Hello All,
Congradulations to the captain and crew of SV Doubletake. 1st overall, 1st in racing class A, 1st line honors in to Maui from Victoria BC. I know what that feels like and I am proud of you guys. No dramas I trust. A special shout out to Brad Baker and Ryan Helling. To the rest of the crew, Well done.
Eric Rone
SV Secret Agent Man
Taveuni
Fiji
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Comments [1]
We had a great race. No big dramas. Lots of fast sailing. Good times had by all.
They might do this in some schools, but none that I have ever been to. They did'nt floss but brushing your teeth after lunch is the truth. I love the girl washing on the right.
Eric
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When you get to Australia, please come vist us in Melobourne. We have put down some roots for a bit and have a nice 3 bedroom house with a great guest room and king size bed for you and a friend ;-)
Would love to see ya and catch-up on stories of the South Pacific. We are walking distance to the trains station, so you can travel all over Melbourne and the rest of Australia from our place.
Cheers,
Ken & Lori Newell
Ultimate frisbee International. Sorry Amy but the Belize disc was donated to the elementary school at Qamea.
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Some people are travelers. Some people put down roots. I am now a traveler. So is Amy. I feel like my life is less cluttered and is surely less stressful at sea. All I have to do is take care of the boat, make sure we know the weather and have the charts of where we are and where we are going. I may carry on about how much work it is sometimes. And it is work maintaining a sailing boat by yourself. But we get to enjoy places in a way few people ever do. We get to stay put for free, or travel to the next spot for free if the wind is willing. We get to travel in a way that is unique. Why do we go home? This is why. (photo) Mom, Dad, Katie, Ingrid, my unborn niece or nephew... They all live in America. It is a trade off. Like Laura, Kate, and Neil in Australia, we have found something that is great, but it is on the other side of the planet. Thats all I have to say. Amy will give a full report in a few days.
Cheers
Eric
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Hello all,
While Amy was back in the US visiting her mom, sisters, and new niece Katie, I have been single handing again. Actually, not so much. I have been moving the boat around by myself, but luckily I was blessed with a great group of friends to travel with. We just today disbanded. Bill on "Solstice" is heading for the Lau group, Vulpia is back to Savu Savu to re-provision in anticipation of the owners coming for a cruise, and I have sailed to Taveuni to await Amy who is flying in in a few days. It was very sad splitting up but that is the way it goes. I agree with something Captain Fatty said once that he never says "good bye". It is a fairly small comunity and Im sure we will see eachother again. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend time with them, and for the most part the time Amy has been away has flown by. After we filmed at the school in Gamea we were a little bit too famous for our own good and we evacuated to an undisclosed tropical paradise (pictured) with our own, private, beach and reef. Thank you so much Bill, Cyrus, Brooke, and Lauren for some of the best highlights of the trip and several beach days that I will always remember.
Cheers
Eric
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The crew of Vulpia. From left to right: Cyrus, Brooke, and Lauren. Fellow mariners, world travelers, and kindred spirits.
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These are from a while ago. We stopped overnight in a bay on the south side of Vanua Levu. It had a vast mangrove forest which was home to thousands of Bats. We approached with stealth, however there was a lot of current that carried us right into the colony and they ended up getting an early start on their night flight.
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Dinghy raft up in the "Bat Cave Mangroves"
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07/13/2012, Qamea School
Hello all,
Yesterday my friends and I filmed at the school here in Qamea. My friends Brooke and Cyrus have an educational outreach program, traveloutreach.org, and Lauren and Bill and I were lucky enough to be part of it yesterday. The Idea is an educational/cultural exchange between kids from around the world. Sometimes the kids teach something they have learned in school, and sometimes it is a cultural exchange. Yesterday was a cultural exchange. We spent most of the day ashore having fun with the kids. They were shy at first but quickly warmed up. They danced for us, I taught them how to play Ultimate frisbee and gave them their own disk, Lauren learned how to play net ball, we sang songs, and Bill and Cyrus filmed it all. Pictured here is Brooke getting funky while singing with the kids. Hit songs included tracks from Justin Bieber and Shakira which the kids had totally memorized. It was extremely high energy and lots of fun. However, I might skip the funeral today and move to boat around the island for some peace and quiet. We are quite famous now and I have had several visits this morning from kayaks full of kids wanting to hang out and have a look at Secret Agent Man. All good fun though. Its just hard to entertain like that as they would stay all day if I didnt have something terribly important to attend to. Hope you all are well. Good luck to SV Doubletake at sea racing to Maui right now.
Cheers
Eric
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Hello All,
Here is "Chandon" sailing out of the anchorage.
I know you are probably overwhelmed with the blog posts. Well, thats how it is. Hit or miss. I happen to be in an extremely remote spot that happens to be able to see a vodafone tower. My life right now is Ok. I miss Amy very much but she will be back soon. I am getting immersed in fijian culture. Which is the point. My friends and I will be filming at the school here tomorrow which will be a highlight. Brooke and I scoped out Taveuni yesterday, which is where I will collect Amy. There will be a funeral on Saturday. A funeral here is a celebration of the persons life. That means: pig gets killed, music gets played, party is had... I cant wait. I am still an outsider but not for much longer. I have made lots of friends and have been invited to every village. I think I will keep my shell art knowledge from them because it has the possability of hurting their reef if they start harvesting shells. It was different in Kiribas because there were only 25 people. I love you all.
Eric
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