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!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

P.T 109

Story time not" Dream Time" boys and girls! We said our goodbye's to Phil at Gizo, Solomon Islands. Worst case of Malaria I've ever witnessed. He's alright. Saw him a few years later in Adelaide, Aus. He's a grower of organic foods and has a great spread. Still gets knocked down by the bug but handles. Back to Gizo! We all meet this guy ( American ) named Royal Gage. I know his name sounds contrived kind of fictional, well he is all of that and then some! This guys life stories of which he never embellished put mine in the corner. I liked him ( still do )! He was the first American I had seen or spoken with in many months. He was in Gizo to dive J.F.K's sunken PT 109. After realizing Australia's southern coastline was a bit much even for an ocean going kayak he was headed home to Seattle to continue building boats. After downing a few schooners we figured I may as well join him and dive Kennedy's wreck! So we did with a dive group package that does these kinds of things in the south seas. After that we drank a few more middies and Royal was asked if he would like to go sailing? Dave, the skipper of Guinevere, asked if he would consider continuing his journey for a bit longer? Everyone liked him. A family of four and me. We were going to pick up Andrew Pete later. But for now he said," cool "! And this is where it gets interesting. It's my fault. I had been making, " Hopi ", alcohol for months. I had a really good batch begging for consumation. It's 2 O'Clock in the morning and Royal and I are yarnin on the second spreader with a gallon of firewater in a very still clearing habour with fifty free anchored vessels trying to sleep. For once not one generater was running. Guinevere's mast is 62' off the deck. We, without knowing it, were broadcasting laughter, bad jokes, meaningless babelings, selfish giggles and were totally unaware that we had offended everyone. And because we were so high up,( no pun intended ) the amplifcation factor carried us into a state of unpopularity only ascribed to a few! Our boat ( the family ) held court the next day. Should Royal sail with us or not? He did. I never made Hopi again as part of the deal. Don't think for a minute that it wasn't loved. It was just time for something else. I still made bread and we still drank beer when and where we could find it! But to sail with Royal to Cairns, Aus was priceless. Let me tell you of the time that one of our cockpit cushions flew overboard off of Papua. He- but that is another storie!!

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