WOW!!! it's been two and a half years since my last post. we've had lots of great adventures. i'll highlight the places we stopped at in this letter, then add each one individually and in more detail (if i can remember it all).

we left balboa, panama and did indeed stop at las perlas islands for 2 nights, then we headed on our first "real" overnight sail to the galapagos islands. 10 days on the water, with a couple of squalls underway, and we were in the galapagos. we spent a week there, then started our pacific crossing.

it takes most boats about 3 weeks to cross from the galapagos islands to the marquesas islands in french polynesia. it took us 32 days. it was a long, lovely, easy sail. we did not turn our engine on, so a few days we only went about 35 miles a day when we hit the doldrums. needless to say, the marquesas looked wonderful when we arrived.

we spent 3 months visiting islands in french polynesia - the marquesas, then the tuomotous, then tahiti. they were as beautiful as you can imagine. we were very unimpressed with bora bora since it's become a resort island, and is not friendly to cruising yachts.

from here we went to a special island, located at the top of the cook islands, called suvarov (suwarrow). this is an atoll in the middle of nowhere, with a park ranger (it's a bird sanctuary), his wife, and their 4 kids living there for 6-9 months a year - the time depends on when the cargo ship drops them off and then picks them up again.

after this we sailed to american samoa, western samoa, tonga, and then on to new zealand in november, 2009. we met a lovely couple in tonga, rafe and keini. rafe is from auckland, new zealand and keini is from tonga. we caught up with them again in new zealand, and we wound up staying there for 3 weeks after i had surgery - a hysterectomy - in new zealand. the private hospitals there are top notch and worthy of being in america. i would go back there in an instant if i needed any more surgery. we stayed in new zealand from november, 2008 until may, 2009 and then headed toward our next goal of malaysia.

we sailed to new caledonia, vanuatu, over to cairns, australia, then up the great barrier reef - another awesome adventure - over the top to darwin, australia. after a couple of weeks there, we provisioned again and sailed to and through indonesia. we stopped at the island of rinca, next to komodo island, to see the komodo dragons. we then sailed to beautiful bali, and then on to kalimantan (the bottom of borneo which is owned by indonesia) long enough to visit the orangutans at camp leaky. one of the orangs, a male named sampson, actually played with michaels' fingers.

we finished sailing through indonesia and then spent 3 weeks in raffles marina at the top of singapore. this was pretty expensive, so we went 5 miles up the river and crossed over to a secluded new marina at the base of malaysia. we spent 6 months there - taking a bus back and forth to singapore a few times - before heading up the malacca strait to our present location at rebak marina.

this marina is on a resort island off the main island of langkawi. we have a beautiful, clean, cool swimming pool, 2 restaurants, and a free ferry that takes us to langkawi when we want to go. we've been here for 2 months now, and in about 3 weeks we'll be leaving and heading to phuket, thailand which is the beginning of our next journey to the mediterranean.

my dad passed away last november, so we spent 4 months back in the states - in wisconsin, in winter. when we returned we made sure the boat was still secure and then packed our bags for a month trip to cambodia and laos. We saw the temples of anchor wat, and visited the silver palace in cambodia, then flew to laos and wound up on a 4 day elephant ride. michael and i have certificates claiming that we are "mahout" - elephant drivers! not sure where we'll use those next, but who knows?

after returning to the boat for a few weeks, we took off again on another month trip to vietnam. we were a bit unsure about visiting here, but everyone we met were very happy to greet americans back to their country. we had a wonderful time, with wonderful people, in 3 beautiful countries - cambodia, laos, and vietnam.

we returned to the boat again, packed up and took a month heading up the melacca strait to our present location. after doing a months worth of boat projects, we packed our backpacks once again and we've just returned from 4 weeks in china.

so, that's our travels in a nutshell. i'll try to elaborate more on this soon, so . . .

stay tuned. (here we are at the great wall of china)