Update Time

Hi All!

Sorry for lack of update on here the last few days, for some reason I wasn't able to login into the backend of the website but looks like it's all cleared up now. Man, things happen so fast in this sort of livin', I  guess I'll just summarize!

The trek over from Cabo was pretty forgetable. Didn't really have the nice peaceful days I had coming down the Baja coast, it was a bit of a basher with the winds and current never really vibing with the boat the way one would like them to. Also, the autopilot broke (again, i know! it's so cool when it does that!) about a hundred miles out. Some of the plastic bits inside cracked and broke off from the strain and their age. Somehow I was able to repair them with a 2 part resin mix whilst rolling about like on a carnival ride. But from then on I lived with the constant anxiety that it would break at any moment. It never did but just left me feeling constantly tense....which is obvsly a bummer!

Anyways, moving on being here in La Cruz has been totally amazing. I feel like I've really been charging on getting alot of work done. (For those of you that arent familiar with the boating world, Sailing-Around-The-World is much more akin to "making boat repairs in exotic locations" than it is to swinging in hammocks or spring-breaking it up in, say, Cancun). This is a really interesting place to be for a person like myself because it's one of the very few places on Earth where you are surrounded with your peer group, in my case other ocean-going folk. You see, this particular port is one of the few well-known jumping off points for crossing the Pacific Ocean. Although my plan is do it from Ecuador/The Galapagos Islands, most of the others will head for French Polynesia directly from here. As a result there is always alot going on here that caters to the prep for these passages. There are twice weekly seminars run by various other sailors that covers topics ranging from "how to use your HF radio" to methods of refrigeration. There are also all the necessary chandleries and experts nearby to tend to whatever sort of problem youre trying to solve or equipment you need installed. So nice!

The big thing on my list here is simply awaiting the arrival of my new mainsail. The day I arrived Dave from Island Planet Sails (the company in charge of getting me re-powered in that dept) came out to the boat and verified some measurements and the ball is now rolling on the manufacture. The turnaround on getting the new one in my hands is usally about 4 weeks so I've been doing a but re-scheduling and adjusting of plans to account for the delay here. I'm really insanely happy to get to spend extra time here as it's simply one of my favorite places on the planet. This particular town is just one of those places that really has a magical quiality to it -  packs of wild dogs trotting down cobble-stone streets, fresh coconuts rolling around on the lawns, happy children shrieking in the streets....just a completely wonderful base to being doing all the requisite work for the long passage.

Oh, pertaining to my schedule and routing, there are still some small contingencies with the delivery of equipment, etc but at the moment I 'm now leaning towards doing a straight passage to Ecuador from here rather than plodding down the coast. Since I'm losing a bit of time with the wait here I'm going to try to make it up by not re-tracing the areas I'd been on previous voyages. Everything from here on out will be completely new, a totally new adventure! There is still a slight chance that I could decided to do the crossing from here directly when the other fleet of boats embark for the more traditional "milk run" towards the Marquesas Islands. I'd still prefer to go further south to the even more remote area of Easter and Pitcairn Islands but anything's possible. Every day (every hour!) you get new information about weather and timing recommendations, ect so really it's just a matter of putting together all the pieces when it's time to leave to see what makes the most sense. It's more fun not always knowing what comes next!

Alright, I'm off to hop on a sweaty bus to town to pick up a couple new fuses then it's back to tidy some projects on the boat before hopefully hitting the beach this afternoon. Depsite my twitters messages, I havent surfed at all yet....which is just insane, todays the day hopefully.

Laterzzzzz

OH, PS also I got a really nice delivery of some Polaroid film here a few days ago - many thanks to the kind folks over at The  Impossible Project for that. I have a scanner on its way in a few days so very excited to start getting some of the pictures up on here. So fun!

PPS!! Huge thanks to the various food and drink companies that are now generously supporting the trip with their various products. It's been pretty difficult hunting down healthy food and snack options to restock the boat with here so thanks to them I'll be keeping energized and well fed even when I'm a thousand miles from land. Check the Sponsors page for their info :)