Category Archives: Captain Liz Clark and the Voyage of Swell

As a surfer and environmentalist enchanted by foreign waves and cultures, Captain Liz Clark left California aboard her 40-foot sailboat, Swell, in early 2006. As Liz says herself, “The world has since shown me more amazing people, waves, adventures, natural beauty, personal insights, and alternative ways to living than I ever dreamed possible. Swell serves as my floating home and transportation. I travel at a pace not much faster than you can run. The weather, swell, and tides dictate my days. This isn’t just a surf trip, it’s a lifestyle.”

Small Things with Great LOVE

Sometimes we must let go and trust… I’ll be back in the States through September!!…I DO regret the carbon cost in jet fuel it took to get here. So in the meantime, I’ll try to offset it a bit by sharing with you a few of my favorite organizations that are working hard to make [...]
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brokedown bliss…

There would be no negotiation. Swell would have to be moved right away. I wanted to beg and plead with the man, but I didn’t. I simply sighed and put my mask and fins back on to dive down and untie the extra lines and free the anchor. I mulled through the options of where [...]
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“Indecision may or may not be my problem!?”

A few days before my departure to the States,  Swell hovers happily over her favorite sand bar… After far too much deliberation, I decided that one thing was certain: I didn’t want to start the next leg of my voyage in a hurry. Instead of rushing off in search of a safe place to leave [...]
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Decisions decisions…

I found myself in utter denial of my departure from French Polynesia. I seemed to just keep putting off the inevitable because I didn’t feel quite right about it…I wasn’t ready to leave. And how would I do everything I wanted to do in the next few months? I needed to fly [...]
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The Easiest Thing I Ever Fixed

  And so, after a deceptively strong cup of coffee aboard ‘Sea Level’, I bid Kent and Jimmy farewell. That was just the extra kick I needed to attack the ‘new’ leak. I’d been feeling an overall lack of passion for fixing things over the last month, and the new [...]
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I No Want More Fixy Fixy!?

Swell’s bilge wasn’t dry for long. After a month or so afloat, a constant trickle of water coming from below the fuel tank could not be ignored. The galley sink drain had broken two weeks priors, sending seawater spilling in, but I fixed it right away and all the spillage would have long since dried? There [...]
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Raa-Mau-Riri Swallows the Sun

The days flew by and all of a sudden it was July 11th. This was the day that astronomers and eclipse chasers around the world had been waiting for…the moon would pass directly over the sun and cast a shadow across the Earth to be seen for those anywhere along a tiny belt of the [...]
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Boom and Doom

For a second I thought he was dead, lying there face up right below the boom in his sailing harness. I’d come out of the cabin from an attempt to rest to find him splayed there across the cockpit. It had to be nearly 3am. “Nalu! Nalu!” I leapt over the wheel and shook him. “What! What! [...]
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Galley Grinds…

Now that I have my galley back, with fresh countertops and a new sink drain, I’m spending a bit more time trying to properly nourish myself. I’d been getting by eating cabbage salads and heavily buttered baguettes for way too long. Sadly, 85-90% of food eaten in Tahiti is imported and the vegetables grown locally [...]
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Carissa and Bethany Charge Teahupo’o

I heard a voice outside calling my name, and popped up to see Raimana and Tim and Eric in the familiar orange poti marara. “How’s it going? Are you safe? Everything okay?” Raimana asked. I filled them in briefly on the boatyard complications and promised to see them in the lineup in the coming [...]
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