Which way do we go?

How do we decide where to go?
We let Jake drive, of course!

How do we decide where we are going to go?  That’s a question I’ve gotten quite often since we’ve been home.  And the answer isn’t very straightforward.  Sometimes, we go with the flow (Mexico, French Polynesia, Cooks).  Sometimes, we purposely go off the beaten path (Kiribati, Marshall Islands).  And sometimes we go with the wind (Micronesia).  We rarely research things more than a few countries ahead of time because not only might we change our mind, but the information starts getting all mixed up in our heads and the result is that we have a lot of information but can’t remember which country it goes to so we have to do it all over again…total waste of time. 

Sometimes, though, you need to at least pick your general path if for no other reason, than to have something to look forward to.  After Pohnpei we’re heading to Yap (we may stop at Chuuk but that’s still under debate) and then Palau.  From there, well, we are at a crossroads.

We originally told everyone we were going to cruise for 5 years.  We’re halfway through that timeline and nowhere near done.   The question is, do we stick to that timeline (maybe pushing it out to 6?) and get home to spend some time with the family, let Jake go to school and we get jobs (by “we” of course you know I mean Andy), then buy another boat when Jake is in college and do the other half of the world? Or…do we keep going and play it by ear, risking disappointing family and friends patiently awaiting our return?  I can hear all the diehards now screaming at us to not worry about what others think and “live out our dream!”  Well, I hear you…but…that’s easier said than done.  Andy and I are both very close to our families (and each others) and would hate to totally miss out on our parents golden years (don’t worry Papa’s…I don’t have you in your graves yet, just a figure of speech) or for them to have to watch ALL of Jake’s growing up via the internet (not to mention, we have to watch our nieces and nephews grow up the same way.

What this means for our route is that we have to decide between a few options:

1) Leave Palau and make our way back towards the Solomons fairly quickly (route to be determined), making our way through Vanuatu, New Caledonia and then ultimately Brisbane, Australia.  Take the pulse of everyone both on board and on land…sell the boat, go home.  We’re figuring this could be done in 2-3 years.

2) Leave Palau and go to the Philippines.  Explore South East Asia thoroughly, head the wrong way back through Indonesia, PNG, and the Solomons, ultimately ending in Australia.  Sell the boat, go home.  Really no idea how long this could take.  The open windows for moving from country to country shorten in this part of the world, due to unpredictable weather patterns.  But darn, it sounds fun.

3) Basically do the same as option 2, but pick a few countries in SE Asia and make them our priority.  Skip Indonesia and high tail it to Australia.  We could fit this in our 3-year plan but would miss more than we would see (and we would be acutely aware of that).

4) Throw caution to the wind, sail through SE Asia and keep on going until we hit the east coast.  Not likely, but we’ve never fully marked this off our list.

For now, we’re leaving it open.  But that decision is going to come upon us very soon as time flies when you’re having fun, right?  How will we choose?  I would like to tell you that we will consult numerous sailing books, write pro and con lists, weigh the risks vs. rewards, and make an educated decision.  That would be the prudent way.  In reality, we’ll probably have a 10 minute discussion based on emotions and gut feelings, agree fairly quickly, and point the bow in the decided direction.  That’s the Andy and Monica way.  Regardless, stay tuned…we have a lot ahead of us and regardless of the decision, it promises to be interesting.

In the meantime, I'm leaving you all with the latest pictures of Jake living it up in sunny California! Andy will be back on the boat in a couple of days with Jake and I to follow in another few weeks.

Jake and Gigi waiting for breakfast at Lake Arrowhead

Jake and mommy in the bumper cars (not a bad way
to let off a little stress if I do say so myself :).

Outside the Children's Science Museum in L.A.

Watching his hair stand up on ends.

Building a wall.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (that would be me)

One of cruisers favorite hobbies is bragging on how they can get things cheap or even better, free.  This post is not to criticize those people - I think it's great - but to confess that I have never been and apparently, never will be a good bargain shopper (I'm going to go out on a limb and speak for the captain here as well...never used a coupon, I'm pretty sure).  Oh, I've had my moments when I thought I was a convert...like buying Jake a new/used button up in Pohnpei for $2.  Or buying some really cute used surf shorts for $.50 at Kwajalein's bargain basement.  But looking back, I'm pretty sure that was because I have an inherent need to buy things and those were the only places I could find anything I liked (after all, Target has yet to expand outside of the U.S.). I. Love. To. Shop.

