The Purple Pirate Ship: April 2016

A number of friends voiced some concern from my last post, so thought I better reassure readers that we are A.O.K!!

dress up party: Spanish pirate and Shogun from the

NZ movie "Boy"

We quite often get comments about “how lucky” we are, so I wanted to show that things aren’t always palm tree lined beaches, sunbathing and sun-downers (drinks on sun-down).

As in every lifestyle, there are always hurdles and challenges to overcome. One of the great things Dave and I noticed about our year on the boat is how well (generally speaking), we do work together, we make a pretty good team.

Christmas day: family surf

It’s been 7 months since we returned to NZ and through much discussion, deliberation and time passing on land, we feel more resolved and determined to continue on with our boat plan/lifestyle.

The apprehension is still there but we will continue on anyway, God willing, with the aim of returning to the boat in February 2017.

There we will be making the necessary preparations for the big sail: from the Netherland Antilles, up, over the Colombia head, down to Panama (10-12 days sail approx.). Waiting to cross the Panama Canal can take a week or two, but the crossing is only a couple of days. The Galapagos islands, about 5-6 days out from Panama is not affordable for us to stop so, from Panama, the Pacific crossing to the Marquesas, will be for us approximately 30+ days.

(click on the red balloons for a bit more info or zoom in to find the actual islands!).

In the meantime, saving continues and so does life. Here's a few snapshots of what we've been up to:

Visiting the home I grew up in, Coromandel Peninsula...