We meet many wonderful waterfront wackos along the way. Occasionally, we'll met a normal person, sure, but mostly we rub shoulders with lush tropical vegetables. colorful Caribbean characters and other delightfully demented, deliciously decadent, wonderfully wayward sailors.  

...people who are proud to say, "We're all here because we're not all there!"

...yes, the tropics really are a 'sunny place for shady people.'

It's simply, really, gathering friends whatever you go: don't judge them.  Celebrate them instead. Here's some wonderful people who have brought a smile to our faces along the way. We're honored to have met them. And we look forward to having our wakes cross again.

Becko is a pearl carver. We met  him in a church in Makemo, Tumumotus, South Pacific. His work is very fine-lined and delicate. He stayed up all night carving our pearl... and delivered it to us at dawn as we sailed away. Yes, he occasionally sells his pieces for $10,000 plus... but he refused our money... '...because Carolyn is such a good cook!" 

The thing Becko wanted most in the world was a Harley Davidson belt buckle. Thus, for the next two years, whenever we'd pass by a biker's hangout, we'd buy him one and send it. Despite the fact that the postal workers of Papette are teef'n bastards, we assume a number of them got through. We'll never forget Becko, the man OR the artist.

Here's another example of Becko's work...

This is Joe Colpitt. He's a sailor, yacht designer and musician. We've sailed, raced and cruised all over the Atlantic. He's a good shipmate, which is the nicest thing one Jack Tarr can say about another.

I've had the pleasure of being the tactician on Virgin Fire numerous times during the Heineken Regatta, etc. We've taken the top multihull prize a number of times. We've even beaten the French 60 footers... not an easy thing to do.

This is the strangest multihull I've ever been associated with. She's a Forumal 40 designed and built by Meade and Jan Gugeon of Bay City, Michigan. I steered her down the entire length of Lake Garda in northern Italy... at OVER 30 knots! Her name was appropriately ADRENALIN.

 
Here ADRENALIN is in her toy box. It was so cleverly constructed at the same time as the boat that when we cleared into France the custom's guy kept saying, "Where is the 40 foot racing boat?" and we kept saying, "That's it... the whole thing is it!"

Lobster fishermen approaching Wild Card in the San Blas islands... on a slightly less sophisticated craft. 

These are my Tongan back-up singers. They'd dance for as long as I could play.  At one point I had every female in their village dancing. When ever I'd walk down the dusty road to their family shack... they'd come out... literally squealing with delight. I loved each one although I could not pronounce ANY of their very long Polynesian names. They live in one of the finest, friendliest islands in the world, Neptoputapu.

Paul and Susan of Elenoa. They took 27 years to circumnavigate: ignoring sail trim the whole way. By the time they got back to San Diego, everyone they knew had died. Oh, well. They'll soon be off again: this time to a canal barge in France!

This the famous Star of Tonga and her family. We had a wonderful time together and she cried when we left her in 2000. Then she checked the anchorage every couple of days for five years... until we sailed back into Nukuloafa! She is a dear, steadfast friend!

This is Des...

This is Chris and Des of Sky Lark II. We met them in Opua, NZ, and hit it off immediately. We've had many wonderful times together and look forward to many more. Des is an old Caribbean hand... famous in (nudiest  Orient Beach) Sint Maarten for wearing only a single vertical flower... in her... well, lower hair! 

This Pascaline and Oliver of NEOS at a Wild Card party in Kosrae. He had a boat filled with French wine, French cheese and French food. He also has a severe problem with his steering. I took him, "Don't worry... I will help you for as long as the supplies last!" By the time his cupboard was bare, we'd fixed his steering!

This is Donna Lange's boat the day before it shoved off for Cape Horn.

This is Donna Lange. We both used to play music at Latitude 18 on St. Thomas. One day she said, "Fatty, I'm going to sail around the world!" I said, "That's nice." The next time I saw her was when she pulled into New Zealand... after 153 days (if my memory serves) at sea, non-stop from America! Just after this picture was taken, she left... and sailed non-stop around Cape Horn. Wow!

This is Lopollo and her mom in the Ha'api group of Tonga. The only decoration in their home was  the proudly displayed (used) cans of corned beef they been given by passing yachties. They have to work hard to survive. It was nice having them out to the boat... and treating them as well as they treateed us.

This is the crew of Soul's Calling. We met them in the BVIs when they'd first purchased the Lagoon 500... and later in Samoa when they were old hands at the ocean sailing game. While there, they helped rebuid a school. What energy!

This is Foxy and Tessa Callwood of Jost Van Dyke. Foxy's 70th birthday will be coming up soon. We've been friends for almost 30 years now. What a great, fun couple!

This is Martin the Wavefinder (student navigator) of Yap. We had a great time with him. Here he is showing off his betel nut. Micronesia is amazing... like the South Pacific of the 1920s!

We danced with these dudes in Vanuatu. Boy, can they cut a rug! The fed us a great meal and I told them, truthfully, how nice it was to be invited TO dinner... rather then be served FOR dinner! (One old guy told me white people were delicious... especially the missionaries who was famosly tender!)

Here's the famous sleeping Lady of Kosrae, with Carolyn in the foreground! (The vessel is Oliver's Neos (see above).

This is Bernadette and Doug Bernon's ITHIKA. We met up in San Blas. Just before we went aboard I told Carolyn, "The camera is in your purse. Don't get so drunk you forget to take a picture of them!" Guess what happened? (PS. If you can't blame your wife for your personal shortcomings, why get married?)

