Whangarei, New Zealand

       A right turn and up this river we went.  After low tide mud swill prop turning as we went uphill
we arrived with, " Windigo " intact.  A Roberts 45, still alive on our way to Auckland.  The " Bay of Islands was a thing of the past as was, Dove and Nelson Island, where " The Duke" provided libation for a sailing event the his " Duchess" , in a race yelled, " give way" , I jibed unto a lee shore so that he might win. another race.  I didn't make the point on the jibe but we survived.  I had right of way and was totally committed to the ram.  We are a heavy, well built boat with a solid crew!  I gave way because I am a sailor and can!
      I got my hair cut in Whangarei
.  I think it was my last haircut.  I have long hair that doesn't grow any more or any less.  My beard I trim but not recently.  Now is hiding bad teeth and a great smile.  So long ago
was New Zealand but Captain Cook would say also, " Long Ago ".
      How many people can pronounce Whangarei?  ( fong-ger-ray?  It's like living in Hawaii! ( ha-vy-ee).
It is a quiet little town connected to the ocean.  Old gun turrents in place to protect New Zealand from the Japanese invasion that Australia new was coming. Darwin knows!  The implaced gun bunker is like Point Loma in San Diego and is a landmark to introduce a sailing vessel to the entrance of the river  that ls the way to Whangarei.  I call it the gun tower approach.  Better than leads!
      We stayed five days and enjoyed a quite little inland town that really isn't and doesn't relate to sailors.
It's to far up the river to be comfortable and if one had a choice, Auckland and " The Bay of Islands ", have much more to offer.  Still, one must see it all to form an opinion!  I hold back on those because tomarrow is another day.  Change isn't spare but it is of the essence!  I don't burn bridges that I may have to cross again.
It's not a good idea to hold on to things to tightly, it stunts growth!  Ha!   AARGGugHHHH, matey!

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?

Surfers, sailors and friends?

I have been so fortunate to have friends that I call." Friends ", friends.  Once or twice I made an
error in judgement and sailed on a boat that might not have been with a balanced crew!  Some survived,
as people, some may not have survived as friends.  Does it matter?  If it does? Than, some might be called,,
" acquaintances"!  Others might be called," Pirates"!  Few remain friends.
      Pirates are interesting in that they want to take something that isn't their's.  In reality, what defines a pirate is that a country or idea they fought for have been about politics and then been disalighned.  What was a patriot then? Why is he not a pirate now?  Is it because of governmental influence or political alliance.  So who is my friend today?  Whom will be my friend  tomarrow?  Am I a pirate that looks at forty?  Yes, I am a pirate.
       I am a thief of hearts. I love truth, no lies.  I love people and spelling, and talking, sharing and telling
the honesty of everything I have read, for one reason.  What is the value of my life?  Without truth in it,
I am dead.   I have travelled so far to bring joy and happiness into life itself!  How much fun have I been allowed to share in a form of honesty to the best of my abillity?  I will not stop for to do so is death. 
       Many stories I may rely upon.  At times I wish they were gone!  But now I know they can't go- until
I share them all with you, you know!
       Many tales I can embrace with one- for a moments space!  Just when you thought you had seen it alll?
Another tale slides in so small, about a short person with no reach,
        a surfer guy on another beach that looked all the same!  
        How much fun did I have with him, who never got to surf again?
 He died you see friendlesslee, no friend he saw in his night! As he ran so far from sight!
He! Desperately looking for a light, shining so bright, guarding him from his plight, of the rocks
waiting for him to ground and die on that distant shore!  The lonelyness in his heart finely to apply! What had waiting all along There  had been?
Him still waiting for a friend! 
         Sad this tale may truly be, but kind sir another round for you and me?  A pirates tale.with a glass of grog.  helps to clear San Francisco's fog.
       
     

The ship that looked to Davy

Date: Friday, December 31, 2010, 8:23 PM










This guy has WAY to much time on his hands!







I bet the Coastguard loves this guy.





The Love Love was built to look as if it is sinking

French artist Julien Berthier has designed a fully functional boat to look as if it is sinking. The 6.5m (21ft) yacht was cut in half with a new keel and motor added so it remains in the sinking position while being fully functional. He describes it as "the permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object."

















Berthier has taken the boat (or should I say half-a-boat) across the English Channel to London and has toured it around Europe , getting plenty of offers of assistance from unwitting good Samaritans, who would presumably be either very annoyed or rather bemused by the contraption.

The designer and artist designed and built the floating installation in 2007. He named his creation Love Love .



























