If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, He Will Break the Oven: Espiritu Santo
This is how cruising goes. One minute you’re swimming in a perfect anchorage; the next, you’re clutching your abandon ship bag.
Who's a Liar, Who's a Thief? Part II
It’s so much easier to name when you’re an outsider. You have no power, no responsibility to change.
11 Reasons For A Dinghy Ride: San Miguel, Isla del Rey
Sometimes you need incentive to get off the boat.
Time and Tide Wait For No Woman: The Rule of Twelfths
Like the Pirate Code, it’s more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.
Haulout 103: The Clean Bottom Club
The lead takes aim and swings. In one breathtaking moment he taps the remaining pole precisely near its base, toppling it. His teammate liberates it mid-air and eases it down.
Poetry in motion.
Haulout 102: Life On the Hard
Seriously, why did we haul the boat?
Oh, yeah.
Clean. Paint.
I repeat it like a mantra, trying to get into it. Maintain.
The Art of Stealing Your Own Boat, Conclusion: Pandemic Panama
As long as you arrive legally, nobody cares how you left the last place.
Basic Keelboat
Making mistakes is the best way to learn to sail. You gain experience and good stories to tell. Here’s my experience in Basic Keelboat.
The Art of Stealing Your Own Boat, Part 3: Constant Vigilance
Chart the course. Stand watch. Trust yourself. Trust the boat.
New Year’s Eve in Ecuador: The Widows
Tick-or-treating for beer money, an Ecuadorean tradition.
The Art of Stealing Your Own Boat
Our objective is a 53-foot sailboat anchored in plain view of the Port Captain’s third-floor window that could be impounded any minute. The vehicle’s owner–and captain, as it happens–is me.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: Pase del Niño Viajero
On December 24, families and folk dancers from all over Ecuador gather in Cuenca to celebrate the arrival of a special child.
When the World Goes Crazy, Do the Right Thing: Pandemic, Sloth, and Trámite
SV Hanalei spends the pandemic at anchor in Ecuador while we’re locked down in Peru. The borders have closed down and Customs is closing in. Now what?
Stow, Stow, Stow Your Boat: Provisioning for an Ocean Passage
Whether or not you feel like cooking at sea, you gotta eat. Provision for a passage like a pro.
Improv: The One About Corruption
I’m getting a bad feeling. Like he isn’t the solution. He’s the problem.