Towards the end of the 2010’s I spent some time in Chicago, Oahu, California, and even back to the Caribbean but became pretty settled and comfortable with Kauai as the first place that ever really felt like home. I was going through a bit of a rough patch as we all tend to do when over a couple months I had various minor health issues and constant belly discomfort that then turned into excruciating pain and eventually I convinced myself to check into the ER. The last thing I remember is getting shown into a room, a nurse taking blood and speaking briefly to a doctor, then I woke up a month later. I would wake from a coma in a different hospital, on a different island, full of tubes and unable to move or speak. I had developed a life threatening case of necrotizing pancreatitis now at such a late stage that I was not expected to survive. Through around 17 surgeries, spleen removal and multiple emergency complications, my miraculous medical team did not give up and I eventually pulled through. Unfortunately, stripped of muscle and left with only scars and questions, my dream of pursuing bodybuilding was over before it had even started. Almost a year later and I thought my recovery was going quite well but my body apparently decided I was still pushing it too hard and out of nowhere I had another pancreatic attack. The second time, I was admitted to the hospital it was just before COVID so this time the coma awakening was even more confusing and traumatizing now that the world was in what seemed, at the time, like an apocalypse.

The COVID-19 pandemic had become serious and the world was starting to shut down as I was being released from hospital and making my way back to Kauai to try and return to a normal that would not come for some time. During those pandemic days and the chaos that persisted with elections and lockdowns, Kauai was shut down in strict fashion, even compared to other Hawaiian islands until it eventually faded away, but there were a few good things that came out of it for me. In 2020, I adopted my trusty sidekick (Leo the cat) I met my partner in crime Ruby and finally made a dream come true when we bought an old fixer upper sailboat. My wife, our kitten and I moved aboard and made it our home for 2 years making a lifetime of memories and experiences in that time alone. By 2022 we had begun thinking of plans to travel. it had been 5-7 years since I had seen family back in New England, and recently married, it made sense to journey back to the East Coast and start a new adventure from there. Alas, we packed everything up and moved on to exploring the frozen northeast. It was quite a culture shock moving from Hawaii to Boston being like polar opposites but sometimes something different is just what you need to cultivate inspiration. Our first winter was mild, nothing like the winters I remember as a kid, which certainly worked in our favor. We worked our way into some steady jobs, still diving and working on boats and spending any free time exploring and acting like tourists. In 23’-24’ we ventured down to the Caribbean to escape the winter season and had a chance to explore sugar mills, play with sharks and walk old pirate pathways along the beach. It was endlessly fulfilling to take my island girl from Kauai to my old teenage stomping grounds of the Caribbean where we would compare all the similarities and experience the differences. As summer rolled around our journey brought us back up to New England with a warm welcome back and picking up where we left off. Winter of 24’-25’ has been mild again yet provided much more opportunity to get out and shoot photos of the snow and winter wilderness and in addition I took my first big leap into the world of aerial photo/video purchasing my first drone. That there brings us up to the present so until there’s more to add I leave the story to unfold as it will and face what’s next.

-I remain,

G. Lewandowski

SeaFeverH2O