ten degrees starboard.

What was supposed to be a two week sailing trip from Wilmington, North Cakalacky to Saint Martin turned into three weeks at sea with stops in The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Puerto Rico. The purpose of the trip was to deliver a 38 Leopard Catamaran for a wealthy British fellow. It was rather arduous, but a great adventure.

THE UNPLEASANT: Not being home on Christmas Day. Trying to sleep when it sounds like your boat will tear apart at any second. Pounding into 15 foot seas for four days straight. Puking my guts out. Breaking every coffee cup on the boat. Cruise ships. Feeling completely wet, greasy, and salty and not being able to get dry because everything else is wet, greasy, and salty. Being completely exhausted simply from the never ending work of keeping yourself from falling over. Feeling really small.

THE ENJOYABLE: Catching 10 Mahi-Mahi. Getting paid to be on the water. Seeing some of the most beautiful water in the world. Putting a reef in the Main in 35 knots of wind. Seeing four new islands. Practicing my Spanish with pretty Puerto Rican girls. Diving for Conch. Fresh Conch salad. Lobster. Empanadas and Medalla's. Playing dominoes with the locals. Seeing every star in the sky. Feeling really small.

The open road

A song I wrote:

The open road it calls my name
It's not fortune, or power, nor is it fame
But blacktop and freedom and some new place
The open road it calls my name

My good gal she is left behind
At times I think I've lost my mind
To leave a girl as fair as she
But the open road can be unkind

The open road it calls my name
My heart it cannot yet be tamed
For the unknown and unseen haunt me still
The open road it calls my name

My addiction is not to whiskey or dice
About hookers and cocaine I don't think twice
Just waves and cultures and people I'll meet
The open road it is my vice

And I'll travel this road until I die
And then I'll go up into the sky
And when I pass through those pearly gates
Down that open road I will fly

NYC

I went to New York to see Matt play at the Fillmore. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from that event. However, I was able to document the rest of my week in the living, breathing organism that is New York.

Brooklyn Bridge.

My bicycle at the Brooklyn Banks (a famous skate spot).

American Museum of Natural History.

A Rothko piece at the Museum of Modern Art. Probably my favorite thing that I did. The Van Gogh exhibit was awesome. Not to mention Picasso, Pollock, Gustav Klimt, Max Beckman, Andrew Wyeth, and many others.

Trinity Episcopal.

The Financial District was a little uneasy. I came upon a protest of the bailout on Wall Street.

I'm not one for big cities, but NYC is different. It is huge. I like huge cities. I had a blast.

six billion.

Six billion human beings on the earth; all created in God's image. Six billion noses, twelve billion eyes, sixty billion toes. All six billion of us need oxygen, water, and food to sustain us. We all bleed when we are cut. Every one of us, the terrorist, the mom, the rapist, the head of state, the tribesman, the homosexual, the CEO, the sixth grader, has felt. Felt love, anger, hurt, and hope. We all have so much in common, for we are all made in the image of God.

Yet, all six billion of us are beautifully unique and diverse. Six billion different fingerprints. Six billion sets of dreams, hopes, ambitions, fears. Six billion different outlooks on the world.
This diversity points us to the Great Artist of the universe who cares so incredibly deeply about each part of his creation. Who loves the terrorist, the mom, the rapist, the head of state, the tribesman, the homosexual, the CEO, the sixth grader, all the same. All six billion of us have come up short of his perfect glory. Yet He loves his creation nonetheless. He taught us how to live and showed us how to care for each other. How we treat our six billion brothers and sisters reflects how we feel about Him, our life giving Creator.

Katmai

Katmai National Park and Brook's falls was mindblowing good. I flew out on a float plane through the misty morning to land on a glassy Naknek lake. When I arrived at Brook's falls I couldn't stop smiling for half an hour. A dozen brown bears sitting in the river, moving about, catching salmon, fighting over salmon, the salmon attempting (mostly in vain) to jump up the falls. It was insane! Possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen. Park ranger Kate gave me lots of interesting info about the bears. They eat about 90 pounds salmon a day and gain 5-6 pounds a day to prepare for the long winter hibernation.

I climbed up Dumping mountain and got completely drenched from the waist down by the tall, wet grass. I was wearing jeans and a pair of thermal underwear. My wool socks and Gore-Tex shoes got soaked too. The hike was three miles round trip and I was alone in bear country the whole way. I sang songs I knew and made up songs to warn the big fellas of my approach.

"Sometimes you gotta get wet
sometimes you gotta get wet
if you're gonna see the valley, from the mountain's top
sometimes you gotta get wet."

The view was well worth the drenching as you could see out across the park in three directions.

Here Fish!

An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience.

- Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Aggresive. Grueling. Tough. Sleepless. Fast. These are some words that somewhat describe fishing in Bristol Bay. Imagine 250 boats, 32 feet long, all trying to set 1500 feet of gillnet as close as possible to an imaginary GPS line that is guarded by Fish and Game. All USCG rules of the road go out the window. Tempers flare. Middle fingers fly.

