| aaarr, she be a worthy sailin' vessel... this is the only long-range exterior shot of the boat that turned out from the four rolls we developed. (the others haven't been developed, yet.) this is the ship on which we lived for a week and a half, the one on which jesse still lives, the wanderer (originally named lady hawk, but renamed by a hollywood movie crew...). if i recall correctly, she measures 58 feet from bow to stern, and displaces about 50 tons, and under full sail can do about 15 knots. |
|
395 x 600
JPEG, 21K |
| the wanderer is pretty nice on the inside, too. there's the captain's quarters in the stern (with its own head and shower), a full galley (kitchen, that is), the lower salon (like a living room), another head and bath, a midship cabin, and the bow cabin. in this shot, you're standing in the lower salon and looking forward to the head and midships; the green metal tube that runs from the ceiling to the floor (down the hallway) is actually the forward mast. in the distance, you can see the two bunks in the forward cabin. that was where i stayed... falling asleep to the clacking of the clamshells on the posts of the dock. to answer some inevitable questions: the shower is salt water, and the head flushes by suction into a holding tank. don't drink from the faucet (unless you want to go crazy), and don't put anything into the head unless you put it into your mouth, first. |
|
800 x 528
JPEG, 53K |
| and this is what you'd see if you stood in the same place and turned around... the oriental rug on the floor of the lower salon, the essential life support device (the alvarez acoustic guitar, of course), and steps leading up to the galley, where elysse stands at the table wondering what the hell i'm taking pictures of. you can barely make out next to her the stairs leading up to the deck, and i think that's her dad's hand on the rail. through the door behind her is the captain's cabin, with the television and DVD player. (it's a rough life to live on a boat, you know!) |
|
375 x 600
JPEG, 34K |
| when not out sailing, we kept the wanderer moored at brick bay, a "resort" hotel in the jungle which happens to have something akin to a marina. there were other boats in the bay --- these are a few of those other boats. it's also a good shot of the jungle and hills that make up the island... |
|
800 x 536
JPEG, 62K |
| we docked the boat with the stern in, so that the bows pointed out into the bay. here's a shot from the bowsprit, looking out into the bay at the jungle on the other side. apparently i'd set the aperture incorrectly on the camera, because this came out really really dark... i also seemed to have a problem holding th camera level, which is evident throughout most of the pictures here --- oops. |
|
800 x 539
JPEG, 45K |
| one of the permanent residents at brick bay is a monkey named pancha. pancha is pretty friendly... usually she resides in a little house out in back of the hotel, where she can climb in a tree, but for the first few days we were there pancha stayed out in the foyer, tethered to the posts that supported the common room. |
|
800 x 514 JPEG, 49K |
| pancha likes for people to pet her, despite the signs reading "don't pet the monkey." if you show any interest in petting her, she'll walk over to you, lay down, and point with a limp hand to the place she wants you to scratch. |
|
765 x 600 JPEG, 57K |
| but whatever you do, don't do too good of a job of petting pancha, or else she will like you. if she likes you, she'll latch on to you and won't let go. elysse got a little too close, and then wound up making the "oh no, i've got a monkey on me!" face. (the lighting turned the picture into a silhouette, unfortunately...) |
|
344 x 600 JPEG, 21K |
| here's a back view, so you can see pancha's prehensile tail in its death grip on elysse' midsection. her brother peyton was also very interested in the monkey, until this happened to him, too. |
|
294 x 600 JPEG, 19K |
| once pancha latches onto you, there's not a lot you can do. the only sure-fire way to get her to let go is to go to the pool and begin to get in. pancha is like a little kid who doesn't like to bathe, and she smells that way, too. so, if you take off your shoes and begin to step down the ladder into the pool, pancha just lets go and goes for the benches, which is where we see her in this picture, just after letting go of elysse. that's one of the guys from the hotel tying her to the post of the poolside gazebo. incidentally, pancha was so dirty and nasty that elysse' white blouse had great big brown stains on it wherever pancha's fur touched it. ick. |
|
745 x 600 JPEG, 67K |
| here's a close-up (cropped out of the above picture), for a better look at the ball of fur that is actually a monkey. |
|
622 x 600 JPEG, 32K |
| i tried to stay behind the camera, lest i break the lens. however, it is in fact elysse' camera, and for some strange reason she likes to take pictures of me. here's a shot of the muppet in his natural state, playing the guitar. it's one of those "i'm at home anywhere there's a guitar" kind of things, i suppose. we're sitting on the deck while docked at brick bay, by the way. |
|
800 x 580 JPEG, 57K |
| this is a beautiful shot of the honduran sky as backdrop to the most beautiful sight in the known universe, one miss elysse duncan. she is sitting, of course, on the bowsprit of the wanderer as it sits docked in brick bay. in fact, she's in exactly the same spot as she was on christmas night, 25 december 1999, when the breathtaking beauty of the stars and the astounding beauty of her soul became too much for me, and i asked her to marry me. (she said "okay".) |
|
402 x 600 JPEG, 24K |
| here's a crop out of that one, because i like that picture a lot. |
|
290 x 600 JPEG, 23K |
| a rare land-based shot of the skipper and his wife... er, that's elysse' dad jesse, and her step-mom margi. in this shot, they're actually laughing at elysse for having pancha attached to her. |
|
801 x 536 JPEG, 50K |
