About Me

My photo
Sacramento, California, United States
so salty pieces of coral from surfing Hawaii in the 60's and 70's getting reef pounded living in my body fall through my skin from time to time!

sailing to Oahu

Jimi Hendrix was playing on Oahu. I had never sailed. Surfed Mexico, California, Hawaii! Aw, how hard could it be to sail 90-110 miles from Kauai to Oahu? Piece of cake, right? Remember it was the 60's! This is so bad. We thought we were looking at Kaiena Point,Ohau, knowing we weren't going to make the concert! But at least we were in site of Oahu-wrong! Coy, who had never sailed before, me,who had never sailed before, jeff and Abbott etc. We were looking at the sleeping giant on Kauai! We had done three-sixty's in the night! We sailed on the only tri-marran I've ever sailed on ( except later ) in my life, missed the concert! It was at the Waikiki Shell Ampitheater ( Moon eclipsed . We finally made Nawilwili Harbor! The Skipper tried to give us his boat saying, " It's trying to kill me"! We watched him go stark raving mad not even realising that had we got caught in the channel current we were on our way to Japan! Remember it was the 60's and we were going to see Hendrix. I left out some of the good stuff but I will make up for it later!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Fiji- Danger Lurks!

When you are exploring the many and varied governments, cultures and sometimes isolated populated islands of the South Seas invaribly one runs across individually unique experiences that sometimes need to be expressed-just so-in the light of day! This is one of those daze! Ha! After diving a sunken ww 2 Japanese submarine in Fiji on an island I won't mention by name, we had gone ashore and hiked to the top of a ridge for a view. We found a water supply and folded leafs to gather the water to our mouths in a traditional way of drinking. We did not find out until later what the price would be for swimming in the villages water supply system! Phil and I went back to " Guinevere " and two hours later had sailed into a small bay to go ashore and trade as we always do with the villages that abound throughout all the islands. I, first mate, would go ashore first to anounce that my illustrious Captain would be forthcoming to sit and exchange pleasantries with the Chief of the village! This was/is protocol 99% of the time on every island and every village we had encountered until this one! They took me captive! They said their warriors while out hunting had seen me ( and Phil ) bath in their villages collective resevoir, of drinking water! They wanted my skipper to pay a fine for such unsanitary and disrespectful behavior! They allowed Phil to return to the boat to deliver the sad message that I was a captive being held for ransom unless a monetary settlement could be arrived at which would satisfy all parties concerned. Of course, Dave sent his wife, Leslie and son Andrew to shore to negotiate or at the very least to remedy what could possibly esculate into an international incident! Let's see. Guinevere was carrying United States, Australia, New Zealand and South African flags! So what? Leslie( skipper's wife ) comes ashore knowing Phil and I did not swim or bath in their water but with all the poise of a born politician, began a wonderful negotiation that to this day is remarkable in that wisdom revealed itself to all! I said to the entire village that "what the warriors claimed to have witnessed may have appeared to them the way they saw it. Phil and I surely did not see them while we were drinking your water. I can only say to all of you that the water that we drank was as sweet as any water we have ever tasted in these travels"! I looked directly at the Chief and expressed my regret that by my offense we could not trade with him and that even though falsely accused my Captain was willing that I would stay in his village for the amount of time and be one of his people, to work off the debt I had incurred by my bathing in his village's drinking water. "I will eat with you, plant with you and stay here until my offense is reconciled"! Oh, was he pissed! He threatened to take us to Suva before a major inquiry!He realized we wern't bluffing and that no grease was coming his way! We left all together within a half hour (15 minutes )! Set sail and laughed for days. I have many stories of villages on a lot of islands in different countries that may bring a tear to your eye! My next story will be one of those! But this one stands in an area of selfishness and uniqueness that I am still dwelling upon today. The lie was unnessesary! Curious that!

Blog Archive