas cans I got to pay 700 U.S. dollars. Yippee. Needless to say I wasn't in the same chipper mood I was in back in June when I sailed to Venezuela with Jaymie and bought the same amount of fuel for less than 7 U.S. dollars. So I'll close for now by saying to my good buddy Dan Lopez that I have joined your club of having spent half a day in a jail cell in a foreign country, although your Mexico jail story is probably still funnier than mine.

Finally, a good headsail...

When I sailed to Union Island before my visit home, I blew out the headsail (jib/genoa) in a squall that caught me on the windward side of Grenada, the photos above show where it started shredding. Since this sail was already on it's last leg, I had already had a foot and a half cut off the leech (backside of the sail) and had some reinforcement sewn on (which worked great obviously), I had been looking into buying a new one online out of Hong Kong. Anyway, that trip was to pick up a dinghy in Union. If you hadn't followed before I was having all kind of trouble with dinghies and finally found a decent one through a friend in Union. So now I have two extra dinghies on board. Pretty ridiculous. So that leads me to now where I have been able to buy a headsail from Fabian that is in really good shape and should last a while and by selling the two dinghies I'm actually coming out ahead, I can't believe it. So I spent the afternoon through sunset pulling down the old sail and rigging the new one. I guess I should be happy there is no wind again today, the anchorage is flat calm (which is unusual in Prickly) and I didn't have to wrestle with a huge sail flailing around. One less headache taken care of.