Once your skipper feels that the net is suffieciently full of fish, you begin to reel it in on a hydraulic powered drum. As each section of net comes in you have to "pick" each fish out of the net. Sliding your fingers up under the gills and popping out $4.50 (only $.45 was mine). Sometimes the net would have three or four thousand pounds of fish in it. They would pile up a foot high on the deck. Other times there would be only two or three. We did this routine of setting and picking hundreds of times. The first week your hands swell and go numb. The second week they just go numb. By the third week they feel fine.

Fishing was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Would I go back again? Absolutely.

There were many good times too. I met some cool people, saw a unique kind of beauty, and became stronger in many different ways.

I am back in Somerset, KY right now. I hope to add a couple more posts soon with pictures of bears from Katmai National Park and the Kenai peninsula.

Peace.

Post #6: Naknek, AK

Everything is old in Naknek. It is like going back in time...or maybe like visiting Cuba. There has been hardly any construction since the mid 1900's. Everything is faded. Old rusted machinery- gears, engines, boilers, containers - lying around sinking into the tundra. Naknek is a unique place. Once something goes there, it stays there. It is an island on land. Isolated from the mainland by rugged mountains and soggy tundra.

Post #5: Naknek, Alaska

My feet are on dry land for the first time in nearly a month...and it has been one of the most difficult months of my life. The sleep comes in one or two hour intevals, often choosing between staying up and eating or catching precious minutes of shut eye. We hit the dock for a night, but still have four of five more days on the water before we throw in the towel for the year. So far we have caught 119,000 pounds of Sockeye salmon, a respectcable number, but not great by any means. We are hoping to scrap another 10 or 15 K out of the next few days.

This has been a great experience, but I look forward to its end and to warm weather. Pictures will be coming soon.

Viva la Revolucion,
Eric T.

Post #4: Anchorage, Alaska

I arrived in Anchorage yesterday after spending a relaxing couple days rock climbing in the Red River Gorge of Eastern Kentucky. I head out to the small town of Naknek, on Bristol Bay today. I'm not sure if I will have internet access for the next six weeks, but I will try to put some pictures up of the boat and some Salmon! I will also try to put up an address so you can send me packages : )

Until next time, Love and Peace!

Eric T.

Post #3: Somerset, Kentucky

The sleepy little town of Somerset in south central Kentucky has been my home for the last week and half. Winston's (my great friend and fellow adventurer) family is here and has been treating us right. I can honestly say that I have eaten more food in the last week than any other week period in my entire life. I am trying to fatten up before I go to Alaska. We have been doing work around Winton's Grandparent's property and eating 'till our bellies are bulging every dinner and supper (that's how they say lunch and dinner around here). Winston's Grandfather, Ward Correll, is a very wise man and has taken it upon himself to spend time with us and impart us with some of his wisdom. Most of the time the wisdom is imparted on the Croquet court, a game that the Correll's take very seriously. Needless to say, the Correll family has taken me in as their own.

Another reason for the stop-over in Kentucky is that Winston's Grandmother, Mrs. Regina Correll, is very sick. Please keep her and their family in your prayers.

I leave for Alaska one week from today. I am a little nervous, but mostly excited. Once I am there communication will be limited. I will post the address soon so y'all can send me care packages!

Vaya con Dios,

Eric T.

Post #2: Climbing and Turtle Island

My girl not lovin' Sweet and Low.

Mmm, horse manure (and Mike from Idaho).

Our home on Turtle Island. A simple and efficient structure with two beds, a desk, and a wood stove.

We put the roof on the lower portion of this barn.

This is the horse drawn mower with some of the Turtle Island horses in the background.

Car camping off the Blue Ridge.

Climbing at Table Rock, in Linville Gorge, NC.

Winston after the first pitch of "Boardwalk" (5.8) at Shiprock, NC.

Check out those handmade shingles!

Thursday May 15th:

"The first full day of work is done on Turtle Island. It was a long day. Started at seven a.m. and ended with supper at eight p.m. We put the whole roof on a barn/carriage house and did a number of other random jobs. There are chores to be done both morning and evening that include moving the goats, feeding the animals, letting the horses to pasture and mucking the horse stalls."

We spent the first part of this week camping and climbing up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It felt great to get back on some rock. The first route we climbed (my first route since last May) was super exposed and sent adrenaline pumping through my body. For a few seconds I wondered why I even liked climbing. Once I pulled through the crux roof and stood on the top all those thoughts got swept away and I couldn't wait to do the next route.

The latter part of the week was spent transported back into the 1800's at Turtle Island Preserve. Working from sun-up to sun-down, cutting firewood, roofing a barn, and shoveling thousands of pounds of horse manure. It was an inspiring experience to work beside Eustace Conway, the "modern Daniel Boone" and also a really solid guy from Idaho named Mike Preston.

Made it to Kentucky this morning where I will be working for the next couple of weeks before heading to Alaska on June 3rd.

Experiences make life rich. People make life rich. You make my life rich. Thanks for caring enough to read this.

Much Love,
Eric T.