Category: Pacific Puddle Jump

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House or Travel?

Karumba, QLD, AU

As our time wound down in Australia we found ourselves having a difficult conversation about a choice we could not had foreseen coming when we first started this adventure.

Karumba beach sunset

Like we said last week, we had a good time “living the dream” and we were successful at said dream; we had completed what we originally set out to do.  Much more than what we originally planned actually, as this whole “sailing to Australia by way of Tahiti” kind of came together on the fly.  What we had not anticipated was that the dream would actually be fairly profitable. You see, Australia had been good to us on the job front and their wages for the jobs we worked were, when compared to the United States, 2 – 3 times higher than what we would have been paid in the states.  Alongside that we had watched our money very carefully and saved every chance we got.  Also don’t forget there were 2 of us. What that all boils down to is that when we originally planned our trip, we had not expected to leave Australia with a surplus of cash. As it turns out, we did have quite a reasonable surplus…which led us to a question we weren’t sure how to answer:

House or Travel?

Continue reading “House or Travel?”

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Coconut rice pudding

Enroute Karumba, QLD, AU

Tiffany’s been having a craving for rice pudding lately.  For some weird reason she gets this craving every few months (this and Mexican food.  Nope, not supposed to make sense).  In our previous lives this was easily and promptly solved by a trip to Trader Joe’s…

Unfortunately for her, they have not yet expanded to Australia.  So she took her tastebuds online.  Now, Tiffany prides herself as a rather “uncomplicated” cook.  She can cook, and very well thank you, but generally she looks for what both Greg and her agree are the “3 hallmarks of good food” –

Easy –

if the recipe calls for more than about 3 ingredients, she’s usually just not interested.

Effective –

Fills one up without getting them fat

Good –

We would choose to eat it again

That being said, since we’ve been traveling and eating restaurant food or quick stuff, both of our desires to cook have increased (a little bit anyway).  The great thing about living on a boat is that you learn lots of new recipes that fit our criteria exactly.

What is awesome is that both of us have learned to make lots of new things that only take a few ingredients and we’ve gotten to the point that if it has 5 ingredients we’re willing to put the effort in.

coconut milkEspecially if one of those ingredients is coconut milk.

Continue reading “Coconut rice pudding”

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Life passing us by

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

It is once again time for Greg’s birthday entry-

One can always rely on family to ask the questions everyone else is quietly wondering about:

“Greg, it’s been almost 4 years now.
Aren’t you worried about the world just passing you by?”

The exact words change from member to member but it’s a question family members have asked us more than once over the past 2 years.

And by “world” we know what’s meant:

Career, Paychecks, 401Ks, retirement, medical / optical / dental benefits, long term financial plan, you name it.  A life beyond the next 2 months and a gig that falls into the category of “reliable income.”  Something I can expect to have for an entire taxable year that will pay a wage somewhere near what someone of “our experience” should be getting.  One that would possibly involve trading in the sails for a desk…or at least a consistent cell phone number.

Freaking money people.  Cash.  An income. Jobs.  Mortgages and the like.

Or as some call it “a REAL life.”

When are we going to get off our butts and stop letting REAL LIFE pass us by?

Continue reading “Life passing us by”

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Semper Gumby

Opua, New Zealand

So there we were (doesn’t every great story start that way?) in Coff’s Harbour and little did we know that this would be the end of our Australian East Coast Adventure.

[fgallery id=11 w=450 h=385 t=0 title=”Great Australian East Coast Adventure”]

We were doing a bit of work at a hostel in exchange for accommodation, deciding what our next move was going to be and looking at the boats available on FindACrew.net.  Huh.  Imagine that!  There was a boat in New Zealand looking for a couple of crew to help deliver it to Australia!  We got in touch with the owner, who was willing to pay us to fly out to his boat so he could get it delivered to a transport ship in Brisbane and sent back home to the US.

He seemed like a decent guy on the phone and since he paid for the flight, we decided to take a risk and were off back to New Zealand!

Continue reading “Semper Gumby”

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Battle Fortress: South Pacific

Bora Bora, Society Islands, French Polynesia

Well, welcome to the only other island out here that you’ve probably ever actually heard of!  Just because, again, we know that you’re wondering, Bora Bora is right here:

Did you know that long before Bora Bora was known as the honeymoon capital of the world its first role in the international community was to serve as Battle Fortress: South Pacific?!? Totally serious here! Due to Bora Bora’s strategic position half way between the Americas and Australia and its uniquely defensible geography, the island was chosen by the United States to be a resupply base during WW II. What do we mean by “uniquely defensible geography”? Simple, look:
Continue reading “Battle Fortress: South Pacific”

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Feeding the Wildlife

Moorea, Society Islands, French Polynesia

Most of the guidebooks about Moorea will at least mention feeding the sting rays.

petting a stingray

Typically, you would need to rent a boat or hire a tour guide to go do this but since our old friends on FLY AWEIGH pulled into port a few days ago they offered to give us all a lift out to the reef.

