Around the Islands!

After a 2 week trip to Kauai in June and a 3 week circumnavigation of Oahu, we decided to head to Maui for a trip before the end of summer. As I write this, we are headed back (a little earlier than planned) because the north swells have started - yes, an end to the summer season here in Hawaii.

We left 10 days ago in the evening with a mixed forecast. To get to Maui, we decided to go to the west coast of Lana’i rather than the typical route to Molokai. The residents of Molokai, normally referred to as the Friendly Island, are very concerned about Covid-19 and are not welcoming visitors. Its decidedly Unfriendly at this time. We only anchor at these islands and do not go ashore but we still decided to bypass Molokai. So, off to Lana’i.

One model said it should be a fine crossing the other a bit rough. Well, the rough one won that bet. It was a long, bumpy and windy motor/sail. We motored because the halyard got boogered up (technical term) with the spreader while raising it. The wind was nearly directly on the nose anyways, so we decided to just motor and when we could; fly the jib. The wind and waves on the nose made for a very slow trip that put us in the Kalohi Channel just as it was firing up to a Small Craft Advisory. More big wind on the nose as we clocked 30 kts… 

We arrived at the Needles anchorage about midmorning and quickly decided it was worth the rough trip! It reminded us so much of Mexico - brown (not lush tropical)l, steep cliff faces dropping to the ocean breakers and no sign of civilization! Perfect. We set anchor in-between the 5 geologic formations that make its namesake. See pics below. 

For 3 days, we had it to ourselves and snorkeled, swam and explored by kayak and paddleboard. The entire west coast of Lana’i is wild and remote feeling - and there is no cell service, too! Spectacular! 

We then headed around the south end of the island towards Maui. Everyday, the tradewinds kick up in the afternoon and blow from the East. Sometimes they get funneled through the isthmus of Maui and blow from the north. So we were headed to Oneloa for some protection. The south side was a bit rolly so we anchored on the north side in calm and quite hot conditions. A quick swim cooled us off. As I was on a Zoom call, a WEST swell kicked in and after my iPad flew off the table twice; we decided to end the call and move to look for a better anchorage. We considered La Perouse on the south side of the island - nice and protected from this weird west swell and now wind. But as we motored south, we were stopped by the winds blowing through the Alenuihaha Channel. Ok, back to Oneloa and lets just wait it out on the south side. A few hours later, it calmed a bit and we stayed the night.

The next morning I was up and as Jeff put it “like a kid at Christmas” as we were heading to Molokini to scuba dive! This atoll is super cool and we got to go there with no one around! Just a 3 mile motor from the anchorage and except for a small dinghy with a couple snorkelers, we had our pick of the mooring buoys. You can’t anchor there (hurts the coral) so they have 26 mooring buoys you can use temporarily. When busy (which is usually all the time) you only get 2.5 hours on the mooring. We would have it all day… The one thing about these buoys is you can’t see them. They sit 10-15’ below the surface and have a tag line hanging. So, you (meaning me) just jump in, dive down and pick up the line. Meanwhile, Jeff brings the boat around, I hand him the line and he ties our line to it. Easy Peasy. And, it really was! I would have to say that if it was windy, wavy or with other boats there; this would have been a major stressor with just the 2 of us! 

Molokini is spectacular! The coral is so bright and healthy with lots of life! Truly a magical place. We only explored the inner walls since we weren’t keen on being swept by a current out to sea with no one else around. Poor Salpare would just be sitting there… I think they made a movie like that. Anyways, it was an awesome day and such a privilege to have it to ourselves.

Back to Oneloa for the night. Again, the wind came from the west… that’s something that is never mentioned in any forecast or guidebook. But, since we had experienced it already, we figured it would die in a few hours. It did and we slept soundly; rolling a bit and hearing the surf roar against the beach.

The forecast for the next 2 days was for higher winds 20-25 from the north. So, once again, I perused the guidebooks and found us a number of places that offer “great protection from north winds and swell”. We headed for McGregor “Bay”; really just a small indentation. We anchored just as the winds increased and soon found us dragging anchor out to the open water. Ok, lets try another. 

We headed up the leeward coast as the winds starting really whipping up. The “great protection” anchorages were simply just not to be… They were just sandy spots along the coast that perhaps would block the north wind with their mountainous backdrop. Unfortunately, that just is not the case. After seeing no where to hide, we just dropped the anchor about a 1/2 mile off the beach in 18’ of water. 

