Well I suppose the time has come to let you all in on a little secret Mark and I have been carrying since we got to Fiji.... I have been harboring a stowaway. I'm almost 14 weeks pregnant. As you know our passage from NZ to Fiji was a hard one. But even so I usually start to feel better at some point. I never got over the seasickness, was strangely hungry (I woke up one night and made Mark make me one of our emergency dehydrated meals), and I could smell everything on the boat. Something just gave me the feeling so I took a pregnancy test when we got in (yes, I always keep a box on the boat because I feel this is to important to be in a place and not be able to find out). Sure enough it came back positive and so did the second one. My sister of course asked me why I took two? Her comment was "if that line turns blue you're pregnant." I took two because I was not going to some crazy Fiji doctor without being sure. I was going to wait till the following Monday to go to the doctor but if you remember my eye was all irritated from the passage again so I ended up in the emergency over the weekend. I told them my suspicions and they did the blood test for confirmation. Later in the week we saw the OB, had the rest the the blood tests, and and ultrasound done. Everything looked good. They gave me a due date of January 23rd. It was actually a really nice clinic with really good doctors.

It was now clear that Mark and I had to reassess our plans for the year. We were planning to sail down and around South Africa and back up into the Med. We started tossing around all the options. I definitely couldn't do the Indian Ocean. 1. It's far too many long passages and 2. way too late in the year. We looked into shipping the boat into the Med but the cost of doing so just seems like a silly waste. Initially we decided that Mark would get crew and go without me. I would leave him in Bali. The plan has changed once again and is now pretty solid. We are obviously still in Fiji. We will leave for New Caledonia as soon as we have our new set of sails. It's about a 5-6 day passage (possibly less - hopefully less!). We will spend a few weeks there and then head over to Australia (7 day passage). Depending on when we get there I will help Mark close up the boat or I will go straight home. My goal is to be on a plane October 1st and home for my third trimester. Mark will probably stay behind for a month and get some projects done and officially close up the boat. Our goal is to have him home in time for the holidays. This is the plan for today anyhow. We of course change it daily at least a little.

I'm sure everyone's big question is "Are we still going to sail." And the answer is yes. But we will be slowing down a bit. We plan to stay at home for about 3 months after the baby is born (more if there is any reason to - the baby is obviously #1 priority). We will then return to the boat in Australia. Under normal circumstances we would then sail off but we are now planning to stay in Australia for the cruising season and an additional cyclone season. We want to be in a place that is close to doctors and supplies. We will be there until after the babies 1st birthday. After which we will decide what to do.

Next you're probably saying "you can't have a baby on a boat." Well I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by a ton of boats with kids lately; some that have lived on their boat since birth. When people find out we are expecting they are happy to give me their two-cents and I am happy to take it. It may not work out for us but we won't know until we give it a try.

For those of you who are worried about me out here in the great blue sea I will tell you that I have been taking my vitamins, getting as many fresh fruits/veggies as possible, and resting a lot (hence the lack of activity on the blog lately). I had another check-up last week. This doctor wasn't as good as the first but we got another ultrasound and could see the baby jumping around. They changed my due date to Jan 11th because they said that 10 week babies don't jump and this baby was moving so I had to be at least 12 weeks. Everything is looking good and the doctor gave me the okay to do the New Caledonia passage.

Now that the news is out I'm sure I'll have much more to write about. It's been hard the last month or so because a lot of what we have or haven't done has revolved around my belly and I couldn't really say anything.

If anyone out there has any questions, comments, suggestions, or advice I'd love to hear them (well maybe not some of them). This is going to be a whole new adventure for Mark and I but I think it's gonna be a fun one!


We have made an attempt to let our friends and family know before posting on here but we are sure we have missed at least a few so my heartfelt apologies if you are finding out this way and should have received a personal phone call or e-mail from one of us.