A New Lava Lava

     I think (my first mistake-thinking)  if I don't get my feet back in salty water, I'm dead. (maki ) I've
been on dry land far to long!  My spiritual self is not being shared and can not survive out of life sustaining
water (salty) but another three months.  I don't mind death!  What I do mind is being alive with death.  When I am sailing I am moving and responding to a living Ocean.  When I am surfing I am one with a vibration or a ripple that is in motion.  When I'm sitting on my butt I'm bored.  I can only paddle my canoe so far!
     A fart is only one's body speaking in tongues!  Even silent it speaks in a language understood by whoever is in the room that has a nose!  When it makes sound an ear hears a b flat or is it sharp?  Actually what it is saying is, "It escapes me"!  People need interpreters to understand tongues!  I like the hawaiian word," Kukai"!  Otherwise shi-shi on it!  There has to be a boat going somewhere. PLEASE!!! Take me with you....I can sail butt I can't sit.........................

Birth of a human into salt water ocean and character!

         In  1961 I shifted from skim boarding to riding ocean waves.  It was my dads fault.!   He taught
me how to hunt and fish.  Things are what parents did to their children in that day, stage and time!  We surf
fished.  Sand spiked and with a very heavy lead sinker with big hooks that we were able to throw into a surf beach break!  Far out!!  Caught our dinner!
          I loved doing that with my dad and yearly, " the Grunion Run", !  Our family were inland people.  Valley Animals.  I was so young, I didn't know that if we lived inland we were considered outsiders.  I was to young to know what outsiders were?  However, I wasn't such a noviscote to be unaware that if there was a group of outsiders than there must be a group of insiders!
        So, what or who determines the inside and is it possible that anyone allowed a choice would choose to be on the outside, looking in?  Hard to believe, isn't it?
        What fun I had living in Kansas?  Go figure.  Bottom line.  There is no surf in Kansas.  California doesn't have very good waves either, on the best of days.  What I learned is, if you want something, go out and get it.  If I named all the breaks that I have surfed and all the people I have met in many countries surfing said breaks with, you would have no choice but to call me a liar! 
         I thought for a minute I had dedicated my life to surfing!  I was right but I realized later that surfing also involves sailing.  That is where and when I finally met a woman I loved and love. She is my wife. She can sail and that is more important to me than surfing. I met here in Cairns . Australia. She is from New Zealand. When it started to get crowded I thought I might try something else.  Well, it evolved into a life-style.  Sailing.  I sailed so far and so many miles that I finally met my wife.  She is a fine sailor and my friend.  We have been together now for quite a few years and in several countries. 
         I wonder what is around the corner?   I think I have one more trip left in me?  Not sure.  I am weary
because I am growing tired of bullshit on every level.  It is a sad thing but it is on every level and that would be liars!   Do you understand?

Watch, Whose Watch

     Whose watch does a navigator love?  Yours!  On your watch I can make no mistakes!  If I give
you a heading and you can't or don't keep it, it's the captains fault.  I can wonder why till the day that
I die?  Is a given heading a hard course?  What?  You saw lights, maybe a lighthouse warning you of
the danger of driving at night with no lights?  Oh, you had an original idea that you know more than the
one who reads the sextant!  Wake the navigator up!  Don't bother the Captain!  What does he know?
      The Captain trusts his navigator.  Shouldn't you?  If not, Why knot?  A watch watches.  A skipper
skips and a navigator navigates!  When a watch skips a navigator, what happens?
      That depends.  Did someone feel or hear a change brought about by watch?  Before any cataclismic
damage was done to vessel and/or crew?  Yes?  Once onboard a sailor is in tune to every nuance his
exoskeleton ( his vessel ) can make.  It is a finely tuned instrument that sings as the ocean and wind place
it where it will.  But safety and direction are the navigators.  He has time on his accurate chronometer
(watch) distance measured by speed over water and Earth with stars, Moon and Sun announcing, " Here is where I am"!
     How can a watcher, tell The Watcher, what to watch for?  Be Leary but not Timithy!  Before changing
course, always ask someone wiser than you, "What is the best course"?  Then go your own way and be
prepared for the price you must pay.  This is how we learn..  There has got to be a more affordable way!
Sometimes learning is a life and death experience.  So is sailing with a good navigator and a crew with a mind of their own!  Arrgh, aground are we on a lee shore?  Die dogs!!!!!! 

