Oh my word...is she back with him??

She is a beautiful girl.

Is she just visiting James for a short time or is she staying in Lisbon now?


Amazing how she has become as interesting as James now?

This dude is actually going to "work" on a pirate ship, he was recruited...OMG.

James Zinkand
Boarding the Pirate Ship at 9am going to the Medori Islands and Than Tarriff and than the Canary Islands and than Itlaly and than Senegal. I have just realized this is me doing this on my own.last Wednesday.

James who?

James better not wear the traditional pirate clothes..


Warning..big dick

Spoiler:

Might be mistaken for a rope to swing from

http://www.gnarlyriders.org/blog/

October 15, 2009

The magic of being on the road is intwined with the neverneding possibilities of where the road will take you. This magic has twisted my road to the sea for the moment and I am now on board a early 1900 Tall Ship headed to Morrocco. As I wirte this I am currently off the coast of Morrocco on a Portuguese Island called Medaira. The lush hills of forest and wilderness splash into the coast unfolding a city by the sea called Funical. I still can’t believe I am on a pirate ship. Although the Captain and crew are Dutch and a Belgian Jeweler it still makes for an interesting side journey before Africa. The sea and land are two seperate beasts and I can fully understand the solitude the sea brings after sailing for 5 days with not a soul around for hundreds of miles. Also the motion sickness of the sea rocking the boat sometimes have left me bewildered and all I can still do is smile that I am actually in this sitiuation.

It was 11 days ago I met Pieter my captain in Cascais, Portugal. I served him a pint of Super Bock and his wife a cappuchino. To describe Pieter in the best sense he is a quite man with a look that seems to have been through alot. His face has undertaken the life of the sea and the sun and he has a distinct calmness about him, not to mention he is dutch and has blue eyes. I was intrigued by his shirt that had a outline of the pirate ship that was in the harbor embordiered on it. I asked if he worked on the ship that was on his shirt and if it was the one ported in the harbor. He laughed and said yes, “That is my ship.” We gott alking about where we were both headed in our adentures and he jokingly said , “Come with me I will sail you to Africa.” At first I laughed with him and than it sunk in. This man has just ask me to board his ship and go on a high seas adventure to Africa and dyanmite into Africa with a less than normal arrival. Immediately after work I sped home and told my housemates of my new adventure and realized I had to go. The road had given me a new light a path to devour and I could not turn it down. Over the next two days I thought about leaving ill prepared not having my financial quota met before Africa but why wait to gain a couple of hundred euros when I could gain a lifelong expeirence learning how to sail on a ship that comes from dreams. After the days passed I thought I would never see Pieter again and that my chances of boarding the ship had passed and than bang he arrived one last time before he left and ordered the same again, this time I don’t think he was expecting not only to get his order but a new crew mate. I eagerly told him of my aspirations to board teh ship and that his offer had made me feverish to leave the bar I had been working at, he quinatly said he needed to talk to his firstmate but it should be ok.

Amazing, the boat has called now I just had to leave work and get paid without pissing anybody off. I knew my boss was notorious for boning people out of cash if they left early and made people wait til the next pay period the follwing month to get paid, in order to expedite this process and my leaving from work I said my uncle called me while I was on my break and said I urgently needed to go home. Of course I didn’t say why but sometimes the things you leave out make it seem more intense, it leaves the imagination to grow the most outrageous ideas and thoughts of what might have happened. Of course I had to act distrought and thankfully my time as a mortgage broker and the verbal conning I had learned had helped me through this process quite nicely.

Directions for lying to your boss.
a.)Always look into the eyes never shifting your postion sometimes its best to focus on his or her nose
b.)Politely and calmly ask for a discreet moment, using the word discreet usually catches them off guard
c.)Make your bullshit excuse for leaving is good and subtle but have an undertone of emergency
d.) Always hug your employees goodbye in front of your boss and always leave a note with the most trusted telling them to call you after work.
e.)Always thank them for the oppotunity for working for them and that you will be back…Sometimes you might gag at the idea of ever coming back to work for some people and that is why your lying to get away.
I as I bicycled from the bar all I could do is giggle like a little boy and hurried home to pack my bags and say goodbye, my adventure had taken me into an unknown realm and it would never be the same.

Enroute to Africa and couchsurfing.com is proving to be a wonderful resource for discovering unlimited possibilites on the African Coast all the way down to Capetown.

October 16 (posted on 19th) Photos at the site


Being ported currently on the island of Madiera waiting here for possible work for the ship. We could be here 4 more days or if work prevails one to two months. The question is how long will I? Depends when I am full living on a pirate ship.


Leaving the boat for land

The one that looks like a pirate ship is the Astrid




Talking with Faith yesterday was amazing and it has been nearly 4½ months since we have been together on a everyday basis. It’s been rough and very pragmactical to moods and the ongoing sense of lonliness.


The Picture that makes the words come out



We both are sticking it out, but some days aren’t the best and could you blame it for being hard? Skype is our lifeline but how will this work in Sub-Saharan Africa? You know the saying “If it’s meant to be it will be.” , it’s bullshit. This takes undeniable efforts on both parts and it’s not ending soon. Faith has also committed to staying in Paris since she got her working visa for her company. I am so proud of her and the woman she is. As I am achieving the glory of the road, she is achieving business success, which in lies the current spacing. As I progress into my current adventure like many have before me, I wonder how our relationship will progress? I know it will be fine but my mind has so much time to wonder being on board the boat and when I am not cleaning rust I often drift away to thoughts of me and Faith. I need to stay grounded. I need to stay focused. I know we will both succeed.


