Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Wild food!


Our schooner is a tiny white dot in the blue tropic island bay far below.High above me the sharp volcanic ridge blocks most of the gusty trade wind. I clamber among the swaying branches of a wild mango tree picking precious fruit and dropping them one by one to my wife Heather braced on the steep trail below.After a months voyage from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia we are starved for fresh food.Soon we have our packs full and scramble back through the warm humid air to the beach.A quick launch through the gentle surf and we row through a gap in the coral reef and out to our anchored schooner.We grin to each other. Yesterday we bottled the tuna that our daughter caught as we neared this bay and today we will bottle the extra mangos. Tucked away beneath the floor boards all this wild food will help feed us as we sail on across the South Pacific to Australia. What an elemental satisfaction there is in this nomadic sailing life!

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