Friday April 13, 2018 �- day 20 at sea Not much to say as not much has changed. We did 163 miles in the last 24 hours so that is ok. As I said previously, we do not want to push the boat or ourselves for that matter. Seas are still wonky but getting better or; are we just getting used to it? The fresh fruit and veggies we got in Panama City at the wholesale market are just about gone. Shawnda cut up the last 3 Mangoes yesterday and refrigerated them. So, we have 1 Plantain, 1 Zucchini and 1 tomato left. Will be starting with the can goods. Already did actually. We provisioned pretty well bit by bit starting in Martinique and St. Martin as well as Panama of course. We could last another 3 months out here. Most of our provisioning included staples that we know (have heard) that are hard to come by or very expensive in French Poly. I never really talked about the fruit / veggie market in Panama City before. We wished we had gone there previously when we were in town. It is huge and essentially divided up into areas. Pineapple section, melon section and so on. Each section had numerous vendors for each product. Large trucks as big as small dump trucks were arriving overloaded with either melons, plantain or ???? While this is the wholesale area buyers like us are still welcome. We bought a 1/3 of a branch of green bananas of one vendor; about $3.00 for about 40 bananas. 2 large cantaloupe were $2 and so on. So, it has been well over a week since we have seen another boat, either in sight or even on AIS. There are no aircraft �"contrails�" in the sky nor any talking on the VHF radio. It is like we are all alone on this planet. Thus far we have traveled 2,377 nm from Panama City and it is day 20 of the non-stop portion. We did stop that first night in Les Pearlas Islands. So, we have about 1,600 nm to go. Still longer to go than when we sailed from Hampton VA. to the BVI�'s and we are now starting to think we are on the �"home stretch�". We are not really, still about 10 days to go at the current speed. So, it does give you time to think and think�.... Staying rested is of paramount importance to say the least. We are well into our routine and one day melts into another. Me; I have finally had time to take a break from preparing for this voyage to think; where are we going anyways??? Frankly, I have not had the time to research French Polynesia much until now. Yes I knew the Marquesas Islands would the next logical stop westbound but that was about it. So, I have been finally reading some of that information that I downloaded for later. It seems that French Poly all by itself is larger than all of Western Europe combined. Several groups of islands comprise French Poly. It is, for example, it is 500 nm from Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Island group, to Tahiti and, as we found out for Shawnda�'s departure later, a 3:45 hr. flight. (She needs to get to Tahiti to fly home from there) The Marquesas are the youngest group of islands relatively speaking. Tall and mountainous where as other areas are comprised of Atolls with sparkling lagoons that are barely above sea level and others such as Tahiti and Bora Bora that are a combination of both. I am starting to see that we might be hanging out here a while to explore. And of course, we did have our Long Stay visas approved which is mandatory PRIOR to arriving. If you don�'t have the visa you are limited to 90 days maximum stay and cannot apply for the Long Stay visa, you must leave. So yes, the Marshall Islands will probably our destination in the fall (spring here) but we will be having a few stops along the way. No specific agenda�..... And lots of time to think about the Grandkids! Sheldon, Payton and Atari: We miss you guys!