Well, we have been home for a month now and I HAVE been working at getting the last of my journal

and pictures posted on the blog.  I still have many more pictures to add and they will happen over

 time.  We have been busy visiting friends and family, going to a wedding, and just acclimatizing to our

 home weather.  I would never had said we have a cold climate, but after wanting to wear sweaters for

 most of our time back so far, I may at least say that home is not as warm as the Marshall Islands.

(smile) We have slowly been catching up with our new friends around the world now.  This past year is

 one we will never forget.  I am happy that I kept a journal of our adventure and took my mother's

 advice on writing every day so that each day's emotions were captured.  I took enough pictures that I

 literally wore out my camera. J  We thank each and every one of you for everything you did to make

this trip possible and memorable.  The last few weeks have held many ups and downs emotionally for a

 variety of reasons and I am sure we will go through more.  Our lives have been changed by this trip.  I

 still hold true to two things:

• Life is a gift and we always get what we need, just the gifts may not come wrapped the way we

thought.

(We could never have imagined the gifts we received along this journey.)

 

• The greatest obstacle any of us has is ourselves.  Over come your own fears and apprehensions

 and you can do anything!

(I had never really sailed until this trip and I would say that after putting over 12,000 miles behind us of

 ocean water and an uncountable number of adventures and experiences, I think we can all proudly say

 we are sailors.)

 The percentage of those who own their own boat, who build their own boat, who go offshore with

 little to no experience, who cover 12,000 plus miles in one year of sailing and who are sailing in their

 30's and early 40's is very low.  As a friend once said about Jon and I, we dream and then we dream

 bigger!!

We will never forget.

Saying goodbye to our last atoll.  Our time in the Marshall Islands has come to a close and we now

 embark on our longest offshore journey yet.

Thursday, June 21^st, 2007  - Day One

            "Red sky at night sailor's delight." The sky was brilliant last night but the sky this morning was

dark and grey.  We finished getting our sun/rain protection tarp up and the dinghy lashed down.  The

engine was started shortly before noon.  We pulled up anchor and we were on our way.  Mixed

emotions all around.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and we will never forget.  As we got

out through the pass we thought we might be able to sail due east and get some easting done but once

 the sails were up the best we could do was south/east which would take us back to Majuro.  Wrong

 way!  We tacked and began to head due north give our take a couple of degrees.  I pulled out a

surprise cold beer for each of us and made a toast to the successful trip ahead of us and the one behind

us.  The dodger and sun/rain tarp are all ready proving themselves as spray came over the bow and we

 went through a couple of squalls.  We don't need to run and hide below any more. J The sky was a

brilliant fuchsia again tonight.  We definitely need to plan for another big sailing trip like this.  We all

took turns on watch and napping.  The steak and beans were a nice dinner choice.

Friday, June 22^nd, 2007  - Day Two

Noon to Noon – 103 Nm

            The night was pretty good.  Seas not to choppy and everyone got some quality sleep.  The

morning was pretty uneventful.  We are all working on getting in to a routine: reading, napping and

eating being the primaries right now.  By afternoon I developed a headache and then proceeded to get

 sick.  I lay over the side of the boat a few times with pretty strong heaves.  The dry heaves were quite

 ugly.  I could see the concern in Jon's eyes.  I had the patch on since three days ago and had been

 taking Bonanine.  What's up?  Needless to say I went to bed early hoping tomorrow would hold a

different tune.  Amazing how your outlook changes though as soon as you get sick.  Now all I could

think of was 35 days at sea if we were lucky and no land.

Saturday, June 23^rd, 2007  - Day Three

Noon to Noon – 133.4 Nm

           We did a good sail through the night clocking upwards of 7 knots.  This is what we like.  We

had been wanting to go by Taongi, a last atoll in the Marshall Islands but the atoll is North/East of us

 and the best we have been able to do is due north.  But now that I am not feeling well we started to

look at how we could get there.  We overshot the atoll with the hopes of doing a South/East, East tack

 right to it and only losing maybe 40 miles of ground total.  However, when we did tack the best we

could do was 140 degrees which was going to take us back to Rongdelap.  There were some raw

emotions around this.  For starters this would mean in four days time  we will have covered less than

200 miles, the distance between Bikini and Rongdelap.  The distance between Bikini and Rongdelap is

 a days sail.  So this was a bad tack and then we would have to tack again and again going north and

 then south/east trying to inch our way over to Taongi.  This seemed like a hopeless zigzag pattern.  I

 seemed to be alone on this as Wade and Jon both said this is what sailing is about.  I said, call me

 crazy but I see to main options here, zigzag our way to an atoll that yes we all wanted to see,

 something special, but from our starting point in Bikini we will have covered just over 200 miles North

and 200 miles east in 6 days! Or we tack back now and continue north, slightly North/East and keep

edging our way east until finally the winds will allow us to get in our easting but bottom line sail us in the

direction of our destination – home.  I don't want this trip to be over any more than the guys do, but is

 basically over.  We are out of time.  We are on our leg home.  Mentally looking at adding 3 to 5 days

 on to an already long time at sea did not look like a good answer to me and yet I did want to go to

Taongi.  We tacked back and are moving at 18 degrees north.  Not bad and our speed is back up

 between 6 and 7 knots.  I felt better about covering ground as apposed to almost retracing our steps. 

 I relaxed more with the sea.  I took off the patch I was wearing.  Finally my headache started to

subside and I am not feeing sick.  Yesterday just may have been nerves and emotions.  I have also had

an earache for a few days.  Who knows??  Time will tell.  The sun set and the stars began to shine. 

 You could see the phosphorescence sparkling in the water.  The scene looked like an aerial view of a

rock convert and everyone is waving their lit lighters back and forth.  Life out here is truly beautiful.

  You just have to focus on the now and forget about the miles and days to land.  I am trying.

Sunday, June 24^th, 2007  - Day Four

Noon to Noon – 116.2 Nm

           I started the day on a 4:30 am watch.  The boat is moving easily through the water and I had a

good sleep.  I believe we are all getting good sleep as opposed to lying in bed and being tossed

around.  Your body can truly relax.  Jon continues to be our excellent captain, taking care of

everything.  He as well as Wade have had headaches so my sea sickness moment may have just been

getting back out on the sea and having to say goodbye to an amazing year.  I feel fine so we will see. 

  The day passed quite  quickly.  I did quite a bit of reading.  Jon got a book out too!  I guess we are

 all settling in.  Wade hit his knee yesterday and he has been focusing on getting the swelling down. 

The sea has stayed quite calm and the ride has been great.  We started off pretty slow when the sun

came up and we were worried our wind was going to die.  We ran the motor for an hour to charge the

 batteries and move the boat along so we did not have to take sails down.  We did not want to do this

 and take the resulting bob.   The wind picked up enough to have us gliding along at 5 knots most of

the day.  We are still trying to get weather fax on my computer with no success.  I heard on the sailors

 net tonight that Majuro has high winds and has had rain all day.  This may account for our little wind if

there is a low system below us sucking the wind down or maybe we are in for a wind change?? We

are hoping for a bit of a wind change to help us move more North/East.  We should make Wake

 tomorrow.  Don't know if we will try and stop or not.  Beautiful, relaxing, sunny day!!

Monday, June 25^th, 2007  - Day Five

Noon to Noon – 100.5 Nm

            Woke up this morning to a whisper of wind.  We seem to be able to hone in on the doldrums

 no matter where we are.   We started the engine to charge the batteries in hopes that the wind would

pick up.  We are 55 miles from Wake.  We still cannot get weather fax, so we have no idea about the

weather other than what we see.  The sky is blue, the clouds are cumulus and the sun is bright and hot.

  We ended up tacking a couple of times only being able to go either south/east or due west.  Neither

 really helping us get home.  Thankfully though there is enough wind that we keep going as apposed to

 becoming that weighted clown and bobbing around.  We all enjoyed the day and tried not to focus on

the lack of distance we are covering.

Tuesday, June 26^th, 2007  - Day Six

Noon to Noon – 22.5 Nm

Putting up the US flag as we approach Wake Island.

Our "official" greeters!

Amazing sunsets!

The barrel we had to tie to just outside of the island.

            Again little wind.  We were able to keep the boat stable, but not really making any progress.

  Our noon to noon distance from yesterday to today towards our journey was 20 miles!  We started

engines around 2:30 when the wind really seemed to get non existent.  I was able to reach Wake

Island Authority when we were 9 miles off the island.  We were given clearance to come and tie up to

 a mooring buoy and made our trek towards Wake.  We were told we would have a boat come out

and meet us when we got close.  I was expecting a very official boat with officially dressed men with

guns, but instead we were greeted by a Boston whaler with three very friendly faces.  As we made our

 way towards our mooring buoy they dropped a fishing line off the back.   We had them board and

help us with our weather faxing program and chat.  They left and came back with pastries, cookies,

cold beer and some other very welcomed treats!! Thank-you.  They could not stay long as they had

their orders and time they had to be back at base, so we spent the time working on the weather fax

and with friendly chat.  We all looked forward to a good nights sleep after a beautiful sunset.  We were

moored on the outside of the atoll and there was a swell, but our boat did not seem to be rocking too

bad, although I think that Kevin who worked on my computer probably would have disagreed.  He

needed a little longer to work on his sea legs.  Without really knowing it, even though I made a

comment, he made me feel good being the one who is the usual sea sick one aboard.  After they left

we all crashed pretty soon after and enjoyed our nights sleep.

Wednesday, June 27^th, 2007  - Day Seven

Noon to Noon – 0 Nm

Goodmorning sunshine!