The winds continued to build as we removed our enclosure sides and tried to reduce windage. The winds climbed and climbed. They eventually hit 40 kts. For those who haven’t experienced that - it sucks. Its deafeningly loud and pretty intense. We busied ourselves by constructing backup anchor bridles and backups to the backup. We traded watches throughout the night and finally in the morning the 

winds subsided.  As Jeff pulled up the anchor, I heard him almost lovingly say through our headsets “here’s my badass anchor”. Unfortunately, the winds were predicted to do the same thing again - so we headed for the south side of Lana’i hoping to find protection in Manele Bay.

Now, we wanted to sail over there but of course there was little to no wind during the day, We checked out the anchorage at Manale but soon found it to be too rolly and too close to the breakwater for those conditions.

Ok, lets just head back to the Needles. We realized by now that we were just a bit too late in the season to stay in Maui. The north swells were starting and that signals the end of summer. Most of the anchorages on Maui have some exposure to the north - even the ones that say they don’t.

We rounded the calm southwest corner of Lana’i and headed north to the Needles. The eastern trade winds that were predicted for this area turned in to; you guessed it - strong north winds on

 our nose. 30 kts to be exact. Shit - now what?? The Needles would be too exposed. Fortunately, the Dept of Transportation of Hawaii has a very small cove just a few miles up the island. We ditched into it and quickly snagged a tire on our first try at anchoring. So, while Jeff wrestled the tire off the anchor I worked on my “Confined Space in Gusty Winds Driving”. We finally settled for the night, watched a movie and fell fast asleep to greatly diminished winds. The next morning, we headed out and decided to anchor in Kalama Nui instead of the Needles. 

The guidebooks say to anchor on the south side - so we did. When I jumped in to check the anchor and surroundings I was greatly dismayed to find we were actually in the center of the coral reef with seamounts surrounding us and taller than our keel! And, our anchor was simply sitting upright on a rock! Yikes! “Jeff we need to move now; and very carefully”. We re-anchored in a sandy area that looked safe. But, after I dove in again and checked; we decided to move to the Needles. We were just close enough to rocks and coral that if the winds came from the wrong and un-forecasted directions - yea, whats the chance of that - it would go in the bad column.

We set anchor back at our old standby the Needles, quickly dove in for a snorkel and to cool off. We relaxed and had an awesome happy hour with yet another brilliant sunset. We knew this would be out last trip to this area; most likely until next spring. These Hawaiian waters and their changeable winds really dictate when and where you can go. 

After waking early for the 77 mile trip back to Ko Olina, we sailed off the anchor and had a lovely sail and part motor across the dreaded Kaiwi Channel. We knew we had to get back as the winds were dying (meaning no sailing and all motoring back) for the next few days followed by the season’s second north swell. Time to get home. 

We hope to get back to Maui either by boat or maybe fly there this winter and explore. It was a bit of a wild trip but gosh darn we just have such a great time. Being with each other on Salpare  and exploring new places makes it all worth it.

Thanks for reading and following along!

Life in the Aloha Bubble

Lagoon at Ko Olina

Last I wrote, we were just settling in to our new home; Ko Olina Resort Marina. I’d say we are firmly settled now as we now refer to it as “home”. The name Ko Olina means, in Hawaiian, Place of Joy and its really living up to this for us. The word “idyllic” is mentioned nearly every day in my phone calls to my best buddy, Carolyn. Jeff and I realize how dang lucky and privileged we are to have landed here and are so, so appreciative of each day.

While we watch the rest of our country hurting and hoping to heal racial injustices and at the same time deal with the ever-increasing Covid 19 pandemic, we enjoy an easy and safe life. Hawaii has the lowest virus rates and Ko Olina is a bubble within the safety of Hawaii. It does play with your mind and conscience… However, this is where we are and we always strive to live every day to the fullest. A new friend we met in Kauai gave us a great saying “Build a life you don’t vacation from”. And of course, our favorite saying, taken from a boat name we saw during our Alaska trip, “Long time dead”. Meaning; Life is short! It hits home for us and we savor every day.

Jeff's First Hawaiian Shave Ice!

