It's a quiet listless night. In Grace's cockpit I'm wondering about my engine once again.....no. no, no.....just kidding. Actually it's overcast and raining. In Grace's cockpit, however, the sun is shining and the birds are singing 'cause I've got water in the heat exchanger. 13/8 inches of water are showing above the first baffle, exactly what was there before our last test run. Thoughts of departure are running through my head.
Kenny is as relieved as we are, but is perhaps a bit more realistic. He has strongly advised us to do an extra long test run before we get to carried away. We're taking his advise and will run over to Tobago Island and back tomorrow. Its a four hour trip, long enough to be pretty sure we got a good fix.
Our plans have changed a bit because of the delay. Instead of heading straight out to the Marquesas Islands we will spend about a month in Ecuador. We should arrive in the Marquesas' in September and will spend the 90 days our French Polynesia visas allow us to be in country in the Islands, then head up to Hawaii. This will allow us to do this passage after the hurricane season, and put us in Hawaii sometime in late November or early December. We plan on wintering over, making the trip back to Seattle in July of next year. Or we may just go somewhere else....whatever the Admiral wants.
Great news, guys! Been following the saga. Panama is your Hotel California, "you can check in but you can't check out"!!! Ours was Whangarei, NZ (blog tells most / some of the details) Good call on heading to Ecuador.....we REALLY liked Ecuador. Puerto Amistad is a good, safe place to leave the boat if you want to do some inland travel, which we really recommend. Ecuador is a small country. Buses cost $1/hour, and you can get nearly across the country in a 12-16 hour day. The Andes are really spectacular! If you do go to Puerto Amistad, say hi to owner Tripp and his wife Maiji. Cheers mates! We're now finally poised to clear out in 2 days, headed for Fiji at last!
ReplyDeleteHi Adam, Good to hear from you. Thanks for the encouraging news on Ecuador. We loved reading about your adventures while you were land traveling there. We were buddy boating with Ed and Connie on Serena. Ed's family used to live in La Paz, Bolivia, and he was adding great side bars to your adventure. He used to use the road you took your bike ride on, and his uncle owned all the trains you saw out in the desert. We are not going to be able to duplicate your trip, which is the gold standard to us, but we hope to hit Maccu Pichu (SP).. All the best. Paul
DeleteWhat's on the other side of Hawai'i? Maybe keep going?
ReplyDeleteJudy is talking about heading back to French Poly and continuing on westward. We will see which way the wind is blowing (so to speak) when the time comes. We need to do some skyping. Got to get your impressions on life as just another retired burden on society..
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