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!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

True Colors

       So caught out!  After all these years gone by?  Found, not lost!  But found!  All, who knew me, now
know the real me.  Yes, I am only loyal to myself.  I was hoping all others were of the same ilk.  I was promised it was so by a wiser fool than I have pretense to be.  But yes, a fool was he and I also stand in front of you now and profess to be even a larger one, if this were possible!
        I searched for everything under the sun, knowing I am special, knowing I would find the jewell of my quest!  Hither and yon, I searched, finding pieces of a treasure that only existed in imagination.  Could the purpose of my investigation be meaningful than my very life will have had some bit of meaning and nought to have all been in vain?  In vain?  Maybe.
       There is a jury.  At the end of a voyage, when one is paid and in the leaving, one looks back and remembers.  What?  The entire voyage?  A portion?  The good?  The bad?  The complete?  There is a log and depending on how it is written and by whom it is written by tells the tale! 
       We all have memory.  Unfortunately our combined memories give us a better picture of what might have transpired as opposed to what did!  For instance:  I am forward watching five men change a headsail.  Even though in the dead of night, there was a moon and I saw who stabbed Mr. Standish and in the penetration used his and the vessels motion to cast him into the water. "  Man overboard", was cried!  Yes. It was but by the time the vessel, " Reefer", could come about and make the motions of a late at night sea rescue, Gregory Standish was aboard another vessel belonging to David Jones.
        What brings these stories to mind, now, is that as a man before the mast, I have no value.  I can not sing shanties in a pub for the rum that was so much a part of my life at sea.  The sea is my life and now my fingers are warped of it.  Frozen by the knots I have tied and by the men I have ordered to go aloft in a full gale to save us all from the peril of driving a rigged and driven!  Her under water by the weight of her design and rigging alone! Do you understand?  I do.
        I accept the responsibillity and position of every boat I have sailed.  No log announces me as unseaworthy.  Of this I am proud, but not without regret at this stage of my life.  I have seen much as in the way of living and dying!  Is there a log in a heaven, a record keeper that is better than a master of a vessel?
        What I have witnessed is about character.  I have seen a peculiur people.  An ordinary seaman save the life of a bosun's mate who had him whipped, just the day before, because it came natural to him.  Did anything change after the storm?  No!  But something did..  I did!
         Many of the men I have sailed with are dead.  Where did they die?  Where did the men you sailed with die?  On land?  The ocean does not kill who she loves but gives a dawning sunrise and a freash breeze to a gathering sea.  I have loved those mornings which are like a birthing.  A continuence of an eternal hearthrob!
Yes, I've been hard aground.  Yes, I have seen a mast toppled! Yes, I have seen sea legs take a bit longer than it should have and vomit needed to be picked up as food was neccessary to be prepared! So what?
         The oceans have food in them.  Life itself, even weather.  A sailboat has a better chance of surviving a full gale than a cargo container ship. ( or a bark) Should I count how many containers I have seen adrift in the middle of any ocean?  I always wondered if there were dead humans in them being sumggled  illegally to the US.  The dream as opposed to dreamtime, ( for those who have been down under). Coming down the western coastline I also wondered what happened to that big tree that got away?  Sixty foot trees, floating(just barely) in the Pacific Ocean!
        How about those pirates?  Not Pittsburg!  I'm talking about " The Indian Ocean" or " The South China Sea"!  How many boats just simply disappear?  One or two a year?  Doesn't make our daily news does it?  You know why?  I do .  And so does everyone that has any grey matter between your hearing receptacles.
        A pirate was a freedom fighter.  A pirate only became a pirate because he couldn't quit being a mercenary. With few exceptions (Francis Drake) All pirates fought for country and spoils of war.  It was hell when the war ended and yet, we have documented proof that piracy was still allowed, unless you were caught!  Still exists today!  And a short yesterday!
        Hard to imagine that anyone would want to sail with me.  I know the latitude and longitude where the bodies have been recognized by Neptune.  I, also, am a brewmaster and a baker.  This fact alone, usually gets me on a ship, even if it is just for the captain!  Ha!
      

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