Goin' South

         The best move anyone in North America can make is to go South.  It doesn't take a scientist to realize the tropics are the most survivable region of the world.  One problem though. Everyone has the same idea. The tropics are crowded so finding a place to chill can be difficult. It is important to do basic research before making this leap of faiith. I just don't understand why people cling to their northern latitudes for their whole lives.
   My trick was to prowl the transit docks and marinas looking for a ship that needs crew. You can always post a note on the free bulletin boards asking for passage. The lonesome skippers read these things.  Your deal will be passage for work aboard the ship.  No one rides for free unless you are pretty.   Even that does not win your passage.        You could pay your way on board but once you bring money to the table, things get dicey unless you have chosen a Christian skipper who does not drink. You will lose most of your money to the skipper. Work at sea is hardly work. Be prepared for a great, boring time. Find a good novel to keep you company. No one else will.

     Living on the ship is like camping on your roof. You are subject to every change in barometric pressure. Always be wary of a falling barometer. It is the first indication you are entering troubled waters. A rising barometer means higher atmospheric pressure thus fair weather. 

      There are other telltale signs you already know."Red sky at night sailors delight, Red sky in morning sailors take warning.'  If you really want the truth, stick your head out the main hatch and have a look. No torture lasts forever. I can think, I can fast, I can wait. Gautama said that....
   I showed up in Honolulu in the dead of winter.  Fortunately, I am flexible enough in my beliefs about God to attempt to live with the Devotees.  Never easy to have someone waiting to be initiated eating the food and taking up bathroom time.  

    I was heading south.  I learned to sail on the sunset cruises of the Jaladuta.  I honed my skills with the crew waiting for that fateful phone call. 

    It was Brian the Canadian asking me to show up at the transit docks to see if I 'qualify' to sail with him. Ke'ehi lagoon is about the worst anchorage in the world.  You are at the end of the runway of the International Airport where the carbon from the jet fuel falls like snow upon the decks of these ships waiting for Spring.  

     The filth is incredible. This is all very depressing for these blue water men.  They go ashore to eat and get drunk so they can sleep while on board. There is a beach called Sandal Beach. There are huge mounds of flip flops piled high that float in from everywhere. Colorful but trashy much like the girls on Hotel St.
     Honolulu is crowded to begin with. You must be able to dodge the derelicts who haunt downtown and move with determination to survive. Standing on the curb with your shoulder purse is asking for trouble.  There are thieves on scooters who whiz by and hook the shoulder strap. Just hope it breaks or you will be dragged to your death or at the very least bruised and battered.  The cops? None to be found. You are lucky if someone even helps you up.
        They finally drained the Ala Moana Canal so the dozer could push all that debris to the end where it could be loaded into dump trucks for the land fill.  This canal has a huge history as a dump for murder weapons. I wonder if they even thought about solving crimes with all those guns they found.  Knowing Hawaii, probably not.  

        Divers found a huge dump of barrels full of bottom paint.  This stuff is so toxic it could have changed the ecology of Hawaii. Gratefully, none of them were broken. Burning only releases mercury to fall on the ocean and kill more wildlife.  The lead based paint indicates how those war years changed the planet.   

     Lead in paint effects people.  Children growing up moving into old rentals that needed painting..  It fell to the young to paint the kitchens with lead based paint. It affects the nervous system and made one short tempered. They found a way to Chelate it out of the system.... It takes years to recover.    

      Nature is still erasing that legacy. Speaking of Mercury, I heard this story about soldiers pouring the stuff down the tarmac drains just to hide it from the Japs. After the war, salvagers went back and discovered a treasure trove of this metal. There are still pockets of mercury under these staging areas.
       The Grey Goose was built from the money from this Mercury when they dismantled those areas.  It was sold for a very low price. Mercury was used in bombs as part of the trigger mechanism. Mercury is still used in light switches in homes. 
      There are vast deserts on the Ocean.  For many days, we did not see anything living or dead.  No seaweed, no fish, no sharks nothing...A desert like this should have a story about how it formed.  The only one that made any sense is volcanic activity releasing huge plumes of CO2 through the water thus stripping the oxygen dissolved in the ocean that sea life needs to survive.        

      Man has a great impact on the 7 seas.  Over fishing is just one of them. There might be other things that formed these ocean deserts. More research is needed. More ocean chemistry done in the interest of science.  The mystery continues to Nowhere Soon.