Gibraltar Revisited: Same Rock, Different Ed
The Asymmetrical Life · Annual Archive · 2011–2025
Happy Last Year: The Decade-Plus Calendar of Insight
A calendar for lives understood backward: world cruises, desert years, ocean passages, war zones, pandemic time and the outpost at the edge of the map.
Backward Bearings
Every January, the previous year came back carrying a map.
These were not New Year resolutions. They were backward bearings—proof that a year becomes legible only after it has stopped happening.
Open a calendar page to enter the year. Each lightbox preserves the annual signal, the story beneath the destinations, and the original archive link.
The Asymmetric Equation
Distance + Time = Perspective A year becomes legible only after it has stopped happening.Featured Podcast · Fifteen Years of Backward Bearings
Finding Meaning Through Backward Bearings
Fifteen annual retrospectives become one navigational chart. The destinations matter, but the deeper story is how distance, work, weather, risk, companionship and reinvention reveal their meaning only when viewed from the wake.
January Archive · Filed After the Fact
The Calendar of Becoming
Fifteen consecutive years are shown. The 2018 tile is retained as a World Cruise interlude because an annual archive URL was not included with the supplied list.
January World Cruise 2011 365 Days × 8, 7 Seas, 1 Story The long way around became the founding archive. Open Year
Year signal · The Long Way Around
365 Days × 8, 7 Seas, 1 Story
The founding voyage: Los Angeles to London, 23 ports, and a world cruise preserved one shore day at a time.
Travel stopped being a list of destinations and became a way of letting distance take its time. The archive follows Crystal Serenity across the seven seas and establishes the central doctrine: you do not see the world by flying over it.
January Write? Right! 2012 Happy Last Year The voyage became a written world. Open Year
Year signal · Write? Right!
Happy Last Year
The moving map became a written world: 364 days traveling, more than 130 posts, more than 50 destinations and six continents.
The annual retrospective turns movement into language. Month by month, the archive proves that writing was not a souvenir of the journey. Writing was how the journey became visible.
January Passage 2013 The Map Became the Story Panama, Alaska, Arabia and the accidental sailor. Open Year
Year signal · Between Two Oceans
The Year the Map Became the Story
Panama, Alaska, the Caribbean, Arabia and the accidental sailor learning to live forward.
The Panama Canal becomes the central metaphor: locks, machinery, water and the audacity to redraw geography. The year moves through six changes of scale and turns the route itself into narrative.
January Mirror 2014 The Map Became a Mirror The destinations began returning the traveler’s gaze. Open Year
Year signal · Reeling in the Year
The Year the Map Became a Mirror
Desert light, cathedral silence, American noise, Caribbean water, North Sea weather and the return to Santa Monica.
At the time, the traveler seemed to be collecting destinations. Looking backward reveals a navigation system. Every city asks the same question: will you merely understand this life, or will you move?
January The Wake 2015 The World Became a Wake Ninety-plus days at sea and a year that refused to stop. Open Year
Year signal · The World Became a Wake
Happy Last Year
Ninety-plus days at sea. Ninety-seven dispatches. One year that refused to stay still.
The year begins near the Pacific, crosses the Caribbean and Europe, then keeps going north into the British Isles, Baltic, Norway and Arctic light. Cruise life becomes the measuring instrument: departure, horizon, port, return.
January A to Z 2016 A Magic Carpet Ride Annapolis to Zambia, with Qatar waiting at Q. Open Year
Year signal · A to Z
A Magic Carpet Ride
Annapolis to Zambia: one improbable year arranged alphabetically across oceans, fortresses, deserts and cities.
The A-to-Z device turns the global archive into a game of bearings. Qatar arrives as the missing Q and the late-year threshold into the Doha chapter that follows.
January Doha 2017 The Power of Yet The Pearl, the long game and becoming over being. Open Year
Year signal · Doha, Qatar
The Power of Yet
A year at The Pearl, a Raytheon assignment, desert roads, falcons, Red Arrows and one stubborn idea: becoming is better than being.