We expected to see some rays at a distance and toss them a few fish.  The rays had other plans and were happy to educate us on how this whole thing actually worked. Continue reading “Feeding the Wildlife”

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More Sex and Jesus

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia

(cont’d from previous)

Then there is the whole nudity / sexuality thing here in French Polynesia.  Which, why put sex and religion in the same blog post?  Because here one isn’t exclusive of the other and that’s a good thing.  In America, sex seems to be at odds with the institution of God.    It’s not like the French are “modest” in that respect to start with when compared to Americans but when the European explorers landed on the Polynesian islands the natives would willingly give their women over to the sailors for sex.  It was considered the polite thing to do!  Hippies had no concept of “free love” compared to the Polynesians.  (In retrospect, considering the syphilis that decimated their population, not the best move.)  Well, a few centuries and a great deal of western Christian influence later, the Polynesian people aren’t quite as promiscuous as before but they are in their younger years still rather “open to exploration.”  Interesting to note that, according to what we learned talking to the local French and reading travel guides, if a young island girl gets pregnant, her entire family simply raises the child as its own.  Our guess is that when your population is decimated down to the 2% level, not to mention you are adamant pro-Catholic, your cultural views on abortion change.  Right along with your views on familial responsibility to the next generation.

…and their tolerance for nudity, and for referencing the naked human body, is a good deal higher than your typical American.  You all probably remember the most awesome name for a bay, ever.  While in Papeete we bought a ukulele playbook from a newsstand and right there on the cover was a topless woman.  Also, Tiffany was looking at a book on wearing sarongs and this is what she saw (blacked out areas explained below)

Continue reading “More Sex and Jesus”

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Sex and Jesus

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia

We Americans are such prudes.

No, seriously we are.  We’ve heard it before and really, it’s true.  Puritan roots = massive prudes.  You really aren’t able to appreciate the level of our prudishness until you live in another culture that is more open in their beliefs on sexuality while at the same time more strict in their interpretation of religion.  The fact that this is not an oxymoron is in and of itself rather eye-opening for an American.  Yes boys and girls, you can have lots of sex and still love Jesus.  This is not a message that modern American Christianity has effectively distributed to the masses.  To be fair, it’s hard to blame them.  The Christians that is, a.k.a. “us” being as we’re on that particular team.  The mass media has taken the position of “free sex with whoever you want whenever you want” so when Christianity opposes that they get cast as the people who are against sex.  It isn’t true, but that’s how it’s played in the States.  I think we’d get a lot more traction stressing all the awesome sex you can have as a married member of the church than just focusing on the stuff people can’t do.  As an organization, we have really gone on the defensive on this particular front, letting our opponents pick the battles and cast us in the “bad guy” light and really, it hasn’t gotten us anywhere.  Pretty sure we’ve actually lost a bit of ground with this strategy.

In fact, many Christian religions would really like it if their people had more sex, since we’re kind of dying off right now.  It’s a numbers game people and we’re losing. Continue reading “Sex and Jesus”

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Ukulele 101

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia

As previously mentioned, music is a major part of these peoples’ lives.

Outside the market and along the main drag of the city is a bank that more importantly serves as the unofficial gathering place for the Papeete street band.  Guitars, ukuleles, a guy with a plastic garbage can bass and a bottle cap maracas.  We already knew Polynesians had a knack for musical adaptation and the Tahitians did not disappoint.  This informal gathering of street performers have been playing daily long enough to be in most of the tourist and travel books as a recommended destination.  They’re really that good.

Listening to these guys inspired us to learn more about their version of the ukulele.  As we mentioned before in our virtual ukulele Christmas card there are 2 kinds of ukulele: the Hawaiian and the Tahitian.

The ukulele Greg carries around is the “tiny guitar” that most Americans think of when they picture island music.  It is thicker and produces a lower note.  Most Polynesians refer to it as a “Kamika” due to the fact that a popular brand of Hawaiian ukulele is made by that brand.  It’s like calling a cotton ear swab a “Q-tip.”

While in Tahiti we picked up a Tahitian ukulele for Tiffany.  This ukulele is longer than the Hawaiian and much thinner.  It is made out of solid wood and though both have 4 stringed notes and both are tuned to the same notes, Continue reading “Ukulele 101”

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Haven’t had a pig roast yet…

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia

We’re going to tackle the rest of this town in three parts: food, music and sexuality/spirituality.

Let’s start with food.  Because really, that last one will probably have you checking back at least to see what we have to say.

The center of Papeete is the 2 story market.  The bottom floor is occupied by fresh fish and produce booths, while the top floor & outside block are comprised of souvenir shops.  Though we rarely like touristy stuff, we thought it was neat that this place puts locals and visitors into the same place.

Remember when we thought we had ordered French fries in our sandwich by mistake? Turns out the reason the server didn’t think it was odd is Continue reading “Haven’t had a pig roast yet…”

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