Jon was lying off our swim grid this morning looking for the metal post off the ladder we somehow

lost.  We are in 70 feet of water, but he said he could dive for it.  We never found out, probably for the

best as he never spotted the post.  He stayed there for some time though as the under water world was

fascinating him.  The visibility here was very good and you could see right to the bottom with no

problem without even putting your head in the water.  Jon was enjoying the view of seeing some turtles,

 a shark, and several fish when the US army Boston whaler pulled up along side Sonadora.  Aboard

were Kevin and Tomb.  Good mornings were exchanged with smiles.  Kevin had some weather faxes

 printed out for us.  Very much appreciated.  They never came aboard, but we saw them again shortly

 as they came out once again, this time to take us in.  We did not have clearance to walk about, but we

had a two hour clearance to go in and have showers by garden hose.  Not a shower in the literal sense

but we were getting to get off the boat and enjoy some fresh water all the same!! Thank-you, thank-

you!  I took the opportunity to pass on my thumb drive to have Kevin pass on an email out to my

parents to pass on the news of where we are and that we are fine. I also packed up a few clothes to

 wash in fresh water since we had the chance.  We met Allen, the sheriff on Wake Island.  Another

very friendly face welcoming us to Wake and apologizing that we do not have clearance to stay on land

 longer.  We were very thankful for the clearance no matter how short.  There are still too many live

ordinates (live ammunition) to allow us to walk around freely.  They had a huge typhoon run through

here this past September that revealed many more and did a lot of destruction.   Between enjoying a

fresh water shower we spent the remainder of our time in the shade chatting with Kevin, Tomb and

Allen.  Among the items discussed were two eels that live in an old broken down Japanese bridge that

are the only two eels officially named in the world.  National Geographic had been down and the after

 seeing the two eels they have been named "Oh shit!" and "Damn it" that I don't think need much more

description.  I don't think I would want to snorkel around there even if I was given clearance.  "Oh

Shit!" measures at eight feet long plus  and has a fair size girth as well.  I am sure if we check out

National Geographic online we may be able to see pictures of them.  Allen had gone around the night

before and collected some items from people to make our passage home a bit more enjoyable.  He

 was concerned about not giving us too much weight and did not know our water situation, but he did

very well with giving us some great treats that we said were very much appreciated.  Tomb also

showed back up with grilled cheese sandwiches and French fries for us to go with our cold drinks

Allen also offered and with a request, Kevin showed up with two six packs of ginger ale for us to take

 back to the boat as well.  Allen continued to offer apologies about not being able to come ashore, and

 although I would love to do one last beach comb and the guys would like to check out the war relics

here,  we were so thankful for all they were doing for us, we wanted to make sure this was clear.   We

invited Allen out to the boat but unfortunately even though he has not been out on a sailboat, he is not

allowed to leave land for any amount of time due to his job position.  We opened the invitation to all of

them that if they ever found themselves near Vancouver Island to come by and they had a fishing/sailing

trip reserved for them any time.  As we climbed back on board the Boston whaler we collected our

water jugs filled for us as well.  We shook hands and said thank-you again.  Back out on Sonadora

 unfortunately our fresh water showers were losing effect quickly.  The day was very hot and no wind

to cool us off.  Down below or even in the shade in the cockpit we were cooking.  We did have ice

 now though, so we enjoyed cold drinks for the afternoon. J  We also cooked up a chicken on the

barbeque for dinner thanks to Allen. J  We will make sure we get the word out to our new friends that

 we make it home safely.  They have all been so wonderful!  Thank-you to the staff on the US air field

base on Wake.

Thursday, June 28^th, 2007  - Day Eight

Noon to Noon – 14.5 Nm

Some strange ocean creature?? Reminded me of plankton of some sort but much bigger.  Need your

help again biologists (smile).

            The sun only had to crest the tops of the Boy Scout planted Australian pine trees on Wake

Island and the day was already hot.  With coffee made we decided we might as well get going.  The

sea was glass but there was signs of wind further out (or was this wishful thinking).  We could only

hope.  Mark had called to say goodbye and we told Base Ops. We were heading off before we burst

into flames right before their eyes! Today was going to be a hot one.   As we headed on our way I was

still in awe of how clear the water is.  We saw a turtle float by and a few more of those plankton

looking things, but more squid size??  I bet the snorkeling here would be amazing! However, with the

stories yesterday of the anaconda like eels and the sharks I think I will just look from the boat.   One of

the stories shared yesterday was about some divers taking a picture of a couple of sharks on one of

their under water operations.  Back at the base with a program they have on their computers where

they are able to clear up the pixels in the background, they cleared up the background of this picture

and instead of two sharks there was more like 200!  Like I said, I will just observe from the boat.   

 Thank-you to all at Wake Island for their warm welcome and for all they did for us.  Your kindness

and generosity has made yet one more part of our journey a memorable one. Your kindness is

appreciated and we will pay it forward.

            We motored throughout the day.  The ocean continued to look like glass and the heat of the

sun and now the engine heat was penetrating everything.   We saw a cluster of birds and followed their

interests of a school of fish, hoping for tuna.  They seemed to stay just ahead of us for some time. 

Once and awhile you would see them shimmer in the water just beside our boat and jump but never a

one tried our three lines we had out.  By mid afternoon the glassy sea became rippled and we all

watched with anticipation still ever hopeful for wind.  A white Styrofoam float passed by and I saw a

school of small fish cluster under it most likely looking for shelter from the hot sun and to also not look

 so obvious to other bigger fish lurking below.  We turned off the engine to listen to the net and

hopefully get a weather fax.  The net was clear but still no signal for the weather fax??  In the ½ hour

time we had the engine off we had drifted south one mile! Not good.  No wander we were only doing

4.5 – 4.8 knots with the engine on.  We have been fighting a 1.5 knot current!  We really had no

choice but to turn the engine back on or lose a lot of ground quickly.  I am sure if we showed back up

at Wake Island the staff there would gave greeted us warmly again.  Maybe offered a flight out.   By

7:30 pm as the sun was setting the clouds around us seemed to be more in mass but still no wind.  The

 moon is almost full.

Friday, June 29^th, 2007  - Day Nine

Noon to Noon – 86 Nm

   Wind!  Well some.  We motored through the night all of us in the cockpit: too hot to be anywhere

else.  At 5:30 we had enough wind to attempt turning off the engine and put the main and Genoa up.

  They did stabilize us and we were making headway slowly.  Jon plotted our position on the weather

faxes we do have from Wake and to the best of our knowledge it look like we may be on the edge of

a high and within 12 hours from now the high will engulf us again.   We chose to start engines with the

hopes that maybe we could find wind to push us away from the high and we can get going home… 

With concern of diesel consumption we thought we would run the engine for maybe three more hours

and then check our fuel level.  We did check the fuel level and guestimated that we have used up 50

US gallons since Majuro.  As the clock ticked on the engine kept running as well.  Large cloud masses

came and went taking our anticipation of wind with them.  We saw clouds let go of their storage of rain

in the distance but above us only blue skies.  Jon and I started chatting about what lives out here

because not only did we not have any wind we were not catching any fish.  Just then Jon sported a

 whale off our stern.  I saw it too as it came up for a breath but then no more.  The whale must have

gone back down into the deep.  By late afternoon clouds continued to come closer and surround us

.  Even the rain clouds continued their drops of water as we sat in our sweltering globe of blue sky. 

Then Jon caught a blue tuna.  We were just sitting down enjoying the first bites of sashimi and a rain

squall hit us.  We were all pleased for the wind and for the wash down.  I found it odd how hot I was

and now I was so cold.  Unfortunate the wind did not last.  We started up the engine once again. 

 Eventually we won't have the diesel to keep doing this??  

Saturday, June 30^th, 2007  - Day Ten

Noon to Noon – 90.55 Nm

            This is not the trip home any of us were hoping for.  We received some wind from a few

squalls in the night, but all this did was have us putting up sails and then taking down sails as once the

 squalls past, so did the wind.  I am almost looking, scanning the horizon for bad weather just hoping

for some wind.    We are all exhausted and frustrated.  All the gear goes through such a beating.  The

clue on the mainsail busted and we had to tie it off with some high test rope.  We need wind and we

 need it now! On an interesting note, in the night just after a squall I saw an arch of white from the sea

to the cloud and then from the cloud to the sea – a moon rainbow?  With Genoa and mainsail up we

 are only doing 2 knots.   The rest of the day did not bring much else.  Do be careful what you wish for

 though.  As day turned to night and I was on watch, the night was dark with clouds obscuring the full

 moon.  As I was reading my book I saw a flash in the corner of my eye.  At first I thought it was the

light we have in the cockpit but then there was the flash again!  I stopped reading and looked around,

flash – lightening! Lightening!  Oh just great!  At first the lightening was just bursts of light, no thunder

and then I saw my first lightening bolt of many to come.  I remembered that the boat is not grounded

although we have some handheld GPS's, our chart plotter is our sole navigational tool.  I wrote down

 out position, our speed over ground and our course.  I then wrote down the same for Midway being

 the nearest land ahead and home.    This all might help us, but we don't even have paper charts for this

 area.  I then turned the chart plotter and the radio off and woke Jon.  We watched and listened to the

 thunder and lightening to the port of us and a bit in front of us.  We had a south wind blowing right

towards this system so we shouldn't end up in it.  Jon was prepared to grab some chain and hang it off

 our first spreaders into the water though if necessary in attempts to channel the lightening if we were to

 be hit.  To really protect our electronics we would have to unwire everything.  Just turning them off

doesn't stop lightening from doing damage.  The night didn't change much from this scene other than the

addition of rain.  We were all anxious as to what could come.  We were flying though with finally some

 wind and we had to reduce sail.

Sunday, July 1^st, 2007  - Day Eleven

Noon to Noon – 86.16 Nm

            Happy Canada Day!  Oh please could we not just have some steady wind.  The main is

hammering with the swell rocking us violently at times.  The distant clouds continue to rumble.  Jon had

discovered hair line fractures in our gooseneck again and the bolts have come loose.  The bolts can be

tightened but as for the cracking weld on the gooseneck….We are all exhausted, frustrated and just

want some decent sailing weather.  Finally we did get some steady wind in the afternoon and it

continued to move us along at 6, 7 and even sometimes 8 knots! Yippee!  The night was quite bouncy

though as swells lifted the boat, waves crashed on the boat and Sonadora swaying and shuttering.  Our

water jug and diesel stove jug some how managed to bounce up against the leading edge of the

wooden frame they were in and broke loose landing on the ground.  We found out the water jug was

 leaking anyways and is now no good to us.  Unfortunate because this was our jug with a faucet for

easy pouring.  We believe it fell back on Wake Island when we were getting them filled up, dented and

 ended up with a hair line crack big enough to let water escape.  Enough for us to have slowly lost 3 to

4 days worth of water before we noticed.   I heard the fishing line around 3:30 am, "Zing!"  By the time

I had climbed to ladder all was silent again.  We figured a big fish got on and took the hook and line

with it.  The guys insist on leaving the fishing lines out at night and keep losing gear.  However, in the

morning we found the line and hook still attached.  The fish must have got off some how.  Even if the

fish had not got off the sea conditions were not good for leaving the cockpit, not even for a big Marlin. 

I would have probably ended up in the drink with the fish.

