Submitted by nslavinski on Sun, 05/09/2021 - 12:33
A Speck in the Ocean
I'm a big fan of the Books and Travel podcast and was honored to recently appear there as a guest. Listen in as we discuss the joys and challenges of sailing across the Pacific as well why I chose Panama as the setting for my Novel, The Silver Spider.
Happy listening!
Submitted by nslavinski on Sun, 03/07/2021 - 16:56
One reason we went cruising was to escape the ticking clock. And we succeeded: looking back on our 7000 mile Pacific crossing, I can count the number of times we’ve had to hurry on one hand. So what were we rushing off to in Suwarrow, an uninhabited atoll 2,000 miles west of nowhere? Read more
here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Tue, 03/02/2021 - 13:36
I spotted a lighthouse that looked as if it reached all the way to the floor of heaven...
That’s just one of many great lines in Jimmy Buffett’s romp of a sailing yarn, A Salty Piece of Land. And it’s absolutely accurate, as we discovered upon sailing to the Amédée lighthouse in New Caledonia’s magnificent lagoon. Read more here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Sun, 02/28/2021 - 13:43
At first, we thought those shadows around our son in New Caledonia's spectacular lagoon were rocks. Then we saw that some had fins!
Read more here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Sun, 10/11/2020 - 00:38
We've all heard the poem:
I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. The romance of that vision is part of what inspired us to leave the familiar behind and head out to sea. But once we settled into the cruising life, we realized there was another side of it all that appealed as much as those grander things.
Read more here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Sat, 06/06/2020 - 18:23
Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three. My finger tapped the horizon. Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six. What had started as a few hulking forms on the horizon became a dozen, and the dozen multiplied...
Read more here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 04:00
At the heyday of Spain’s New World conquests, Panama's Portobelo acted as a collection point for huge quantifies of gold and silver – the treasure chest of the Americas, so to speak.
Read more here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Sat, 10/04/2014 - 10:25
Research was one enjoyable part of writing
The Silver Spider, especially when it came to colonial times in Panama and the canal building era in the early twentieth century.
Continue reading here...
Submitted by nslavinski on Fri, 07/11/2014 - 14:36
Panama’s Portobelo is a gem of a place for modern-day sailors – in fact and in fiction. After visiting Portobelo, Panama aboard my sailboat in 2012, I wrote a magazine article about the “beautiful port.” Eventually, echoes of that piece worked their way into my novel...
Continue reading...
Submitted by nslavinski on Thu, 07/03/2014 - 18:19
I was asked to write about the benefits of extended travel as a family for the Australian Camper / Campervan magazine,
Time to Roam. In brief, some of the benefits are: perspective, the magic of family time, appreciating limited resources, exhaling (ie.relaxing) and learning to schedule free time.
Continue reading...
Pages