About Me

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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!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Life ON The River

You have just got to love paddling a canoe through a marked speed zone on The Sacramento River! I would casually wind my way through a matrix of moored boats anchored and docked like a little city on the water. If I saw a human being I would shout out, " I just cut my speed to four mph so my wake wouldn't disturb your boat at rest "! They would laugh and offer me a cup of coffee if it was morning or a beer in the afternoon. I must admit I loved the solitude of the long stretches of river where there is no human contact but coming upon pockets of civilization had its rewards also. It's amazing what a joy a simple conversation with someone is after not speaking for 24 hours or more! Walking on " Sea Legs " to a store to get beer and supplies was always an adventure. Finding a place to park and getting your first glimpse after climbing the levee of the possibillities of finding a head or a store wasn't always a given. There are outposts on the river that have a post office, a store that carries very little, a bait shop but no toilet or gas station. Forget about a pub. So you just never know what you'll find when you top the levee. There were a few days there when I wished my canoe was equipted with a port-a-potty! When I stopped at Rio Vista and went into town I felt like I had just come into New York City! The contrast from extreme isolation to total sensory bombardment was so severe it felt like culture shock! Usually I exhibit 100% extroversion. But after zero human interaction for long periods my people skills flew out the window leaving me speechless as if dumbstruck. This turned out to be a blessing in disquise as most farm or fish orientated small towns don't need a hyper-metabollic, machine gun, word firing, companion starved, bread shopper in their store! So I shopped, saying very little, went back to my canoe and continued my journey. As the days went on the river cast a spell on me re-birthing me into one of her children, altering me to her course and ways and moods. I love how subtly the city gets washed out by the ways of the country. Admitedly it's not for everyone but it's for me!

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