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Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
09 April 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
09 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa

Excuses, Excuses

05 May 2015 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Kimball Corson
I found a good reason to get my ass in gear, do my boat work and get on my way to Fiji rather than rely on my phony excuses justifying my slough. (I actually did some boat work today and have more planned for tomorrow.) The excuse is I am living near a geologic hot spot on the edge of a tectonic plate.

The hot spot is where the great Pacific tectonic plate moving west tears in half as it collides with the great Australian plate. The south half of the Pacific plate dives deeper under water to go under the Australian plate and forms the great Tongan trench along its edge which is some six miles deep. The other half of the Pacific plate, with Samoa, American Samoa and other nearby smaller islands perched precariously on its edge, goes over the Australian plate and keeps on heading west toward China at the rate of three inches a year, taking us with it.

At the tear point once directly under us, there is a geologic hotspot that keeps on spitting up new volcanic islands in a sting out to the east out behind us as the Pacific plate moves on further west. Samoa, a mere ten miles away to the west of us, is about a million years older than American Samoa here to the east. American Samoa is just the heavily vegetated month of a volcanic crater that last showed activity about 100 years ago. It rises up about a half a mile high at its highest point, but that is just the tip of the mountain which then goes another 3 miles or so down under water. So don’t wiggle your toes and expect to touch bottom a half mile off shore away from the reefs. These are not the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast where some parts of the Great Georgia Banks are under 15 feet deep.

New islands keep forming at the hot spot. One new island is forming there now, about 40 miles to the east of American Samoa. But it will probably be another two hundred years before this volcano breaks the surface. Subsurface volcanic action is building up this new island quickly. In 2005, it was 1800 feet below the surface and growing up quickly, in geologic terms. New islands will keep popping up behind us to the east at the same hot spot, as the string of islands already formed continues to move westward to China and spread out along the plate’s edge.

Now tell me that is not a good excuse to get moving.
Comments
Vessel Name: Altaira
Vessel Make/Model: A Fair Weather Mariner 39 is a fast (PHRF 132), heavily ballasted (43%), high-aspect (6:1), stiff, comfortable, offshore performance cruiser by Bob Perry that goes to wind well (30 deg w/ good headway) and is also good up and down the Beaufort scale.
Hailing Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
Crew: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
About:
Kimball Corson: I am a 75 year old solo sailor, by choice. However, I did take on a personable, but high maintenance female kitten, now a full grown cat, named KiKiPoo when she is sweet, or KatKatPo after she has just killed something like a bird or bat. [...]
Extra:
Although I was a lawyer and practiced law with good success for thirty years, creating significant new law, I never really believed in the law, the politics of law or in the over reaching self-interest of most lawyers I met. Too much exposure to Nietzsche and other good and seriously thoughtful [...]
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Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