With that all out on the table, it won't be a shock that I might have gone a little overboard being in the States for three months (incidentally, according to the credit card bill, Andy's suitcase will be a bit heavier when he returns as well).  To my defense, we won't see these things again until we get to Australia, and we have no idea when that will be.  Enough said...I have a problem.

The first two months were more personal type purchases, mostly bought at outlet malls and Target...bathing suits, tank tops, tshirts, toys for Jake, etc.  But now that we're getting down to the wire, I've made a list of necessary items and this might actually be useful to some of you (I'm going to turn this into a productive post if it kills me).

• Long shorts - For women traveling in remote areas, these are a must (or long skirts, but I don't need any more of those).  I find shorts to be more comfortable on our hiking trips and days out in town.  I only had one pair of long ones...and they were red.  I think all of the locals knew me by my shorts (or my smell, by wearing these shorts every day, not sure which).  So now I have three more pairs, including two black pair - good for dirt as well as wearing over and over without people noticing (maybe).

• Large Drybag Backpack - Ever since I saw our friends on s/v Eyoni with one of these in Mexico, I've been envious.  I finally bought one today.  These are perfect for bringing laundry back from the laundry mat and not getting them wet in the dinghy or from the constant rain.  Laundry mats in Micronesia are pretty cheap so we use them frequently.  The fact that this is a backpack adds a second bonus in that it won't kill my shoulders when I'm trying to carry it back and forth (or Andy's - he usually does the lugging if I ask nice enough).

• Collapsable Bowls - I already had some of these but two years of nonstop use have worn the rubber down and created tiny (and not so tiny) holes about midway down the bowl making pancakes in the a.m. a very messy ordeal.  This time, I bought a pricier version from Target as they appear more sturdy than the ones I bought last time online.  If they last more than two years, they'll be worth it...we'll see.

• Water shoes - this is a no brainer and apparently I have no brain... I don't have any.  Andy uses his scuba booties, but I have fins that fit my feet so I never needed the booties.  I wear flip-flops every time we go trekking through a river and you can imagine how that turns out.  I found these Teva's at REI on clearance and love them.  They look like regular shoes but have holes for drainage on the sides and are extremely comfortable.  I almost spent the $100 for a pair of Keens but after trying these on (and taking into account the "stinky" reputation of Keens), I went with the much less expensive Tevas.  I have high hopes.

• Wine stoppers - Andy will say this is a waste as we never leave a bottle half full, but I think they're necessary.  What if we don't drink the whole second bottle?

• Various replacement wires - We have discovered that almost every wire we have onboard (for electronics like TVs, iPods, computers, etc), have corroded at the two year mark.  So I've bought new ones and sometimes two of them.  One of Andy's military sayings he's brought aboard is "one is none and two is one."  I think it applies here.

• Wifi booster antennae - We have one of these and it's been an absolute necessity for us, but.... it's dying a slow and painful death.  I'm on the search for one that not only boosts the signal going out, but coming in as well.  I haven't bought this yet, so all suggestions are welcome.

The list goes on and on (a whole new suitcase full), but I guess that's enough confession for now...I still have a month and a half left....ugh...  The good news is, we've paid off our debt and everything from here on out is money back in the kitty....so all is good.  My rationalization is that we'll be back in the land of nothing before we know it, right?

In the meantime, Andy is wrapping up his gig in Afghanistan and thinking about travel arrangements to go home.  Keep up your prayers and nice thoughts...I think they're working.

Getting ready for the "Big" Sail

People ask me if I miss work.  I know, silly question.  But I think they mean, am I satisfied not working, does my brain get enough stimulation, etc.  I’ve decided that I’m actually planning the biggest, most expensive project of my life.  So in essence, I never quit, I just changed industries and took a pay cut.  I’m in the travel and boating industry now and get paid in sunshine and good vibes!  You might find a bit of project lingo in this post…just ignore it if you want.  I thought it might entertain some of my former co-workers.

We’re starting to really gear up for our trip to the Galapagos.  We’ll check out of Mexico around the 1^st of March as that’s when our visas expire.  It will take two to three weeks to get to the Galapagos from Puerto Vallarta and then we’ll stay there for one month.  After that, we’ll sail west to the Marquesas Islands and then the French Polynesian Islands.  It will take us another two to four weeks to get to the Marquesas (depending on winds and weather).  Our timeline is pretty much dictated by visas, wind and weather so there are a lot of variables to consider which makes the planning a bit sketchy.

