Pacific Crossing
Return to Papeete, French Polynesia, August 2011
Been a while since this blog has been updated.
The original plan was to return back to the boat from home in Melbourne, and continue westwards across the Pacific in June.
This plan was scrapped after coming to the conclusion that if the boat was to be tied up somewhere for a while, it might as well be in Tahiti, and not pushed to get south to New Zealand before November 2011 and escape the cyclone season in the Western Pacific.
This break has also given me a chance to immerse myself back into the business and help my son Chris, spend more time with my family, particularly with our daughter and her two beautiful girls returning home after living in the Netherlands for the past four years and be around for some business property acquisitions.
Fortunately, but sadly, being around for the passing of my Mother, who died last week at the age of 88. Also just recently, our dog Elliott had to be put down due to the ravages of old age, and is buried in a new garden we are constructing at our country property.
On Thursday 11th of August I finally get a chance to visit SKIE to check on how she is fairing, move her to a new slip for more power to run the AirCon which needs to be continuous as we go through the humid season, and check all of the vital small things e.g. strainers, sea chest, etc.
This will be for only 4 days as I need to get back to prepare for a months trip to Europe at the end of August, but Marg and I plan to spend all of October cruising the leewards, and catch up with Tamu, Cindy, Phillipe, and Johann & Laurie on N57 SHAKA who is berthed at our marina and been keeping an extra eye out for SKIE as well.
I must admit that apart from some anxiety not having seen her for 4 months, she is being well looked after by a number of people.
Hopefully SHAKA may join us for a leisurely cruise around the Leewards.
The big plan is to leave Tahiti next March and take our time crossing to Vanuatu, then bring her back home in October to beat the cyclone season, do our regulation New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour, then back finally to my favourite place in the world so far, Tasmania.
What transpires from then on is unknown, but by then 33,000 nm will have washed under the keel, and maybe my wanderlust may just take a back seat, but who knows.
I still have Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, beckoning to be explored, but have a feeling deep down that this may be on another boat where someone else will be doing the oil changes.
Being back in the business after 10 years away has been great. Everyday is a fun challenge and I'm enjoying the fruits of so many years of hard work paying off in spades.
In my office I have a map of the world with orange dots on the places I've been to so far. What stands out is the dots have hardly scratched the surface, and so much more is beckoning. I still drift off and look at the larger Nordhavn's on the market often, then the phone goes, or the email pings, to snap me out of my self indulgent dreaming.
Maybe its better to remain loyal to our wonderful SKIE, who has been an absolute worry free joy to have. Who knows?