Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Sailing

  • Crossing the Pacific Ocean (part 2) Video #4

    I created a new page for the site labeled Videos (above) so if you’re impatient you can view them all right there…right now.

    Christmas is coming up fast! Our friends on Zen arrived back in the states yesterday after their long trip home from NZ via Bangkok and New Delhi!  Geoff and Julie from Flashback, who we haven’t seen in a few months, are both back in Fiji and have planned a trip down to Auckland to join us for New Years Eve!  Allan and Rina on Follow You Follow Me are also back in the states for the holidays with their family.  Meanwhile Seth and Elizabeth have sold Honeymoon and are working their way down the eastern Australian coast to Sydney where their trip comes to an end.  Many of our other friends are finishing out the season in NZ or Australia before heading off to Southeast Asia and others are “nesting” for a while in those countries and getting jobs.  We have many friends spread across the globe after this season and it’s sad to see everyone breaking up and heading their own way but alas it is time.  The fun can’t last forever!

    Here’s episode #4.  The last bit of the passage and arrival in the Marquesas!

  • Sailing Ecuador and The Galapagos – Video 1

    This is the first of 8 videos from last year.  My crew, Aaron, did a lot of the filming and all of the editing.  They are awesome!

    This episode covers the mainland of Ecuador and the hassle I went through with the government there to get Dosia cleared out.

    Sorry, but you gotta watch the 30 second commercial first!

  • Arrival in Opua, NZ

    After nine days at sea we are finally sitting still again. It feels very, very nice. I have officially completed my first 1000+ mile passage. We arrived at the customs dock around 7:30 this morning. I cooked up the last pound of bacon we had on board, as well as the rest of our eggs, as they would have just been confiscated by quarantine otherwise. Confiscated bacon!? There is no room for that phrase anywhere in Drew’s vocabulary. He took much pleasure in being able to devour almost the entire pound without me being able to scold him or tell him he had had enough. The quarantine official was very nice, yet very thorough. She got a few goods off of us…some mayo, wild rice, fresh cucumbers & onions. Nothing that can’t be replaced very inexpensively. Then it was time for the customs officials as well as the drug and bomb dogs. With a cup of bacon grease sitting on the counter, neither pup seemed too interested in their job at hand! By 9 we were done and by 9:30 we were safely in a slip. Ahh, fresh hot showers…

    A quick lunch with our buds Alan & Rina and we’re back on board so Drew can get some sleep. He’s seen very little in the past 48 hours. Naturally, the last two days of the passage had to give us a little run for our money but we made it. We’ll start making some decisions on our route to Whangarei, which is where Dosia will stay while we head home for the holidays! That’s all in due time though. Right now…that other couch is looking pretty good…

  • Passage to NZ, Day 9

    Had a pretty rough night last night which entailed absolutely no sleep for Drew. Throughout a twelve hour time frame which started about 8 p.m., we only went about 12 miles. Can you say frustrating? The winds shifted, Drew adjusted. As soon as he was adjusted, they’d switch again. He was none too happy when I finally came to about 5:30 this morning. After about seven more hours of the same battle things finally started getting back on track a little after noon today. Although I can’t technically see it, I can envision the finish line not far away. We found the angle against these southerly winds we’d been fighting for the past 30 hours and although it’s still bumpy, we’re glad to be making progress again. 68 more miles to go. One more night, obviously assuming all goes well this evening. I’m gonna go ahead and take the high road on this assumption and say that between the hours of four and six in the morning we will be arriving at the entrance to the Bay of Islands. When our parents break from their daily routines and schedules tomorrow for lunch they will be able to breathe a little easier knowing that we are safe. So will I. New Zealand. Neither of us can even begin to believe it…