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split tongued spirit

Posted on May 24, 2008 @ 4:28 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, fear, philippines, sailing, swimming

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paraw boracay aynaku illustration travel

Swimming in open sea is my favourite sport: yet it scares me a little. As soon as I jump into the water, some sort of split tongued spirit talks and says out of the vast sea: “maybe you should sink and die”. When the spirit talks louder my worries can’t be denied. But alas, I never gave up. On the contrary I keep my eyes wide open, looking for some potential danger…
The waters out of Boracay’s beach are always damn crowded by fast boats cruising at any time of the day. It is a real hassle, since local pilots seem to care absolutely nothing of swimmers, nor to understand how fragile a floating man is. It’s hard for me to forget the time when a fast paraw nearly broke me down…The reckless driver simply couldn’t see me, I guess because the dusk…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: worry

elettricity

Posted on May 10, 2008 @ 5:54 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, indonesia, philippines, sailing, travel, wordpress

gili trawangan aynaku travel illustration

Lightnings are electrical discharges, giant sparks of electricity, from mature storms. Lightnings cause a lot of electric current to pass through water; wooden boats are not safe at all since the vast majority of lightning injuries and deaths occur on small boats with no cabin…
The short sea passage between Gili Trawangan and Gili Air found me on board a small local boat without a cabin. It is always crucial to listen to the weather on a small aquatic vessel: during that early afternoon at sea, the sky was threatening, thunderstorms were forecast and lightnings too…
When the first powerful strike came and the air filled with static electricity on a giant scale, the anxious boatman pumped up the engine, trying to get the boat fast, trying to get to land and find a safe building: actually it was raining and pouring! The storm went on for half an hour and our navigation turned out to be very uncomfortable…
When we got Gili Air’s sandy beach at last, everything was over: off course!

Illustration Friday’s topic is: elettricity

remember

Posted on April 28, 2007 @ 3:15 pm by massimo | Filed under: japan, sailing, ukiyo-e, wordpress

ukiyo-e aynaku travel illustration

Maybe I should put forward for this week’s topic my whole blog! Actually every Aynaku’s post relates to memory so I consider that my most recent submission should make no exception, and be one of Aynaku’s most typical. My very first time on board a sailing boat is firmly fixed in my mind: I was nine years old and the calling of wind and sea was already precise. I remember my excitement when the crew set sail and the boat left. It all happened under my parent’s benevolent and worried eyes: waving their hands from the dock, they valued the possibility of an accidental jump into the water… still I couldn’t swim that well!
The second memory related to this illo, is my great fascination for Japanese ukiyo-e which dates
back to my trip to Japan in 1993. You know, some memories can’t wait.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: remember

navigation

Posted on June 30, 2006 @ 11:14 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, fun, sailing, travel, wordpress

I’m going to be off-line from tomorrow until next saturday. I will be sailing the Adriatic Sea along the coast, on board the Nathel, maybe heading east to beautiful Kornati Islands. This is what I …

paraw

Posted on September 6, 2005 @ 9:11 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, fun, philippines, sailing, wordpress

Typically Visayan, paraw is a fantastic sailing boat! Two bamboo outriggers and the coconut mid-body make up the craft. Everything is fixed firmly by strong fishing-line. Mainsail and jib, cut away from …

sail away…

Posted on July 27, 2005 @ 8:33 am by massimo | Filed under: africa, blog, fun, sailing, travel, wordpress

Dhow is a typicall Arabic craft. It was originally employed by the Arabian traders sailing the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. I had the chance of sailing by dhow from Lamu to Mombasa in …