This is Desire's current Nav. Station which is soon to be redone with her new brain and AIS/Navigation system, SSB radio and Radar.

A note about the Emergency Stop Button and God's remote =>

ESB: Working much like Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers, Desire's Emergency Stop Button, when activated in the event of a crisis, will propel me through time and space so that I wake up safe and sound in my bed in Seattle as if the current situation is all a dream.

GR: When I first got to Hawaii and was sailing back and forth I needed to hitchhike around whatever island I was exploring. As I stood by the highway in Kauai one day with my thumb extended I made myself a promise that when I had a car I would pick up anyone extending their thumb alongside the road who wasn't covered in cow manure or cat piss.

A year or so later when I was working on the Big Island and I picked up a dude in South Kona who looked like Jesus. As he rummaged around in his knapsack for some local agricultural product he wished to share with me, he set a white TV remote on my dash. Later when he was getting out of my work van I noticed the remote on the dash. As I was handing it to him he said, "No, you keep it, I swiped it off of my dad's coffee table and don't need it."

So I ended up with God's remote control! I've never needed to use it yet but if I do, watch out! I would never use it for evil purposes, but I can go forward and reverse, change channels or pause time/space/reality! Until God wants it back of course...

~Open letter to all Ladonian Citizens~

As a loyal subject to Ladonia since 2002 (Citizen nr: 2002-6925) and as acting for Ladonia in the capacity of Royal Ladonian Navy Admiral of Nautical Discovery (and land acquisition), claiming lands for Ladonia (Ladonian Isle of Blake, Ladonian Isle of Gilligan, New Ladonian Floating Pumice Isle in Tonga and less significant rocks sticking out of the water around the globe), using the help of my friends and the good ship 'Desire' (for real, not photoshopped). I appeal to you for granting me the position of ~ Minister of Danger and Unexpected Phenomenon ~.

I am currently in Hawaii preparing 'Desire' for her most challenging and epic voyage to date, namely her safe return to her home port of Seattle in the Salish Seas of the American North West. I plan to claim the Cobb Seamount 100 miles of off the North West Coast with a special floating Ladonian Flag Bouy I have deployed before on an emerging underwater volcano here in Hawaii.

As the head of the Ministry of Danger and Unexpected Phenomenon you will find no one more committed to Ladonian danger awareness and preparedness of the unexpected.

Yours most humbly,

Admrl. Schwarz, Royal Ladonian Navy (and Coast Guard)

Someone asked me when my first ocean passage was. I remember sailing around Lake Ponchetrain (by New Orleans) before the age of eight, but I don't think that counts as a passage. I told them that it was when I was about 11 on West Wind with my dad and his friend Wolfgang from Marina Del Re to Catalina. It was really an awesome trip with just us guys on the ocean and suddenly being aware that one could actually live on a boat instead of just sail around for an afternoon!

I few days later I realized that I had made a much more significant ocean passage earlier than that, from Germany to New Orleans on a Lykes Line freighter when I was three. The only thing I really remember was when we had to do a life boat drill. We put on big orange life vests and went out and stood around one of the life boats. I couldn't understand why we didn't just get in the life boat and launch it. At the very least I wanted to jump into the ocean and see how my snazzy orange life vest worked...

I found these old pictures of the Lykes line ship that we did our crossing on, including a cabin shot and a shot of the deck amenities. I love the travel brochure caption, 'Travel in Informal Comfort'. A style of travel I embrace to this day!

But technically that may not be my first ocean passage either. My parents can neither confirm or deny that I may have been conceived on (or near) a boat in the North Sea. On their honeymoon they went sailing along the Danish coast and I was born exactly nine months later...

It's a whirlwind of activity on Desire getting her off this

rock and ready for her big hop back to the continent.