My work project, refurbishing wood and painting
As I travel more I have become humble to knowledge and I have been taking steps to go to College next fall in the US. I was never a go to college kind of guy, but fully understanding what I want to become I must explore knowledge through Academia. Have seen many lands and seen more than I could share, now after this journey I want to explore the world of medicine. To have the ability to save and protect life is something I want to do. This will be my next adventure and will take me to some city that has the best medical program. Trust me it’s never the wrong time to go to school. To be honest I think I just had to clear the engine of what I had been dreaming. I needed to say farewell to the road and what better way than going into the most isolated wondering possible, Africa.


What I woke up to next to our ship
If you asked me a year and half ago what I wanted to do after Big Brother I would have said a tv show about traveling to the best dive bars in the world by bicycle. How small my world was back then, taken away by the urge to combine travel and partying on the most epic level. Not understand that sometimes passions of self sometimes turnout empty. Which brings me to my new tattoo and the meaning behind it .


New Tattoo
Engraved on my right arm is the saying “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Traveling is just a fraction of my life right now and ultimately my goal of utilizing my ability to help the world is through medicine and not breaking down walls and drinking while bicycling. These adventures are my life but I have to understand that being an adventurer can mean not only traveling on the physical plain but also on the mental side of things too. Trust me I had to make a lot of wrong turns to finally get to the place where I am confident about my direction in pushing forward through the amazing challenges that lay ahead. One must be strong not in the sense of muscles but of determination to keep going, whether you are reading this from your house or from your job just know to keep positive and focused on the goal at hand, Survive and Live.

Oh quit smoking too…..so these blogs might bet alittle more angry and rhetorical.

2 days with no cigarettes breaking in 3 2 1

Yeah, Faith is doing really well professionally. It's amazing how supportive she is of James. She just came back from Alaska, so she is quite the adventurer herself.

I was thrilled to see it was a masted ship and not a gun toting speedboat lol

He is having an adventure! Faith in Alaska? Wow! I went to the food store with littleman...my adventure *and he was very good*

What kind of work does Faith do?

As much as I have criticized James for his "begging", those blogs are great to read and I hope he does go to college. We'll see what happens. Faith sounds like an amazing woman.

I haven't posted any of James Blogs in a long time. Thought someone might be interested.

http://www.gnarlyriders.org/blog/?p=638
Mounting Frustrations on Board
November 4th, 2009
As the days linger on and the waves crash against the ship people are beginning to become uneasy of the situation. My two deckhands that I work with are anything but happy right now and it is starting to rub off on my vibe. I always try to be positive and happy but since they have been hellbent on complaining it has been difficult to talk much about anything else but life on the ship. Sorta like when I worked in the bar all people could talk about was the bar. I am coming to the understanding that humans have a tendency to engulf themselves in the thing they usually hate the most and that is work. The live, eat and breath work. Their friends are from work because they have no other social networks other than work. I know this because I have lived this. On a ship that network is non existent. You have no friends besides the people you live with. You can go into land but only for a couple of hours and if you have any money you usually spend it on Internet and trying to get a hold of loved ones. I feel happy to be in the situation I am in but I need to sometimes breath and let this really fall into place. I need to write more which I have been doing and I need to try to figure out some steps for further achieving my mission.
As it stands right now I am going to be entering Dakar, Senegal very soon. I say very soon because that could be in a couple of weeks or a couple of months due the progress with the ship. I feel like I need to be in Senegal right now. Although some days my mind wonders to thoughts of Faith and life with her. Times right now are very scattered brained and I believe it has to do with living on a boat. I am putting together my bicycle to ride on the Island more and hopefully that during the day time will prove to be a release of sorts.
I apologize for not updating but I have been working on other writings and as that gets more serious I will be making these blogs shorter for the moment. I am working on some short stories and also working to get through with some timely articles about travels before.
Oh on another note my Birthday is in 19 days and that should be an Epic time due to the Arrival of Faith in Madeira! I cant tell you how excited I am to see her and it really makes life alot easier to rock out with her in person!

A Full Moon and a Fresh Outlook

As the moon linger in the distance of the ship it gives me a sense of power. Knowing I can accomplish anything and go anywhere. For the last week my thoughts have been sour and I just now had to take myself out of my way of thinking and plug myself back into positive. I think alot of the reasons why this trip got rocky was because of manifestation. I think in the beginning of this trip the goal was to party and to rock out and that manifested itself with the Running with the Bulls Festival. As we got further into the manifestation of thinking Africa right now was wrong become a highlight and that caused a rift in my thoughts and it might have lead to why JP left the trip. I think I manifested negativity at times that wasn’t necessary. I think that by understanding why things have happened based upon the thoughts that were present at that time I start to realize why things have happened more. I think if I was in Jps shoes I would have left me to. I think I got into a mental output slump, I needed to focus more on the wonderful things. I have done that but sometimes your mind drifts and sometimes being on the road it takes you back. I even believe this getting jumped, I had manifested something negative happening to me and had thoughts of rather stupid situations, hence me getting jumped. I also am starting to realize why I have been meeting certain people in my life right now. I have thought them into my life. For instance the guy I met who bicycled from Capetown to Lisbon and just so happens to drink with me all night. That was a complete manifestation. Dean! I need to know that everything I put into the universe comes back ten fold and I need to plug my positive energy. I need to feel the trip and I do tonight than ever before, I feel my writing more than ever before. I feel my goals are attainable and easier than ever. I am awake and I feel one. I feel one with my thoughts about Faith and I feel one with and I my trajectory. The moon is doing crazy things tonight cant tell you how special tonight feels.

Thanks Moody. Seems a bit more than 'the moon' was affecting him

Faith looks like a free spirit. Reminds me of Lydia.

She lucks like she lost weight,in her face. I don't like it,but who am I to know. It is just MA in me talking.