Mark's Blog

Hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro (Aug 01, 1999 12:00AM)

If you're into hiking, this is as good as it gets. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa. While Kili does have some technical climbing available, to get to the summit is just a very very hard... [ more ]

LAX (Feb 18, 2007 11:00AM)
We're at lax airport, super excited and checked in. Busy waiting for security screening. I've flown through here many times in domestic, but the international section is sooo much nicer. Can't wait... [ more ]

Rawi Island (Mar 07, 2007 04:20PM)
We just woke up at Ko Rawi in the Butang Islands. It's 7am and is another beautiful day. It's spring low so a lot of the reef is exposed and tiny schools of fish are jumping everywhere. We're about... [ more ]

Muay Thai (Feb 21, 2007 03:55PM)
Young Thai Boxing Fighters

The night before last we went to see some Thai Boxing or Muay Thai at Bangala stadium in Patong. A word of advice. If you're going to do this, don't get there early. There's a truck that drives... [ more ]

Sightseeing in Patong (Feb 20, 2007 11:00AM)
Downtown Patong

Yesterday we were sightseeing around Phuket Island spending most of our time walking and driving around the city of Patong. The temperature here is very hot and humid and takes some getting used to... [ more ]

Ko Phetra, Thailand (Mar 05, 2007 05:45PM)
We're at Ko Phetra on our way to Langkawi, Malaysia which is just south of here. The island is beautiful. It's a very tall limestone peak that is a popular place for collecting birds nests which are... [ more ]

Leaving Yacht Haven (Feb 22, 2007 04:26PM)
Yacht Tao

This is our last entry using the wireless internet at Yacht Haven. From now on we'll be posting via HAM (HF) radio using sailmail. Gotta go, I'm about to lose the internet because we've already cast... [ more ]

Shark! (Mar 06, 2007 07:50AM)
We are at Ko Adang in the Butang Islands in the South Western part of Thailand. We arrived here this afternoon and started making plans to go for a snorkel. The water around here has this strange... [ more ]

Victoria Falls (Nov 12, 2003 12:00AM)
The Vic falls are quite spectacular and worth visiting. The falls are called Mosi-oa-Tunya by the locals which means "The smoke that thunders". The Vic falls forms the largest curtain of falling... [ more ]

Ko Racha Yai, Thailand (Feb 27, 2007 09:00PM)
We spent last night at Racha Yai and the diving was spectacular. We all went for about three dives yesterday and saw some amazing coral. The tourist boats that are so ubiquitous in thailand were... [ more ]

Ao Nang, Thailand (Feb 24, 2007 06:30PM)
I should start by telling you I'm very very cranky this morning. Yesterday I made our first remote post from the boat via sailmail and I know I screwed up the position and it's somewhere near... [ more ]

Somewhere in rainy sth WA (Feb 15, 2007 08:15PM)
Just passed a place called resta rant. Lots of rain and trains but the rd is nice and empty. Portland is in 36 miles. Ziggy is on kerry's lap while she's driving. Joey is asleep in the back. [ more ]

The most epic beach break on earth (Nov 02, 1990 12:00AM)
Schaap Eiland is a little known surf spot on the west coast of South Africa. It's not that well known because most of the time it's big and blown out. But when it gets good it's probably the best... [ more ]

The old Greenwich Observatory at 0 Longitude (Dec 05, 2002 12:00AM)
This is one of my favorite places in London and was one my wife and my first dates. Greenwich park is beautiful and it's also the home of the Greenwich observatory which is what defines 0 degrees... [ more ]

Touring Singapore City (Mar 10, 2007 05:16AM)
Today we stopped in Singapore for 12 hours on the way back to LA. We spent the day touring the city. I am totally in love with this place. The people are incredibly friendly, the city is clean and... [ more ]

Singapore Airport (Feb 19, 2007 03:41PM)
We just spent 7 hours sleeping at singapore airport's transit hotel and are about to leave for Phuket. The transit hotel is awesome but you have to book more than a month ahead and people were... [ more ]

Getting hooked in Pemba Island (Nov 10, 2003 12:00AM)
My little accident

I was sailing around Pemba a few years ago with mom and dad. My mom is a genius fisherperson and we had just finished fishing. I handed her the rod and a lure on the line hooked my index finger. The... [ more ]

Iguacu Falls (Sep 01, 1996 12:00AM)
I was at iguacu a long time ago but this is definitelly one of my favorite experiences on the planet. The satellite photo gives you an idea of how much water is squeezing through a very small gap.... [ more ]