Carolyn and friend in the Galapagos.

It is hard to pull your dinghy up onto the beach in the Galapagos as most spots are reserved for the locals.

This guy got mad when I told him the local Galapagos joke which begins with, "Did you hear the one about the time I blew a seal?"

Selwyn and Joan of Morning Cloud. We met them in Port Princessa, in the Phillipines. They'd just gotten an email from the Caribbean telling them to keep an out for us... when they heard the splash of our anchor. We had good fun together... especially at the Sunday buffet at the YC!

This is Willy and Pig's Bay... the strangest PR assignment of my life.

This is Cheif Ronnie of Tanna, Vanuatu. Within minutues of our meeting it was obvious he was 10 times smarter than me---and he immediately wrapped me around his little finger. It was he who owed the debt to Willy (above) and he quickly realized that the "National Geo writer" was the perfect person to pay it back. (I couldn't convince him I wasn't with National Geo..!)

Me and Ronnie and the active volcano in the background.

 
The women of Vanuatu are very distinctive. Here's part of Ronnie's harem.

I'm scared of heights. But I wanted to peer down into an active volcano... while it was active! I took this on the very edge... with molten balls of lava shooting up right in front of me.

Where I was standing when I took this shot... was boulders the size of trucks which had recently been spewn by this volcano.

We love kids and have them out to the boat all the time. (They swim vast distances and sometimes we're a bit scared for them... but they and their parents don't seem to notice!)

This is Alaska Jim, who was reading one of my Cruising World stories in bed in Alaska... at 42 degrees below zero... far above the artic circle... under the fur covers... by a flashlight... and then said, "Why not?" Despite the fact that he didn't know how to sail... hell, he didn't even know how to swim... he sold everything and bought a boat and had one of the most amazing years of his life!

This is arctic adventurer Alvah and his famous life-saving cat Halifax... and Carolyn and marine writer Larry Pardey. We had a swell time together in New Zealand.  I found it interesting that we're all fairly experienced sailors and yet our steel/wood/fiberglass boats are vastly different.

This is a peace corp worker in Vanuatu, the happiest place on earth. He looks pretty happy too, don't he?

Judy and Phil of Fetching Light and of Lee and Jan of La Boheme in Va'vau, Tonga. They were good eaters! Judy and Carolyn took a basket weaving class together... which will come in handy of either ends up in the loony bin!

This is Ngalu of Neiafu, Va'vau. Her husband was a famous whale bone carver. He died. She took over the business. This caused quite a stir... but now she is as respected as he. She lives in Tongan. The thing she wanted most in the world was a 'big fat green pearl' for her daughter's graduation. We gave her one... of very nice quality. Both were happy!

This is Will. He inspired us after Hurricane Hugo buy rebuilding his pile of lumber into a boat. Never once did his smile slip. I admire Will. He is STILL my hero! "Where there's a Will, there's a way!"

This is Cid's St. John party for us. I have no idea which one. Whenever we're hungry and in the Caribbean we have her throw us a party... and eat all the free food. 

 This is the crew of Nomadess. Johnny Mac is on the far right. We met them in Tanna, Vanuatu. There threw a party of the whole bay, locals and yachties alike. I sang songs. They were so nice they pretended to enjoy it. 

This is Trish Cauano and Dave Dostal of St. John. They knew each other but didn't know how truly wonderful they were. So I set up a secret meeting in France in a romantic farmhouse in France... just after Dave had sailed trans-atlantic. Bingo! Sparkles flew! (The whole farmhouse shook!) Anyway, they're happily married now... and cruising Finland!

This is Trish and Dave's boat Rob Roy at Foxy's of Jost Van Dyke.

This is the Marsters of Palmerston Island in the Cooks, South Pacific. They were our host family. The phone book is simple there. There are only 64 people on the island, all with the same last name!

This is the cover of my old book. We have a new one on the way!

It can be found here.

This is Lindsay. He’s from Australia. He’s a rough-hewn, natural, thrill-seeking sailor----a man’s man who bristles with high energy and has an obvious lust for life. Yes, he is tough as nails, yes he seeks out heavy-weather to sail into… but as the same time he’s as gentle as a lamb.

I particularly like the way he does ‘fine machining’ work on his yacht. When he smashed into a reef and bent his rudder so badly it wouldn’t steer the boat because it was jammed under his counter… he merely towed the boat around the anchorage by dinghy until he found a large sturdy rock just below the surface and then SMASHED HIS VESSEL BACKWARDS into said rock eight times at full speed! “…It works perfectly now,” he reports. “I suppose I could have done it differently… but why?”

Why, indeed. Yes, I like Lindsay.

I could see he was single-handing as he dropped his hook next to Wild Card in Lumut, Malaysia. I immediately rowed over and told him I generally avoided single-handers because they all talked too much and would “…eat you out of house and home” given half a chance.

“Really?” Lindsay said and then came over that evening and ate an entire roast pig while speed-rapping about how it ain’t so.

How much do I like Lindsay? Well, in a drunken moment he confessed to being a former Darwin police officer… and yet I’m still almost nice to him each evening when he comes over “…to check the level of Carolyn’s rhum bottle!”  

"Just one more serving," shouted Lindsay a dozen times!

This is Ida of the International Lumut Yacht Club. She takes good care of us whenever we're in town. She's as sweet as can be.