We met Pascal during an extraordinary slideshow presentation about the school children in their village. “Our kids have an important task,” Pascal had said in his resounding voice. “They are managing the marine protected area in front of our village.” I raised my eyebrows. Come again? “Our coastline in Marquesas is precious,” Pascal had explained. … Continue reading Marine Reserves Start with Kids in Marquesas
About a week after our Green Coco raffle, the Marquesan school kids went to Chile. (The Green Coco community fundraised nearly $2100 to gift to the non-profit Motu Haka, which is coordinating the school kids’ marine reserves. Read more on our post her) It was the first time any of the school kids had gone … Continue reading Marquesan school kids go to Chile conference!
With huge smiles, elder ladies sang Polynesian songs to the strum of acoustic guitars, swaying in their sarongs and flowers tucked into their hair. They were amidst the July festivities, celebrating with a community lunch. Although lunch time was technically over, our host Pascal kindly asked the cooks to serve us portions of the traditional … Continue reading The Kids’ Reserves take on a challenge
I won’t lie, the coordination involved to pull this off was formidable. I mean, skiing is a gear/resource intensive activity and we are tropical sailors, on a layover with no winter weather gear. zilch! So this post helps share how we made it happen. What motivated this whole trip was the girls’ 4th birthday: their … Continue reading The ultimate vacation for tropical sailors
Eight months ago, I took a wild chance and flew 3 nights to East Africa to look at a 60ft cataraman, motivated by an idea for a world schooling expedition. Guess what? Our maiden voyage aboard on that new boat in the Seychelles is in less than two months, yowwzaa!! Hard to believe it is happening. … Continue reading It takes a village.. and less than 1 year!
Can you imagine teaching little kids aboard a sailboat, while exploring dreamy tropical places on a big catamaran — sailing around the world in places like French Polynesia, Seychelles, and spots in between? You might be in luck 🙂 We are launching a world schooling expedition this year. Our vision is to create an innovative … Continue reading Expedition Teacher: world schooling by sailboat
Here’s the info to join the Green Coco Expedition — an innovative, family friendly around-the-world voyage, with a global itinerary for 15 years! We have enough pledged to purchase our 60ft Expedition Catamaran, just offering 2.5 more boat shares to help cover our operating expenses for year 1. Quick link to investor files here (Proposal, … Continue reading Close to our goal! Financing the Expedition
Can you imagine helping teach twin girls (almost age 4) as we cruise and explore dream places around the world like French Polynesia, Seychelles, and spots in between? You might be in luck 🙂 We have identical twin girls who are completely amazing and would love a new mentor-teacher-friend to guide them in their daily … Continue reading Teacher in paradise
Minutes before reeling in the beautiful yellow fin tuna, we were motoring along the calm ocean with little wind. Then, all at once the sky darkened with foreboding clouds, and the winds started howling. As if on cue, both reels started zipping off at once! It was a double hook up synched with the passing … Continue reading When $20 is better than $200
“Leon, nous sommes arrivés!” Sabrina told our friend enthusiastically over the phone, advising that we had arrived. “Magnifique!” Leon responded, and told us how to find his house — distinctly salmon colored and hanging over the water’s edge 1/2 mile after the pass. How often do we arrive in a new island after 500 miles … Continue reading Makemo Atoll, home of Leon and Soraya
The Marquesas has amazing wood work: tiki statues, engraved canoe paddle, bone inlay rosewood swords. However, from the start Sabrina had her eyes on one item: finding us a new salad bowl, since our old ceramic one had cracked during a passage.
We were snorkeling in the north part of Hakahetau’s bay when we saw a Manta Ray with a 10 foot wingspan swimming towards us. A fat remora hung to the white underside of the Manta as the spaceship-looking creature banked a big turn. I held my breath longer than was comfortable as it gracefully swam … Continue reading Mantas at the kid’s reserve
Anaho Bay is famous among cruisers as the most protected anchorage in Marquesas. There is no road access which makes it all the more special.
The first half of the 1800s rival missionaries- primarily Catholic and the Protestant London Missionary Society in lock step with French and British jockeying for political power- increasingly arrived to convert the natives. The Tahitian king Pomaré converted to Christianity, dramatically forbidding traditional dancing and traditions missionaries saw as inappropriate. Several decades later, Tahitian … Continue reading Heiva Festival
The boat was repaired, and our new crew was in good spirits. After a month and a half in the southern Marquesas, we were finally heading to the northern group. The island of Ua Pou was our first destination, we set sail just after dark with strong SE tradewinds sending us flying north.
The biggest winners of our raffle were the Marquesan kids and their marine reserve: our community raised $2500 for them in just one week! THANK YOU to each one of the 22 participants of our raffle and everyone who helped spread the word. Want to support even though the raffle is over? Send money … Continue reading The winners of the raffle are…
Announcing our prizes for the raffle! Don’t forget to please share with friends. It is this weekend, August 19th, 3pm PST These unique handicrafts from our travels could be yours with one ticket for $20, or 3 for $50 (send money via Paypal.com or Wellsfargo.com ‘Surepay’ to greencoconutrun@gmail.com ). Contributions of $100 or $250 automatically … Continue reading What are the Raffle Prizes? (Aug 19th)
We’ve discovered inspiring projects during our travels but this has been the most mind-blowing of them all: Marquesan school children managing their own marine reserves. (See our previous posts, link at bottom… it’s the smartest way to protect the ocean that we’ve seen!) To help fund this grassroots project – and their travel to an … Continue reading Raffle for Kid’s Reserve!
Every time a boat is dry docked, you’ll find little nasty secrets that need repair. I spitefully call them “Gremlins”, because they come out of the dark recesses of the boat and bite you in the back. Sabrina and I cranked away at the first 5 days of work before any Gremlins popped up … Continue reading Finding Gremlins
…and how we’re crowdfunding to bring solar lights (and sweet sailing videos) to the world. Please support our Patreon campaign ! The whole story is below.
Green Coconut Run 