Word: marcoes
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...words struck a chord, nearly a year after the attacks on New York's World Trade Center left me seeking solace in wide open spaces where life could be simple again. My craving for escape found me on the deck of Engel's Marco Polo, a single-masted wooden schooner, for a four-day cruise. It was the middle of the night, and the Marco Polo cruised along at a steady seven knots, the low hum of its engine blending with the soft slap of waves against the hull. Engel watched the dim, forested hills of Sulawesi slip behind...
...Long distinguished for its unique cultures and endemic wildlife, Sulawesi is also the home of old-fashioned Bugis sailing vessels like the Marco Polo. These are still built by hand in the style favored by Sulawesi's traditional seafaring folk in the southern port town of Bira. The Bugis have always been traders, filling the cavernous holds of their schooners with timber from Borneo to exchange for spices in the Moluccas. The Marco Polo, however, is designed to carry passengers, with seven simple bunks, a shower and a shaded gazebo on the upper deck...
...glowed faintly on the control panel, but Haji paid them no heed. He has been sailing these waters since his youth; subtle changes in the shape of the coast and the position of the stars are all he needs to know exactly where he is. Just before dawn the Marco Polo reached the eastern coast of Selayar and dropped anchor...
...hours later we arrived at a pristine beach surrounded by coral heads at the southern tip of the island. Divers readied their gear and plunged directly overboard while snorkelers and shell gatherers headed to the beach in a dinghy. Later that afternoon, a small fishing boat pulled alongside the Marco Polo to reveal a hold full of the day's catch. After a few minutes of haggling, the fisherman agreed to $5 and hoisted three meter-long tuna aboard...
...Minister and his key officials have managed to make rude or politically incorrect remarks about everything from the euro to Islamic civilization. One of their baldest blunders came last week from Interior Minister Claudio Scajola, 54, who was pressured to resign after two newspaper reporters quoted him referring to Marco Biagi - a labor ministry adviser assassinated in March by the Red Brigades terrorist group - as a "pain in the ass." Scajola, under fire for not having provided Biagi with a security detail, suggested the victim had been interested only in extending his government consulting contract. Through a mixture of shrugs...