The surface story is sports cars, yachts, hotels and desert light. The deeper story is the long game: experience over things, direction over verdict, and the refusal to confuse the current frame with the entire film.
Interlude QM2 2018 The Long Way Home Hong Kong to Southampton aboard Queen Mary 2. Open Interlude
Interlude · Queen Mary 2 World Cruise
The Long Way Home
Hong Kong, Penang, Phuket, Dubai, Suez, the Mediterranean and Southampton aboard the last great ocean liner.
This year is retained to keep the calendar continuous. The annual archive URL was not included in the supplied list, so the lightbox identifies the World Cruise interlude without inventing a destination page.
January Kabul 2019 The Warrior Year Danger and wonder, Kabul and Tortola. Open Year
Year signal · Kabul to Tortola
The Warrior Year
Helicopters, barracks, sacrifice, blue-ocean memory and one final morning sail.
The year runs on two tracks: dangerous work in Afghanistan and the return to water through Southampton, Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands. The real subject is what deserves protection—family, health, friendship, integrity and time.
January Before Covid 2020 The Stiff Upper Lip Pandemic time seen through Britain and Ireland. Open Year
Year signal · B.C. Before Covid
Covid-19 and the Stiff Upper Lip
A journey through pandemic time and UK memories, when not talking about the crisis felt like denying gravity.
London, Ireland and earlier travel memories are reframed by medical uncertainty, stalled careers, masks, social distance and the stubborn human desire to gather again.
January Fair Isle 2021 The Outpost Year A smaller world made room for a larger life. Open Year
Year signal · Fair Isle
The Outpost Year
Where Scotland met Scandinavia, convenience became optional, weather became strategy and a smaller world made room for a larger life.
The year begins with Charleston and jet-age New York, then narrows toward Fair Isle. Restriction does not reduce the story. It changes the scale, turning weather, logistics and isolation into a different form of freedom.
January Depth 2022 The Return to Depth Fair Isle, Dublin, Orkney, poker and a better unit of measurement. Open Year
Year signal · Fair Isle to Las Vegas
The Return to Depth
After the pandemic narrowed the world, the map reopened through scale rather than speed: a terrier's first birthday, ancient stones, old books, poker decisions and learning institutions.
Fair Isle supplied belonging. Dublin supplied inheritance. Orkney supplied deep time. Poker supplied calibrated uncertainty. Harvard and DevLearn placed inherited authority beside experimentation. The year replaced the itinerary with better instruments for attention.
January Gratitude 2023 An Attitude of Gratitude The first full year back in motion, with gratitude as the bearing. Open Year
Year signal · The First Full Year Back in Motion
An Attitude of Gratitude
The route moved from the Western Cape to Las Vegas, Portugal, Fair Isle, Spain and Gibraltar—not to recover lost time, but to understand what time had changed.
The world did not return to normal. It returned to motion. Desert noise, island silence, poker uncertainty and Mediterranean thresholds supplied the contrasts. Sarah and Skyelark supplied the coherence. Gratitude became the bearing.
January Ed Flix 2024 The Curated Year Ronda, Portugal, Prague and Skyelark in the final cut. Open Year
Year signal · The Ed Flix Cut
The Curated Year
Fourteen posts, eleven active months and four films carried Ronda, Portugal, Prague and Skyelark farther than a long itinerary could.
The map narrowed while the meaning deepened. The archive stopped measuring momentum by volume and began measuring it by signal. Companionship, culture, restraint and motion survived the edit.
January Convergence 2025 The Map Folded Back Gibraltar, Sussex, Portsmouth, publishing and the truth engine. Open Year
Year signal · One Year, Six Lives
The Map Folded Back on Itself
Gibraltar reopened the maritime archive. Sussex returned the body to the writing. Portsmouth brought iron, sail and speed back to the waterline. Publishing turned the journeys into a body of work.