North Shore of Oahu

Makua Beach

So, what are our days like? They start with a “lap” swim or water run in our Lagoon. Its about 150 yards long and we are there every morning for an hour. The water running is a hoot! We “run” in different depths of water and up and down the sand beach. What I think is my cheerful encouragement to Jeff probably sounds like, to the few others on the beach, a drill sergeant! But, we have fun with it and it’s been super for Jeff’s health. His insulin intake is lower, his A1C in now in the “pre-diabetic range” and he’s lost some weight. Exercise is the ONLY thing that has shown any promise to slow the progression of Parkinsons so we are going at it full force. 

Temperatures here are in the mid eighties each day with about 55% humidity. We are on the dry side so we get a misty rain every few days for a few minutes but that’s about it for rainfall. The water temperature is now a lovely 80 degrees in the lagoon. Yep; its pretty idyllic.

When not working on our own or other’s boat projects, we travel to anchorages and now other islands. Our favorite local gunk hole is Makua Beach. Just a short couple hours sail north of us, its filled with friendly spinner dolphins, turtles and reef fish. The beachgoers are mostly locals with which we’ve had only great experiences. Respect, a genuine “aloha and how is your day going” and a smile go along way to easing any tension. Yea, its the USA. But, we are visitors on their islands and feel privileged to be here. We also understand that with no tourists here yet, we kinda stick out. We’ve been shown the Aloha Spirit and hopefully give it back to others.

When the inter-island quarantine ended, we beat feet up to Kauai. We just returned yesterday after 11 - should I say it - idyllic days in famous Hanalei Bay. The beauty of the island is well known but we were able to experience it with little to no tourists. When we hiked the famous Na Pali Coast Trail, where they cap the daily entrance at 900, we saw maybe 20 people all day. When I took a surf lesson, I was the only student (Johnny usually has 6-8 students at a time). When we took a dive trip, yes, you guessed it - we were the only ones and the first trip Eric, our guide, had in 4 months. 

Beautiful View from the Na Pali Coast Trail

Another view from the trail

More beauty on the trail

Salpare feeling the Tradewinds as we head to Kauai!

Its a 90 mile, overnight trip through open ocean and the Kauai Channel from Oahu to Kauai but worth the effort. It’s interesting that although the economic toll is huge to the local communities, everyone we meet is ok with no tourists yet. Beyond the safety margin of less incoming folks, they are truly loving having the islands to themselves for a bit. Its a double edged sword for sure.

Hanelei Bay

At the end of this week, we head back to Washington. The treatment Jeff usually gets in Germany is now available at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). It’s been 3 years and time for another round of PRRT. We’ll be staying at SCCA House which has apartments for those coming from out of town. That first week is filled with lots of doctor appointments! We had intended to stay just a week or so but the 14 day quarantine for incoming people to Hawaii was extended to July 31st. We’ll need to have a negative Covid 19 test 72 hours prior to flying back “home” to Hawaiii to avoid the quarantine. So, we changed flights and now will be in Washington all July.  We fly home August 1. Last time we visited, we saw over 60 friends and stuffed ourselves on meals at restaurants. Of course, this time will be way different. We still hope to see some of you but at a distance of course. Its such a different world than our Ko Olina Bubble…

Aloha,

Fran and Jeff

The Aloha Life

Aloha from Ko Olina, Hawaii, located on the island of Oahu!

Now that our quarantine days are over, we are getting quite settled in to our new home; well, home for the next year. Ko Olina is situated just north of Pearl Harbor and the busy city of Honolulu. It's a 5 star resort that has a 550 room Marriot Beach Club, the Disney Aulani Resort and a Four Seasons Resort; all of which are empty at this time. There are handfuls of folks in the entire resort but its feels a bit like our own private getaway. There are 4 "lagoons" that are scalloped in to the coast line that hold my dream "swimming pools". Below is the one that is just a 2 minute walk from our dock. We go there nearly every morning for our swim workout or our "Turtle Camp Training Beach" aptly named as opposed to a US Navy Seal Camp Training Beach!

The weather here is about as perfect as it gets. We have 80-85 degrees every day, sunshine and only a misty, quick shower once in the 4 weeks we have been here. Low humidity rounds out the beautiful days. The trade winds blow most days from the east at 15-25 mph; there's always a breeze to cool things down.

The day we were freed from quarantine we had our new bikes delivered! Some nice Trek Mountain Bikes to scoot around town and do our lap workouts! Yes, as you can imagine, Jeff just loves all this working out! Actually, he does!

