In Search of Pirate Treasure, Sorcery and Fresh Volcanic Mountain Air Nov. 1, 2008 Ile de La Reunion, Southern Indian Ocean Every morning, the thick cottony clouds begin to build up outside the three bowl-shaped volcanic cirques in the center of Ile de La Reunion in the southwestern Indian Ocean. Villages, in the valleys and perched high up on the hillsides within the cirques, are protected by the 8,000-foot peaks and are baked all morning in the tropical heat. As if on cue, usually about noon, the pressure builds and the clouds have nowhere else to go but up and over [View Full Entry]

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I'm too lazy to upload all of my photos to the various Web sites I belong to, ie Flickr, Facebook, Snapfish, Travelblog, MySpace etc. So here they are, in all their glory -- and in one place. I've just uploaded shots from Darwin to Bali, and then from Bali to Mauritius. http://flickr.com/photos/alexarmitage/sets/ [View Full Entry]

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Arrival in Mauritius Oct. 14, 2008 Port Luis, Mauritius Norfy woke me at 12 a.m. Well, almost 12. a.m.. "Alex. You're up. 10 minutes to 12. Tea will be ready in a few minutes," Norfy said. I was awake, but barely. We were 8 miles east of Mauritius. Skipper James had asked that I wake him with 5 miles to go to our last waypoint, which was effectively the final approach to Mauritius. Norfy was off to bed and another 30 minutes or so and James was awake. I spent the next 2 hours at the chart table plotting our positions, [View Full Entry]

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This Hand Wants Another Beer And Other Personifications Oct. 5, 2008, Indian Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Mauritius, and 1,000 miles west of Cocos Keeling Part 1 “The cabbage prefers to be peeled first, then cut. Rather than cut first,” Norfy yelled to James, who was preparing dinner down in the saloon. ”Gotcha,” James replied. On Yacht Cleone we are always trying to extend the life of our fresh vegetables before they go bad and have to be thrown overboard. “What?” I said. “The cabbage doesn’t have an opinion. It doesn’t [View Full Entry]

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The Rip Sept. 28, 2008, Direction Island, Cocos Keeling, Australia I sat on the dulled and polished coral that had been washed ashore on the southern-most tip of Cocos Keeling’s Direction Island. I looked out to sea to get a glimpse of what I was getting into. A procession of well-armed waves crashed on the break. The waves rolled over the coral and sand and picked up steam as they funneled into a narrow strait between Direction Island and Prison Island to the south. The idea, albeit, probably not the safest I’d ever heard, was to put on a mask, fins [View Full Entry]

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Sept. 25, 2008 50 meters west of Direction Island, Cocos Keeling, Australia As we approached Cocos Keeling I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. About four or five miles away on the horizon, a long strip of palm trees seemed to grow out of the ocean. As we moved closer, a white strip of sand separated the trees from the sea. The water grew bluer and bluer as we got closer, and the spectrum of colors widened. The shades grew deeper. Some of the blues are so bright and so blue there is no way to describe them. They are like [View Full Entry]

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Just north of Bali's Tanah Lot seaside temple, watching from hundreds of feet above, is a dragon. The monster has a red and white tail that wraps and curls and strains in the wind, each section of its tail has a mind of its own. The head is gold-encrusted and flowing behind the head are strands of horsehair. It powers higher with each gust of wind, and dives with every lull. The tail follows with each movement of the head, delayed by the long distance from its snout to the tip. There is a loud buzz in the air. Perhaps the [View Full Entry]

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Yacht Cleone, Bali, Indonesia Sept. 11, 2008 For the past eight days my world has essentially been split in two. There’s the top half, a bright blue dome hanging over me for most of the day. The equatorial sun so bright you can’t look anywhere near it. An occasional cloud. When the sun sets the sky is the color of black ink, dotted with bright stars. There’s the Southern Cross, tilted on its side. The Milky Way looks like a stationary cloud, so high up it’s untouched by the winds. At some point the moon interrupts the black, spilling a white [View Full Entry]

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Darwin, Australia, Sept. 2 Before I could even get two feet on the yacht, skipper James was handing me a beer. "Great. Glad you found us," come on board. "Here's a beer." And I'd delayed my arrival by a few minutes to shave. I'd even considered getting my haircut so as to not insult the guy who's offered to let me sail with him from Australia to South Africa.What was I thinking? James and his other crew, Chris, are the two most chill people I've met since I left California more than two years ago. It's hard to believe that they [View Full Entry]

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Singapore, Aug. 31 I couldn't make this entry up if i tried..... As I stood in line at the airport in Singapore for my next flight, the guy in front of me asked me a question: "Where ya goin' after Darwin, mate?" "How'd you know I wasn't staying in Darwin?" I asked. "Or even moving there." "Come on mate, people go to Darwin to leave Darwin. Darwin is a jumping off point," he said. "Nobody stays for more than a few days. There's nothing there." "Well, you're right. I'm in Darwin for a few days and then I'm sailing to Bali [View Full Entry]

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