The year did not settle. It converged. Travel, identity, books, coastal movement and training doctrine stopped behaving like separate chapters and became one operating system: reality first, truth exposed, capability earned.
The Asymmetric Equation
Experience + Reflection = Wisdom The annual archive converts movement into a navigational instrument.The Route Beneath the Calendar
Deja Blue Cruise Adventures
Journey through Ed’s complete supplied cruise archive across Mediterranean, Hawaiian, Asian-Pacific, and European routes. Every title, image, excerpt, and destination link from the original interactive timeline is retained here as part of the main record.
Deja Blue Route Archive
Mediterranean Adventures
23 complete archive entries retained from the original interactive timeline.
Feeding Firenze - Florence and Pisa
Discovering the Renaissance treasures of Florence and the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa. Art, architecture, and authentic Italian cuisine create unforgettable memories.
Open Archive Entry
Taking it Eze-Nice
The French Riviera at its finest - exploring the stunning village of Eze and the glamorous city of Nice. Coastal beauty meets Mediterranean charm.
Open Archive Entry
Coming Home To Starbucks In Catalonia
Barcelona's vibrant culture meets familiar comforts in this exploration of Catalonia's capital. Gaudí's architecture and Mediterranean lifestyle blend perfectly.
Open Archive Entry
The Teaches of Beaches - Mahon Menorca
Discovering the pristine beaches and crystal waters of Menorca. This hidden gem of the Balearic Islands offers tranquility and natural beauty.
Open Archive Entry
Tunisia - Northern Exposure
Exploring North Africa's cultural crossroads. Tunisia offers a fascinating blend of Arab, Berber, and Mediterranean influences in an unforgettable journey.
Open Archive Entry
Yaba-Daba-Do - Malta is a Twinkie
Malta's prehistoric temples and medieval cities create a time capsule of European history. This island nation packs centuries of culture into every corner.
Open Archive Entry
Greece Rhodes Scholar
A reflective mosaic of memories from a voyage across sun-drenched islands and myth-filled ruins. Thoughts swirl like the Meltemi winds, blending the ancient with the personal. This journey leaves a mark on the soul, long after the journey ends.
Open Archive Entry
A Taste of Greece
Wow what spectacular views this afternoon, climbing a 1000 steps to the top of this fortress, and then looking out on the blue sea and our ship, The Seabourn Odessey, with Sarah Kennedy
Open Archive Entry
Rome Sweet Rome
Traveling is an activity not an accomplishment: Yet when I look out tomorrow at the cruise ships docked in Civitavecchia. I will have sailed on almost all the brands to almost every place on the planet. That's a maneuver!
Open Archive Entry
"Don't Ask Me About My Business Kay" - Sicily
Sicily's rich history and dramatic landscapes provide the perfect backdrop for this cinematic adventure through Italy's largest island.
Open Archive Entry
Capri Limoncello Quest
Discovering the authentic taste of Italian limoncello in its birthplace. Capri's lemon groves and traditional distilleries reveal their secrets.
Open Archive Entry
My Life In Ruins - Pompeii
Walking through history frozen in time. Pompeii's ancient streets tell the dramatic story of a city preserved by volcanic tragedy.
Open Archive Entry
That's Me In The Corner, Losing My Religion
A spiritual journey through Vatican City and Rome's eternal beauty. Art, faith, and history converge in the heart of Christianity.
Open Archive Entry
Vatican 2.0 - Being Digital in Rome
Where ancient traditions meet modern technology. Exploring how digital innovation enhances our understanding of timeless art and culture.
Open Archive Entry
Life's Been Good - Monaco
Living the glamorous life in Monte Carlo. Monaco's casinos, luxury yachts, and Formula 1 heritage create an atmosphere of pure sophistication.
Open Archive Entry
The Persistence Of Time - St Tropez
Time stands still in the legendary French Riviera playground. St Tropez's beaches, boutiques, and bohemian spirit create timeless memories.
Open Archive Entry
Palma de Mallorca - Hero's Journey
Balearic bliss meets the hero's journey in Mallorca's stunning capital with everyday ephiphanies.
