How to land a crewing job at sea

My article was originally published on Meet Plan Go! As I knock, knock, knocked on the window of a sleek catamaran with a shiny teak deck, I wondered, is this appropriate behavior? Had I been visiting a house, I would have knocked on the front door, but climbing aboard seemed intrusive. No one emerged from below deck. […]

Best of 2011 – By the seat of my skirt

Some of my best memories to date were made in 2011 … BEST SUNSET: Broome, Western Australia South Pacific – Minerva Reef   BEST DIVE: Navy Pier, Exmouth Exmouth, America Down Under     BEST PLACE TO TAKE PHOTOS: New Zealand, everywhere! Coromandel Penninsula, North Island   BEST NEW SKILLS: Kitesurfing and Sailing   BEST PLACE […]

Erromango Island Vanuatu

Erromango is a forested island in Vanuatu with a small population that lives in villages along the coast. Once named Martyrs Island when many missionaries met violent deaths there amongst hostile cannibals, and later named Sandalwood Island because of the abundance of the soft wood. Today the people are anything but hostile, sandalwood is scarce […]

Cargo Cult alive in “John Frum Village”

On the east side of Tanna, at the bottom of the volcanic slopes of Mount Yaser, the last of the cargo cults live awaiting the second coming of an American deity they call John Frum. From the top of the mountain we could see the “John Frum Village” nestled between the rumbling volcano and the […]

Mount Yasur

Mt Yasur is an active volcano on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. Climbing to the summit is easy, the low volcano rises to a height of 361 m (1,184 ft) above sea level. It was an amazing and frightening experience to stand on the rim of the volcano as flaming lava shot out of the […]

One Big Family in Tanna

From sea we watched in awe as Mt. Yaser erupted in the distance, the red lava balls visible in the distance as we sailed toward the island of Tanna. We anchored at Port of Resolution, by morning the boat was covered in black volcanic ash. We stayed anchored in the same place for over a […]

Kitesurfing Mystery Island

The island of Inyeug was renamed “Mystery Island” by the owner of a cruise ship who began bringing passengers to the deserted island in 1980 as it was a mystery whether they could land their passengers there because of unpredictable seas. Today no one lives on the island is because its traditional owners who live […]

Mystery Island Rainbow

Aneityum in photos

Aneityum is Vanuatu’s southernmost inhabited island. The interior is mountainous and covered with forest. A group from our boat set out to trek through the center of the island to the other side while the rest of the boat sailed around the island. The trek ended up taking longer than expected and come nightfall they […]

Scuba Diving Savusavu, Fiji

I have always heard that Fiji is a great place for scuba diving but I had done zero research about the islands prior to arriving. Traveling without a guidebook or map, I honestly had no idea what island I was on as I roamed the streets of downtown Savusavu. As luck would have it, we […]

The Niuas Islands of Tonga

The Niuas (meaning rich coconuts) is a group of three remote volcanic islands in Tonga’s far north between Vava’u and Somoa.

Bula Bula from Fiji

It took us seven days to reach Savusavu, Fiji … three of which were spent anchored at the Niuas, a group of three of Tonga’s most remote islands. While I was at sea a draft of a post strangely published itself in it’s unfinished form. Sorry for any confusion, I will explain more about the volunteer work I […]