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Cross-legged: A reflection on the bonding nature of cultural difference
(a version of this essay was published in Takahe 82, August 2014)Chief Watsoni of Makongai, with lunchFiji, 2009. I am sitting cross-legged on a mat woven from voivoi leaves with Watsoni, the village...
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SE Asia Impressions: Bali Street Scenes March 2014
We've been in SE Asia since November 2013 and now that we're looking at saying goodbye to this part of the world, it's high time we post some updates. A different world that we stepped into when we...
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SE Asia Impressions: Bali Nyepi, March 2014
Continuing with our look back at our time in SE Asia, here are some photos from Nyepi.Nyepi is a celebration of the new year, according to the Balinese calendar, and fell in March in both 2014 and...
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SE Asia Impressions: Wild Things
You can't spend two years in SE Asia without encountering something of the wild side. We're not extreme adventurers; we are basically homebodies who like to travel with our kids. But here in SE Asia,...
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3000 miles of waves and sky
Just before leaving Malaysia, I was put in touch with an artist working on a painting project in which he was trying to capture a sense of the ocean's waves. He was looking for offshore photos of the...
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Madagascar, First Impressions: Music Festival of Nosy Be (and a little about...
Madagascar is a country that makes a big first impression. Just east of Mozambique, it's the fourth largest island in the world, and a convergence of Europe, Africa and the Middle East -- as evidenced...
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Madagascar Early Impressions: Harnessing the Wind
So we settled into our early weeks in Madagascar, and the second thing we noticed -- along with thecacophony from the music festival blaring off our bow and the gyrating rhythms of Nosy Be-- was that...
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First Log Entry (dated 28 February 2004)
On 28 February 2004, after having spent around two months getting our new-to-us boat ready for offshore sailing, we left Redondo Beach and sailed to Catalina Island, some 20 nautical miles away. Here's...
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Wind-Vane Self-Steering on Momo: Balancing the Machine
I began writing this description of how we set up the wind-vane self-steering gear on our boat primarily as a response to somebody from the Mason Sailboat Owners group. But I figure it might be worth...
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Madagascar: Big Skies -- and a Waterspout in Sumatra
We are in our last days in Madagascar, and we have a lot more to say about it, much more beyond those first impressions from our other posts -- but in this post we're just going to share the big sky...
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Mason 43 Mast Step Replacement Ensenada 2004 (January 2016)
This evening I stumbled across a few photos of our mast step replacement project in Ensenada back in 2004, a pleasant surprise because I thought we had lost them all.Original mast step, looking forward...
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Tying Stuff Down without using Padeyes, U-Bolts, Eyebolts, etc.
Tie-down at the front of the cabin to help secure the dinghy.Last year when it came time to install a few tie-downs on the boat's cabin top we tried something a little different. Instead of resorting...
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Vignette: Tanzania / Tanga -- Market (March 2016)
This is the market in Tanga near the waterfront. There’s lots of dirt and smells and plenty of flies. The guy in the photo? We always go to him first because he’s friendly and funny and always gives us...
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Vignette: Tanzania / Zanzibar -- Beaded things (February 2016)
Narrow Zanzibar street -- Stone TownMy mother flies to visit. We meet in Zanzibar. We stay in a nice hotel with air conditioning. We get colds. We walk the narrow streets for hours. We chat with people...
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Vignette: Tanzania / Tanga -- It's a Crime (March 2016)
(This is not John's place. But it is a place.)At the grocery store in Tanga I hear an older white guy talking to the Indian checkout clerk about how he had been recently robbed and how somebody else he...
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Vignette: Tanzania / Tanga -- Impromptu Community (March 2016)
What for them is the call to prayer wakes me up at an hour ungodly and dark; for me, it’s the call to check my email for work. I translate stuff from German into English (mostly for lawyers, bankers,...
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Vignette: Tanzania/ Serengeti -- Endless Plains? (March 2016)
Southern Serengeti, mid-March: we are surrounded by thousands of wildebeests on either side. We’ve stopped our vehicle to watch. We look left and right, forward and back: they are everywhere, a sea of...
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Vignette: Tanzania/ Pangani: On living in the real world
Sisal plantation on the road between Pangani and TangaThe house went up in flames in a matter of minutes. Once the spark jumped from the burning field to the nearby palm and then the makuti roof, there...
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Tanga, Tanzania to Lamu, Kenya (June/July 2016)
It was a fast jaunt from Tanga to Lamu (approx. 200 nautical miles). We stopped first just over the border in Shimoni to check into Kenya. The officials were very friendly but also quite thorough, very...
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Madagascar article in Cruising World
Very pleased that my article on Madagascar appears in the January 2017 issue of Cruising World. I've not seen it but the draft I saw looked great. Thanks to the editors!waterfront scene at Crater Bay,...
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A Few Recent Photos -- Tanzania (early 2017)
Not much to say, but a few photos might be nice.Allen Iverson spotted in Dar Es Salaam market working as a chicken man.Insect bus.Charcoal and motorcycles.Lushoto area.Jesus loves buses.Jesus also...
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Looking back: East Africa
While approaching Madagascar back in 2015 we decided almost on a whim that, rather than rushing around South Africa and into the Atlantic, we should try to see a little of the African continent, about...
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Looking back: Wildlife in East Africa
Seeing so much vibrant wildlife was an amazing part of being in East Africa for two years. These photos are from Mkomazi, West Kilimanjaro, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.
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South Africa: December 2017 - March 2018
Some photos from scenic South AfricaSimon's Town and Western Cape PeninsulaArrival in Simon's TownOstriches at the Cape of Good HopeHaulout in Simon's TownWestern Cape water shortages, December...
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Namibia: March 2018
Our last weeks on the African continent were spent in Namibia. Desert landscapes like we've never seen before. Big spaces and even bigger skies. Here are some photos of places we visited -- all in the...
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