Tag: history

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Where the heck are we!?

Atlantic Ocean

Birthday post!  Another year gone by and so much has happened!

152_7372

Like, a lot.

A lot a lot.

So yeah, um…so we’ve been busy. Really really busy.

Not lots of time to keep up with the blog busy.

Busy how exactly?

Well, we learned how to escape overturned crashed sinking helicopters

 

 

so that’s cool.

 

…and there was that whole “Look Greg!   A 10 foot crocodile in the Everglades!”

croc

 

“Oh lets go canoeing with it!”

 

Canoe

 

Seriously, that’s pretty much how it went.

 

and oh yeah, the boats got bigger.

the boats got a LOT bigger.

boat

and when the boats get bigger the licencing goes through the roof.

Because, as we’ve said before, to sail a private yacht through thousands of miles of open ocean to Tahiti you don’t need a license.

But to even step on a ship at the dock you need the freaking paperwork.

and that paperwork has mostly been what we’ve been up to.

Because, and here I quote the US Coast Guard Licencing Agent at the National Maritime Center:

“The US Coast Guard does not recognize the US Coast Guard Academy
as a maritime training academy.”

…Yeah.

So paperwork.  From the ground up.  and classes.

Classes about Radars.

At least they don’t recognize Annapolis either…

So we’ve been busy.  However that does not mean we have forgotten the blog.

Because that story about how we hung out with elephants on the tropical island of Bali,

20120310C - elephant safari ride (68)

that story needs relaying.

So yes, it’s been a while but yes, we do plan to finish this epic tale.

 

Birthdays are usually Greg’s opportunity for a little introspection – and last year’s wanderings are particularly interesting based on what has happened this year.

About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out atwww.CoastGuardCouple.com

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Happy 4th of July, Comrade Americans!

Happy 4th of July!

As travelers over the past few years

(wow, that’s still weird to say)

Our history of celebrating the birth of our home nation has ranged from “cowboy guitars around a campfire” as interpreted by the people of Bora Bora, to launching fireworks into an Australian Blizzard.

No matter where we have been, we’ve done our best to take our traditions and blend them with the people we’re around.  To create a little celebration of America with local flair, if you will.  This year is no different

We enjoyed hot dogs:

100_3154Alongside other iconic American foods
Continue reading “Happy 4th of July, Comrade Americans!”

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Riding the Ghan

Enroute Alice Springs, NT, AU

They have trains that traverse Australia.  One of them, called “The Ghan” bisects the country running from Adelaide to Alice Springs to Darwin and when we bought the tickets online they charged us half of what the website said they would…

…kinda wish we knew that BEFORE our car broke down in the middle of the outback but hey, it’s a better story this way…

Continue reading “Riding the Ghan”

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The weight of the world

While romping from the snow-capped mountains of Australia to kung-fu training in China to Germany’s Oktoberfest with a quick side trip to the London 2012 Olympics, one can assume a few interesting conversations were had:

British friend: I wish I could vote for the US president

Yes people, this is about that.

Continue reading “The weight of the world”

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It’s Intuitive (and the Aussie fascination with Ned Kelly…)

On the road, Victoria, AU

The Australian East Coast Adventure continues!!

So we’re supposed to be bonding and stuff right?  That’s what we’ve been told us married people do whilst travelling together: we talk and whatnot…or get divorced.  True fact – travel either glues couples together or tears them apart.  Cabo San Lucas is well known as the sailing divorce capital of the West Coast.

Being as we are both more “in it for the long haul” types bonding is pretty much the order of the day.  One could begin to wonder though – after so much time together do we ever run out of things to talk about?

Continue reading “It’s Intuitive (and the Aussie fascination with Ned Kelly…)”

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So, have you seen a kangaroo?

Melbourne, Vic, AU

Yes, yes we’ve seen a kangaroo…

As Americans, Australia is fascinating in a completely different way than any other country in the world.  Because of all the other countries out there, Australia is the one where we can look at what they have done and say, “but for a few key choices, that could have been us.”

Our mainland is similar size, we have the same parent-nation and defacto common base language.  Most of both of our neighbours are from a different culture (US is beside Latin / Spanish influence while Australia is right next to Asia.)  Australians came, in large part, from prisoners while the US got started, at least in the eyes of England, as basically a bunch of armed insurrectionists.  After declaring independence, we’ve both maintained close ties with the motherland, we both had to resolve conflict with a native population, we both face similar issues on fronts of economics and immigration…we could go on.  Our two countries had a lot in common starting out and face many similar challenges to this day.

Like slurpee brain freezes

Which is why it’s so fascinating how we have both developed along slightly different paths.

Wow, Kentucky cricket…who knew!?

Unlike the other countries we’ve been to, the fascinating thing is not how massively different life here is from what we’re used to.

With Oz, the interesting things are in the details of living.

Continue reading “So, have you seen a kangaroo?”

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Christchurch, New Zealand

Christchurch, NZ

We have, to a degree, made light of the titanic forces that shaped and continue to mold this tiny island nation within the South Pacific’s ring of fire.  We don’t do this out of lack of respect; simply out of acceptance of how very small we as humans are before the fury of Mother Nature.

As people who have lived in Northern California and Southern Florida we have learned to live with the fact that a natural disaster could just up and kill us at any given moment and there is, in the end, precious little we can do about it.  Coming from the San Francisco Bay people ask Greg what they should do if there is an earthquake.  His response,

“The truth of it is that if you actually have enough time to realize that an earthquake is what’s happening, you have more than likely already survived it.”

What he doesn’t say is that conversely, by the time you realize you’re in danger from an earthquake you’re probably already dead.

Christchurch Cathedral
Before the 2nd quake – taken by us
After the quake – thanks to wikipedia

That knowledge, mixed with our unapologetic and absolute love of this country, made the fate of Christchurch weigh heavily on our minds as we prepared to depart New Zealand.

Continue reading “Christchurch, New Zealand”

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Regarding the Locals

Enroute Mt. Aspiring, NZ

We would be remiss to recount our many adventures in New Zealand and never once mention the Maori.

The “native” people of New Zealand are themselves settlers from a foreign land.  Polynesian in origin, the Maori trace their roots back to the people of the South Pacific who used their…

“mind-bending supernatural powers of badass navigation so awesome it took the West hundreds of years and a satellite network to replicate what Polynesians could do in their heads around the time the rest of us were learning that fire was hot” 

…to locate, land on and settle these islands a few hundred years before Europe came on the scene.

Massive authentic Maori war canoe : 75 feet long & able to carry 100 warriors to battle.

Eventually the West did show up and to make a long story short we colonized New Zealand and eventually claimed her for England.  The nation retains its card-carrying status as a member of the “Empire on which the sun never sets” to this day as a member of the Commonwealth.

So where did this leave the natives?

Continue reading “Regarding the Locals”

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To simply be

Helensville, NZ

Despite rumors to the contrary, there’s a lot more out in the farms of New Zealand than Kiwis, possums and sheep:

Sometimes things fall into place and life moves on when we’re least expecting it.  After about a month our battles with taxation came to an abrupt and, if annoying, at least vindicating conclusion, we got a job offer in Australia and received an invite for one last Kiwi adventure from an unexpected source.

Continue reading “To simply be”

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