Dan and I just had the pleasure of hosting Sue and Emil Dopyera in Hawaii aboard Long Windid. We spent hours sharing and comparing our adventures and asked Sue to contrast our voyage with theirs, thirty years earlier.

Emil and my recent visit aboard Long Windid with both you and Dan was one of the most fantastic highlights in our life since sailing around the world aboard the Schooner Rachel B. Jackson.
It has been thirty years since we departed Galveston, Texas and headed south through the Panama Canal then across to the Galapagos Islands and through the South Pacific; it was so fun talking about and reliving our similar courses through the Marquesas, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Fiji; sharing numerous stories, photos and tales. Even though our voyages were 30 years apart, there were so many similarities. Emil and I are in awe and even envious of how electronics have made cruising today so much easier, safer and enjoyable. We had to sail with sextants, paper charts, dividers, straightedge, compass, and a somewhat unreliable satellite system that could leave us without a position fix for days.
When we first started our voyage, I would go below deck and ask Emil where we were on the chart. He would take his sharpened pencil and put a tiny dot on the large chart to indicate where we were. After a month or so I'd asked him the same question, he would put his thumb print down on the chart where we were. After about six months, I again asked him where we were, Emil put his hand flat down on the chart and said, "Susan, we're somewhere about here."
Yes, times have changed. When you showed us all the modern navigation tools aboard Long Windid, we were amazed. You have solar panels, solar controls, AGM Batteries, plotters and fantastic up to date radar; computers, smart phones, sat phones, I-pads and e-mail. I would have given "my right arm" just to have had e-mail. We would go for weeks without communication from family and love ones. Our refrigerator box kept food cold only as long as the large blocks of ice lasted. We learned to do without ice cubes and cold drinks.
Emil battled keeping the batteries charged constantly. It would have been a blessing to have had LED lighting that didn't draw down the batteries so quickly.
The Rachel B. Jackson being a 70' gaff-rigged-schooner, built after the New England Coastal Schooners of the 1800's, was welcomed at every port she entered. We were invited into homes of the natives, given tours of their countryside, sat with them in their huts as they shared their stories and meals with us. We in turn opened the hatches to all and held "open house" to those that wanted to come aboard. It was especially heartwarming when the natives would come aboard and sing their songs, dance topside, and share their lives with us.
Yes, our experiences were similar even though our voyages were thirty years apart. It was so fun sharing stories, time and new experiences with you while in Oahu.
Thank you, Marla, for making us feel like "King & Queen" while aboard. The gorgeous orchid lei upon arrival, and Hawaiian chocolates on our bed pillow made us feel so welcome. Your beautiful table settings, wine with dinners, always served to perfection are treasured memories.
May your journey continue. Keep sailing dear friends till your hearts, and your bodies, tell you so, not when friends and family think so.
Till our paths cross once again, stay safe, and keep enjoying the good life.

Sue and Emil