I spent my first day back on KV Kismet catching up on some sleep and getting moved back in. Kevin was traumatized by the rough passage from Indonesia to the Philippines and wanted to get motoring up north as quickly as possible. But first, we needed to do some provisioning, I needed a phone card, …
I spent most of 2023 in Southeast Asia before returning home to California for the holidays. Being home honestly felt amazing. The more time I spent away, the more time I relished being back. It was lovely spending time with friends and family who have known me my whole life. Something about it gives me …
After the 4-week coral restoration course wrapped up, I was equipped with all the knowledge to keep planting coral at the three different GaiaOne nurseries. The first nursery is at the house reef, just off the coast of Tevana. There is a second nursery across the sea, at a neighboring island called Liukang, and the …
Do you ever feel like things line up so perfectly, that you couldn’t have planned it better yourself? That’s exactly how I felt about my time at Tevena House Reef. If you remember a few blogs ago, everything about this place felt like a manifestation becoming more and more true. When I first met the …
I spent my first week in Bira, Indonesia, participating in the 1-week freediving retreat and enjoyed a mixture of diving, yoga, and breathwork. After the week was over, most of my new friends I made during the course headed back to their homes and I remained at Tevana House Reef with a few others who …
After staying overnight in the city of Makassar, Indonesia, I headed back to the airport to pick up a group from the freediving retreat that was arriving in the morning. As mentioned in previous posts, I had been carrying around my freediving fins all year without using them very often. I didn’t know much about …
After getting my wallet stolen in Kuala Lumpur, I was ready to get out of Malaysia. After realizing that I likely wouldn’t return before the end of the year, I began to get increasingly nostalgic about my time there. Before ever coming to Malaysia, people would tell me not to visit, saying it was a …
I had about a week to kill in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to reset my Indonesian visa. I messaged my friend Kai to let her know that I would be coming to town and we made plans to meet up the next day to see the Barbie movie. After my lonely week in Nusa Lembongan, I …
I knew my time on SV Kismet was coming to an end but I wasn’t sure where to go next. So, naturally, I made a new manifestation list. I wanted to do more conservation-based diving somewhere in Southeast Asia, be there for 1-2 months, spend less than $2,000 per month, have a chance to help …
After an unexpected month away from KV Kismet, I finally met Kevin at the dock in Lombok. It was such a relief to be back onboard and reunited with all my stuff again. Kevin’s brother, Sean, was also back, visiting for a couple of weeks and the guys had some more land-based adventures planned. Also, …
It had been almost a month since leaving Indonesia on my 3-day visa run but I was finally returning, with a shiny new passport in hand. In the weeks that I was away, Kevin sailed from Komodo to Lombok, diving along the way. I arrived in Lombok to meet him but he had other plans …
My 3-day visa run from Indonesia was now turning into 3 weeks as I returned back to Kuala Lumpur to pick up my new passport. Unfortunately, the US Embassy only allows you to pick up your passport on Mondays or Wednesdays from 2-4 pm and I arrived back in the city on a Friday so …
With my passport renewal application safely submitted to the US Embassy in Malaysia, I could finally relax. The processing time was expected to be about 2 weeks and I had an apartment in Kuala Lumpur booked for the first few days. Luckily, I had some friends coming to town so the timing worked out well. …
After my 60 days of cruising on SV Kismet in Indonesia, I flew to Singapore for a 3-day visa run and to stock up on things to bring back for the boat. On the day of my return flight, I came back to the airport with my backpack and cardboard box of goods to check. …
After a few days in Wakatobi National Park, we departed and made our way toward our final destination: Labuan Bajo, the port city of Komodo National Park. The conditions were relatively calm and we finally got to use the spinnaker which had been taking up a lot of space in the salon. Instead of going …
We were halfway through our time in Wakatobi National Park and we moved SV Kismet down to the more southern island called Tomia (sometimes spelled Tomea). We had a lazy morning before departure and it took us two hours to get there, but when we arrived, we realized our mistake. The plan was to traverse …
After two days of passage, we arrived in Wakatobi National Park which is a collection of islands off the southeastern coast of Sulawesi. If you search where’s the best diving in Indonesia, you’ll often find Wakatobi in the top three destinations, next to Raja Ampat and Komodo. Needless to say, I was excited to do …
Kevin, Joni, and I arrived in Ambon, the largest city in the Indonesian province of Maluku, just in time to celebrate Joni’s 32nd birthday. Before arriving, I coordinated with a local dive shop to use their mooring ball in exchange for booking some dives. Ambon is world famous for its muck diving and what the …
After six weeks of unbelievable beauty, sailing and diving in Raja Ampat, it was time for SV Kismet to start heading south. We planned to get to Komodo over two weeks, with one or two overnight passages between stops. Once in Komodo, Joni and I would depart before our 60-day visas expired. Joni planned to …
With Joni joining Kevin and me onboard SV Kismet, we were ready to depart Sorong and continue to explore Raja Ampat once more. Since my and Kevin’s first time in Wayag was a little rainy, we decided to do the same trip that we had done with Kevin’s brother, Sean, but make a few different …
After our first day in the Sorong marina, I received a message from Joni whom I met in Langkawi on SV Millennium. I had last seen her on Tioman Island for our girl’s reunion and it seemed she and her boyfriend had since split up, leaving her in Indonesia with no plans. I asked Kevin …
