TD: "Him fell in love...(with) a woman as changing and harsh and untamable as de sea. Him never stopped loving her, but de pain it cause him was too much to live wid, but not enough to cause him to die. And so, him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide de chest from de world. De key, he keep wid him at all times."
In less vague terms, he fell in upendo with Calypso, the sea goddess, who charged him with the duty of ferrying souls to the inayofuata world. Every ten years he could come on land for one siku to be with her, but ten years later, she was nowhere to be seen.