Monday, July 2^nd, 2007  - Day Twelve

Noon to Noon – 137.2 Nm

            We are still bouncing around and going through squall systems.  We seem to be heading

towards Midway, so we have decided to stop.  It would be nice to check weather faxes for the

remainder of the trip, look more closely at the damage to the gooseneck, and hopefully get it fixed, set-

up our diesel stove and just relax for a couple of days.  Hopefully we can get there in about five days if

the winds cooperate.  I am sure the parents would like to hear from us anyways.  Today we all just

kind of laid back, read and napped.  The world is still wet outside, so no sun tanning!

Tuesday, July 3^rd, 2007  - Day Thirteen

Noon to Noon – 121.7 Nm

            Last night was awful!  We just pounded the waves and in turn they pounded us right back.

  Wave after wave crashed over the boat.  I thought the boat was going to break in two or something

would be broke or washed over board.  As day approached the winds started to come out of the east

more than the south which is making it very difficult for us to point our way to Midway.  Throughout

the day we pointed the boat up into the wind as much as we could but to no avail. With this wind shift

we are plain and simple getting directed for home and not Midway.  With the attempt to try and reach

midway we just kept up the pounding.  I have not been sick but this motion is definitely testing me.  My

 stomach is in a knot.  I put on a patch yesterday and that seemed to be helping.  We have not given up

 on Midway yet for two good reasons; for one we could all use the break, shower, top up our water,

check the boat over, tidy up etc… and two (I guess this is more than two reasons really ), we most

likely won't get this close to Midway again.  We've decided to keep pushing through thinking that

maybe the winds will shift to allow us to do some easting through the night.  We will see.

Wednesday, July 4^th, 2007 – Day Fourteen

Noon to Noon – 142.8 Nm

            Jon calculated the tacks we would need to make Midway and at best we would be adding 800

 miles on to the trip.  No thank-you!  At 4200 some miles as is, this is a long enough trip.  Oh well.

Getting to check out Midway would have been neat but the fact we had the chance to see Bikini and

Wake have been definite bonuses to the trip.  Just going to Bikini added miles on to the trip because of

the Atoll being so far west.  As for our situation right now, we are anticipating landfall around 25 days

from now if the winds continue to be in our favour.  Right now we should be able to stay on a broad

reach as we climb north and then we should hit the westerlies and B line it for home.  Jon continues to

be the awesome captain.  Rarely does he complain and I only say rarely because there must be times

am sure where he's frustrated or tired.  HE pulled an all nighter 2 nights ago so Wade and I could

sleep.  He has been the sole cook lately.  I don't know how he cooks when the conditions don't even

allow you to walk on the boat well without bracing each step and even then you are bound to slide and

 bump in to something at sometime.   Our sheets on our bed continue to unhook from the mattress and

 slide down.  Other things have been shook from their secure spots and no sit on the floor as to attempt

 putting them back would be like mountain climbing a steep hill with no hands while someone tried to

push you back.  The day is gorgeous though.  Full of sunshine, helping lift all of our spirits from the

cloud, thunder and lightening days.

Thursday, July 5^th, 2007  - Day Fifteen

Noon to Noon – 106.8 Nm

            A beautiful morning.  Unfortunately the wind petered out and we ran the engine for the

morning.  Would it have killed the wind gods to give us a few more days of good wind.  35 plus days

out here is enough.  We do not need no wind days adding to the total.  The day went quietly by in the

sunshine.  No fish, no glass balls… just the ocean and the sky.  As the sun went down the sky was soft

pink and violet.  Everyone should have the opportunity to go offshore just once really experience the

sea and the sky.  Breathtaking.  We began to move along again at a nice clip after dinner and we sailed

smoothly through the night.

Friday, July 6^th, 2007  - Day Sixteen

Noon to Noon – 105.6 Nm

We sight a ship!

            A beautiful baby blue sky morning.  The nights are beginning to get cooler and we are using our

 down comforter again.  I think the last time we used it was on the way to Hawaii??  As I stepped in to

 the cockpit to take my watch I scanned the horizon.  The sun was just on the horizon and this is where

 I saw a silhouette of something.  It couldn't be land so I got out the binoculars….a ship!  I hailed the

 ship and spoke with a very nice man.  The freighter was headed for Japan.  We were able to get some

 weather information from him and learned where the high is.  I thanked him very much and I watched

the shop disappear on the horizon as it past by and kept on their course.  Our first contact out here

with another ship. Unfortunately no steaks or ice cream.   Maybe the next one.   The day stayed

and sunny with a cold wind blowing.  Squalls gathered to the west of us as the sun set. The beginning

of our westerlies already??

Saturday, July 7^th, 2007  - Day Seventeen

Noon to Noon – 92.15 Nm

            I think the word damp describes the feeling better than cool.  We definitely have westerlies

now.  The winds were so fickly we went due north last night hoping we would find stronger winds. 

 They are picking up this morning, so we are hopeful.  The guys are really tired and sore.  The night

was not good as sail changes and sail tweaking took place too much.  Jon wanders if the weather

change is what makes us all feel somewhat achy.  Maybe there is a barometer drop. We are

experiencing pressure bands around our eyes. A quiet morning. Cloudy. The day did brighten up some

with clouds breaking and parting but the day stayed relatively overcast.

Sunday, July 8^th, 2007 now is Saturday July 7^th, 2007  - Day Eighteen

Noon to Noon – 123.5 Nm

            We crossed the International Date Line today.  Still an overcast and now drizzly.  I had the

comforter right up to my chin last night with the hatch closed.  Hot days of the Marshall Islands

definitely gone.  Feels like we are going slow and not that we are going fast, but we moved along

averaging 5 knots for awhile.  The wind is not strong.  2615 nautical miles to go as the crow flies.  The

wind needs to pick up or we will take forever to get home.  We finally had to turn on the engine.  Not

many more days can we do this.  Not only is our sanity level going to plummet but we will be out of

diesel.

Sunday, July 8^th, 2007  - Day Nineteen

Noon to Noon – 97.82 Nm

Another ship.

We brought a buoy aboard that was floating by.  The buoy was covered in gooseneck barnacles that

 Jon steamed up and we ate.  Unfortunetly the many crabs that had been attached to the buoy died

quickly. :(

Some kind of centipede?? Once again biologist I need your help. :)

            Motored all night, then turned of the motor at 5 am only to turn it back on at 5:30 am.  This is

getting ridiculous.  Jon saw a boat pass our bow.  I radioed them only able to get a 2 day old weather

forecast saying that there was a low pressure almost 700 miles behind us!  Not that this information

does us much good.  Then just after going below Jon comes up quickly saying, "Glass ball!"  We tried

to track it but lost sight of it.  All this happened so quickly I was still trying to figure out how he spotted

the glass ball from below, especially since he got out the binoculars to look for it when he got up on

deck. He did spot another ball though, a plastic one.  We were able to get this one aboard, crabs and

all.  There was some kind of centipede thing on it too that had spikes??  Jon retrieved a stainless steel

swivel and a stainless steel clasp as well as all the gooseneck barnacles with the intention of eating

them.  We each had a few.  Not bad tasting, just a little leery about red tide or….Wade had one and

complained he could still taste it in his mouth an hour later.  As a treat I made oatmeal raisin cookies

and after a few of those we all settled with a warm bowl of clam chowder for dinner.  Although the sky

cleared today and was quite warm, the bowl of soup was just right.

Monday, July 9^th, 2007  - Day Twenty

Noon to Noon – 121.7 Nm

            Are we half way???  About that I think.  We kept up a pretty steady 6 knots north last night.  I

 should have slept in the saloon.  My sleep was very restless and I am tired this morning.  Lying on the

aft bunk last night felt like holding on to the tail gate of a truck as it fish tales down Bamfield road.  My

stomach is all shook up and I just want more sleep.  My watch though.  I am happy to see us ticking of

the miles.  We switched to a down wind run and the ride is much smoother than anticipated.  We rock

back and forth now and again but otherwise a smooth ride.  Hopefully the wind will make its way

round to direct west, now being south/west, then we can make a better heading.  We are about 10

degrees off our great circle route right now.

Tuesday, July 10^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-One

Noon to Noon – 130.2 Nm

            Well, I fixed up a spot to sleep in the saloon last night but unfortunately not for a better sleep. 

 The boom kept banging and finding a course that would allow for a comfortable ride seemed

impossible.  We were all up at different times through the night.  I think I was the most stubborn to lie

with my eyes closed expecting sleep to take me away.  Once and awhile I was so lucky.  Things

seemed to improve as morning approached.  The guys got up temporarily to finish off the bread I had

made to go with last night's spaghetti dinner by frying the bread and adding cheese and bacon.  With

tummies satisfied they crawled back in to their beds.  Jon continues to be a jack rabbit and I think the

most sleep he has had in awhile is three hours at once.  The sun keeps breaking through and then the

clouds come back.  Interesting, varied weather.  Jon says that he read somewhere that the weather is

this on the edge of a high but without weather fax we are not sure where the high is.

Wednesday, July 11^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Two

Noon to Noon – 133.9 Nm

            A quiet day.  With still several days to go we wander what our muscles will be like.  Will

atrophy set in?   With a down wind run we are definitely bracing all the time.  If we didn't we would

simply fall over.  However most often we are sitting or lying down.  Our muscles ache.  Overuse or

under use of our muscles??  To liven up the drizzly gray day Jon made a blender drink.  I made

popcorn and we watched a movie.  The weather change is unbelievable.  We have had the heater on

all morning to try and take the dampness out of the boat as well as to take the chill off.  I know BC is

not tropical but I did not realize just how much colder it is compared to the tropics.  The fog came in

settled in this afternoon, thick and soupy.  I called on the radio every half hour giving our position and

asking if there are any boats in our area.  Never a response.  This weather is so west coast that we are

 expecting the fog to lift and to see land.

Thursday, July 12^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Three

Noon to Noon – 134.3 Nm

            Today boredom came to mind.  Boredom is not so bad though.  I think your senses are

heightened.  This is probably due to the fact you have little distraction.  Is this not a state of meditation

then?  If you are always occupied you can never center and look at your world from a calm mind.  The

day started off rolly and stayed rolly.  I just simply was tired of stabilizing myself.  So I tried to get

comfortable with the idea of doing nothing.  I have been reading one book after another and I could

not find a book to interest me.  I tried working on some crafts, but the roll of the boat kept breaking

my concentration as I had to constantly brace not letting the right side of my brain take over.  So I

found myself just lying on the floor.  This is the least rolly part of the boat.  But now what and what

about tomorrow and the next day??  Should I just let my mind take over to see where it leads and let

my body rest?  Will I be able to get up days from now when we reach land?   23 days at sea.  A short

time really….but still 23 days none the less.  I got out my Sony and listened to music.  My mind

wandered through memories, hopes, plans, our return home….How life has already changed since we

left Bikini.  We seem to be spending our days in the saloon now with the heater going, the fog and mist

outside.  Oh how nice it would be to go snorkeling today and see the magical world under the sea…..