Originality and the finances to support it are out there! I would love to sail this boat even if it was in a swimming pool I don't possess! Ha! Happy New Year, Y'all. See you next year! Aloha RB




























Well, this reminds me of animals that use their dying death throes as a defense against an undefeatable predator! Try this in Somalia. Set up: all pirates Quack. On the other hand! What a draw to maritime law-distressed vessels! SOS. Nearest vessel come to rescue. Then the pirates ( who set the trap ) rob their rescuers! I liked the dying quail that leads one away from her nest, pretending injury, when there was none. Play dead can be a victory for the bad guys or the good guys! If you can't out run them- die. You're dead anyway! You might survive a bear attack by playing dead, no matter how hard it is to do!. But a crocodile or alligator love dead meat so I don't recommend this pretense in this situation. I do know of two survivors of a "gator" attack. Here is what they recommend. Try and roll with them as they roll. As your arm or leg are broken and the pain is excruciating rolling around and around in a predators mouth, try and hold on to your air and in the rolling try and grab more air. They have a lair where they love to let their future meal age a bit. It stinks from his previous catches. As a commercial fisherman, I am used to very seasoned smells. Look around in their home for very large objects, preferably teeth locking thick branches and large but usable rocks. You will have to find these without light! Some of these sticks or branches will be bones from previous meals. Remember you may be in there for quite some time but since you can remember you are still alive, you've already beat the odds! So. why complain. You should be happy and excited that just maybe, you'll be able to deliver a last blow to a pecking order.  Honorable, as there are so many.

Hope you can access the picture and I hope you never end up in a " gator's stomach!  If you
you do that would mean you were in the wrong place at the right time and you didn't read what I wrote!
     I always figured if I left them alone they would leave me alone!   Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
" The meek shall inheiret the Earth"!   I haven't figured that one out yet but I'm getting close.  Ha! 

Hanalei, Kauai....Hawaii. Rice Mill Daze 1968-1971

Jeff, no shit! We scored dude. No it wasn't all fun and games! It was what it was. We
Note:  This is what came out of Hanalei.
Your son and my nephew, Ian...........

knew what special was and what wasn't! I don't place the past as you should have been here

yesterday. Either do you. I will, however, never forget the magic and the blessings I felt to surf with

a few good friends on days where God Himself smiled upon us and we knew it. I don't need to re-capture that! I loved because I am loved. If not those days and the people I was allowed to share those experiences with would be a lie and that is simply not possible. Thank God for witnesses that are still alive or no one would believe that the past was as real as today! " I've been born ", said John Bylander! Coy says," Get back Jo-Jo ", and Bubby Laughs. Lunchmeat doesn't get it and frowns as Ambrose takes a six footer through the bowl and Ralph waits. Patiently for the clean-up

Which cleans me and Jim Pollack out after each of us had ripped three waves to the bowl where Joe Boguest took off in front of us! Sound familiar? Heh! It was a gas wasn't it, Jeff. I love you, man. You know that........RB.

Today in Hanalei, Kauai. Not Yesterday

Dated and filed.  I don't want to go home.  Why should I?  I live on a river. I can take the American, to the Sacramento, to San Francisco, to Hawaii and points unknown!   Guess where I am?  Obviously I'm not in Hawaii or New Zealand!  Nor will I be anytime soon!  I'm cool where I are.  An old friend that is young wrote what is below.  If I was there I would be surfing waves that are still unimportant to people who treasure being on camera.  To me a true surfer is invisible, kind of like God. or the wind.  The only reason we know that wind exists is by what it effects.  I feel it on my skin and it moves my hair but I can't see it with my eyes. David, in the Bible wrote, " Though I walk through the valley OF THE SHADOW of death, I shall fear no evil!   Well crowds on waves on Kauai are like ideas!  Many are meaningless and even more just clutter what is beautiful by it's being
      I have many friends on Kauai, who not only know me but love me.  The few I have here that are still alive, I have had to make.  This is a sad thing. The river that runs to the sea replenishes itself.  I am comfortable.  This is important.
show details Dec 22 (6 days ago)



