Author: Riki
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When the cat’s away…
We met Taylor, Brad and 4yo Rex while they were cruising their boat, Pangea, in New Zealand. Instant friendship developed and we connected often over the next year in idyllic anchorages of NZ and Fiji. When Hannah received an invite to visit Taylor for her 40th birthday in Hawaii, well…how could she say no?!? We were…
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Movie Time!
Make some popcorn, watch on your big screen (I believe phone viewing doesn’t capture the magnitude of the ocean and the subjects). Here are some videos of recent wildlife encounters. If you are having trouble viewing on the blog here is a direct link to the YouTube page https://youtube.com/@svguavajelly?si=Fv1O_42fUJ6mGmKl Jade, Luz and I had an…
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Indonesian Creatures
I think about posting often and then life gets in the way which is a nice problem to have! Here is a collection of GoPro shorts, captured in Dayang anchorage, Batanta Island, Raja Ampat, Indonesia, and stitched into a movie for your enjoyment. Starring big mantas while featuring the usual suspects on the reef including…
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Hiu Paus of Indonesia
A decades-long dream has come to fruition for me! I never imagined it would be with my 3 young kiddos and amazing life partner. Nor did I imagine it would go on for almost 2 hours with only us five in attendance . When we finally got in the dinghy the whale sharks were still…
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What the Gerwindestangen+Messingprofile???
I love mucking about on boats, always have. As comfortable as I feel delving into any project, in reality, I mostly stumble through most tasks. Learning evi has been a joy, even when contorting my body into positions, blindly reaching into an oily void searching for the important nut I reminded myself not to drop…again. The…
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Out with the old…in with the older?!?
If you’ve read my blog profile (as Han so endearingly penned) it accurately mentions “Riki is looking forward to not driving a car.” With mixed emotions, I inform you that we purchased a minivan! After a few days of daily driving a loaner wagon from our friend Ted, this beauty fell into our lap. We…
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Avocados!!
We are fortunate to have an avocado tree in our front yard. It produces a voluminous amount of the best tasting fruit. I’ll save the avocado lecture here though this evergreen has many very interesting characteristics. One that we have to deal with is that the fruit doesn’t ripen on the tree. In our experience…
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Accidents Will Happen
It’s our one year anniversary in Cuenca and I wake up in the hospital. Quite different than our planned celebratory dinner as a family because as we all know…shit happens. There was no regular path to this moment, instead a series of accidents and bad luck. The good news is the surgery is behind me…
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“You don’t get to decide!”
By the time the meeting adjourned with Juan Arco, the director of the Macas Airport, his niece, my friend Adam Gebb and Marcelo who is our Shuar guide, the weather had drastically changed since our arrival after a beautiful 4+ hour drive from Cuenca. Transiting Parque Nacional Sangay on a windy mountain road the park…
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Cuenca Transportation
Walk, bike, bus, run, taxi…ok, maybe not run. One constant is that there is no driving, parking, insurance, maintenance nor fueling of a vehicle on our part and it is refreshing. Our first 3 weeks here were at a temporary AirBnB on the west end of town and we mostly took the bus and some…
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