20/02/2010

'A journey of a thousand mile must begin with a single step.'
- Lao Tzu



When I woke up this-morning I had butterflies in my stomach. It felt a bit like Christmas when you are a kid but with a tinge of nervousness. We are both so excited because we know that today is the day that our long-awaited journey begins.

We went into town to buy our fruits and Veggies. James is doing a bottom job so that there is minimal resistance as we glide through the waters toward Galapagos.

Last night we had a fabulous meal with friends and strangers and met a man called Charley. A while back James and I had watched a doco on 9-11, which stated that the plane crash at the Pentagon was staged. Charley was one of the first independent investigators to see the crash-site. He said that the crash was not staged. The main argument the doco put forward was that if a plane had really crashed there, where were all of the other plane parts. Charley explained that the plane was equivalent to a bomb larger than the largest the U.S. owns (before nuclear) when you take these factors into consideration; the speed of the plane, the amount of fuel in the fuel tank and the pressurization of the cabin. The plane disintegrated on impact along with what was inside it. He said that his company 'Transportation Safety & Security Consulting' is independent of the government and their only job is to go into a site and report on what really happened there based on the evidence they find.

After conspiracy theory, the conversation took a turn for the better towards fishing.


Charley's diagram

Along with being an accident investigator, he is also an expert fisherman. I told him that I know close to nothing about fishing. He then helped James and I by teaching us the basics, fixing our rod, teaching us some fishing knots, showing us which lures catch which fish, what speed you should be trolling at, which materials work best, which fish have the best eyesight, how to pull in a big one using your own bodyweight, how Newton's laws apply to fishing. We learnt a lot from him in just a few hours and you could really tell that fishing is his passion.

(Thank you very much Charley. We had a great time with you.)

I've just finished cleaning the Saloon, here is a picture of our almost ship-shape boat



And finally, goodbye Costa Rica.

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18/02/2010

We have been busy little ants this week, collecting food and carrying it back to our heap. Here are some of the ways we have spent our time over the past week,

Cleaning and oiling the teak in our boat


Making a table



Surfing


shopping, shopping and more shopping



...and leg waxing, but don't worry, I won't show you the photos of that. And Algebra lessons. Yes. Some documentaries about the Universe (given to us by our friends Andrew and Elenora) have made me interested in maths as the language of science. Yesterday we just happened (in the small town of Golfito) to bump into and meet two professors in Mathematics and James has been teaching me how to solve equations. I wish my maths teacher from high-school John Rauris could see this, I swear it would make his year to know that i am getting interested in maths- he tried so incredibly hard but i was always happy to doodle in my book instead- or sit in the corner playing guitar.

I even bought a pair of nerdy glasses because I thought I might meet more nerds who can teach me things that way... not sure if that's how it works (perhaps you don't need to look like a nerd to be one).

James has gone to the port captain as I write to sign us out of Costa Rica. We have HEAPS of food but we are still waiting on our satellite credit so we should be ready to leave the day after tomorrow. Not sure what to expect. Sea-sickness? Exhaustion (from doing the night shifts)?Humility at the vastness of the ocean? Maybe it's best not to expect anything.

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10/02/2010

'All things are ready, if our minds be so.'
William Shakespeare



James making our spinnaker

It has taken us alot of preparation to get to this point of being ready to cross the pacific. We spent two months back in Australia over Christmas earning some money and preparing ourselves mentally for the trip we are about to take.

A big thank you to Jamie's parents Leona and Bob for giving us a place to stay over the last two months. Also for not only allowing but encouraging us to transform your car-port and lounge-room into a sailmaking factory. It would have been much more difficult to get as well prepared as we are now without your help.

The flight over here was a little more trouble than we expected.
We ended up having to stay an extra night in L.A. on our way through to Costa Rica because we didn't have proof that we were leaving the country- we had no return ticket as we are not flying out, we are sailing out. After much fuss and with the help of some staff (especially a man called Robbie who kept his cool the whole way through), the airline said that as long as we had a form with the dates the bond on our boat ends in Costa Rica, we could get on the plane. The people watching the boat emailed us the form and we got a flight with one stop-over in Denver the next day.


Robbie and James working away diligently for Frontier airlines


It was snowing in Denver. 6 hours after this photo was taken we were in the tropics


Now our thoughts are turned towards stocking up on food for the trip and getting last minute things like satellite credit. Fingers crossed, we will be leaving in a week for the Galapagos. We are both so excited and are itching to get started but I guess its all a part of the journey, isn't it!

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