Elixer

Alan Turk, Linda, Ru-Ru ( the baby ) and Buster. Where are you? I'll be in San Francisco October 5Th for a kind of " Gathering of the Tribes", fete! Is Elixir gone? Larry is! Where did time and us go? I think a terrible mistake was made so long ago. It was a Rolling Stones song sung while we were rafted together on Maui, " Send me dead flowers in the morning"! Take me down little Susan, take me down! I know you think you're the queen of the underground! And you could etc!! This, however is the story of us leaving Nawiliwili to Oahu and not making it! Are you up for it? Elixir is a "42ft" Gaff rigged schooner-lean and mean! What! 12' beam? With top sails and a flying fisherman she goes. Just a puff ( not a bullet ) knocks her down. (as we found out the hard way off the south shore of Oahu) Hopefully, Gut, all your portals are closed! (not) So where was/am I? Oh yea! Gut needed to get to Oahu and decided to leave Nawiliwili Harbor with a storm brewing. We got our asses kicked. The lightning accented the size of the swells which we couldn't see because it was raining so hard not only was visibility extinct but one needed a snorkel to breath!! I must admit we were game and learned more about " to weather ", sailing than any of us had known before. God, gaff rigging has a peak and a helm, double halyard system that needs to be addressed and balanced. In heavy seas and weather it is a nightmare ( especially at night )to get it right! Ru-Ru thought it was great fun! Alan and Buster ( I was just an able bodied seaman ) decided enough after 12 hours of in your face on the nose beating to weather ass kicking winter Hawaiian/Aleutian crap!! With the lightening and " the lighthouse " guiding us downwind it was excellent to be home on Kauai in a safe harbor and a safe anchorage. Later we sailed to Oahu. It was magnificently uneventful! Ha! Go figure.

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!

Bound for Who Knows!!?

I'm looking forward to this. Every sail, no matter how short or long, measured either by time or distance has been an adventure internally and externally! I want to share some of mine with you and especially desire to hear yours. I've already heard mine! I hope that my wanderings will bring to your mind the adventures of you. Yours are the tales I want to read! My hope is that we crew together sailing on these pages bound for who knows?

surfing Hanalei

River water is cold and fresh. Papio later ulua do the fresh water salt water thing. It is a long way to impossibles. I don't know why it is called that I lied. (to you). Why is innersections not enter sections? Actually certain swell directions make it enter sections! But when Hanalei connects it is one of the most powerful and longest rides that exist anywhere. I'm a goofy-foot. Like Gerry Lopez only he has always been a lot smoother than me. I always loved his style. Carlos Andrade is a smooth goofy-foot also. Beaver( Jim Demoral), David Abbott( abaldo)and Tim McKenna could handle also. Jim pollack, Ambrose Curry and myself loved inside Hanalei! While Ralph Young and Rick McGruff (Mc Duff) ( best steak cooker that ever lived)would wait and wait( righteously so) us guys would be ripping the 6 to 8 footers until the big weinee would catch us inside and over the falls at least two of us would go!And there is Ralph on the wave of the day! So what we were strong! In the day, before whore cords, it would not be unusual to swim for your board five times. I loved getting older and wiser. It got to a point where we were getting boats. Ralph would motor out and drop a pick with four of his friends. Save the long paddle! The looks one got if one was lucky enough to be in the boat! Surfing changed immensely when board cords announced their pressence. At Hanalei, just to paddle out for a novice surfer was an event. When a novice lost his board at " The Bay", you simply didn't see him again. Long paddle, long swim. It's funny looking back, remembering the reef walk, or back doors, or full swim because your board was in the channel on it's way to Wainiha or Niihau!!! Hanalei is still there. When it connects through the bowl almost to the pier your legs are shaking bra! It is a long ride doing different things. One thing that always got to me though! You make this incredible take-off, you are screaming through sections closing out but just enough to reach and stretch reach the bowl and Joe Bogest or someone like him takes off in front of you. Why didn't I kick out?Because I always wanted to shoot the pier! Just joking. I've sailed half way around the world. Hanalei is still the prettiest place and the overall greatest wave I've ever seen. I've seen Joey carve at twenty! Rusty Miller and mike Doyle were there. So was Gary Fodor and Mike Mc Clellen. So was Jimmy Lucas, Jeff Hay,Leon Thomkins,David Abbott,Bubby Yarbouro, Robbie Bryson, Coy Ardledge, Hila monster ( Randy Mills) John McCelgan ( frog)and more!!!! I've surfed Sunset Oahu, Hanalua Maui, and Hanalei Kauai. Which do you favor? Aloha no ka ko