What's with the name: Shellphone Chronicles
From conch shells in the BVI to the remote South Pacific - the hero story behind the name
The name Shellphone Chronicles didn’t just begin with this Substack publication.
It’s been part of my life for decades now and continues to gain prominence as the brand and identity for my creative works.
It started in December of 1998, on a sailing charter vacation in the British Virgin Islands. The Captain and I had chartered a boat for a couple of weeks with some friends, one of whom was Kevin, a colleague of mine from work who was part of the crew with his wife, Wendy. We sailed out of Tortola and made our way through the islands up to Virgin Gorda.
Even in those days the BVI was crowded with charter boats, and we wanted to find something more off the beaten path. There was no electronic navigation, and we were navigating with a paper chart that was little more than a photocopy with a few anchorages circled on it. We were intrigued by the “back side” of the Virgin Gorda, and even though the charter company had told us not to go there, we decided to see what it was like.
We made our way around the southeast end of the island to a beautiful bay, fringed with palm trees and sea grape bushes, accessed through a small opening in the reef. Once inside and anchored up, we found it was a place where conch fishermen came to clean their catch, and the entire beach was piled high with gorgeous pearlescent pink conch shells.
We all took a couple of prize specimens as souvenirs.
A few days after we got home, I had to travel to a work event. At that time, I was heading up field marketing for a startup in Silicon Valley that sold products through the sales teams at Xerox. Every year Xerox hosted a huge training event for their hundreds of color specialists – the Color University.
In January of 1999, the Color University was held in Chicago, and our company had planned our training sessions and product presentations around a beach theme. I decided to bring one of my conch shells with me to Chicago – I just had a feeling that it would make a good prop for something.
On the second day of the conference, Kevin and I were scheduled to do a new product presentation on stage. The night before, we were rehearsing and had a crazy idea for Kevin to call me with an announcement from backstage.
I would answer the call on my “shellphone”.
We braved the well below freezing temperatures and ventured out to an electronics store on Michigan Avenue. We bought a big black antenna that we attached to the pointy end of the conch shell with superglue. It was perfect.
Remember, this was 1999 – we couldn’t just download a ring tone from the internet. We had to record an actual phone ringing, on an actual tape recorder, and then have our audio-visual team run it through the sound board during our presentation. All stuff that we would do today in about 2 minutes on a smartphone.
But it was so worth it – we brought the shellphone to life.
I kind of forgot about it for a couple of years. But in 2001, at the height of irrational exuberance, while the dot-com implosion was happening all around us, the Captain and I took a sabbatical and did our first extended sail from San Francisco down the coast to Zihuantanejo, Mexico.
I named my journal of that trip Shellphone Chronicles, and that was the start of this legacy.
Since then, all my sailing journals have been Shellphone Chronicles. I’ve filled nearly a dozen notebooks with (almost) daily musing. Always softcover 5 x 8.5” Moleskine journals, always quad ruled. These are private writings; I’d never share them publicly. Sometimes it’s a rant, sometimes it’s a diary of what we’re doing, or what we’re working on, what I’m happy about, or what is making me sad. But the beauty is that I can look back at magical moments, revisit experiences that have gotten fuzzy in my memory, and even just look up “when exactly did that happen?” Journaling has become a therapeutic component of my travel routine. It helps me think, plan, and dream.
Last year, when I started this Substack publication, it was only natural for me to name it Shellphone Chronicles. It fits. Perfectly.
Through this creative endeavor I’ve discovered that I love writing from my heart, telling stories about whatever I want, letting my experience bring joy to others. And I’m continually amazed and overjoyed that there are a lot of people who seem to be genuinely interested in reading my tall tales from the high seas and the remote places we visit. Who knew?
Sail on Fearless Crew! LJ
About Shellphone Chronicles: People come to Shellphone Chronicles for a vicarious voyage, and enjoy tall tales from the high seas, beautiful photos, original artwork, and occasional poetry. Two people with a love of adventure on SV Duende, an 80-foot expedition sailing yacht.
To all my constant readers, thank you for coming along on this voyage with us. It’s so much fun for me to share our adventures with you. To any new crew this week - welcome aboard!
You can support us by sharing, commenting, and liking my posts— I genuinely love your feedback, and engagement draws more readers to my work.
Start Here: If you are new to the crew, I’ve put together a Start Here page. This roadmap guides you through some of our most popular essays and provides a few binge-worthy series suggestions. It’s a fun introduction to the themes that we weave through our life of adventure on the deep blue sea.
Great to get the origin story (and see pictures of an actual old school composition notebook!), Linda! I'm also loving the penpal exchange. Can't wait to see what more you have in store for us in 2026!
OMG! That Shellphone in Chicago! We sure did have lots and lots of fun, didn't we. I know this isn't related to the Shellphone, but the Spigot Award should be written about at some point too!