What we do know for certain is that before we leave here we need to do a lot of preparations.  Probably more than we did before we left San Diego.  To give you an idea of what it takes…here’s our current list (that we just started making…not even halfway done I’m guessing).

1)   Get the boat hauled out and bottom repainted – I know what you’re thinking, “Didn’t you do that in San Diego?”  Yes, yes we did.  They did a crappy job.  Really crappy job.  We not only see the original paint, but in some places we see bare metal.  It should have lasted us 2 years.  Instead it barely lasted 6 months.  And no, we haven’t been scrubbing it and knocking the paint off ourselves.  So we found a yard here that will haul us out and let us do the work ourselves which will save a lot of money and make Andy feel a lot better knowing exactly what’s being done.

2)   Finish painting the topside.  Not a huge deal, but kind of a nice to have.  It turns out the paint that Andy did in San Blas is not sticking so we really have to redo the whole thing.  Need to do research to figure out what went wrong.

3)   Make a list of spare parts needed and buy said parts.  Once you’re out there in the ocean and something breaks (and something will break), you have to be able to fix it yourself.  Now everyone who knows us knows I’m married to MacGyver, but even he gets in a jam sometimes and runs out of chewing gum and wire so it’s very important to plan this part well so as not to throw the timeline off too much, overrun the budget or have to cancel the whole project.

4)   Begin inventory of all the food and drink we have onboard to begin making our provisioning list.  We have stuff stuffed everywhere.  Literally, everywhere.  And sometimes we forget what we have and where we stuffed it.  For example, we got home from the store one day with 3 boxes of sushi rice and 3 bottles of cooking oil.  Want to know where I stored them?  Next to the 2 large bags of sushi rice and 4 bottles of cooking oil we already had.

5)   Provision.  After making the list, I need to scout out the area and figure out the best place to buy everything.  I’m guessing I’ll go to Costco, the Mega, local meat market and probably the local stores for veggies and other Mexican specific things we’ve come to love.  The act of buying all of these groceries takes 3 times a long as you think it does as we have no car and usually don’t have any clue where we’re going.

6)   Figure out where to put everything we buy.

7)   Come up with a few menu items that I can cook ahead of time for the first few days out as I tend to get queasy and won’t feel like cooking.

8)   Figure out visa requirements and route after the Marquesas.  Everything before that seems pretty solid, but we’re not really that far in the planning past “lets go to the French Polynesians!”

We have about 2 months to finish everything up, which sounds like a lot of time, but remember what I said about everything taking three times as long as you think. 

So now that I’ve laid out the tentative scope of the project and the tentative timeline, lets cover our very firm budget.  We are on a fixed income with some stashed in the bank for the days we overrun our budget (so I guess, even that is not really firm).  But reality is, there is a finite amount of money and the theory is that we won’t need it (because we’re so good at managing our monthly budget) and will come home with a good chunk to help us acclimate ourselves back into civilization.  With that said, here are the expenses so far that we’re supposed to cover on this “fixed income.”  All numbers are approximate as I’m too lazy to go looking for all of the exact numbers in our various emails.

Haul out - $1200

Additional bottom paint - $1000 (I know, why so expensive?  We have to have special paint since we’re aluminium…it can’t have any copper in it.  I guess it takes an extra 2-300 bucks to remove the copper?  Kind of like fat free food costing more than the good stuff)

Additional tools to do the work on the bottom - $200 (this is Andy’s cushion.  I know from experience he’ll find something he needs that we don’t have)

Additional paint for the topside – who knows…I’m guessing $250

Spare Parts – unknown , no idea, probably lots

Food/drinks - $1500 (knowing us, I’m probably underestimating here.  Remember this will need to get us across the ocean…twice.  We want to stock up as things get more expensive the more remote you get).

Galapagos - $1000 give or take

            $300 agent fee

            $300 park fees ($100 pp)

            $250 – various fees and taxes

            That’s what we know of so far….

We’re still in the initial pre-planning stages so I do expect a significant amount of scope increase as well as numerous timeline changes and probably a few calls to the financial advisor when our budget is overrun.  But the plus here is that I only have to get management approval from one person for any of these changes, so the bureaucracy is considerably less.  So anyone worried about me losing my touch, keep the faith…I think we can do it!