By borisheir on Skatehive
I fell in love with the Pacific Ocean in 1947, when my parents took me on an underwater tour of Avalon Harbor in Catalina Island – by “glass-bottomed boat”, of course. I was awed by the profusion of sea life and my first exposure to the use of diving masks and fins, demonstrated by the boys my age swimming in the harbor. Snorkels had not yet been invented. Within a year my personal heroes were Jacques Cousteau and Thor Heyerdahl, whose exploits kicked off my enthusiasm for nautical adventures. And it wasn’t long before I was routinely reading accounts of sea-faring individuals and families who’d “gone sailing” as a chosen lifestyle. I’ve long aspired to that lifestyle myself – but never quite made it, because other priorities in my life prevented me from accumulating enough money to do it properly – and I won’t go to sea on a suicide mission. The dream survived though – until today. I’ve known since the Fukushima event of 2011 that human life on the planet is