Friday, July 13^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Four

Noon to Noon – 134.6 Nm

            Fog, fog, and more fog!  I asked Jon if either he or Wade made any calls out on the radio.

"No." was the reply.  I personally feel better making a call.  With our eyes we cannot see very far in the

fog and with a radio call we can determine if there are any boats within 25 miles of us at least.  This

makes me feel better.  So far I have not received any replies when I have made these calls myself, but

this morning I did.  Did I mention making these calls makes me feel better.  I let the other boat captain

know that we did not have radar and we were just checking for any possible collision issues with other

 boats we cannot see. This boat is 22 miles south of us so no worries.   The day played out pretty

quiet.  The fog continued to come and go.  Thoughts drift to the anticipation of home.  We all can't get

over the weather of the past few days.  We were expecting it to get colder but we thought we would at

 least get some sunshine.  The most mysterious thing about today was finding a bird wing on deck.  No

other part of the bird was found, just a wing.  We wandered if the bird happened to get to close to our

wind generator??

Saturday, July 14^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Five

Noon to Noon – 108.5 Nm

            Still in the fog.  The wind died down last night turning the boom into a bucking bronco once

again.  Thankfully the wind has picked up enough this morning to steady the boat better at least. 

 Today is 25 days since leaving Bikini.  Our trip from San Francisco to Hawaii took 25 days.  At this

 point if the trade winds stay with us we hope to be touching land in Ucluelet in les that two weeks

time.  Still some days to go but definitely less that we have already endured.

Sunday, July 15^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Six

Noon to Noon – 105.9 Nm

            Fog…rolly…resting….reading….playing Su Doku…chatting….writing…making dinner; chili

and corn bread to warm us up….dolphins!  That pretty much sums up the day.  The weather does not

seem to be changing.  We are still in the thick of the fog with swell coming from two directions now. 

As we continue on our way through the thick plot of this Stephen King novel I am half expecting some

monster to come out of the fog and instead we got dolphins!   There were several large grey and white

 dolphins that swam with us just as I was serving up dinner.  Some excitement, Yeah!  So there the

three of us were out on the bow of the boat, fog all around us, feet damp, air damp, talking and

laughing with the dolphins.  Over dinner we discussed of it would be possible to lasso several of the

dolphins, tie them to the bow of the boat and have them take us home.  Surely it would be faster that

the 3.5 knots we have been doing all afternoon.

Monday, July 16^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Seven

Noon to Noon – 85.35 Nm

            No wind…or at least not enough to sail with. L  Sails are down, and the engine is on.  Amazing

how one day we can be sailing along, the miles are clicking off, and the next no wind and then…among

our topics of chat is the gleeful realization we must be in the trade winds now.  We all start to make our

guesses on the day we will reach home and then…no wind.  The date of arrival home only known as

later as and later than anticipated or guessed.  With no wind, no wind in sight and little progress you

simply just have no idea.  Frustrations set in, questions of diesel consumption and keeping warm creep

in.  Amazing how cold it is out here.  It's like winter.  I was not expecting this.  The nice thing of the

day though was that the fog did clear for a couple of hours and we all found ourselves outside for some

sunshine and fresh air.  Cabin fever has a whole new meaning out here.   We even got to see another

herd of dolphins.  The fog crept back down around us again like a wet blanket thrown over our boat. 

 I had contact with 3 boats today.  I was able to get us a bit of weather information…gale o the west

of us…a high system above us moving our way and a high below us moving our way.  As the wind

refuses to pick up our course of action is clear…bob we must.  Fortunately with our Genoa part way

out we are able to at least move along at 2.5 knots which is stabilizing us.  Much better than bobbing.

Tuesday, July 17^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Eight

Noon to Noon – 83.89 Nm

Whale!

            No fog today.  We had blue sky to our stern quarter and we adjusted sails to go more north in

 case a high was coming up behind us.  Never thought I would see the day where we would turn away

 from the sun but we want the wind more.  We found ourselves in a cloud covered sky for the rest of

the day and the wind slowly picked up.  With the fog gone the temperature rose as well and even

though the wind carried a chill with it the day was nice and we all popped our heads out from time to

time for some fresh air.  We celebrated the return of the wind by spoiling ourselves with homemade

pizza and we watched two movies.  The change in our speed has also brought us luck with fishing and

around 3 am Wade brought in an approximately 15 pound tuna.  Maybe the guys are right about

leaving the lines out at night.   A few more tuna like this and we can do some canning when we get

home to have tuna for the year. Yum!!

Wednesday, July 18^th, 2007  - Day Twenty-Nine

Noon to Noon – 126.7 Nm

            I was warm and cozy last night.  The fog really brings on the chill.  Unfortunately I felt this chill

as I woke up this morning and sure enough the fog had just settled in Jon said.  He climbed in to bed to

 take the chill off and I made myself a hot chocolate.  We kept ourselves busy all day playing Su Doku,

 Jon working on his ideas book on house/boat plans and I worked on my crafts I learned in the

Marshall Islands.  I made radio calls every half hour through the morning but had no contact with other

boats.  We need to make water, but we are in such a good down winds run right now I don't think any

 of us wants to heave to.  In other words we have wind right now, so why waste it.  The only catch 22

is that in order to heave to we do need wind and we do need water.  We still have water in the tanks

for dishes that we have collected off the deck, a bit salty, but we are not drinking it and we have water

bottles for drinking.  We have run out of water for cooking and making coffee.  If we start using the

water bottles we will go through them really quickly.  Maybe we will heave to tomorrow.  We will see.

Thursday, July 19^th, 2007  - Day Thirty

Noon to Noon – 147.8 Nm

            I woke up a couple of times in the night to a rushing sound that woke me from my dreams. The

boat was surfing down some big waves.  There was moments, some lasting an hour, where the speed

over ground was 8 knots!  We were doing so well that first thing in the morning Jon and I reefed the

main and we were still surfing doing 6 and 7 knots.  As the morning progressed the wind continued to

shift ever so slightly, enough though that I had to keep adjusting our course so that the main sail would

not back.  By 9:30 am I had us 35 degrees off course and heading a bit south.  Not what we want, so

 Jon and I fiddled with the sails after he woke up and we were able to point us more north but we

noticed the wind was less.  By 12:30 pm the wind was gone.  We tried Genoa, Genoa and main, main,

anything to try and stabilize the boat because although the wind had died the seas were still lively.  This

would create for severe bobbing if we could not stabilize the boat.   Talk about an insane moment,

listening to the constant flapping of the sails as they sporadically went back and forth in search of wind

all the while yanking and jarring all the rigging.  We all were below trying not to listen but unable to

close our ears as we insanely listened, waiting for something to break.  By late afternoon we just had to

go bare poled even though we knew that the violent movements would only move inwards as the boat

rocked with each swell/  Thankfully the sea had been slowly calming down throughout the afternoon

and the bobbing and rocking was not so bad.  We stayed bare poled for the rest of the evening.  I tried

to hail any boats in the area in hopes of getting some weather information, but no luck.

Friday, July 20^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-One

Noon to Noon – 88.34 Nm

            The wind slowly picked up after midnight, which was great for us getting back on track but did

 not make for restful sleeps. With sail changes and the diesel stove being a nasty, smoky beast as the

wind tunneled down the chimney we were all up and down.  I never knew smoke to cut off your

oxygen like that but the diesel smoke burned when you tried to breath.  The night also brought rain, so

 the guys were cold after being on deck.  Slowly and surely though as day broke the cabin was toasty

warm and the boat moved relatively smoothly with the occasional rock as we surfed down waves.  We

averaged 5 knots.  But like many things, they don't last.  We had to turn off the diesel stove as we are

still trying to conserve.  Within a ½ hour you wouldn't have known that the diesel stove had been on at

all.  The wind then shifted and Jon and I had to put on our wet gear and do a sail change.   The sail

 change was good though.  The boat stabilized and we picked up a knot of speed.  The wind and sea

conditions by 10:30 am were as if yesterdays lull never happened.  How quickly the weather

conditions out here can change.  The part I still don't get is how much like winter it is. I thought the trip

from Bikini to home would be a nice, slow transition back, but instead it's like the weather wants to

show just how much colder home is from the Marshall Islands.  Or maybe the North Pacific Ocean is

always like this??  I know that if this is what it's like in July, forget about traveling any other time of the

year.  It would be just too cold.

Saturday, July 21^st, 2007  - Day Thirty-Two

Noon to Noon – 137.4 Nm

            We are cruising!  Wad said we were doing 8 knots for a good part of the night and eve clock

8.5 at times.  The sun even came out today.  We have had a north westerly wind since last night so we

are on a broad reach now.  This seems to be the fastest way to cruise but I find it the most challenging

at times as far seasickness goes.  The waves pick up the boat for a weightless moment and then

thrusting the boat back into forward motion. This whole cruising business is like a roller coaster.  There

 are moments of surfing down waves, others where you are in lulls or the boat is waiting to be taken by

the next wave and others like when the cars of a rollercoaster come in for the final stop where you get

out and there is a lot of sideways jarring.  Or is it more like the feeling of bouncing on a bed or

trampoline and then with one good thrust down the boat goes to the bottom of a wave, rides up and

around the side and then plunks back down on the ocean spring taking off on a forward run only to do

the same thing over and over.  The creaking of the rigging even sounds like the old springs of

grandma's bed.  Inside the cabin the windward side is a climb and you better hold on at all times or you

will get flung back against the leeward side as if gravity does not exist.  Then there are the waves the

boat doesn't have a chance to roll or bounce with and the sea gathers with a surprise punch against the

hull sending spray over the deck.  And if we are really lucky the boat will occasionally  roll for a flash

of a moment, just long enough for the boat to be given one good shake to make sure that anything still

holding on is loosened and flung to the other side of the boat before the wave lets Sonadora go to

continue her forward whoosh.

