Another Year of Traveling — Part One (At Sea: Nautilus Belle Amie and Yemaya)
This year has been, as always, a lot of traveling around and a lot of navigation in the seas. After a monthlong visit to Sweden, I found myself in the shipyard in Ensenada, helping to put the finishing touches to Nautilus Belle Amie, a new liveaboard vessel. A crazy project with so many challenges to solve, we had day and night shifts—sometimes I worked both—with around 60 people more or less climbing on top of each other just to finish everything before the deadline. I was on the first trips to Revillagigedo and they were not without problems; the boat turned out very well later on, though.
Another Year of Traveling — Part Two (On Land: Batanes, Philippines)
On the northernmost tip of the Philippines, not very far away from Taiwan, there is a group of 10 islands called Batanes islands. Only the largest three are inhabited. It’s known to be a weather-swept place, where all the typhoons pass through. The indigenous people are called Ivatan and have their own language and, I would say, their own culture as well.
I have traveled around in the Philippines and been to quite a number of provinces; this place is extremely different from any other I have seen, in terms of its people, landscape, and environment.
My Personal Black(list) Book
Updated: 15 February 2019
On rare occasions when I am on the internet, I would sometimes come across these travel advisories that inform people how safe, or suitable, a country is to travel to. I have also observed diving forums to be doing the same thing—letting divers know where to go, what places offer the best diving, and which operators to avoid. Fair enough.
Well, there are two sides to a story. Or two sides to a coin. Whatever. I have been guiding for over 15 years now and diving, even longer than that. Having met my share of difficult clients—and great people—I have decided to come up with my own blacklist in support of all the guides and operators who had, and are continuing to deal with inexperienced divers and/or blind bats and/or impossible clients and/or insensitive people.
Goodbye, Guadalupe. Hello, Socorro.
It is early morning on the Pacific, outside of Baja California. I am navigating towards Islas Revillagigedo, having just finished our last dive at Isla Guadalupe. It is a 16-day repositioning trip, ending our season with the great white sharks in Guadalupe and starting the season in Socorro (as it is most popularly called, although Socorro is just one of the four islands in the Revillagigedo archipelago) diving with giant mantas, dolphins, and 11 species of sharks. From January through April, we also get to see humpback whales underwater.
Officer by Day, Gigolo by Night
It was the year 2000 and I was done running a dive center in Stockholm.
One day I received a telephone call. “Hi, I’m Ann Krafft. We are looking for a Watersports Manager on the cruise line Royal Clipper.”
“A cruise ship? Hmm, I’m not sure,” was my quick reply.
“Please check out the website before you say No,” she said.
I did. And I saw her… She was a beautiful 5-masted 400-foot ship built that year in Gdańsk, Poland.
So Ann Krafft and I talked again. She mentioned that it was a high-standard boat and the crew can’t have tattoos, piercings or long hair.
“Those are exactly what I have! And I’m missing a front tooth…”
Having a Bad Hair Day in Malpelo
When a 5-knot current flattens your hair and drags your bubbles behind you, forget about taking photos. Just hang on for dear life.
I Stared Death in the Face and Lived to Tell the Tale
Belgrade, 1999. For most people, January is a time for beginnings and transitions, an opportunity to look back to the lessons of the past, and forward to a positive outlook in the year ahead. It seems that I wasn’t around when the gods were handing out the optimist gene. While everyone else was busy starting on their new year’s resolutions, I was still intent on getting to Africa in my kayak, aiming to finish the journey that I had embarked on the previous year.
Buck Naked with a Burglar
La Paz, 2002. I had recently arrived in La Paz for the first time and was looking for a new place to live. After sleeping on the street for a while, I found an upstairs room with a refrigerator, a cooking stove and a shower, even a television.
It was summer and it was hot in La Paz, so I slept naked on top of the sheets. Sometime later I was woken up by a sound. Someone was in my room. When I yelled the guy ran out of the room and jumped over the balcony. I grabbed my machete, went after him on the balcony, down the stairs and out to the street. Buck naked…
Socorro in July
We made an expedition to the Socorro Islands in the month of July to find out what is out there when all the other liveaboards are not around. It felt like the old times—we were by ourselves! No other boats! On this trip there were only 5 divers plus me as a guide, not 20 or 25 divers like when I was working here before. This is the way to approach nature! And with divers who know how to dive! I can focus on being a guide as opposed to what is happening more and more nowadays on the bigger liveaboards—dive guides are trying to keep divers alive because of bad dive instructors giving away licenses and letting people believe they are divers, or because divers were told that these islands were just like the Caribbean or Thailand… The boat was smaller though—60 feet but still quite roomy.
Boobies Running Amok
In my line of work, boobies are a common sight. And these are not the kind that get men excited and women reacting in varying degrees of envy, depending on the size and the quality of work done on the object of interest. I am talking about the cross-eyed winged creatures that are known for their lack of intellect and consequent inability to handle new situations. I think they are descended from the now extinct dodo birds. They certainly exhibit the same mannerisms, and even look a little bit like those duds.
Granted, their cross-eyed look gives them the advantage of cuteness. You might even find their vomiting antics funny if you’re not the one cleaning up the deck of a boat. And, as long as you are not the target of their surprisingly accurate poop missiles, you will still find them likeable.