I grew up on a remote cattle ranch, a hundred acres of pasture cleared and planted, surrounded by forest on all sides. We generated our own power. There were six miles of bad dirt road to our front gate. No phone, of course. No neighbors. Horses, cows, chickens, pigs, a donkey. Brothers. Cousins. And wild…

Sadly, and also happily, my time in the Solomon Islands is coming to an end. Two nights ago I walked from the boat into Gizo town. It had been threatening rain, and halfway there I caught the first smell of what I call the “rain wind”. This wind starts on high where it is entrained…

I’m alone on the boat here this evening, Abraham is off somewhere. I’ve been lucky to have him as a companion. When you take up residence on a small boat with a stranger there’s always a fear that it won’t work out. But he’s been a great shipmate. Anyhow, it’s bucketing down rain here in…

For me, there has always been something ineffably romantic about ships at night. There was thunder, lightning, and rain earlier. Now it’s 10:30, and the ship that Don charters to bring in his fuel just docked. The fuel is moved in tanktainers, but they’re not taken off of the ship. Instead, they attach the fuel…

[Well, after two days racking my brains and resetting every setting, I figured out why my internet connection was so slow … not pokey Solomon electrons after all. Turns out I’d put a big file into DropBox and every time I logged on it jammed up the gears trying to upload it. So I’m back…

Well, I wrote another long post with lots of pictures and three short videos, but the web here is currently intermittent, and when it’s running, seems like the electrons are going Solomon speed … so here’s a short post with a few pictures. I’ll post more when I get some place where things move faster.…

  I spent today writing up the findings of my survey of the condition of the noble vessel ICE. It’s been raining on and off all day, never hard. In the afternoon I took a break and walked towards town in a gentle warm drizzle. It’s Sunday in this mostly Christian nation, so there were…

I took a mental health day today, rested, wrote, took a nap. I’ve worked every day since I got here, so I was ready for one. On my walk to town this morning, as I’ve done every day I waved and said “Mone” (morning) to the lady selling betel nuts near the ship. To my…

Last night was superb. Don and Pepe invited Abraham and me to a motu at their house. This ancient way of cooking is still practiced all over the Pacific. In Fiji it’s called a lovo; in Tonga, an umu; in Hawaii, an imu; and in New Zealand, a hangi. The recipe is simple. Dig a…

My walk through town today was as productive as ever. Today, I found out that the Solomon Islands are much further behind in these politically correct times than I thought. They clearly haven’t gotten the 21st-century news flash from the American Social Justice Warriors. Here’s the poster I saw that brought this to mind: For…