An Awfully Big Adventure!

Well it seems ages since I updated my blog – but I have been slightly busy you could say! Nigel and I have decided to take ourselves off on an awfully big adventure, how long we will last is yet to be decided! Next Tuesday Nigel and I will be leaving New Zealand bound for America and then on to Trinidad and the start of our trip.

We will be joining a yacht in Chagauramus in Trinidad and sailing it back down to New Zealand. Our journey will take us along the North coast of Venezuela and Colombia and on to Panama where we will sail through the Panama Canal. Once we exit the Canal we will sail along the coast of Ecuador before setting sail for the Galapagos Islands. We have always said that if there was one journey that we would like to do it was a trip to the Galapagos and now we have the chance of a life time. After the Islands we will then have a LONG ( a month at sea) sail to the Marquesa Islands in the middle of the Pacific and from there we will do French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora) and then Tonga , Samoa and Fiji.

Our trip could potentially take up to a year – if we last that long of course! Steph is betting that we will be back for her birthday (March 3rd). It will all depend on how we find the yacht and the rest of the crew when we arrive in Trinidad. We have decided that if we consider the yacht not sea worthy we won’t even consider embarking on the journey, we will stay in the Caribbean and try to bum a ride on another boat for a while. It’s an awfully big risk – but we decided that we would never get the chance again, and if we turned it down we might regret it in years to come. Hell - I’ll probably regret it the first time we hit a big storm and I’m chucking my (excuse the language) ring up over the side, but I’m sure that there will be times and sights when I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Our major concern (ok my major concern) is our safety sailing along the top of South America, pirates are a major issue, as well as alongside in Colon in Panama buying provisions. Colon is called the a**hole of the world for a reason and its not all to do with its name. It looks like we will spend Christmas in Cartagena, then on to the San Blas Islands before going through the Canal. We may or may not stop in the Dutch Antilles yet it depends on our given date for the canal transit.

I’m really looking forward to the trip through the canal, Nigel has been through the Suez so that will be him done both of the great canal transits. There are webcams along the way, once we get the date and time of our transit I will try and post it on the blog or text the time to as many of you as I can. Here is the link to the webcam site: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html , I’ll wave as we go along, the first locks will be the Gatun ones. The transit should take 2 days as you pass from one set of locks into the holding lake, which by the way is full of crocodiles; so no going over the side to cool off!

We really hope that we stay the course and eventually sail into the Bay of Islands here in New Zealand sometime next year. But – and this will keep the parents happy – if at anytime we think that our lives or health are in danger we will jump ship and head for home. I’m taking so much medical stuff that if we do get boarded by the coastguard they’re going to think I’m smuggling narcotics. Don’t fancy doing a stint in a Colombian prison for smuggling large amount of extra strength Tylenol and anti diarrhoea tablets. I will try to update my blog as often as I can but as you can imagine it isn’t always going to be easy to find an internet café in the middle of the Pacific. Anyhow I’m off to find out how to bake bread on board and what is and what isn’t going to eat me if I stick my backside off the back of the yacht.

I will miss all of you dreadfully, especially talking to Mum, Dad, Robb & Heather, my chats with Leah, and I know that the Dave, Jimmy and Arran will come to my mind often (especially when something comes up with the rigging). Be sure that when I am on watch looking across an empty ocean or watching a million stars in an evening sky I will at some point be thinking of you all and wishing that you we there to share it with Nigel and I.

Bonfire Night Down Under

Well it seems strange being down here and celebrating Guy Fawkes Night! Wellington celebrates with a large firework display in the middle of the harbour, co-ordinating with music on the local radio.

We had a grandstand view from Steph and Mike's balcony which looks out over the harbour and the Cook Straits. Robb & Heather had been out an bought a rather large box of fireworks (called the Earth Shaker) but unfortunatley it was too windy to let them off. We would have either set fire to the gorge below Stephs house or the neighbours house - seeing everyone lives in wooden houses round here we thought that it wasn't a wise move!

Sonia & Ben, Nigel's Niece and Fiancee arrive this weekend for a brief visit before heading off to the South Island. Hopefully we will finally meet up with Julian & Ness our old friends from Canada who live just down the road. We haven't seen them since we left Nova Scotia and so you could say we have a lot of catching up to do! My lasting memory of Julian will be of him dressed up as a camel at our Arabian night and Ness rather drunk performing in our garage in snow boots and a cycle helmut on Burns Night- I'm sure that some of you will remember those nights well!