Our time in French Polynesia this season is over and we must move on. It has been a magical experience, we are reluctant to leave and could spend months more exploring our favorite islands or just sitting longer in perfect spots. But, the visa is up, every day we spend here is hard on the budget, and we are looking forward to seeing other facets of the S. Pacific.

For us, the next stop is Suwarrow, one of the Cook Islands. As of this morning, we are 75 miles into the trip and have 620 miles to go. Life on Whisper is back into passage mode. Last night was windless with an 8' - 10' swell, the boat rolled and rolled and the sails crashed until we just took them down. During the evening there was a very unwelcome metallic "ping, clink, clink, clink"; and a large washer fell off the mast onto the deck. After 15 minutes of high stress searching for the source of falling parts and waiting for the rest to follow, we found the pin holding the boom to the mast loose and were able to fix it.

This morning, the kids have re-purposed our big bag of plastic clothes pins. They are now in the cockpit fighting the entire Star Wars epic with ships built entirely out of clothes pins. Battles include characters, "Commander Pinky" etc., and all the electronic shooting sound effects you would hear in the Lucas studios. The boys are adapting well to the moving environment and ships that fall over as Whisper rolls are counted as enemy hits.

Thanks for all the e-mails from home, these keep Mary connected.