Ko Hong, Thailand (Feb 24, 2007 01:40AM)
Sorry you haven't heard from me for a while friends/family. We've been doing quite a bit of sailing. We left Yacht Haven yesterday morning. I just confirmed that with everyone else and we're all... [ more ]

Surfing The Wedge at Cape Town Harbour (Jan 03, 1994 12:00AM)
When it gets really big in Table Bay, this is an awesome and slightly scary surf spot. Big swells bounce off the harbour wall without losing much force and turn into big cross swells. The cross... [ more ]

The historical town of Parati, Brazil (Nov 08, 1993 12:00AM)
I spent several months sailing along the Brazilian coast line in the nineties with my parents. One of the towns we visited was Parati where we spent about a week. It's a beautiful quiet town with... [ more ]

Taco Bellissimo (Feb 15, 2007 06:05PM)
We didn't get very far and had to stop for taco bell. Friendliest taco bell I've been to. We're driving with the dog and cat and ziggy (cat) tries to escape every time we open the doors. We don't... [ more ]

Ko Phiphi Don, Thailand (Feb 25, 2007 09:00AM)
We arrived at Phiphi today and the water is beautifully clear. I dived at bamboo island on the way and we had about 10 meter visibility and it looks even better here. Haven't caught any fish lately,... [ more ]

Gps phone integration (Feb 15, 2007 09:45PM)
I must admit typing my gps's coodrinates into my blackberry every time I want to send a remote post to geojoey is a pain in the butt. A super simple solution would be a phone with built in gps that... [ more ]

Tokyo for 12 hours (Mar 11, 2007 01:06AM)
We just spent 12 hours in Tokyo city. It was awesome although we were very tired from a red-eye flight from Singapore that didn't offer much chance for sleep. We checked out the Sony Center in... [ more ]

Karan Beach, Thailand (Mar 01, 2007 03:49AM)
We decided to spoil ourselves to some airconditioning and checked into a hotel for 2 nights at Karen Beach. The boat is anchored just south of here at Kata Noi Beach. We got online yesterday and... [ more ]

Neno reef (Nov 02, 1987 12:00AM)
There's a rock underwater here where my two best childhood friends and I grew up bodyboarding. It gets really shallow - sometimes just a few inches deep, but it's awesome for bodyboarders because... [ more ]

Giant Tortoises at Chumbe Island (Nov 10, 2003 12:00AM)
Big Tortoises

If you're in Zanzibar and love tortoises, check out Chumbe Island where they have several giant Changuu Tortoises. Some are estimated to be 120 years old. [ more ]

Hike up Lions Head (Jan 01, 2006 12:00AM)
This is an awesome hike. It takes up to 2 hours although a friend and I once ran it in 45 minutes. It take about 10 minutes to the starting point from Cape Town center, but once you're hiking it... [ more ]

Bird Flu (or something similar) (Mar 03, 2007 08:35PM)
We're at Ko Muk on the way down to Langkawi (Malaysia). For the last 36 hours I had some kind of food poisoning with the added joy of all my muscles aching like I'd been hit by a train. The food... [ more ]

Using our product (Feb 15, 2007 08:55PM)
My sister in law told me over the phone that our first post in this journey ended up somewhere in asia, so I used my blackberry in the car to ssh into our database server and manually typed the sql... [ more ]

Blogging on a map from a boat (Feb 25, 2007 07:55PM)
I'm at a very low bandwidth internet cafe in Ko Phiphi, so I thought I'd write a quick entry about how we're posting from the boat and submit it to digg. What the hell. We're using a service called... [ more ]

Stone Town Market (Apr 01, 2003 12:00AM)

Stone town is the capital of Zanzibar and the largest town. The market there is something to see. The arts and crafts aren't the usual tourist fare - there are plenty of true collectibles to be... [ more ]

Seattle Seattle (Mar 26, 2007 06:52PM)
The weather is awful, the fishing is crap because the rivers are blown out but Seattle still has some great coffee. I've been going for coffee with friends in the city and really enjoying catching... [ more ]

Oooops (Feb 15, 2007 03:42PM)
We launched, everything worked perfectly, a friend emails and says there's this error on the website, I log on and oh it's just something minor and easy to fix and then we're getting ready to leave.... [ more ]

Rush Rush Rush!!!! (Feb 15, 2007 01:10PM)
I am in such an unbelievable rush today. Firstly we just launched the new site so welcome! Honestly the main reason Kerry and I have worked our behinds off for the last few weeks is so we can use the... [ more ]