Sunday, July 22^nd, 2007  - Day Thirty-Three

Noon to Noon – 133.4 Nm

            Again, the day started out sunny.  Jon and I found a spot stern of the boat where we were

protected a bit from the wind and we just sat soaking up the warmth of the sun.  We have not been

able to do this for several days.  Everything was so bright compared to the cabin cave we've been

living in.  The fresh air was good for us as well!   We watched our three fishing lines hoping for some

action but nothing….yet!  For the rest of the day we were pretty lazy.  I put on the patch yesterday to

take the seasickness edge off.  I am very pleased that I have not been sick since the second day out

and I do believe that was a lot of nerves and emotion.  I also have not had to wear the patch and I

been relying on Bononine.  The patch is helping though.  The only down side is that it can make you

drowsy so I found myself napping a good part of the day.  By noon the sun was gone and we had

overcast skies again.  The wind began to slow down and shift as well.  By dinner time the seas had

calmed down as well, so the guys made water.  We have been slowly running out and the loss of our

two jerry cans due to falling and creating cracks big enough for us to lose water had really made the

difference.  We probably would have been fine if we had not lost these two jugs.  Sure is great that we

have the option to make water.

Monday July 23^rd, 2007 _- Day Thirty-Four

Noon to Noon – 98.83 Nm

            The guys were up and down through the night trying to stabilize the boat with the fickle winds.

Thankfully the winds did pick up by morning but now coming out of the south.  The wind cannot make

its mind up out here on the pacific.  We are back on a broad reach so we are screaming down the

waves and also having to brace every motion we make.  If you let go for even a half second you are

thrust to the port side of the boat.  As I made preparations for dinner; homemade bread, meatballs,

and spaghetti my back ached as my legs tried to stabilize me so that I could use both hands for

cooking.  Every now and again though my legs were over powered and I could be quickly thrusted

toward the port side of the boat.  If I could not free a hand quick enough from the cooking then my

forehead would become my brace on the handrail or my hips along the counter.  I am not sure which

one hurts more.  With my thick Newfie head I think I would have to say my hips.  Back home I

wanted to buy one of those exercise balls figuring that with the constant need to counter balance while

 sitting on the ball would be great, effortless exercise.  I think that I have changed my mind unless I

want to reminisce and take myself back to days of open water cruising.  Maybe the exercise ball would

 come in handy to prepare for an offshore voyage??

Tuesday, July 24^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-Five

            A quiet morning.  I changed the clocks by two hours today.  I am waking up earlier and earlier

because the sun is out but we are still on Marshall Islands time, so according to what time we are going

by I am waking up at 4 am.  My shift starts at 5 am, so it's not too bad, but we do need to change our

clocks to be prepared for the five hour difference.  Maybe we should have started more gradually a

while ago but alas we didn't.  I look at it now as moving us quicker to our time of getting home.   We

went back a day when we crossed the International Date Line, but we have the five hour difference to

make up.  By moving the clocks two hours ahead we are now only three hours difference and

hopefully we will hardly notice the change.  Tomorrow I will move us another hour and the next two

days the same and then we will be caught up.  Hopefully our bodies and minds can adjust to this

relatively easy.  The day continued to be a quiet one.  We did not do much.  Jon fiddled with the diesel

 stove and got the fan on to blow warm air around the boat.  Everything is getting damp with

condensation, especially in the aft.  I worry about the Marshallese baskets I bought and some other

things as well.  I made some adjustments in the aft to cut down on the important things getting damp.  I

 also made peanut butter cookies for something to do.  Around 5 pm Jon and I were sitting on the

couch looking at some pictures from our trip when we both hear a noise.  On a 42 foot boat you learn

the normal sounds and the new sounds that mean something has changed.  We could not figure out

what it was and eventually just dismissed it and went back to the pictures.  Jon after awhile went to

look for ships and as he climbed the companionway he heard the sound again and then he saw the

fishing rod bent over, "Fish on!."  How exciting and oh how cold it was outside.  I was able to slow the

 boat down a bit as we were doing 6.5 knots.  I then went back to help Jon.  We brought in a nice size

 tuna!  Because of the sea conditions, no life jackets on, and it being so cold we decided we would just

cut off the head, clean it and bag it.  Our freezer was emptier now and the tuna would fit with us leaving

it whole.  No sooner did we have it bagged, Jon threw the lone over again and we had another tuna. 

This one was bigger and not that the first one was small.  We went through the routine again.  OK we

are canning when we get home.  Yeah!  How is that for a little excitement in the day.

Wednesday, July 25^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-Six

            What an awful night.  What sleep I got did not rejuvenate me but seemed to deplete me more.

  Rain….rolly sea…items clanging and rattling with the roll of the boat…sail changes and then the wind

died again!  I think this is the third night in a row.  The guys were wet, cold and frustrated.  By morning

 the wind slowly picked up and we began to move with less rock.  Genoa and main are out.  But the

winds kept shifting and the sea only became more confused.  All morning we barely moved ahead 3

knots and hour.  The rest of the day and into the evening showed little difference.  We even went bare

 poled again just to stop the racket and also out of concern of something breaking.  At one point in the

 afternoon the guys were napping and the wind seemed to be picking up.  Not wanting to waste ant of

the wind, I decided I would go out and raise the mainsail.  I turned on the Chart Plotter for safety,

whispered in Jon's ear that I was going up on deck, got my life jacket on and attached the harness to

 the safety line.  Well whatever could go wrong in hoisting the main did go wrong.  I got the sail caught

 in the shrouds.  The third time I couldn't get it out so thought I would swing the sail over to the other

side of the boat, that done, I would finish hoisting and return the sail back over to the starboard side. 

There was no great wind so I could do thins without banging the boom around and besides I had the

preventor tied.  As I brought the sail over again the sail somehow caught on  rope clutch.  There was

no give in the sail and you could not loosen the halyard.  At this point Jon came up and gave me a

hand.  All this for nothing more than a bunch of banging as the wind was short lived.  I should have

known better as the winds had been doing this all day.  Jon poured me a drink and said he was proud

of me.  I couldn't figure out what he was proud of since I had screwed it all up.  He said he was proud

 of me for trying.  At one point I had used the two winches on the mast to climb up to pull the sail

down and of course this is when the sea decided to give Sonadora a good rock.  So there I was

wrapped around the pole, holding on!  When all was said and done my muscles were aching and shaky

and I was frustrated.  Why or why 500 miles from home has the wind decided to stop cooperating. 

Then again we really have not had cooperating winds this whole trip.  I never thought the wind

direction would change so much.

Thursday, July 26^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-Seven

            Well, the night never held any more promise.  The guys finally put out poled Genoa and poled

staysail.  We moved anywhere from 2 knots to 6 knots and more like 3 knots most of the time: never

anything holding steady.  When the wind was lacking the boat would start its pendulum swing.  Aghhh! 

 Our chances of reaching Ucluelet by Sunday are now pretty much non existent.   We all are tired, our

bodies are tired, our minds are needing new stimuli and we are all open to any time of day as our

arrival time as going out for breakfast, lunch or dinner are all appealing.  The rest of the grey day past

with little excitement.  We all took turns catching up on some sleep.  No fish, but we saw several lulu

vululs (sailors of the sea) go by.  With I could photograph them  up close.  They are so pretty with their

 lines and cobalt blue, purple and yellow colourings.

Friday, July 27^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-Eight

            At one point I thought today would be our arrival day.  Alas, this is not so.  The ride last night

was much smoother though and I slept right through.  Jon slept the most he has at any one time this

whole trip too.  Wade said he wasn't tired and did the watch through the night.  We kept up a steady

course through the morning.  By 9 am we were doing 8 knots!  We got a fish on and it took Jon and I

to reel it in.  We figure it was a tuna but never got a chance to no for sure as we never got the fish to

the boat.  The fish got off somehow so sadly we didn't bring in the fish and in the trying the tip of the

rod broke!! L I cannot believe the rod broke especially considering we had brought that sword fish to

the boat just off of Oahu.  To have at least landed the tuna.  A little later when I went to go check for

ships I saw a school of dolphins heading for our boat.  They did not stick around a long time but they

are always a joy to see.  We continued to use the line off the reel of the rod and just rigged the line to

be used as a hand line with the small advantage of the reel.  We got another bite on the line, but again

the fish got off.  Oh if we could just catch two more nice size tunas. We had another tuna right up to

 the boat but he got away before Wade could gaff him.  We have a blue and white lure on the lone that

was given to us from Ronnie in Bikini.  There are only tattered bits of it left but of the three lines out the

fish keep biting the lone on the rod.  I think the rod is lucky myself as is the lure.  In combination the

fish keep biting! J  We did finally land another tuna later in the afternoon.  I had gone up on deck to

look for ships and to check the lines, nothing and then 20 minutes later we had a tuna that must have bit

 and then drowned somewhere in that time.  One thing we were guaranteed to see each time we did a

ship check was the Lula Valulus.  There were thousands of them.  They have been going by for a few

days now.  One must have gotten washed up on deck by a wave so I took a few pictures.  The

don't shine though like they do when they are in the water.  We did get to see some beautiful colours in

the sky tonight though.  I don' remember the last time the sky was clear enough to see a sunset. 

Gorgeous!  By nightfall Jon had become a bit of a die hard and with rain gear on he was determined to

land one more tuna today.  Well, he did!  This time the gaff broke as Wade tried to hook the fish.  Jon

was able to lift the tuna on deck without the lure tearing from its mouth.  Lucky.  This makes five tuna

in the freezer now.  We are canning for sure. J  I would say today was a pretty eventful day.  Three

hundred miles to go!

Saturday, July 28^th, 2007  - Day Thirty-Nine  

            Today had turned out to be the sunniest day since before Midway and probably closer to

Wake.  The water is sparkling and the day is bright.  Jon and I sat on the stern of the boat again

soaking up any warmth from the sun.  We kept our eye on the fishing lines hoping for another tuna or

two but not even a nibble.  Eventually some clouds caught up with us and we were chilled.  The rest of

the afternoon was quiet and we each took turns catching up on a little sleep.   Jon made a new gaff. 

We can't go losing any fish today now can we.   I think we are determined to keep catching fish until

we cannot fit any more into our freezer.  I made cinnomon buns for a snack and pizza for dinner with

the last of our flour.  We've ben talking about possibly doing some halibut fishing before we make

Ucluelet but that will all depend on the winds and miles left to do.  Unless we lose wind all together for

another extended period of time we should be in Ucluelet Monday morning.  As the evening wore on, I

 went out to do a ship check.  As I was looking around I heard a crinkle of a water bottle.  I looked

for the source of te sond.  I couldn't see anything but I was sure it had come from the back of the

boat.  So. I clamoured back and had a look around.  There was a water bottle on the side of our white

bucket, squished with a fishing line around it.  I followed the fishing line that happened to be one in the

water.  I pulled on the line and there was resisitence.  I started bringing the line in hand over hand and

over my shoulder yelled, "Fish on!"  Sure enough there was a tuna.  Jon asked if anyone had checked

the other line.  Wade was already out helping me.  I replied with, We never heard anything, so no." 

