Trip Report-Island Mix
Caribbean · Thirty-Two Days · Twenty-Eight Field Notes
TrialsGo to Heaven for the Climate
And hell for the company. A living archive of islands, cruise-ship tolerance, infinity pools, movement, procrastination, and the people who make the voyage worth writing about.
Liking many people spontaneously and without effort is probably my greatest source of personal happiness.
I am inspired because of my travels, and therefore I should write more about them.
Sometimes I see what I see. Other times I see what I came to see.
Sailing on a cruise ship is like granola. Take away all the fruits and nuts, and all you have left are the flakes.
The Asymmetric Equation
Fruits + Nuts + Flakes = Cruise-Ship Humanity The company is the complication, the comedy, and ultimately the reason the voyage becomes memorable.Earth School
Life Is Always Winging It
Plans create the appearance of control. Shipboard life removes that appearance quickly.
The gravity of travel is that it can be expensive. Living on Earth and doing nothing still gets every one of us a round trip around the sun.
Earth school kills all its students, and procrastination is suicide on the instalment plan. Yet without the last minute, nothing would ever get done.
No matter how many plans you make or how much control you think you have, life is always winging it—especially while living and working on a cruise ship.
Some people call it a dream world. I love sleep and dreaming. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I am awake anyway.
Living on Earth and doing nothing still gets you a round trip around the sun.
Never Confuse Movement With Action
Heavenly Islands, Human Company
The islands supply the climate. The ship supplies the trial.
These islands are heavenly, and hell is other people. You meet them on a cruise ship.
It teaches tolerance.
It also teaches how many good kinds of people there are, because what is deeply personal is universal.
Tolerance Equation
Proximity + Difference + Time = Understanding Thirty-two days together turns strangers into evidence that humanity contains more good varieties than expected.December 2012
The Final Seven Field Notes
Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, Dominica, Martinique, Barbados, and the final stretch of the thirty-two-day route.
December · Field Note 01
Half Moon Cay — Ride Captain Ride
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 02
Mind, Body and H2O — And It Goes Like This
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 03
Frenchman's Reef — St Thomas, USVI
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 04
Dominica — It Just Happens
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 05
Friendships
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 06
Martinique — In the Name of Greener Grass
Open Field NoteDecember · Field Note 07
Barbados — Infinity Again
Open Field NoteNovember 2012
The Caribbean Living Archive
Twenty-one field notes spanning St Lucia, St Maarten, the ABC Islands, Grand Turk, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Barbados, Martinique, India, and the recurring territory of Dam Ships.
November · Field Note 01
Jade Mountain — St Lucia
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 02
St Maarten — Divi Little Bay
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 03
Caribbean Blue — Sweet Dreams Are Made of These
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 04
No Noose Is Good News
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 05
Same Ship, Different Day — The Right Mistake
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 06
From Zero to Infinity — Pools That Blow Your Mind
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 07
Curaçao — Renaissance Man
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 08
Bonaire — Shawshank Redemption
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 09
ABC Islands — It Ain't Much If It Ain't Dutch
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 10
Grand Turk — Escape to My Reality
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 11
Dominican Republic — 1492
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 12
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas — Sea Horses
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 13
St Thomas, USVI
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 14
Dam Ships
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 15
La Martinique — Caribbean Flower
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 16
Apocalypso Now
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 17
Barbados — The Boat Yard
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 18
St Lucia — Banana Republic Is Hiring
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 19
India — Losing My Religion(s)
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 20
The Statue's Not the Saint — Maarten
Open Field NoteNovember · Field Note 21
Dam Ships — The Map Is the Territory
Open Field NoteCompanion Story · 2012 Retrospective
Happy Last Year
The moving map became a written world: 364 days travelling, more than 130 posts, more than 50 destinations, and six continents.
Writing Archive · Six Continents · One Moving Map
2012 Happy Last Year
The annual retrospective turns movement into language. Month by month, the archive proves that writing was not a souvenir of the journey. Writing was how the journey became visible.
The route became a record: 364 days travelling, more than 130 posts, more than 50 destinations, and six continents gathered into one written world.
Open Original YearVisual Archive
Infinity, Islands, and Shipboard Proof
Six images retained from the original Blogger archive, with legacy thumbnail paths removed where the source supplied them.