Open Archive Entry
Gib - The Rock
Standing strong at the gateway between continents. Gibraltar's strategic position and legendary rock create an unforgettable Mediterranean experience.
Open Archive Entry
La Vida Loca - Spain
Embracing the passionate Spanish lifestyle - flamenco, tapas, and endless fiestas. Spain's vibrant culture comes alive in every port.
Open Archive Entry
Greece - Beginner's Mind
Approaching the cradle of civilization with fresh eyes. Ancient Greece's timeless wisdom meets modern adventure in this philosophical journey.
Open Archive Entry
Doha The Venice of The Middle East!r
Qatar's futuristic capital blends ultra-modern architecture with traditional souks. This Arabian Gulf gem showcases the perfect harmony of ancient culture and contemporary luxury in the heart of the Middle East.
Open Archive EntryDeja Blue Route Archive
Hawaii Adventures
3 complete archive entries retained from the original interactive timeline.
Happy New Year From Ka'a'wa, Hawaii
Starting the New Year in paradise! Ka'a'wa Valley's lush landscapes and pristine beaches create the perfect tropical beginning to any year.
Open Archive Entry
Here Today Gone To Maui - Eddie Would Go
Honoring the legendary Hawaiian lifeguard Eddie Aikau while exploring Maui's North Shore. Courage, adventure, and the true spirit of aloha.
Open Archive Entry
Time Millionaire in Bora Bora and Hawaii
Embracing the laid-back Hawaiian lifestyle. Trading possessions for experiences across the South Pacific- Pure island bliss.
Open Archive EntryDeja Blue Route Archive
Asia Pacific Adventures
4 complete archive entries retained from the original interactive timeline.
Hong Kong to Southampton - Epic Crossing
The ultimate transpacific and transcontinental cruise journey from Asia's vibrant gateway to England's historic port. This epic crossing spans continents, cultures, and time zones in an unforgettable maritime adventure.
Open Archive Entry
Maldives - Consciousness Is Wireless
Pristine coral atolls and crystal-clear waters create the perfect setting for digital detox and spiritual connection in this tropical paradise.
Open Archive Entry
Cochin - Spice Capital Splendor
Kerala's jewel where Chinese fishing nets grace the harbor and spice markets fill the air with cardamom and cinnamon. Portuguese churches stand beside ancient synagogues in this cultural crossroads.
Open Archive Entry
Yangoon - One Hand Clapping, Smiling With Buddha
Myanmar's golden former capital where the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda rises above colonial buildings. Ancient wisdom meets emerging democracy in this spiritual awakening journey.
Open Archive EntryDeja Blue Route Archive
Europe Adventures
5 complete archive entries retained from the original interactive timeline.
Reaching New Heights - I'm Not (all) There
Norway's stunning fjords and dramatic landscapes create an unforgettable Nordic adventure. Stavanger's natural beauty and cultural richness shine through.
Open Archive Entry
The Persistance Of Norway
Navigating Western Norway-Hardangerfjord and @330 miles above The Arctic Circle, in Nordkapp Honningsvåg,
Open Archive Entry
Free Man In Paris
This interactive timeline weaves together airport musings, Parisian café encounters, and deep philosophical insights into a visually stunning narrative experience.
Open Archive Entry
A'Dam: Project Suunto
High-tech adventure in the Netherlands' most liberal city. Amsterdam's canals and cutting-edge culture blend perfectly with outdoor innovation.
Open Archive Entry
Saying Cheese In The Netherlands
From Gouda to Edam - discovering Holland's legendary cheese-making traditions. Windmills, tulips, and artisanal dairy perfection.
Open Archive EntryThe Asymmetric Equation
Repetition + Reinvention = Becoming The same ocean can carry a different person each time.The archive does not ask us to live backward. It asks us to recover the bearing before moving forward again.
The Asymmetric Equation
Archive + Attention = Elixir The past becomes useful when it improves the direction of the next move.