The  other line was off the reel, so we should here a 'zing' but sure enough he pulled on the line and had

over hand, another tuna!  Good thing we had the new gaf Jon made. The only light was from an orange

sunset, shadows everywhere but Jon and Wade got the fish cut up and we got them in the freezer.  The

I had heard the crinkle of a water bottle was because Jon had rigged up the line to do that when a fish

got on.  Later, around 11 pm, I as in bed and Wade yelled out, "Fish on!"  We got this one aboard

too!  After Jon got this one cut up the fishing lines stayed out of the water.  Enough fishing for today!  

That is now 8 tuna total.  Yahoo!

Sunday, July 29^th, Day 40

This will mark our last full day at sea.  I cannot believe we have been out here on the Pacific Ocean for

40 days.  Wll, that is not quite true.  There are definite signs that we have been out here for 40 days,

our sanity levels and tolerance levels for example, but as I sat at the ack of the boat last night with the

orange glow of the sunset illuminating the surrounding clouds and the full moon a round and glorious as

ever rising form the east, I knew I would truly miss this.   Jon and I spent as much time outside today

as pssible.  We talked about how we would miss all of this.  We talked of our plans and we talked

aobut our next trips.  Next summer we think we would like to sail to the Queen Charlottes and in five

years Mexico.  As day tuned into evening, I marveled at the sky.  We watched two frighters ad a tug

go by which were all really good reminders that keeping a good watch would be important tonight.  As

we enjoyed our hot drinks out on deck after dinner, I was looking down into the water and I saw a fish

 flash by swimming opposite bow to stern.  The fish moved so quickly I couldn't tell what it was.  The

colouring: dark and light grey made me think of a dolphin but the fish was too thin.  Who knows? No

bites on the line.  I continued sitting and watching as the sun set.  Our last sunset of the trip.  How

beautiful the ea and sky are out here on the open sea breeze.

Monday, July 30^th, Day 41

            Land!  We have made out destination safe and sound.  We have come full circle from leaving

home almost a year ago!  We started off the morning with a soft sunrise and then of course, fish on! 

This reminded us we needed to pull our lines in as we are no longer in international waters.  We have

not had to worry about fishing lisences since leaving San Fransisco many months ago.  We never

landed the fish anyway.  Land slowly came into view.  Some whales came out to greet us.  The wind

dies some of course making landfall a little longer.  We motored the last couple of hours as w came to

 the entrance of Ucluelet Harbour.  We didn't have enough diesel left to do more than that.  We had

our anchor down just a little after twelve noon after snagging a crab trap.  Sadly no crabs.   We got

the dinghy in the water and made our way to the Gov't dock.  As we walked up from the dock a

person comes across from a building under construction, says, "Hello Miss Tucker," (my maiden name)

and hugs me.  Craig!  My cousin from Nova Scotia.  "What are you doing here!"  He had work to

finish  but we agreed to meet up later for a drink and catch up.  We made our way to the pub and

between sips of our first cold beers in 41 days we started to make our phone calls.  Answering

machines of course!  What could I expect.  So excited to talk to everyone and no one is waiting by the

phone for our call! (giggle!)  The nerve of people to have lives without us. (Smile!)  We did get to talk

to mums and friends and get the word out that we are back.  We met up with Craig after we had

finished our beers and went for dinner and drinks with Craig instead.  We are back on land, but spent

our evening on the boat with a couple of movies and just relaxed.  What a trip!

Tuesday, July 31^st

            The final last leg to home.  I am a little shaky today: maybe anticipation of heading home. 

Bamfield is where Jon and I met, where we started the dream of building a boat and sailing away,

where we made that dream come true.  Today also marks our 3^rd wedding anniversary.  Before

leaving Ucluelet we went in for breakfast: nothing fancy, just a bite to eat.  We grabbed a few groceries

and began our way down the harbour out to the Broken Group.  What a beautiful day!  There were

whales and eagles.  Although the wind was a bit cold, (well we have been feeling cold ever since we

 had the fog days out on the journey across.  Much different than the 40 degrees of the Marshall

Islands) the sun was warm.  Tanya had been waiting down on the Governement dock for a few hours. 

She even placed daisies in the waters of Bamfield harbour for our return.  She jumped I would say two

feet when she spotted our boat.  LaRae and Syd came down to give their welcome backs as well.  We

made our way up to Tanya's house after many hugs with everyone and a few blurry words all meaning

we had a fantastic trip.  I was nervous of whether her fou dogs would remember me, so I brought dog

biscuits just in case.  The dog biscuits were not needed after all but much appreciated.   We all had a

cold drink, chatted and we made a few more phone calls.  Soon we were all on our way again over to

LaRae's place for dinner.  A few close, and missed friends gathered to welcome us back over a great

dinner, drinks and a perfect view of the harbour.  Where I sat on LaRae's porch I did not need any

other reason to come home.  Friends and family are always reason enough.

Bikini is deamed safe now but for our protection we were given these outfits to wear. (smile!-just kidding)

Thursday, June 7^th, 2007

            We flew along at 8 knots at times through the night.  The miles were being clicked off.  We had a few more squalls but nothing major.  Today I found the sun very hot as there was little cloud cover.  We found ourselves below more often than not.  We continued on averaging 6 to 7 knots.  We would see Rongdelap by nightfall and we did.  On our chart there was a small island showing very near where we were, but when you zoomed in on the chart the island disappeared.  Weird.  We kept and extra eye out as we did not want to run aground.  Day turned into night and we had 75 nautical miles to go.

View of Bikini Atoll from our boat.

The main road of the dive center.

Great Gazebo Bar.  Too bad they did not have it functioning at the time.

Taking a road over to the other side of the motu to see the beach on the windward side.

Pictures, memrobilia, etc... in the seminar/reading/gathering room.

The building itself.

Friday, June 8^th, 2007

            We reached Bikini earlier that we had planned, which was great.  We saw the first motu by 7:00 am.  We made sail adjustments and headed for the motu, Bikini.  We were hailed on the radio on approaching by two dive boats asking if we had our permission form and then welcoming us to Bikini.  We made plans to meet up later and learn more about the area and hopefully be a part of a history film viewing tonight.  We anchored just in front of the dive shop.  The water does not seem clear.  We are in twenty feet of water and we cannot see to the bottom.  There are many coral mounds around us, so hopefully the snorkeling is good.  Finally anchored, sails down and a few jobs done, like putting the dinghy in the water we all just laid back and relaxed awhile.  By 3 pm we headed in to shore.  There is a bit of surf here, so we would need to practice hitting the sand shelf and getting out quickly so that the boat does not get turned over. J  We walked through the compound and finally found someone, a Marshallese man.  He led us into the kitchen and eating area.  We were told to help our selves to a drink of water or juice and some ice-cream.  Very friendly!  The diver leader we wanted to talk to had gone out again for another afternoon dive and would be back around 5:30, so we decided to just walk around for a while.  The guys in the kitchen said that the film was at 6 pm, so no point in going back to the boat.  We walked to the right and saw an old ancestral grave sight and a mechanic shop that had a sign outside that said that they could fix everything but a broken heart. I thought this was funny. J  We then turned around as the road just seemed to keep going but with no buildings or anything.  We kept walking all the way to the other end of the compound seeing where dive guests stay etc…   The coconut trees and everything here are all planted in rows.  We learned later on that the whole island was leveled for the bomb testing that went on, so any foliage was replanted.  We found a road that jutted off towards the other side of the island, the windward side, so we hoped we could get to the water.  We did and the walking was nice because we were somewhat out of the sun.  We were really not up for a beach walk, still tired from our crossing, but once we were there and we say the litter of plastic buoys we started our march in search of glass balls.   5:30 pm came quickly and so we made our way back.  We met Richard who was pleasant and helpful in pin pointing Jim the dive leader out.  6 pm was dinner not a film and tonight at 7 pm was a seminar if we wanted to come.  So we headed back out to our boat knowing we would just have to turn right back around but also needing something to eat.  We quickly warmed up some beans and headed right back.  In my attempt to get out of the boat quickly this time my flip flop front caught on the gunnels of the boat and I went down in to the sand just in time for the next wave to soak me.  Great!  I was not so keen on going now as I doubted they wanted someone sitting on their furniture wet.  Jon said, "They'll get you a towel or something."  Well, they didn't, but I was able to sit on a wood bench.  A wee bit cold I might add as the room was air conditioned.  The seminar was interesting and we enjoyed seeing pictures of the bomb.  We were hoping for a film but no such luck.  We thanked Jim and made arrangements to come back tomorrow to use the SSB radio.  He never mentioned any other seminars or films, so I don't know if we will get to see anything else.  Getting back into the boat was better and Jon and I crashed once back aboard Sonadora.  Wade stayed up and watched a movie.