There's a small general store just a mile from us that we are doing all of our grocery shopping at every few days.They have all the fresh items we need and a good selection of Ice Cream - an essential for Jeff! The picture below right is of the gorgeous Mimosa tree lined streets that we get to ride through. The grounds are stunning and I'm really struggling to know ANY of the plants!

 

Besides not knowing the plants, the birds here are pretty exotic. Black Swans grace the many ponds on the grounds (not native, I know!) and a Mynah bird has made a nest in our neighbors boom cover on his boat. Mynahs mimic other birds so it sounds as if we have a flock of tropical birds when they speak. Although considered a nuisance, they keep us laughing with their many calls and antics. 

You may ask how Covid 19 is effecting our lives. We consider ourselves BEYOND LUCKY that we ended up in an area with a very low case number and very strict rules. Hawaii is still requiring anyone coming from out of state to quarantine for 14 days. This will go until at least June 30th, for now. 

Our dock is filled with what we like to call the "Pacific Refugees". We have about 10 boats who have diverted to Hawaii from Mexico and French Polynesia. Some we know from Mexico and some are new sailors. As with most in the cruising community, we have all become fast friends. Days are spent wandering the dock and looking at everyone else boats, rigging or ongoing projects. Additional tools and or advice - whether wanted or not - is always close at hand. Its an eclectic mix ranging in ages from the early 30's to the 70's. Many are still deciding what to do and where to go with Alaska and Canada on their radars. Some will stay right here with us for the year. 

Hawaii is very strict with their rules and mask compliance is nearly 100% in stores. We were lucky to have 2 N95's aboard but I had to cover up the air vent on mine and a piece of kitty cat duct tape did the trick. Although Jeff always goes with me, he doesn't enter the stores at all. Why take any additional risks, right?

The other day we went snorkeling at a stunning beach just north of us. Its has an outfall from an electric plant that pushes warm water out of the pipes about a 1/4 mile off shore. At the ends of the pipes were tons of colorful reef fish and my favorite - a large tutle!

Today the surf was really up from the north and west and our evening walk was filled with many "oh look at that wave" moments. These pictures were taken just outside of our calm lagoon tonight.

In the next few weeks we will take a few days and anchor in the beautiful bays just north of us. For now, we are enjoying exploring on our bikes and relaxing in this incredible place. We hope when things settle down, you'll consider coming out to visit us! We always have our front cabin on Salpare ready for you!

Hugs - from a distance and please stay healthy!

Fran and Jeff

A Summary of our Crossing

As I write this, you might be saying “you are in beautiful Hawaii; how exciting”!  Hawaii was not what we expected but hang on to the end of this for the next chapter.

A brief recap of the beginning. Jeff and I had planned for years to sail away on Salpare, our 1997 Catalina 400. Actually, that’s what Salpare means; “sail away” in Italian. We were finally able to realize that dream last September as we sold our land possessions and cast lines off in Tacoma. Our original plan was to sail to Mexico then down to Central America. After visiting the Galapagos, we would continue west thru French Polynesia, Tonga and end up in New Zealand.

After the long passage down the Washington, Oregon, California and Baja coasts, we realized we wanted to slow down and spend more time in the Sea of Cortez. Change of plans! We would winter in Mexico and in early spring, do the “Pacific Puddle Jump” to French Polynesia and beyond. That is a rhumb line distance of 2800 open ocean miles; a major accomplishment for any sailor.

We convinced our friends Tom Miner and Kris Wilhelmsen to join us for this fun filled ocean passage where beautiful Polynesian women would greet them on the other side! Tom and Kris bought in to it and joined us in La Paz, Mexico. We sailed a pretty boring trip with little to no wind across the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Vallarta. Here, our fool proof plan would have us wait a few days for our long anticipated Long Stay Visas for French Polynesia. We waited and waited… During the wait, a curious new virus called Corona started making the news.

By the time we had visas in hand and were waiting a few days for the right weather window, the full blown pandemic had happened. Tom flew home as his priorities, (absolutely fine with us), were with his family. Kris would stay on as our crew. We anxiously waited until Wednesday March 18th for the weather to cooperate. We then met the Puerto Capitan of Nueva Vallarta and cleared out of Mexico. 

