Capturing the Moment

  Whenever there is a big swell at Honolua I get a bit nervous. There can be some very big waves there, and some very good surfers. This time was no different. The surf forecast was calling for 5-7ft waves, which could be well overhead at a place like Honolua Bay. The nerves usually give way to excitement, or stoke, as us surfers like to say. This is especially true after I catch my first wave.   It has been a while since I have had the chance to surf 'the bay'. I wrote about one of my last surf sessions here on this blog which you can check out thru this link: Surfing Honolua with Ben . This time the waves were bigger, but it was still early swell and long periods...which meant long waits. Add about a hundred or so people there to surf and I wasn't sure if I would get any waves. Luckily I snagged a few fun ones before having to leave. Honolua perfection   I wasn't sure how the crowd would be since there are almost no tourist on the island now thanks to a mand...

  Stuck at Sea on a Cruise Ship Cape Town Harbor   In a little over a week I have gone from the satisfaction of a job well done as the end of the Antarctica season drew to an end, to having to do circles with the ship off Cape Town while being told we weren't allowed in to dock, to elation that we got permission to dock, to trepidation that neither us nor the passengers were being allowed off, to hurrah!, the passengers are allowed off, to over joyed that the expedition team may be allowed off, to the ultimate denial from the South African government, and a quick 'get off the dock', to where my current predicament finds me now.   I am still aboard the Silver Cloud, the expedition ship I've been working on this winter down in Antarctica. It was an amazing experience, a great ship, and a wonderful crew. I met lots of interesting passengers from all around the world. And of course built a bit of a ship board family as this style of living and working together usu...

  As our trip draws to a close (maybe) I can't help but look back at what an amazing time we had over the last twenty days. We left the port of Ushuaia at the tip of South America on Feb 28th, then sailed for the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the remote Tristan da Cunha archipelago before ending in Cape Town. At the moment I can look outside through the fog and see the famous Table Mountain of Cape Town. But at this moment we have been denied entry into the port...so who knows how this Cape to Cape trip will end. Cape to cape to cape anyone?   Luckily we have been in Antarctica, then a quick turnover with new guests in Ushuai back in late Feb, before most of the outbreaks across Europe and the US occurred. So we have been traveling in a safe little bubble while we watch the rest of the world descend into a bit of chaos with the spread of the novel corona virus. Our first brush with it came as we approached Tristan da Cunha, and the islanders sent word that they would ...