Author Archives: len

A great benefit of freelancing for the St. John Tradewinds has been the chance to meet people like Frank Langley, 75, a brilliant Brit who worked on the Gemini program and who five years ago parlayed a small hi-tech windfall … Continue reading →

Frank Langley, left, a Brit who parlayed a hi-tech windfall into seed money for the first St. John Arts Festival just before the dot.com bust, gathers in the office of Julien Harley, right, administrator of St. John, and Corine Matthias, … Continue reading →

Home, unplugged home, for four more days: Cabin-tent A-3 at Maho Bay Camps. At night we hear the waves, the wind in the trees, and the tree frogs. The cabins are connected to each other and to the restaurant by … Continue reading →

Frank Langley, a Brit who worked on NASA’s Gemini Program and now lives on St. John, has created an annual arts festival to help islanders remember what they are losing, year by year, as more and more Northerners flock here … Continue reading →

Today we packed up our things from the apartment and relocated to Maho Bay Camps, about a half-hour drive along the north shore of St. John. This will probably be my last post for about a week, because of technical … Continue reading →

Pressure in paradise: On our last night with a phone line before tomorrow’s move for a week to eco-unwired Maho Bay Campgrounds, I am juggling two laptops, trying to help set up Maria’s new Dell Inspiron, update the blog and … Continue reading →

Capt John Clark demonstrates an azimuth mirror, used for navigating by the stars with accuracy rivaling modern GPS systems. Tweet

Capt. John Clark when he was five years old took an overnight ferry to his grandparents’ home on the island of Jersey for the holidays. He remembers standing by the rail, looking out at the sea and thinking,”This would be … Continue reading →

I’ve been sitting on the bed of the apartment for a couple of hours, trying to find a blog to add to my “Links” section. Darlene is reading next to me, and we are both swatting mosquitoes, which arrived today … Continue reading →

The scene this afternoon at Hawk’s Nest Beach, a five-minute taxi ride from Cruz Bay on St. John’s.   Tweet