Saturday, June 9^th, 2007

            I spent most of the morning working on preparing the aft for our offshore journey home.  Shells away, warm clothes out etc… Jon sketched out projects for the boat that we will do when we get home and Wade read.  By early afternoon we were all ready for a cool down, so we chose to check out the waters and see what the snorkeling is like.  The first bit of reef we saw was made up of the big round coral that we have seen.  I really need a book so that I can give proper names to the coral we see.  The interesting thing though was that all the coral was varying shades of brown??  Very little colour here.  There were lots of fish and some big fish.  As we moved over to another section of reef we started to see more colour, but only in one small strip then it was back to the browns.  In this small strip there was much to see.  Jon found two giant clams.  I have already mentioned earlier back in Ailuk how beautiful the colour combinations are.  I took a picture with Tanya's disposable underwater camera she left.  I am being choosy with only 18 pictures left to take.  One of the neat things was to be swimming along and then all of a sudden you were in the middle of a school of fish:  Hundreds of green flecks in the water darting in every direction.  Then a school of yellow would come swarming your way and then a school of turquoise blue.  All this colour like someone was throwing buckets of paint and the colour was spilling through the water.  Each of the guys saw a black tip shark I thankfully got to see turtles instead.   I had seven or eight spottings, but think that I saw four different turtles.  How thrilling to be swimming with the turtles again.   We found a dump sight of engines etc… in one section of the reef, most likely left over from the bombing that took place here.  We eventually made our way back to the boat.  I found another cowry shell on the way, but showed Jon and Wade and then put it back.  A nice one, white with brown spots.  I like the two I have from Ailuk and the ones Sally gave me.  By 5 pm Jon and I headed back in to shore for the net.  I was looking forward to talking to Daneen and saying hello to Sam and Sally.  Again the guys in the kitchen were very nice and brought us a picture of juice with ice for us to drink while we were on the radio.  Daneen and I had a nice chat but too short.  They will be heading off to Fiji here, so I will just have to email her when we get home.  I made my hellos to Sam and Sally and then signed off.  Jon was outside talking to one of the kitchen staff about places to snorkel etc… His English was not great and his main answers were you can swim anywhere, but don't go out where the water turns dark blue, there are big sharks! And when anchoring around the atoll the waters are shallow with reef, so just watch our depth.  We were able to get a big bag of ice before leaving and I made a joke about looking for glass balls and no luck so far.  He said just a minute, we protested, but he kept going and came back with a small glass ball.  We declined but he insisted.  I now have a glass ball but this is a special one even though I did not find it because I got it as a gift from a Bikinian on Bikini!   We thanked him very much and made our way back.  I had been putting together a roast chicken dinner complete with peach crisp.  I was hoping to get some more ice-cream, but the guys had been so nice, I just didn't want to ask.  Besides I had made whipped cream.   So we had our feast in paradise talking about where we would go tomorrow.

A set-up of lines down from buoys where there are oysters being fed sand? to make pearls.

The beach past the dive shop was like broken up shale.  There were some huge clam shells.  We really wanted to take one but they are impossible heavy! :)

Sharks Wade came across on his beach adventure.

Sunday, June 10^th, 2007

            We did not get moving on anything really until 1 pm today.  We were going to move on, but something had us stay.  We just puttered around the boat all morning.  We finally all took off in the dinghy.  We dropped Wade off at shore.  He wanted to go in and find out about these films that we could hopefully watch on Bikini.  Jon and I continued on in the dinghy.  First, we checked out a number of buoys in a row.  Jon stuck his head under water and said that it was some kind of clam or oyster production.  Lines went down from the buoys and the clams or oysters were growing on them.  He also saw a carrier in the water.  We headed for shore a ways down with this big red bush drawing us in.  The first amazing thing to see on land was these huge clam shells as if almost fossilized.  We tried to dig one out that did not seem to be attached to the surrounding rock, but no way was that clam shell even budging.  I walked down the beach and found my first pair of flip flops.  You see a lot of flip flops washed up on the beaches, but a pair! I then found that the road came right down by the waters edge and just on the other side was this beautiful tree laden with red lily type flowers.  Gorgeous!  I took a bundle to hopefully put in a vase when we got back on the boat, but then again how will they like to be in the heat cut from their source of water and food: not very much. L A bit wilted, but they did make it back.  Jon and I carried on from here by snorkeling the waters edge.  Still kind of on the brown side, but the fish were enough to keep you entertained.  The fish here seem so much bigger.  We had schools of fish going by.  I don't think I had ever seen a school of parrot fish before??  All the various colours.  I am going to have to pull out my fish book and see if I can remember the parrot fish and all the other variety of fish I saw.  At one point I poked my head out of the water to see where Jon was and just as I put my head back in the water this large body went flying in front of me.  I just about jumped out of my skin!!  I would say if you could talk to the turtle, as this is what the big creature was, he would probably say he was spooked as well and took a run for it after hiding behind a rock. J  We snorkeled all the way to the end of Bikini motu.  The water was quite murky, so we did not venture out.  Sharks you know and Bikini is known for them.  We do not need to tempt fate.  We pulled the boat up on the sand and took a break.  The cold lemonade we brought tasted so good.  Of course I was up soon walking around shell hunting. J  We walked a bit around the island just to see.  You never know, there could be a glass ball. J  We did see this big rectangle space in the middle of the reef as if someone created a pool in the middle of the reef.  We decided to get our snorkel gear and go check it out.  There were fish, one black tip reef shark I saw in the distance, some interesting coral, but otherwise quite sparse.  There were these rods put together TP style along the edge of this rectangle space??  We decided to get going as I still wanted to see the small island just to our south where hopefully not many people travel and at that maybe the workers form time to time, maybe.  There is just no one else out here and the divers that come are pretty much bound to the motu of Bikini because they do not have boat access.  Funny enough, right after pulling up our dinghy on the beach we took a cut through the middle of the island and Jon found a glass ball about five minutes later.  This ended up being the only one we found, but we found one! J  Other treasures were a few nice shells and two small beige eggs with brown and dark brown spots on them.  We had seen these big indentations in the sand on the other side and wandered if they had been turtle nests.  We even saw tracks that we wandered if they were baby turtles heading for the sea.  These eggs though were in a very shallow indent in the sand, beside a bush all branches and no leaves.  This left no camoflauge or protection.  They were about the size of chicken eggs but they seemed too big for the white birds that flew over head??  Another mystery was the four TV's buried in the sand.  Where would they come from??  The next little island was so close and Margaret on Cahoots said she had left me something turquoise on the south shore, but it was now five thirty and we needed to go pick up Wade.  We all headed out to the boat and had a quick dinner and then headed back in to watch some Bikini movies.  When we arrived the door to the movie room was closed and we could here something playing.  We decided to finish our chocolate ice-cream we grabbed before going up as we did not really want to disturb.  We thought maybe there would be a natural break in about twenty minutes and we could join.  Instead after flipping through magazines, looking at pictures of atomic bombs and perusing their book collection, two hours had passed and no change other than the door opening for a minute, we stared waiting for someone to walk out before speaking up and then the door just closed again.  We started to leave and then decided lets just go in.  So we did and there were three guys in watching the old film of Pearl Harbour.  It ended five minutes later and they left.  We watched two films of Bikini and found them both educational.  The history here is very interesting.  Thanks to the Bikini Divers group we have had this opportunity to learn more.  Upon leaving, I went to get a few plumera flowers.  Wade wanted to sign the guest book in the kitchen.  Next thing we were all in the kitchen talking with Ronnie and Edward.  Edward is a Bikinian who helped start the dive shop.  Two very friendly guys.  I think I have already mentioned how friendly Ronnie has been.  Upon entering the kitchen/dining area right away, do we want something to drink? How about some ice cream? Etc…  Their generosity was boundless.  We sat together and chatted awhile.  We were passed midnight by now and finally said our goodbyes.  We all had signed the guest book and thanked them again for their hospitality.  We dragged the dinghy down to the waters edge and took a couple waves over the side.  We all got wet.  With this surf it is hard to not.  I was exhausted, generating heat from a bit of a burn today and wired.  Not a good combination as I could not fall asleep, but soon sleep came.  What a day.

On a couple of the small islands we explored there was this broken up shale type rock (coral) again.

Jon was our scout looking for any wrecks or good snorkel spots.  He would put on his snorkel gear and just stick his head in the water. (smile!) 

We believed this to be one of the old landing craft.

Jon our diver (smile!)

Scouting out the oyster set-up

Monday, June 11^th, 2007

            I was working on my journal this morning and I heard a call over the radio.  It was Ronnie.  They were on their way out for their first dive and he wanted to apologize that he was tired last night, he had gone fishing and did not get a chance to say goodbye to us.  I invited him to come see the boat if he got a chance after his dive and thanked him again.  I told him I would call him before we pulled up anchor.  I cannot say it enough. A very friendly and kind person.   Well, you know how it goes.  We had intentions of pulling up anchor.  We know our time is very short now, but once we had Ronnie on Sonadora for a tour with Liz ( a teacher out for the weeks dives), we felt the only way we could thank him for everything was to offer to take them out sailing.  They jumped at the idea, so we will be staying here another night.  Bikini motu is not bad at all, just with the boat projects still to do and the exploring we still want to do, I am afraid we are just going to run out of time.   "Back to life….back to reality….."  However we have all decided this is the true reality.   We all decided to jump in the dinghy and head back down to the small island that Jon and I were at yesterday and check out the reef in front.  It had looked interesting, so we were hoping the snorkel would be good.  There was a lot of old coral at first, but the scene got better as we kept going.  We decided to swim through the pass to the next island, which I thought was the one Margaret from Cahoots had left something for me.  I was a bit nervous about sharks and believe it or not I think I have pulled a few muscles never really been used before from all this snorkeling.  I have something on the top of my left foot that if just touched right sends and fizzy feeling all up my leg.  The current was strong to boot and when I decided that maybe I would just get out of the water, Wade was too far behind with the dinghy to want to swim back through the current, so I kept going.  I think the most impressive thing so far here in Bikini is the size of the fish.  There are definitely some big fish here!  Of course Jon saw a shark, lying on the bottom of the ocean.  "What to see?", "No."  I was tired and since I was nervous about the sharks, I decided going to the sharks was not on my agenda. J  We made it to the other motu.  The snorkeling just off there was quite nice.  The water was murky though and same with out in front of the other motu.  When we went through the pass the water was clear, clear, clear. ??   I first walked to the south end of the motu to look for my turquoise something and found yet another motu in front of me!  One more island to go.  This was not the motu.  Oh well.  We looked around.  I collected a few more shells.  No glass balls.  I found a skull which we think is a turtle skull.  Neat!  We burned our garbage, had a drink and rested for a bit.  Amazing how the waves must crash right over this motu as well.  There was not a lot of debris and we figured it must get washed right over.  Wade found a nest in a low bush with eggs that were the size of chicken eggs.  He said the eggs were white with brown spots.  Not the same colour as the ones I found yesterday, but I am still surprised by the size.  These birds are not that big.  I would not think that their eggs would be that big??  We made the motor back stopping at the buoys we had looked at yesterday.  Jon had asked and they said they were farming pearls and we could look.  The guys looked at the carrier there as well.  Back on board we had a nice simple dinner.  I relaxed with a book and the guys decided to go in to watch some more movies.  I am just plum tuckered out.

Wade goes to bring in a fish but a shark decides to take half of the fish before Wade can get the fish on deck~!

Making friends!

What a great day!

