Monochrome Monday (Lefty)

Seasons Greetings

i

Seasons greetings 

to all of my brine 

brothers and sistas.

.

It's been nice

hanging with you

in 2011.

Us and Them

Was going to do a post about Pink Floyd's 7 minute wonder "Us & Them" but the Google Gods (or faux google hackers) wouldn't let me in to my own blog. This is kinda what you woulda shoulda got about 12 hours ago.

"Us and them

and after all

we're only ordinary men"

Pink Floyd 1973

Out of Jail

Coolum x Cokes

Coolum Bill threading his seven footer through the coral reef at Cokes and post surf stoke back at the harbour.

Equatorial Reef Shack

Most nights we would anchor 

on the calm, western side of various atolls 

where expensive holiday accommodation abounded. 

But come morning, 

we would up anchor to spend a day 

in a reef pass with views like this 

from the porthole.

The afternoon ritual consisted of

lazing on the top deck at dusk 

sore and surfed out 

in a post-session daze 

waiting for the tropical light show. 

The shooting stars were a bonus.

Birthday Boy

Ceramic artworks by 

Australian - Thai artist

VIPOO SRIVILASA

exhibiting at 

edwina corlette gallery

17 Oct – 5 Nov 2011 

Boat x Boogie

Monochrome Monday

Anchor Anchor

Have a great weekend and may your anchors and fins bite, when required.

Green Flash

Most afternoons

we would anchor

somewhere safe

head up to the roof

have a drink

talk story

and wait 

for the sunset show.

We were

never disappointed.

Once I thought

I saw

a green flash

just as the sun 

wobbled beyond the horizon.

Dirty big shark

One morning we were anchored in the deep pass between Pasta Point (above) and Sultan's reefs. The surf guide had told us not to paddle our boards across the channel from our boat to the reef (200 - 300 yards) because it was at least 100 feet deep and there were tiger sharks and other critters down there. 

Well, we followed that instruction pretty closely - until this one day when a huge whale shark appeared out of the depths and in a lazy mood started doing a few laps under our boat. Almost everybody donned goggles and fins and joined the beautiful leviathan before it returned to the other sharks down in the inky blue black. Even the Maldivian crew. I don't recall the surf guide getting wet in the channel, though.

BIG shout out to our shipmate "Rimo" who shot the pic below.

Byron Bay Surf Festival

"The festival is non-competitive and 

will bring together people 

that want to celebrate surfing 

and the associated culture 

of art, music, film, literature, 

surfboard design and 

environmentally friendly and 

sustainable surf craft."

Byron Bay Surf Festival website

Cokes

My cabin buddy, Bill Macdonald exiting the foam ball. This spot is called "Cokes" after the local factory. We had a cultural tour of the local village in the hot Maldivian heat for an hour or so, ending in the gift shops - the only time our feet hit land in nine days (apart from the coral!)

Blue/Green Dream

Governor's Reef

While mere mortals slaved away - before we got annual holidays - the Governor of Brinetopia had a summer beach house overlooking this reef. So we always called it Governor's. My Dad pointed him out one day on the beach when I was a kid. For somebody with so much power and a beach house overlooking this, he didn't look too stoked.

Winter 2009