It’s been nearly a month since we sailed back into
Honolulu. And a very busy month for
sure! Since we had come back and decided
not to head back out until the weather (specifically, the Pacific high pressure system) stabilized later
in May/June, I took the opportunity to book a ticket to the mainland to go to
my niece Katya’s bat mitzvah. I now
think this might have been the real reason why we had to turn around! I had been bummed about not being able to
attend this momentous occasion with my family.
It turned out to be such a lovely experience – a real treat to be able
to share this event with my niece and to have a visit with my family (including
my sister’s mother in-law from Bolivia) – it’d been over a year since I’d seen
my nieces! I also took the opportunity
to stop over in Seattle on my way back to Hawaii to take care of some Doctor
appointments, and the timing happened to coincide with my honorary niece
Maggie’s 10th birthday party.
It was a sleepover with 11 girls – I’ve never heard so much giggling or
screaming! Suffice it to say, I had a
great time on the mainland, catching up with friends and family.
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| Me with my nieces Katya and Jennifer |
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| Me with my *nieces* (they call me aunty!) Maggie & Kate |
Now, after being back in Hawaii for a bit over a week, we are seeing a good weather
window for our departure. If the
forecast holds, we’ll let you know when we are at sea! While I was on the mainland, Tim spent his
time fixing up the boat further. We
added Radar to our new boat equipment.
Tim was up on the mast for better part of a morning, but he got it up
and running in one day! It’s going to be
a huge relief in case we end up on the foggy California coast. It’ll also be helpful for avoiding other
vessels and even understanding squally weather we may be approaching. We’re pretty psyched to have this new tool!
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| Timmy up on the mizzen mast, installing the radar |
We also made some real lee cloths (tarps for the side of the
cockpit), and a tarp to cover the gap between our dodger and bimini. On our previous passage, Tim had gone to
extraordinary measures to try to keep the sea from invading the cockpit – using
all means of spare canvas, and cushions, and fenders. And Tim has been working tirelessly to re-bed
hatches to fix the leaky leaks, and to generally tighten up ship (screwing down
floorboards, checking over the engine, adding weather stripping to the anchor and propane lockers on deck, etc.) , always good to do when you are
heading offshore.
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| Block that wave! No water allowed in our cockpit! |
So, if it still loooks good, we may be heading out very soon. We'll be posting blogs underway, and look forward to getting back to Mexico, althought it does feel like we're leaving paradise here in Hawaii.
