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Karimunjawa Scooter Tour

For the past four years Vick has not driven a motor vehicle of any sort.  Today that streak ended. We picked up scooters and hit the roads of Karimunjawa to explore. No ID or paperwork was required, just a little cash and we were good for the day. We didn’t have gas, helmets, or even […]

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I Want to See Dragons for My Birthday

We take birthday wishes seriously in Convivia. We keep presents small and homemade, as the real celebration is in the cake. Cakes are dreamed up layer by layer, often years in advance. Miles wishes for his eighth birthday were a stuffed mouse, a watch, pizza for dinner, and a caramel, chocolate, marshmallow and chocolate ganache […]

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Ready for Adventure Again (almost)

We arrived in Australia almost exactly two and a half years ago. Pulling into Brisbane after 15 months of cruising seemed decidedly like the end of our adventure.  We were trading sun soaked beaches, a persistent, intimate awareness of the weather, sundowners with dear friends, and nearly daily boat maintenance  for the relative ease of city life, […]

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Community

From time to time, in the course of my travels, people have asked me about “home.” By this they usually mean the USA in general or one of the specific places I’ve lived. When I talk about the good things, I almost always start and end with community. I tend to describe (my) New England as […]

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Native Culture Shock

I’ve been meaning to sit down and put my thoughts to words for a week now. Arriving in the United States after 3 years abroad was certain to be a bit of a transition. This long separation is compounded by the nature of my lifestyle: the constantly shifting landscape (literally and metaphorically); the unique challenges of a […]

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Best Day Ever

I have a hard time assigning superlatives. I tend to experience life in an abstract way that doesn’t depend heavily on specific, quantifiable metrics. So when I say that this was the best day ever, take that with a grain of salt. There were other best days. They might have been better, who knows. Not […]

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Great Keppel Island in Photos

We had been stuck on the boat for 6 days. First for sailing and second for weather in the anchorage (35 knots, come on). We finally rowed against said wind (maybe only 20 knots), to spend the morning on shore. 

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Farkwar is Born

When I was younger (let’s just say  I was 10) my uncle would entice me to row him across what seemed like an endless [Muscongous] sound to Loud’s Island, by making up silly stories about a fellow named Barfoolean Farkwar. Barf would do things like set out to sail without a sail. When he realised […]

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Life Like a Story

There are many kinds of books and as many kinds of book lovers. So please read the following from your own perspective and not through my eyes. You know that feeling when you pick up a good book, and you just can’t put it down? You know the feeling when you get to the end […]

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Brisbane is Seriously Awesome Folks, Seriously

You have seriously got to be kidding me. I love this city so much I want to dig up the homes of my family and friends and move them all here. Today we went to the Queensland State Library with the kids. We tricked them (yes, I am that devious) by telling them about the […]

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