Discovering Nudibranch Personalities

Gorgeous science in the atoll of Fakarava

Scientists from Kahi Kai, Aldine Aimel and Eric Rottinger, visited our home in August 2016 in Fakarava, to make a collaboration with many local people, sharing knowledge, and collecting live specimens to photograph in the ocean, lagoon, and aboard the Vaa Motu sailing canoe. Kahi Kai creates stunning photographs of tiny marine animals, magnifying and sharing their often overlooked unique personalities and living textures. As Aldine says, “People enjoy our images, they want to look at them and understand… and what they can understand they can learn to protect” What a beautiful vision for this successful scientific outreach project!

Visit Kahi Kai’s online community to enjoy their images

Visit Vaa Motu on Facebook to enjoy more stories of sailing canoe adventures

Visit jugirardot.com to enjoy more of Julien Girardot’s photography in French Polynesia

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Wild Shell Poetry in Toau

Writing visual poetry with found natural objects from the wild atoll of Toau in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia in November 2015

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oyster shell and sea urchin spikes woven together with a little piece of found string

coconut critter

bicycle tubes encasing shells

colored pencil leaf

weathered pencil urchin spikes

coral crafty crab

shell speak

coral keys

turn the key! open the lock!

day glow snail trails

snail trails

driftroot shell

bone collection

grounded crown

urchins stitched

industrial urchins

hey pal!

nuts and bolts and spikes

rusty outboard engine gets some spare parts from the sea

pearl farm plastic sentiment

melted pearl farm rope wrapped with pastel turquoise

sun bleached turquoise

clip it on

urchin buoy fish shack

urchin spike buoy

urchin buoy

sweet home by the sea

urchin collar silky lagoon

dyed fabrics and sea urchins

urchin motor geometry

crusty rust and corrosion

urchin star

coral star

 

 

Spearfishing in Fakarava

Catching some dinner

 

s  l  o  w      f  o  o  d

 

sustainable fishing

pleasurably interacting with nature

respecting the natural environment and nourishing our bodies with food from the sea

 

Copyright Julien Girardot Photography 2015

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Images © jugirardot.com

Medieval Shadows by the Sea

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green winter garden
mont saint michel
normandy
france

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fresh oysters on a park bench

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french style green roof

here, the earth is alive and wet

 

bonjour.

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mont saint michels towering shadow

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where the monks ate in medieval times

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stained glass window
sparkling crystal necklace
jewel tones illuminated

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little houses by the seaside

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intricate detail everywhere
we explore the textures and forms
with our hands and eyes

Images © jugirardot.com and alinedargie.com

woman on a mission

journal entry from 4-21-2015

crossing pacific on SV Naoma

be independent

learn new ways all the time

challenge habits and comfort

own and buy fewer things

share knowledge with others

practice teaching and giving all that I know and have

actively integrate passions with life

live my dream with no commute to fun

feet and winch handle and sun

spend more time with close family

save more than I spend

travel light

eat healthy and natural

move my body in a creative way every day

slow down and enjoy the sail

live poetically and write about it

golden rims haiku

do not schedule too much

leave room to breathe deep

be aware of and limit the chemicals I put in my body

all natural woman here

make create invent something new everyday

sunrise around equator

Entering the Doldrums

April 26 2015

0930 UTC

7 01.8 N

122 06.7 W

doldrums

convergence zone

ITCZ

its all the same

lev o gauge repeat

engine on

low RPMs around 800 for fuel economy

motor sailing with 110 genoa

tinkering with sheet trim

balancing shape

do not desire drag from over hardening

we wish to harness enough wind

to boost SOG 1 kn

up to the high 5s

rough sea sunset

dreary cumulus smother shining half moon

hazy windows to heavens float by

twinkles of outer space flirt in and out of perspective

cloud to cloud lightning fire

crooked sparks spontaneously illuminate dark masses

no thunder heard

hot dark heavy humid massive

calmly confused 1’ mostly NE seas

we head dead south

7 degrees to go

longing for those idyllic SE trades

to blow us happily ever after to the Marquesas

rainbow sprinkled

wet dodger naoma

surfing downwind

swell carries us down

boosts our speed

cradles and rocks us along

chasing our stern

line repeat 1

yellowtail drafting our wake

playing in kicked up ocean dust

weaving over and under our wake

unpredictable patterns to and fro

winch sunset

bio luminescence

sparkling underwater

agitated waters glow

powerful strokes electrified

paddling into light

on a new moon night

singing to the sky poem socorro

yummy times

on SV Naoma, twoafloat.com

isla socorro (in the background of the picture above) // early april // 2015

50’+ visibility warm waters

straight down to the sculpted sand bottom

rainbow sprinkled with rocks and fish

Northern California

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Crunch! Sargassum (aka wireweed) makes a delicious snack as we hike along the ocean

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Stephen and David Dargie enjoying a homemade meal

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Collecting wild sea urchins on my paddle board, for lunch, by Santa Cruz Island, in California’s Channel Islands

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Holly Dargie, harvesting flowers for the dinner table, and native plants like purslane to make a locally sourced salad

ladybug hat seaweed make driftwood

Make it Happen!!!

illuminated ocean stones

Found pebbles at the Lost Coast, on the Northern California coast

itajime in the wind'

 

 

Organic indigo shibori dyed silk organza blowing in the window of our driftwood home

kitchen window driftwood

David Dargie enjoying a book in the living room

 

dinner lost coast california food

Aline Dargie holding colorful californian heirloom beans, okra, basil and thyme, to steam

 

driftwood home

our driftwood home for a few nights

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natural treasures everywhere