we depart, once again. tomorrow morning, we sail to vanuatu... should be a 7-8 day journey. wish i had more time for the internet, blogging and catching up with everyone but the computer access seems to be on 'island time' (see fanning island) and i could very well spend days on it if i really wanted too... another time. i hope all is well and good with everyone. as the sun sets softly over foreign shores, i bid you all a fond farewell and good night... raymond [View Full Entry]

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It's been the better part of three weeks now since I left and had internet access... where do I begin??? Currently, I am in Samoa, home of the Samoan, land of an island. I am enjoying a steady boat, running water, showers, and environmental stimulation. No, wait a minute. Let me backup... Journal entry : July 26th - DEPARTURE! we set sail july 24th @ 830am from the hawaiian yacht club. after the sails were hoisted, after the shore lines stowed, i sent a final text to some family and friends. immediately after, i received my phone's last incoming call... seppi! [View Full Entry]

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Samoa Aus den paar Stunden ist dann nocheinml drei Nächte geworden. Ich hatte mich an dem Tag an dem ich fliegen sollte zum Flughafen begeben. Dort angekommen, habe ich auf der Anzeigetafel meinen Flug gesucht und nicht gefunden. Als ich dann in meinen Unterlagen nachgeschaut habe, hat mich der Schlag getroffen, ich hatte meinen Flug verpasst. Nach dem der erste Schock vorbei war, habe ich bei der Fluglinie nachgefragt, was ich jetzt machen kann. Die Damen am Schalter haben mir dann einen neuen Flug gebucht, was nicht so einfach war, da mein Visa drei Tage später auslief. In der Zwischenzei [View Full Entry]

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It's one of those traumatic childhood stories. We all have one. Moonlit graveyards, sock eating monsters under the bed, the Boogy Man, fluffy bunny rabbits, lumpy toads; there is a spine-tingling nemesis out there for everyone. Some are a bit more understandable than others, such as my strapping 6 foot 3 Scottish friend who has an apprehension towards turkeys (of the gobble gobble variety, not the sort found at the local pub, although both should understandably be feared). Well, when I was wee lassie, innocent and harebrained, (about sixteen year old), I discovered a four foot long bull sn [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the long wait between posts. We were on an island in Samoa with only <gulp> dial up. Samoa is like Hawaii but there's no dry side of the islands, only green everywhere with lots of waterfalls. The villages have nicely painted houses and fales in all shades of the rainbow. The grass is kept trimmed and bordered by decorative plants and flowers. There's very little trash around compared to Fiji. But... we just miss the big Fijian "Bula!" Don't get me wrong, Samoans are nice and if we hadn't been to Fiji first we probably would think that they [View Full Entry]

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Slumbering, bedding down, bunking, catnapping, zoning out, catching forty winks, and hitting the hay. Normal people call it sleeping: a state of inactivity or unconsciousness. Somewhere between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., individuals all over the world are sleeping and recharging their bodies and restless minds. Lucky them. I haven't completely slept through a night in several months for we sailors choose to spend our night time hours doing something totally different - welcome to the phenomenon of night watches. Yes, night watch. During the black, silent, night time hours when w [View Full Entry]

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Hello, Julia here - and a very belated Happy New Year to all! I recently joined a local soccer team, having been invited by a colleague who plays with a bunch of his former workmates from a previous job. It’s 11 a side with a minimum of five girls on field at any time, and we get to play on the fields from the South Pacific Games so the set up is pretty good. I’m the only palagi (foreigner) on the team, and everyone speaks in Samoan so I’ve spent a bit of time nodding along to the pre-game pep talks [View Full Entry]

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Hi Guys......thanks for still being this interested. Since our last entry we have been on our whale watching tour. What a waste of money that was. It was quite possibly the worst boat trip ever due to the waves being at least 10ft high - no joke! There were so many people being sick that this one dork passed out and the US coast guard and paramedics had to come and meet us. Ayyy, stupid dork meant we missed an hour of the trip while she got saved. Anyway we didn't see any whales, well we saw five blows of water [View Full Entry]

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Papeete, Tahiti We spent a pleasant day in Tahiti visiting James Norman Hall’s home, Point Venus which is the site where Capt. Cook recorded the passage of Venus across the face of the sun in 1769, a local market, and later, watched people congregating near the ship where vendors set up stands selling all kinds of food. James Norman Hall wrote the Mutiny on the Bounty series. We learned that not only was he a writer, but also quite an army pilot, serving in three armies - French, Spanish, and American (with Eddie Rickenbacker). There is a room full of medals [View Full Entry]

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Apia, Samoa January 26, 2008 we docked in Apia, the capital of Samoa and the only place you can really call a city. This is the first port since Tahiti that we were able to dock, and didn’t have to tender in. It is warm but raining and showing no signs of letting up, so I don’t know if I will go ashore or not. We’ve been so luck so far with such good weather that I guess we’re due for a bad day. Our friends are going snorkeling so it doesn’t matter to them if it is raining or not [View Full Entry]

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