And now what?
Well, we move back into the house in the next month or two. I get to have Lily living with me again and Jackson staying during university holidays. Wonderful!! We’ll be there for about three years, until Lily leaves school at least and then........... if you can dream it you can do it so we’re dreaming. On the list are the following:
1] Sail to the North American west coast via Tahiti and Honolulu. Not top of the options as it appears a hard uphill slog over many miles but I’d love to cruise the British Columbian coast and the US to Mexico and Panama. Maybe go through the canal into the Caribbean. Maybe back to NZ through the Pacific.
2] Do another Pacific season similar to this one. Maybe spend cyclone season north of the equator in the Marshall Islands and another season in the western Pacific islands
3] I could happily spend a year cruising between Coromandel and North Cape.
4] Buy a canal boat and explore Europe very slowly. This appeals to Janet for the food, always the food. The Pacific is great but the food is pretty uninteresting by comparison with Europe. And there are no coral reefs or violent storms at sea.
We’ll let you know when we find out what it’ll be.
Ah... one last very important thing
Thankyous
We were helped all along the way by many people who generously gave their time and support. To all of you – a big thank you.
· Brian and Meg who have been there – for mentoring
. Kim and Tony who sold us Navire. You have given such a fine ship from which we learn every day.
· Our fabulous crew:
Simon - Wellington/Napier passage and arguably the toughest. Thanks for encouraging me to use seasick pills. Life at sea really is so much better with them.
Piet – Napier/Tonga passage. Thanks for the irrepressible humour, sartorial dressing and electronic wizardry.
Andrew - Tonga/Opua passage. The stove works a treat, and you make a mean pancake
Nick – Opua/Wellington. Thanks for coming aboard at such short notice and being so cheerful
· Anne for looking after our Wellington affairs, and for endless use of her sewing machine and dining table
· Brian who volunteered in Napier to fix our laptop. It’s gone well ever since.
· Phill for helping us with our computer and trying to get to Weatherfax going
· Bob of Saggitarius who spent many hours sorting out our regulator.
· Richard for the margaritas and fine company, and for hosting a 60th dinner for David when we were knee deep in boat preparation
· Myrto for medical help at the end of a phone
· Gaylene for looking after Janet’s job for six months
· Sia and Niko, our hosts at Niuatoputapu, for a very special welcome
· Alene and Bruce, of Migration, for huge fun, stupendous birthday party and much else
· Neil of KW International for stunning us with making a dinghy in just 2 days.
· Jim, Rag of the Air, for weather and great humour
· Mandy for use of her car in Whangarei
· Liz for teaching us how to blog and believing in us.
· All of those who gave us books. We had some excellent reading
· Alfred and Rhoda, for showing us Samoa, inside and out.
· Alan Jackson who stole some time to repair our outboard. It hasn’t missed a beat.
· Mike – at Alexander motors for teaching us to strip an alternator and much else
· All the many cruisers we met on the way but especially Compass Rose, Casteel, Obsession, Hoki Mai, Scott Free, Migaloo II, Kia Kaha, Distracted
All you readers of this blog who wrote encouragements to us. You know who you are.
The biggest thank you is to the Navire skipper. David was superb on this trip. He remained calm and in control when we encountered storms at sea, navigated us across thousands of miles of ocean, through coral infested areas, and anchored us so consistently well that we never once dragged. He created wonderful social situations with his music, creating jam sessions and entertaining people wherever we went. He is a dogged fisherman, dragging our lures across vast oceans till finally something caught, then gleefully doing the slaughtering bit. One of his best skills for this kind of trip is his problem solving ability. There are endless things that can go wrong on a yacht at sea, and some did, but he has a go at working them out, and fixed many a thing en route. And I do love him so.
One of the best treasures from this adventure is that I’m more in love with Janet than when we left. That’s not to say we didn't have our moments. At one point she had plans to sign on with another yacht, any other yacht and that wasn’t the only moment. But over all love has grown. Cool eh! She’s a cook extraordinaire who can create a tasty meal in heaving seas while dashing occasionally to the rail herself. There are sailors now all over the Pacific whose culinary dreams came true at her table. She can check the oil level on the engine, download and decipher a weather map, she’s a dab hand on the radio and has stood in for Rag of the Air co-ordinator on several occasions. She can climb the mast and stand her watch while paralysed with sea sickness and fear. She relayed critical weather information to many yachts on passage. She provisioned Navire impeccably and even late in the trip could be relied on to pull something magic from a hidden corner. And together we had fun. Shit, did we have fun!!
Cheers for now. Janet, David and Navire.
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