Alaskan Solstice Jamboree
The harsh blaaaatt of the Super Cub’s prop in flat pitch cut through the string band’s rollicking turnaround, and we all paused to look up. He hadn’t been high to […]
Deserve’s Got Nothing to Do With It
I guess I was traumatized by that scene in the 1992 film Unforgiven where Gene Hackman, the crooked sheriff, is lying on the ground, wounded after a gunfight, with vigilante […]
The Fall of Athens
I was shocked when, in my thirties, I discovered that my whole glorious image of ancient Greece was based on a snapshot, a single city over the span of little […]
Downtime
I’d hesitate to say that I’m “enjoying a little downtime” at the moment. The “downtime” part is a bit too literal, and the “enjoying” part has required letting go of […]
Resurrection Bay
Story goes that the Russian merchant and trader Alexander Baranov’s ship was forced to take shelter here during a powerful storm on Easter eve. Stunningly calm, beautiful weather on Easter […]
The Ship’s Lullaby
Oh, right – the storm. Played out about as the crew said it would: we rocked a little more than usual (though “usual” is always hard to quantify on an […]
Sea Change
Third mate was talking about it with one of the engineers when I came in. “Yeah, next week we’re gonna be laughing about this: ‘Remember that one transit that really […]
Mid-Pacific
By the numbers, there are about 40 of us onboard this little bluewater ark, bobbing and swirling our way north to Alaska. 18 officers, ABs and engineers, I think, and […]
Sikuliaq, Northbound
I wonder if it ever gets old? Oh god, I dearly hope not, any more than would the first whiff of a rose in spring, or the magic of a […]
Kauai
It was like a game of peekaboo: up on the trail, blue skies with crashing blue ocean below us. Down on the bluffs? Swirling gray mist all around. Back up […]
David Pablo Cohn 