Love Song is departing the RMI, headed West bound with a crew of 8!!!

Allen has installed a cutter rig so we have a new sail in addition to crew...the staysail will give us the opportunity to increase our speed and if weather's foul to use it as a storm sail to better balance out the boat. This was after a new deck paint job, bright yellow again to keep us alert! The new wind generator we brought back at Christmas has helped charge batteries for us nicely, we've just had to keep a "head's up" awareness in order to keep from decapitating anyone. We did have a scare with my SUPB (stand up paddle board) a month or two back, when it was tied to the rail to drain and a gust of wind blew it up, and luckily it missed the new wind generator but beat the heck out of a solar panel and ended up punctured with about 20 holes and gashes of various sizes! The guys on Windward/Indies' Trader vessels that Allen worked with were able to patch it up and paint it a new and better blue instead of that Pepto Bismol Pink.

Kathy thinks this trip to the Solomons will be the best ever with the help of the 2 new crew girls... Provisioning has never been so productive and efficient, it's so nice to have teammates that pick up where you didn't mean to leave off and finish it without being asked! Homeschooling has taken a back seat, although the boys have been able to help label cans with permanent markers and do small tasks like good delivery boys with tools for their dad. They do best if a pile of work is set before them and they don't feel left out when they're in the midst of all the hustle and bustle but busy in their own right. It was really special to have long emails from Morgan when I was in Hawaii for ten days. I am indebted to the friends who take me in and haul me around day and night, take me sight seeing, and spend hours visiting.

Morgan turned 8 in April, which seemed like a zoo with the birthday party aboard at Eneko with 9 kids from Coop School and the neighborhood. He was really happy, and we're glad the countdown is over for the next 11 months I hope! Easter was the next day and the crew girls were there along with other friends to help dye, decorate and hide eggs. It was all downhill after that with the super flu that knocked their heads for a loop with days of fever and headache, and a cough that lingered on and on. I resisted but finally lost the battle but was well in time for my trip to Honolulu and Kauai for my neice's wedding.

Wyatt is the gung ho motivater around here, always wanting to go to shore to ride his bike or go "pulling" on the surfboards behind the dinghy. He is standing up on the board and when they go doubles, side by side, it's really impressive! He also throws out random names for the yoga poses they learned from a kids' yoga program and says he must do his brain gym before he begins his schoolwork. We take turns twirling a jumprope on the foredeck and chanting rhymes, which is a real blast to the past but in an unusual setting! They're even good enough to run in, jump and sing, and run out without missing a beat.

The boys and Allen managed to survive my absence with a little help from Noortje, who is from the Netherlands and just happens to be a PE teacher in Aruba! She is 28 years old and a lot of fun! She moved into Wyatt's room a couple of weeks ago and helped with schooling and some cooking until I returned. She is a kite surfer and is planning on flying to Fiji with Sylvia, the other crew, to find some nice kite surfing before returning to her job in Aruba after a 3 month leave.

Sylvia is from Belgium where she was in the Army, and she is 38 years old and has crewed on several boats. She just came from French Polynesia and has been my right hand woman with grocery shopping! With their help the watch system will be made much easier, with everyone standing 3 hours but allowing a longer stint of sleep except for the 2-5am watch in which sleep is split. Sylvia has my kudos for doing the dishes, and Noortje has made some traditional Dutch dishes to freeze and eat underway!

So, the route in a nutshell is a month in the Solomon's, a month in PNG, a couple of months in Indonesia, and then we'll make our way to Thailand with stops in Malaysia at Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in the Malacca Straits. Even we need maps for these places! We will have to tie Dulce up at night to keep her from going ashore, as there will be crocodiles in some places, and she has been jumping overboard and swimming to the beach at Eneko when we're there on the weekends! We don't know what she does, but she made friends with some pigs there and maybe she snuggles up with them?! One night she swam back but only climbed into the dinghy to have to spend the night there on the hard bench! FUNNY little dog.

We have the links for tracking our position on Yotreps and will try to post to the sailblogs.

http://www.sailblogs.com search for Love Song

Yotreps is Yacht postition reporting http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/reporter_list.php?pd=52 scroll down list for past two weeks for WDA4372 and select it (it's in alphabetical order) and then select track (for tracking our vessel).