It had already been one week of cruising on SV Kismet and I was quickly growing back into the cruising lifestyle. We would be arriving in Pulau Wayag but first, we had another big milestone to check off: cross the equator south to north! It had been over a year since we all crossed the …
I spent my first day on SV Kismet catching up on some much-needed rest from traveling and also catching up with Kevin and Sean. The last time I saw them both was in Fiji last year and since then, Kevin had sailed to Australia and then up to Indonesia, with Sean joining for the longer …
During my time volunteering at TRACC, I received a message from an old cruising friend, Kevin on SV Kismet. I first met Kevin during the Nada Haha sailing rally from San Diego to Fiji during my first two weeks of cruising in 2020. Since then, Eitan and I sailed off and on with Kevin around …
This week it will have been three years since quitting my career and making a leap of faith into the unknown. Before writing this, I went back and reread my Year 2 in Review blog from last year. I was in Fiji, wrapping up the year on SV Sierra Wind in the South Pacific and …
After one week in the big city of Kuala Lumpur, Megan and I packed up our heavy bags and made our way to the bus station. After hearing me talk about the Path of Least Resistance trip and how much I loved Tioman Island, Megan agreed to join me for a week before we went …
After spending four weeks volunteering at the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC), Megan and I hopped on a flight to represent TRACC at the Malaysia International Dive Expo in Kuala Lumpur. It took a full day of traveling to the big city before we arrived at our hotel then woke up early again to …
When I wrote my initial manifestation list while I was looking for a volunteer opportunity, one of the components was an opportunity to better my underwater photography and videography skills and find a mentor in this area. So, when I found out about Megan (an underwater photographer) and TRACC, it felt truly kismet that everything …
After arriving in Borneo and learning about dynamite fishing and sea turtle nest poaching, I was inspired to begin my month of volunteering at the Tropical Research and Conservation Center. Our daily schedule Tuesday through Saturday would include a morning work dive, followed by lunch, then an afternoon work dive and data entry, then dinner …
After the eye-opening experience of arriving in Semporna, I arrived on Pom Pom Island with my new friend, Megan, and Robin, a director of the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC). We were briefly shown around the facilities which included a large, covered common area called Number 4 (I still don’t understand why) and a …
After saying goodbye to the crew of SV Millennium, I set off to my next adventure on the other side of Malaysia, in Borneo. I would be volunteering for the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC) with my new friend Megan whom I met through Instagram and a mutual connection. My flights took me from …
After two weeks on the Path of Least Resistance, I was on my way back to Langkawi with a new take on life and decided it was time to end my chapter on SV Millennium. It had already been almost three months since coming to Malaysia and knew that working in a shipyard felt like …
Candice and I found ourselves with just a few days left on Tioman Island before we were scheduled to be back on SV Millenium. Although one of our rules for the Path of Least Resistance was to not plan anything in advance and let the magic unfold, I booked a freediving course at the end …
After spending a week in Juara on Tioman Island, Candice and I canceled our plans to volunteer at the dive resort and decided to see another part of the island. Where would we go next? I was in awe at the rock spires we saw at the southern part of the island as we arrived …
After two days in Penang, my and Candice’s Path of Least Resistance trip was off to a great start. Our next destination would be Tioman Island where we would be volunteering at a dive resort for two weeks in exchange for free diving. To get there, we had to fly from Penang to Johor Baru …
After my first two months onboard SV Millennium, Nate gave us two weeks off but I had no idea where to go or what to do. Candice and I decided to travel together but planning anything so last minute and on a budget proved difficult and frustrating. Instead, we decided to do a little experiment …
Once I had found a new home for Milli, our boat kitty, I suddenly felt like I didn’t have much of a purpose for staying in the shipyard. My job onboard had somehow become the master organizer and I spent most of my days tidying up the mess that occurred daily because if people can’t …
Shortly after I arrived on SV Millennium, I discovered the boat had been adopted by a little stray kitten. We named the kitten Milli (short for Millennium) and she quickly made her way into all of our hearts. She was a mixture of black and orange with a knobby, cropped tail typical of inbred island …
With a complete crew of 10 people, we were determined to keep the ball rolling and get SV Millennium in the water. I had already been onboard for two weeks and knew that the estimated two weeks in the shipyard was a bit of a miscalculation. There was still plenty to do as we finished …
My first week aboard SV Millennium was spent constantly questioning my decision to come to Malaysia to work in a shipyard for 40 hours per week for free. Although I enjoyed meeting everyone onboard, it’s always a bit awkward being the last person to join. Nate was busy as the captain, Amy spent her days …
After arriving in Langkawi and getting settled into my new home on SV Millennium, the days began blending together as I fell into the daily routine. The mornings normally consisted of breakfast, coffee, and a workout or walk followed by a group meeting at 9:30 am. Nate would go over the schedule for the day …
After a relaxing three months at home to enjoy the holidays, friends, and family, I boarded my flight to Southeast Asia to join a new boat called SV Millennium with the crew of Expedition Drenched. Before arriving, Nate, the captain, shared with me a brief history of the project and boat. Expedition Drenched was started …
