Just a quick overview for anyone who hasn't been following us on Facebook.

We left from La Paz, BCS, Mexico, and headed for French Polynesia, the normal milk run from the North American coast. We had one of our granddaughters on board, Hannah, who was great. It was nice to have 3 watches instead of 2, and also to have help in the kitchen and on deck. Oh to be young again.

Things didn't start to go wrong until we were about a week out of Cabo San Lucas, and then the starter on our engine quit. Well,.....we needed the engine to charge batteries, and keep the freezer cold, run the water maker etc. So the rest of the trip we were enginless. We had taken the charger in the week before we left La Paz to have it looked at because we thought it wasn't working as well as it should. They replaced everything but they didn't check the field and the windings, and there was a short in there. Wouldn't have been a problem if we hadn't been out on the open ocean.

All in all it wasn't a bad trip, we hove to a couple of nights because of no wind in the Convergence Zone, and of course we couldn't motor, and it was roly because we had the swell anyway. And we trashed our spinnaker because we got hit with a 30K squall that we didn't see coming. But we managed to sail into Nuka Hiva, and got towed the last ½ mile to a good spot to anchor.

And there we stayed for a couple of months. Poor Hannah, we had told her she would get to see, Tahiti, and Tonga, and Fiji, and really all she saw was Nuka Hiva. But Canadian mail being the way it is, our parcel (which cost $400. to mail) went via Hong Kong, and 6 weeks later arrived in Nuka Hiva, all correctly addressed even, ???? So Gary got the new starter installed, and we put Hannah on the inter island freight ship and she flew back home and off to University.

We also left, and spent a couple of days in Danielles Bay, just 5 miles out of Nuka Hiva. A great little anchorage to clean the bottom, and a long walk to the huge waterfall.

After that we sailed on to Raitia and then Bora Bora, both great sailing spots, with too many activities to write about in this synopsis. ( if you want a list just email me and I can send maps etc). It was interesting to go to the Bora Bora yacht club, which we had spent some time during the 1980's when we were cruising that area with the kids. It has definitely grown, in fact the whole of Bora Bora has grown, but they have done it nicely, so it isn't too obvious, and you can still find plenty of spots to be alone with just the sea breezes and the palm trees.

From Bora Bora, we hopped to Am. Samoa. A great place to fuel up and get all the American stapes we are so use to. Again, we noticed a lot of changes, the tram that ran over the bay is gone, there is only 1 tuna packing operation now, and they have done a lot to clean it up. Lets face it, it is not pristine, but the garbage in the water is less. Had a great time taking buses everywhere, and I just can't miss mentioning the friendly and helpful locals. They have 2 or 3 cruise ships come in every week with thousands of camera toting tourists, and they still keep their cheerfulness.

And from there, we jumped off again to do the run up here to the Marshall Islands, for the tropical typhoon season. Again, it is an American protectorate, or some such. It is now independent but they still have supermarkets with Am food, as well as Australian and New Zealand. And they have the Am postal service. Diesel is $5.15 a gallon tho.

We are presently in a lovely anchorage 4 miles from Majuro, with lots of good snorkelling and diving. So that brings us up to date.

The photo is of the Tiki seen from the water in Nuka Hive, FP