In the past week we've gotten in the swing here a bit. Learned the town, where to shop, and how best to thumb a ride on the two mile walk into town. It has been raining a bit; well more than a bit. It has in fact rained so much that it's been hard to do our mountain of laundry.
So I'm going to share some of our backlog of pictures. Now let's remember way way back to a place called Mexico.
Here are the kids doing what they love best when they can't explore, or play with other kids, or eat; well you get the idea. Here they are watching a movie.
Provisioning. It's not just a lifestyle - it's an adventure!
More canned goods. Everything is better with cans.
The morning of our departure from La Paz. A pretty nice place.
The waters were still as we pulled anchor.
Ah. But then we had to fuel up. A chance for more play.
Eager to get out of town.
The big day has arrived, and the kids are keyed up.
Coming into our anchorage at the magic hour.
A lovely Mexican beach and anchorage. That's Madrona out there.
I loved these rocks I saw on the way up a big hill overlooking the beach.
Here are Carrie Tamsyn and Griffyn playing tag with some pretty big waves.
A little perspective.
Lots of tide rips;in fact we rode one out in our dinghy to get past the breakers.
Ah, but we stopped in San Jose del Cabo to get a new Dinghy. Here the kids are doing school work.
Laundry is not Carrie's favorite past time, but she keeps a tight ship.
Finally out in the big blue on our way to the South Pacific. Here we have our headsail, a staysail, and a reefed mainsail out. Kind of typical of the first half of the journey.
Sunrise. Carrie took these on her morning watch.
She also caught these birds that were following us.
Flying fish, their rescue and disposal became part of the daily routine.
Here we approach an ugly looking rain squall.
More rain. Did I mention it rained.
The sunsets were sometimes glorious.
I love clouds. These guys were taken looking back towards the ITCZ after we made our escape.
And so after much work, some boredom, and time spent in purgatory, I mean the doldrums, we eventually reached Hiva-Oa. A really beautiful place.
A had to show this one again.
That's breadfruit hanging up there. So much fruit grows everywhere. But each tree is owned by someone, and getting fruit is actually kind of difficult.
And here we are in our anchorage. Lots of swell here, so we rock and roll a bit.
So I wanted to thank family and friends again for their support. It means a lot to us. It took us 39 days to cross - a pretty slow trip. We spent a week in the ITCZ; so had we crossed that quicker we would have made better time. Not too much broke on the way. Did make some repairs on the Monitor windvane when a control line broke. We replaced a V-belt on the engine, and had other minor things, but basically we did good.
Our biggest frustration has been communications, i.e. internet.
Our friend Steve asked how deep was the deepest bit of water we crossed. I'm not sure - I'd have to look at our charts but it certainly was over three miles.
I guess I should post this before the internet genie yanks our connection away. More picture will be coming, and the stories of the crossing will get posted too.
Owen