Rest stops and radomes (Feb 16, 2007 06:10PM)
Joey and the Radome

I'm standing at something called an earth scope. Its a gps monitoring station that is part of the Plate Boundary Observatory. It collects info about earthquake and volcanic activity. It has a very... [ more ]

Catching crayfish at Dassen Island (Nov 16, 1992 12:00AM)
This tiny godforsaken island off the west coast of South Africa has some fond childhood memories for me. We used to sail here from the small coastal town nearby called Yzerfontein or from Cape Town.... [ more ]

Freediving at Jorge Greko (Feb 15, 1993 12:00AM)
This little island is usually ignored in favor of the larger Ilha Grande which lies North of here. But it's well worth a visit if you're looking for some slightly wilder diving terrain and want to... [ more ]

Rain won't quit (Feb 15, 2007 10:10PM)
Its been raining since we left seattle and it just won't quit. Phuket is sounding very good right now. We're going to drive for quite a few more hours - maybe through the night if the coffee lasts... [ more ]

N california (Feb 16, 2007 12:55PM)
Shasta

Getting a late start in n ca on our way to OC. The rain has stopped, the sky is clear and mt shasta looks beautiful. We're at Silvas family restaurant now and the food was awesome. [ more ]

Fly Fishing South Platte River - The Dream Stream (Aug 10, 2007 10:16PM)
This stretch of river is known locally as the "Dream Stream". It's home to some very large brown trout and rainbow trout - up to 27 inches. I arrived at 8am and fished until 3:30pm. I got lucky when... [ more ]

Best tequila bar in London (Nov 02, 2004 12:00AM)
The bar at Cafe Pacifico

Kerry and I spent far too much time getting free drinks out of Pablo the Columbian barman at Cafe Pacifico. I'm a bit of a tequila fan and Cafe Pacifico has the best range of premium tequila I've... [ more ]

Tokyo Airport (Feb 19, 2007 01:26AM)
We're in Tokyo!! We don't get to leave the airport and have about 15 minutes until our flight leaves for Singapore. The airport is immaculate and everyone is super friendly. We're not going to get to... [ more ]

Talaga Harbour in Langkawi - heading home (Mar 09, 2007 04:10PM)
We arrived at Talaga Harbour the day before yesterday. It's a pretty little harbour. They filmed a movie called Anna and the King here and built two man-made islands expecially for the filming which... [ more ]

Back in Sunny Cali (Mar 13, 2007 08:45AM)
We're back in California with a bit of jetlag. Going to be here for another day or two and then driving back up to Seattle. [ more ]

Last minute feature - auto centering (Feb 17, 2007 09:34PM)
Any software engineer will tell you I'm nuts for doing this. I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 9am for fuckitt - or is it Phuket I can never remember. Anyway I just pushed out a last minute feature,... [ more ]

New Version of GJ and leaving tomorrow (Feb 17, 2007 07:01PM)
I spent most of today coding and I've pushed out a new version of Geojoey this evening. Some improvements: We now have RSS feeds for all blogs (Thanks Kate for the suggestion!). There's a link at the... [ more ]

Home Again Home Again Jiggiddy Jig! (Feb 17, 2007 01:19AM)
aaaah. It's 1:19am and we're back in LALA Land. Or just south of there anyway. For some reason that drive felt a lot shorter than Denver to Seattle. That was such an awesome way to test our software.... [ more ]

At Phuket waiting for little sis (Feb 20, 2007 01:29AM)
We arrived in Phuket this morning at around 9am. Met mum and dad at the airport and went exploring around the island. We've had our first cocktails, almost gotten killed by the insane scooters... [ more ]

Table Mountain Downhill Mountain Bike trail (Oct 31, 2005 12:00AM)
The red trail is a service road that is very torn up. If you're tired at the end of the red trail, take the green trail to the road. The purple trail is singletrack with an awesome downhill at the... [ more ]

Hiked up to Camp Muir and skied down (Jun 27, 2007 12:17PM)
An awesome trip with Joe and Tom. We hiked up to Camp Muir and skied down. The entire trip took about 6 hours and the ski down was spectacular. I've imported the GPS track so you can see our route. [ more ]

Seven Glaciers Restaurant at Alyeska (May 09, 2006 12:00AM)
Alyeska is some of the finest skiing on Earth, but few people know about a hidden gem at Alyeska Ski Resort. The Seven Glaciers Restaurant has some of the best seafood I've tasted, a well stocked... [ more ]