“Maybe that is why you seem to live more vividly in Africa. The drama of life there is amplified by its constant proximity to death. That’s what infuses it with tension. It is the essence …
Continue readingThe Pareto Passage

The Pareto principle[i], also known as the law of the vital few or 80/20 rule, was published in 1896 by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist and philosopher. The 80/20 rule says 80% of effects or …
Continue readingFor everything there is a season

I returned to Australia after mum passed and am now back in Reunion to resume the next leg to Cape Town – I anticipate the 2,400nm will take circa three weeks, depending on how many …
Continue readingSolo Passage

Ten days after returning from Italy, I finally received Port Clearance from the Maldives at 6pm on Friday 18th August. I filled the days battling the bureaucracy, overcoming the obstacles for diesel, gas & water, …
Continue readingNavigate like Joshua Slocum

“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the tales of sea danger. To face the elements is, to …
Continue readingShore Leave

We arrived in Gan with a day to spare for my rendezvous with Deanne in Male and for Ben with a surf charter on Sojourn. The Coastguard watch at Gan kindly agreed to provide security …
Continue readingIllusions and hallucinations

Indonesia to the Maldives “Isolation causes an activation of the unconscious, and this produces something similar to the illusions and hallucinations that beset lonely wanderers in the desert, seafarers and saints.” Carl Jung With the …
Continue readingSo long and thanks for all the fish

From Serangang, Bali it was an overnight sail of 60nm to the iconic Grajagan or G-Land in the Alas Purwo National Park on the SE corner of Java. G-Land has been on the surf map …
Continue readingWhere’s a fatwa when you need one?

Galaxy III made the passage from Sumba to Lombok with some irregular trade winds that required some motor sailing. The swells from the Southern Ocean were low and wide, almost submerged and concealing most of …
Continue readingDifferent seas, different fish

Different fields, different grasshoppers; different seas, different fish. ~ Indonesian Proverb. Colonial rule of the Dutch East Indies ended in 1945 when Indonesia declared independence. The harbour rules devised by the Dutch to make life …
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