At that time, the news from French Polynesia (FP) was mixed. The islands were still open and we were still welcome. But as all of you know, things change very quickly with Covid 19. Through emails from other sailors and friends monitoring the situation at home, we learned on day 3 that things had changed. Options now were to sail thousands of miles past FP and land who knows where since no other countries were open or stop in Tahiti, surrender your vessel and they would repatriate you to the US. Ok… neither of those options would work for us. It was a painful and tough decision but we turned north.

I called my brother, a retired Vice Admiral in Coronado, and let him know our status. He quickly arranged a dock at his Yacht Club for us upon arrival in San Diego. Just one small detail… we had to get there.

As any old salt knows “Northing is tough!”. There was quite the storm brewing on the Baja Peninsula so we headed nearly 400 miles west offshore to try to skirt the worst of it. For 3 days we clawed our way north barely making way. The 10-12’ waves, coming from the north, more than overpowered our engine and kept us at less than 2 kts. Sailing was the only way. We had to tack back and forth, back and forth and back and forth to make any ground. On day 3, we reviewed the new forecast and it called for a doubling of wind and waves from the north. We felt defeated… We had a brief crew meeting and made the decision to try our luck going back to Mexico. Cabo San Lucas was a mere 200 miles away.  We loved Mexico and the folks we met there were part of our love for the country.

Now we knew we could not “legally” go back but we felt a bit desperate. I called my brother to tell him our decision and he merely had to say “have you talked to the people in Hawaiii about going there?” Those few words told me - DO NOT GO BACK TO MEXICO! I quickly had visions of the Mexican Navy - out of Cabo - boarding us, arresting us etc… Mexico had just started getting very, very serious about the pandemic. Perhaps this would not have happened but everything thing seemed so crazy and we were hearing bits and pieces of all sorts of scary stories.

Ok, let’s turn west and go another 2500 miles to Hilo, HI! When crossing the Pacific on an unplanned route that is better crossed later in the season is your best option; clearly something is going wrong in your world. We asked our weather router for yet another forecast for west this time and we turned Salpare to a course of 272 degrees true. 

The waves were a bit more off our beam and we started making way. We have read nearly every book and article about Pacific passages and had planned on motoring 30-40% of the time in light air. But that would be for a southern Pacific Crossing. The passage we were undertaking to Hawaii  is typically sailed in May and June when the weather patterns have stabilized. Well, we didn’t have much of a choice on this; we had to go.

For the next 21 days, we sailed in 20-25 kts true with gusts higher and full ocean conditions. I heard and thought the word “relentless” many, many times during those 3 weeks. If you have been in these winds in the Salish Sea, consider what the seas can build to with an endless fetch. I may be prone to overestimating wave height but when Jeff looks out at the sea and says “My God these are so big; and they just keep coming. I’ve never seen seas like this” well, you can imagine how I saw them.

We sailed with a double-reefed main and a 30% jib for 21 days straight. We averaged 6 kts for the entire 3200 miles of the full passage rising high above on the crest then sometimes sliding sideways down the other side. The noise of the breaking waves was deafening at times and when we did those big catywampus slides it was downright scary. We had an inflatable MOB pole on our port side upper rail. It was ripped off on one of those slides; nothing left but a string. 

After a few weeks of this, we were a bit more nonchalant when we would come up and get a watch report. Same old same old we would say. We staggered like drunks, hanging on for every step. Cooking was an adventure and more than once I was thrown across the cabin and landed on the other side with a bowl of food  - “hey honey, how about tossed pasta tonight!”.

We arrived in Hilo, HI under the dark cloud of being a non-resident of the island during the pandemic. We came to Radio Bay to check in and all was going fairly well. We had an additional 14 day quarantine (I know, crazy since we were out for 24 days), we could order take out food, make a trip to town for necessities and use the head facilities on land. On day 5, all that changed as the Governor was taking flack for not “tracking the people coming in to the islands”. That was directed to those flying in but the backlash hit us. They confined us to our boats and posted security guards! Of course, we were the safest people to visit their island but that didn’t matter. The fear of the pandemic on the island was palpable. The Department of Transportation also closed the Bay to incoming vessels. It felt a bit hostile and more than uncomfortable.

On day 12, after many emails with different authorities, it was determined that we could travel to another island as long as we would do ANOTHER 14 day quarantine. We agreed and took off the next day for the island of Oahu.

