Kapt'n Kuck

Capt'n Look peers through the long glass his eyes scanning the open sea. Suddenly he stops: What do I see twinkling and sparkling in the sunlight? Don't tell me! Treasures ahoy! he yells excitedly as he beckons his sailors. Come quickly I have found treasure! The aim of the game is to collect the most points. Each round a different player acts as Capt'n Look and distributes treasure cards on the sea map. The other players are the sailors who should use their long glass to try to spot the treasure cards and remember what they see. When the hour glass timer has run through then the treasure cards are recollected. Whoever remembers a treasure correctly scores a point as their reward.

January marked the fifth month of our year-long "One World" sailing adventure sponsored by Nikon. There were 9 of us on board -- the captain and two crew, a cook, a guide, three photo contest winners and me ("the professional") -- bearing south in a three-masted schooner about 7 miles off the coast of Ecuador. We were feeling pretty good, having bagged several hundred remarkable captures of a golden sun, and then a thumbnail moon setting one after the other on a teal and purple sea, and now we were plowing through furrows of phosphorescent waves with a mantle of diamonds spangling the sky over our heads. The captain was determined to round The Horn while the summer seas remained favorable. Gradually the stars clouded over, rain fell lightly, steadily, then soon enough in sheets and we were pitched by heavy winds. The main sail was set but she started diving bows-under and in the crook of an 18-foot swell a wall of salt water hit me square in the chest, prying my arms from the mast. Washed overboard I was churned like a cork until I lost consciousness. At dawn I found myself mildly bruised and beached on the sandy shore of a black lagoon teeming with so much colorful life I thought surely I had died and gone to heaven. Barely thinking I dove back into the brine as an unworldly golden sea creature darted by. I raised my D3, still strapped with its underwater housing to my belt, squeezed the shutter and surfaced to check the monitor, seeing I'd fired too late to capture the creature's head but astounded at the image that did appear. There are no words for moments like this, I thought, when nothing goes according to our plans but we feel strangely more fortunate than we could have hoped for. Back on terra firma, safe and secure in my dry studio surrounded by the bounty of my many adventures, I am still most strongly drawn to this one image. And now words do come, three especially, bubbling irrepressibly heavenward like the dying confession of some repentant pirate: A Fish Tale. (Taken at an airport aquarium.) 0121

Me, proudly displaying one of the baked goodies I made for Christmas dinner, my bro’ Tom took the photo… O Sally (Just Me) tagged me :-) …. so here are 16 random things about me: 1. I’m a happy person…my glass is almost always ? full… 2. I was in a big hurry to grow up…I graduated from high school in 3 years and completed my mba when I was 22…I am baffled to this day, why I was in such a hurry… 3. I am a sucker for tweed and paisley 4. I’m a 2nd generation American…. 3 of my 4 grandparents were born abroad (2 in Greek Isles, 1 in Czechoslovakia…) 5. I’ve always loved music…from my earliest memories…my Mom placed our coffee table in front of the tv when I was a toddler as I would dance with total abandon anytime music was played (she was afraid I would crash into the tv ;-P) 6. I suffer from vertigo 7. I love to lose myself in films with amazing cinematography 8. I sometimes get panic attacks when driving on the highway 9. Once I got to sit in the captain’s seat in a DC-10 aircraft for about 30 minutes as it was flying over the rocky mountains to San Francisco (I am not a pilot)…it was fantastic beyond words… 10. In one 10 year period I lived in Memphis-Miami-Singapore-Memphis-Hong Kong-Memphis 11. I like geeky, quirky, obscure…remote…things off the beaten path make me happy 12. People often tell me their secrets…since I was a child…friends, strangers, etc… 13. I find it strangely comforting to be surrounded by people speaking a language I do not understand 14. One of the jobs I was offered out of grad school was to be a lobbyist for a gas pipeline company…I had to decline, as I’m a total tree hugger… 15. I love exploring big cities, but crowds make me nervous (can you believe I lived happily in Hong Kong?) 16. Contrary to what the above shot might imply…. I am far from a kitchen magician. I do enjoy cooking, but in the past, the men in my life did most of the cooking. However, I must admit…. the above pie was pretty de-lish… O