Tuesday, June 12^th, 2007

            I had made the suggestion yesterday that maybe we could take our jerry jugs in and fill up with water here at the dive center.  We have not had rain and we are running low.  We have laundry to do before we go and we need all tanks and jugs full before we leave.  We could do this with the water maker, but getting a few jugs filled here would probably help a lot.  The guys took in three out of the five jugs.  I am not sure why yet as they are still sleeping.  All I can think about is the weight in the boat and the surf line getting in and out of the dinghy?? I went to go make coffee and they have dumped every jug of water out in to our tanks which is not drinkable.  I finally was able to get enough left in the kettle and in the bottom of one jug to make ¾ of a pot full.  Not sure what the plan is here.  J We have Ronnie, Liz and Edward coming on board for the day as well and we will need drinking water???  Well, of course all works out.  Jon and I went in a bit early with all the jugs and took a load of water out and then he went back and left the jugs when he picked up our passengers for the day.  We will fill them up again probably two more times.  Jon also wandered if we might be able to take our laundry in as this would save us having to transport the water out to do the laundry on the boat.  There are washing machines we have heard of and just maybe we can use those.  The people here, as I have said a few times have been so kind though and I do not want to over extend our wishes to the point we are being rude.  Anyways, Liz, Ronnie and Henry, who we had not met yet, were safely on board.  Edward could not make it, so Henry came.  He had never been on a sailboat before.  We left our dinghy tied up to our anchor chain in hopes that this would keep our dinghy safer and also make tying back up easier than re-anchoring as we may end up back at dark.  We got all three sails up and sailed along beautifully to the pass.  The guys worked away at getting the fishing lines out.  Once we reached the pass we followed the reef line along down to the next set of motus.  This reef line is quite blurry though as at no point does it reach a depth just below the surface.  This makes it quite a wide pass here and the depth ranged from 40 to 80 feet.  Right away we pulled in a gray snapper.  First time I have seen one of those before.  We then brought in a rainbow runner.  I thought wow; we are going to do some good fishing today!  Unfortunately the lines just rested in the water after that for some time.  We talked, enjoyed cold drinks and laughed.  The day was great and the scenery was wonderful.  Once we approached the next motus we saw structures left over from the atomic bombing days where they had set-up areas for transport between the motus and a bunker.  I wish we would have time to come here.  But now here we are the 12^th, and Wednesday.  We still have stuff to do in prep to go and only a few days left.  We came to the next pass after not finding any flocks of birds and began the trek back, this time straight to windward.  In hindsight, I wish I had said, why don't we head back up the reef and then cut across the way we came, this way we would be on a broad reach.  Oh well.  We caught two mackerel and half a rainbow runner I think?  The other half was taken by a shark!  Interesting!  The sky filled with rain squalls and we even went through one, but no more than a sprinkle.   We arrived back at anchor at 7:30.  All was well.  Ronnie has decided we are like his brother and sister now.  I told him I would write him and send pictures.  After several hugs Wade gave them a ride back to land.  Ronnie and Liz would be gone in the morning with the rest of the crew as the weeks dives are over and now the staff has a month break.  We will miss Ronnie and we will be thinking of him.  Thanks for a great day everyone.  Another day in paradise to remember.

Having some breakfast! Yeah!

Getting to do our laundry with laundry machines was a real treat!!

Saying goodbye to the icecream machine. (smile!)

Saying goodbye to Henry.

Saying goodbye to Edward.

What a place!  We are so glad we had the opportunity.  We would have really missed out if we had not found a way to make sure Bikini atoll was a part of our trip.

Wednesday, June 13^th, 2007

            OK today we go!  We don't really want to go, but our time is so short and there is still more to see.  We went in with our laundry and totes with the back-up plan of having to stomp our clothes, but we were really hoping we would be able to use the laundry machines.  Even one better happened.  We ended up in the laundry room and started our laundry.  Edward showed up with his whistling tune as he came down the hallway and then his bright cheerful face and smile.  He had us go back to the kitchen with him and said, "You go in to the cooler and make yourself something.  Whatever you like.  Everything will go bad if you don't."  We were all starving as we went to bed last night without dinner and now getting on in the late morning had not had breakfast.  He sat and chatted with us while Jon got bacon and eggs on.  Wade toasted some bagels.  He said we should have come for dinner last night as they put out all foods you could imagine as they were trying to cook up the food and last night was the divers last night so a bit of a party.  As much as the idea sounded good we were just as happy with what we did: went sailing with friends.   As Jon served up our bagel sandwiches, Edward said goodbye.  We sat and ate and then we left soon after as well to go find Henry and say goodbye to him.  My most enjoyed part of the meal was getting to eat a fresh, cold, crisp apple!  Ohh how good!  This had all been much better than the anticipated cup of ice cream.  We had switched the laundry over and hopefully we would not be too much longer as we wanted to get down to our new anchorage while the sun is overhead: much easier to see the coral heads for maneuvering.  We could not find Henry, so we decided to make one run out to Sonadora and then we would try one more time.  We filled our water jugs and took them out with some laundry done and then came back with the jugs to fill again.  This time we did find Henry.  We sat with him a while in his office and chatted.  He is a really nice man.  He will be finished working on Bikini in August as he says that he does not like to be away from his family so long and his family is not able to come and stay in Bikini.  I took a picture of him with Jon and Wade and then we made our goodbyes.  We seeked out Edward one more time as we did not get his picture.  We found him and said out last goodbyes.  We may see them again though on Sunday as all the workers are getting together to go to one of the other motus for a relax day and we may join them as our last day here.  We will see how the boat jobs go.  With the last of the laundry in the boat and after feeding the cats a bagel and saying goodbye to them we all got the dinghy out through the surf and jumped in.  Goodbye Bikini. L  All the Marshallese here have been absolutely wonderful and very friendly.  We have made friends and are very thankful for their generosity and kind nature.  The Bikinians made this trip memorable!   We pulled up anchor after getting our stuff aboard and headed down the atoll.  The first stop was for Jon and me to jump in the dinghy while Wade held Sonadora off so that we could go to a small motu where Margaret from Cahoots had left something.  The surf was pretty big and the beach steep, but we managed to beach the boat with only taking one wave over the bow.  As we climbed up the steep beach, right at the top was what she had left: a beautiful turquoise frosted bottle.  We had a quick look around and then headed back to Sonadora.  Our anchoring was easier than expected.  We were thinking the whole coastline was going to be foul according to our chart and what we had heard.  There was definitely some coral heads further in, but we were able to anchor in 20 feet of water just off of one of one of the three old docks here.  We were tired, but we were curious about shore, so we all clamored into the dinghy and made our way over to the dock.  We tied up and the first to see was a lifeboat/shore launch boat that must have been left here from the Bikini testing.  There are several buildings and we have not pieced together all the history here, but some is from an attempt to re-inhabit the island and others are from the Bikini testing and yet others are probably from the war.  Quite mishmash.  The airport building looks set-up for two inhabitants and just sits empty.  There is one room they seem to use for the coming and going of divers etc… on the airplanes, other than this the building sits quiet.  There is a big warehouse building full of filters and tools as if a mechanic type shop was set-up here once.  All the metal parts are rusting and showing corrosion and the boxes are losing their form and bending and molding together.  We walked across the airport strip and made our way to the beach.  Wade really wants to find a glass ball.  I found several more of my small plastic balls, but no glass balls.   We still have much beach to explore though.  I cannot see why we would not be able to find a glass ball or two!   Now going on 7 pm we thought it best to make our way back to Sonadora and make some dinner.  Fish and chips it is!

Excellent anchorage!

The buildings we explored were pretty empty.  What was left made the place seem somewhat like a ghost town or other parts just seemed abandoned and unfinished.

A kitchen in a main building where we believe the workers who were building the housing were fed.

Ice machine, tables etc... just outside the kitchen.

Pantry

A nice sized spider on the wall.

Living quarters.  There were some rooms with two beds but most with four beds bunk bed style.  Very simple and small rooms with bed and a back to back desk in the middle of the room.  Each bed had a small closet for the men's personal things.

Washrooms and laundry room

workshop

Machinery

An old office.

Thursday, June 14^th, 2007

            A beautiful sunny day.  We got some boat projects done first this morning.  I started pulling out our sweaters etc… to get ready for the crossing.  Jon began work on the dodger which I think is going to make a big difference in comfort in our crossing.  Not only will it cut down the wind, but the cold and the rain or sun's heat, which ever it may be on any given day.  We all worked until noon and then had a bite to eat before heading to shore.  We took the dinghy to the north end of the island to go check out this building that was made for a dive operation and then abandoned.  We are still trying to peace together everything around here.  Like I said there is stuff from the atomic bomb testing, stuff from attempting re-habitation and stuff from setting up a dive center.  Quite a mish mash.  The building was not as impressive as we were hoping.  The building was pretty much bare inside minus a toilet or two and several bunk beds.   We then crossed the island and began our beach walk.  At first I was thinking we may get rained on.  We had our first bit of rain this morning.  We have not had any rain since we got to Bikini.  In the distance looking out towards Bikini motu all I could see was a mass of clouds and dark lines coming down to meet the ocean.  We never did get rained on though.  Somehow a lot of the squalls seem to go around us wherever we are.  We walked and walked and walked some more.  Again not a lot of debris on the beach, but the beach was pretty steep and things most likely either get pushed in to the bush or end up being pulled off in the next tide.  No glass balls.  Wade gathered several stainless steel clips and I have a back pack full of my Japanese plastic floats along with a few shells.   Wade at one point ended up far behind as he was getting right into the bush and looking.  Jon and I went for a swim while we waited for him.  Oh how to describe the ocean.  That mint green was all around me and then the shades of colour that rippled out towards the dark indigo ocean.  Oh how I will miss this.  My feet danced along with the rhythm of the waves as I let them glide over the sandy bottom.  Ahhh!  Jon had found a big orange life ring from a boat and we both took turns floating in it and talking about being lost at sea.  I said that if I was in a little float like this I would not want to be in the water for more than an hour and that would probably be too long.  We finally spotted Wade and continued on our way.  Jon had found a nice piece of green rope we will most likely use as a docking line.  With all our loot we headed over to the big warehouse at the airport to have another boo around.  Jon is just fascinated with all that has been left behind:  old cars, machinery, parts, boxes and boxes of nails.  So much stuff.  We finally headed down the grassy road that seems to go the perimeter of the island to get back to where we had left the dinghy.  In the mean time we came across some more buildings.  We feel like we are walking through a ghost town.  The first building was obviously housing.  Again more bunk beds, some lockers and washrooms.  We then found another work shop again with engines and parts.  Some things Jon and Wade pointed out had been new at one point, ne