SV Mandolyn

If you’ve seen a picture of our boat Mandolyn, you’ll know she is the epitome of nautical beauty and grace. Woah woah! You’re standing way too close! Step back, perverts! We are going through an awkward period cosmetically. Our green stripe is dissolving into unsightly white blotches, and in a cruel twist of fate, our white parts are being stained green. To top it off, the industrial rubber wall guards of Japan have added their own artiststic smudge work. Thankfully,…

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It’s no secret that when a sailor hits land after a long passage they like to let loose a little. When we arrived in French Polynesia after 23 days at sea, things got crazy. Mandolyn’s cabin was a whirlwind of baguette crumbs and pamplemouse skins. One child was tossing back shots of mango juice as the other crushed emptied butter tins on their forehead. We ended up with cheese poisoning, as the local emental was much stronger than the stuff…

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As we prepared to leave Japan, I purchased new rain pants for the trip to Alaska. Size 4XL was the largest we could find. These pants would handily accommodate a Sumo wrestler in girth, but they’re still problematic in the vertical dimension. Even with the shoulder straps at maximum extension there is no avoiding a subtle, yet constant, wedgie. I imagine a traditional Sumo Battle Diaper provides a similar sensation. Only 4000 miles to Salt Spring! At the north tip…

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When I was in elementary school I had a teacher who would often remind us how much harder Japanese students worked compared to us. We even watched a video in class one day which followed some Japanese students through their long schoolday, after school classes, and late night study sessions. In my own educational journey, by comparison, all I did that day was… watch a video. The Japanese kids clearly won that round. As an adult I often heard about…

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When I was younger a friend of mine played in a band called The Japants. That name always stuck with me. Japants. What could it mean? Ants from Japan? Japanese pants? Twenty years later and here we are in Japan! We spent most of May hopping from port to port up the west side of Honshu Island. Some of our favourite experiences have been in the really small communities where foreign tourists are rarely seen. Walking around these towns it’s…

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Last week we spent five days in Seoul, South Korea. This was a necessary side quest, as we had to leave Japan in order to extend our Japanese tourist visas.  We didn’t have a lot of time in Korea, but I think we can now answer the question on everybody’s mind: Is all fried chicken in Korea, by definition, Korean Fried Chicken?   To investigate this we found a well reviewed Korean Fried Chicken establishment near our hostel.  The meal was…

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It happened fast. A white van entered the east end of the Kabashima bridge at around 2pm. We were on foot, eastbound on the sidewalk, at the midpoint of the bridge. The vehicle slowed as it approached, and then stopped just in front of us. The lone occupant of the van held up his hand indicating that we should stop too. We were 70 feet above the water, no escape. The driver rolled down his window, and passed us a…

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A few years ago in the Sailish Sea, Mandolyn accidentally wandered into the Whiskey Golf military testing zone during a naval exercise. We had failed to check the schedule, and also forgot to turn on our VHF that day. Friends on a boat nearby heard some pretty stern hails for Mandolyn on VHF channel 16, but we didn’t realise our mistake until we noticed a navy ship charging towards us. It was like the old saying: “You know you messed…

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“You look just like an American movie star!” A cafe owner in the Philippine village of Sabang was very insistent on this point. On his phone he produced a clip of Russell Crowe from the movie Gladiator. “See!? Exactly the same!” His two Filipina employees looked at Russell, then looked at me, and agreed enthusiastically. Could it be that my time in Asia has been aging me into the doppleganger of 1999 era Hollywood sex symbol Russell Crowe? Or could…

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I wasn’t feeling too Christmassy as Mandolyn approached Brunei at 4am on December the 11th. I’d been weaving through oil rigs in the dark while dodging shipping and keeping a nervous eye on the lightning flashing all around. It was impossible to get comfortable in the rain soaked cockpit. We rounded a point of land, when what to my wondering eyes did appear? Is that… It was a Magical Christmas Forest! A hundred foot tree glittered with lights, surrounded by…

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