Is it "have I lived too long", or "have I lived to long----for a little surf and satisfaction"? Probably the latter. Yup-- I'm glad I didn't plant my ass in Hanalei, tho I'd have gotten lots of days slipping out between the cracks, it's still discouraging to show up at Middles at 7AM these days only to feel blessed to get the last spot in the parking lot (if the surf isn't good, that is-- if it's good you missed parking by an hour.) Forget Black Pot-- you gotta park at the pavilion and walk to the pier. Women and children--2 more generations-- too dumb to lay-down geezers (you lookin' at me????), and the horde of 20-somethings hoping for that cover shot, not to mention the fleet of strokers on 10' stand up boards, acting like Laird only in their ability to catch every smallest ripple from beyond Impossibles thru the pier. I'm driven to the thought that 99% of surfing has not much to do with riding perfection-- the drive/check/wax-up/paddle-out/duck-dive/sit there/ find your take-off spot/stroke-in/ fade or bottom turn are all pretty much the same whether it's 8' west swell Hanalei or 8" on-shore "Behind-the-Golf-Course." Then there's a few seconds of delight or terror, depending on how far behind the peak you are, tempered by how on or offshore the wind is and how many others have the same idea you do.....and then it's over and you are back to step 3 of the 12 step--"Paddle back out & try again." Yup-- to each his own, but at the end of the day I usually get a few good-uns around here, with a 10 minute drive and a lot less expended testosterone as opposed to an hour drive for a few good'uns and a whole lot of frustration. The last time I surfed Middles-- 6' & I waited out the back on my 7'2" for half an hour, dodging long boarders & standups. Finally took off on a beaut, only to get jumped & stuffed behind the bowl by a life-guard (and friend--a drummer who's gigged with us, for cryin' out loud!) riding a 9'0" on his coffee break. "Sorry 'bout that," he grins-- "You waited a long time for that one." I just paddled in. "You're welcome, asshole----" Later-- J

You Try Leaving It Behind 1865

       There was a moment when I thought I might want to be a part of this frontier city.  Now it will be business and a token participation by myself or a representative of our company.  My interests in San Francisco have been reduced due to a particular incident that altered the direction and desire I felt compelled to offer to a city that is and will become even more, a central staging point of sound business on an international scale. 
       Human beings are not possessions.  I can not live in or around the people who would call themselves
aristocrats.  There are very wealthy people here who believe their station in life is above the lives they
stold and/or manipulated to allow an appearance of sophistication that allows a separation between class
and no class.
       Who defines this term?  Class?  In this case, I do!  I would share water with anyone with a heart.
Money doesn't purchase water in a desert where only water has value!  Class is giving water to a dying man in the desert with no money but with heart!  Yours and his........entwined....
        Vigilantism is coming to San Francisco.  Not to protect the innocent as it is set up to be and written of in the newspapers but to protect the interests of people like me!  Property rich, proper schools, proper homes;
wealth built on the backs of the people who are outspoken enough to require the vigilantes we hire to destroy their spirit.  If  their spirit is to rebel, than we destroy them.  Not us, but, the temporary  government we create!
       So, I and my family must leave.  I can't fight a system that created me.  If not for me being shanghaied out of San Francisco itself, I would not be in a position today to leave.  If not for a series of coincidences I would be and still am, one of the lower class.  I am compelled to acknowledge that I remain one of the people.  Not separate or separated by something so unimportant as money! For when I had none, I still saw the nature of an individual man manifested in his actions towards his fellow man. 
       Appearances can be deceptive.  I have been fortunate to have witnessed great deeds and personal sacrifice performed by men of no substance but also by men of enormous wealth.  Here is where truth lays it's head.  Of goodness and evil I am not sure.  However, I am sure that when I have been hungry and been fed by someone who shared with me the little he had, both were enriched beyond our understanding,  Of this I have many examples.  I also am all to aware that those who have much do not share.  It is not in their nature to share as they never feel they have enough.  They are right they don't and never will.  There are exceptions but not many.
       I can not be a part, here in San Francisco, where men who but a few short weeks ago, were the people they have declared war upon.  Under the guise of protecting society, culture and property they are creating a force outside the law called, " Vigilantism "!  Not only is this outside the law, it is unconstitutional!  When the wealthy determine what is best for mankind; my family, my men with their families, my business and all aspects ( eddies and echoes ) of myself  have no choice but to re-locate.  I have been asked to join this demonic group of wealthy, ruling tyrants!  I can not! Now they come against me as a unified group of maddened animals.  Of this I am not afraid.  Fear is not part of a man who has crossed " The Horn " many times. However, I wish to enjoy what is left to me of life with family and friends in the company of truth, honesty and companionship! Sharing honest questions with honest people who are truly searching for real answers to these questions.  I fear vigilantes already have their answers to questions they wouldn't even know how to phrase OR ask!  They care nothing for learning.  They love money and make that very clear to those that can hear.  These things trouble me.
      I can not support vigilantism of any sort.  We leave on the morning tide.  I will miss the flavor of this young city.  I am sure San Francisco will survive the ashes and horrors that are forthcoming as it goes through it's growing pains.  I am also certain it will re-write it's history so that some of it's darkest characters are immortalized by street names and colleges as is the way of man.  How predictable is the behavior of man?
Very!