We had a beautiful sail to Oahu making terrific time though the much dreaded Allenuihaha Channel. We arrived at our new home in Ko Olina Marina. The resort is closed but the grounds and beaches look wonderful to walk on and swim. Well, we think they will be as we have to wait a mere 9 more days of quarantine to find out.

If you have questions or would like more information on how we outfitted Salpare for our Pacific Crossing, our email is 

fransharp@comcast.net

Freedom

At this moment, we are arguably a handful of the most free people on the planet. That’s not written in any grandiose manner; more of a bewildering statement of fact. We will reach land later today in Hilo, Hawaii.

3170 miles from leaving Puerto Vallarta. A bit of a crossed path as we headed southwest and then north, then a short bit east before settling on due west. You know that story. We have been at sea for 23 days and sailed every one of them. Most Pacific passages have you motoring 30-40% of the time; but this was not like most Pacific crossings.

We can’t thank enough all of our family and friends who tracked us, emailed, texted, sent good thoughts and worried about us. You are our Ohana, our tribe and many times our strength.

This passage wrung every emotion out of us - fearful to frustrated; demoralized to defeated; awestruck to inspired. We fully know the feeling of being a small speck on the mind-blowingly expansive ocean. We also know the amount of energy, love and life you can fit in that small speck.

We have crossed the Pacific Ocean on Salpare.
We have crossed the Pacific Ocean on Salpare.

Aloha,
Fran, Jeff and Kris

Salpare Odyssey Update

With less than a week to go....this will probably be MY last post, as the next one will come directly from Fran Sharp - Carolyn

From Fran:
"We are now on day 18 of this journey and less than 700 miles to go! It’s a rare moonlit night with fairly calm seas and winds. I can only remember one other night like this on this passage and it was interrupted by squalls and winds. Nope, we are definitely not on the southern passage where the warm trade winds carry you like a magic carpet to the islands...

Depending on the winds ahead of us, we should arrive Wednesday or Thursday. My sister, Mary Ann, has been working hard to find us information on arrivals. She finally tracked down the District Manager of HI DOT and he is now organizing the arrival of our boats. We have about 10 in our fleet of northern puddle jumpers. We shared, by email, all the information with the incoming boats and they super appreciated it. Four have now arrived and over the next week, the rest of us will set foot on land in Hilo.

The folks there are more than happy to help us and understand we pose little to no threat virus-wise. They do have to follow the rules and we will have a 14 day quarantine but we will be allowed a trip a day to land for groceries, laundry etc... I think Babba, the Manager, is happy to have something to do as commercial traffic has stopped for a bit. He emails with to of our boats responding to our questions and gives my sister a daily report on arrivals. We could not ask for a better welcome!

We are looking forward to seeing the other boats that we have come to know while in Mexico. It’s a terrific group of cruisers ranging from Darwind, the 19 year old, solo sailor from Alaska to Carpe Ventus, the 65 year old solo sailor; to Ticket to Ride a fast, state of the art catamaran to Gudgeon, a small, simple sloop. They are our tribe.

Those who continued down to French Polynesia have an entirely different welcome. Many continued although they knew the islands were closed. As I’m on the big email list for the puddle jumpers, I get to see the situation. The islanders, who depend on tourists for their livelihood, have pleaded to the cruisers to not come to their islands. They do not have the provisions, fuel etc... necessary to supply the additional people. They also do not have adequate medical facilities if the outbreak continues. The islanders are scared of what the future months will bring.

Currently in the harbor of Nuka Hiva, where we would have landed, there are 100 boats anchored. No one can go ashore and you cannot even swim - not that you would want to with all those boats anchored. They are now turning away those that are still arriving. You must go to Tahiti and surrender your boat or just keep going. It’s thousands of miles more to New Zealand - who may or may not take you in. I fear the damage being done by those who put their “dreams” above the reality on the ground will last for years within French Polynesia. To say we are happy with our decision to cross to Hawaii is an understatement. And, as my friend Kila would say “boo hoo... you have to go to Hawaii”.

Aboard Salpare all is going well. We catch up on sleep during the day, problem solve different issues that arise on the boat, Kris serenades us with his ukelele, we read and I do a lot of cooking. And, always or thoughts on all of you at home and what the future holds...It’s a strange existence this passage making.

My next update will be when we reach land!!!!"