Well, I’ve finally made it back to New York. I’m at my Mom’s place out on Long Island. Tomorrow I get to go see Cirque du Soleil with my fabulous sister. I’ll be in the New York Area until May 30th, when I fly to Boulder, CO for Craig’s and Lysandra’s wedding.

The passage from Mazatlan to Hilo was definately a good experience. There weren’t any interesting disasters, so the sailing itself was just nice. The weather didn’t quite cooperate, with the Pacific High taking a vacation (and squelching the breeze) just when we were about to latch on to the easterly tradewinds, but you can’t have everything. A week later it came back and we were cooking along nicely for the last week into Hilo. We did have some minor trouble with the wind vane self-steering gear in terms of chafe, but really, who doesn’t? All in all, I was VERY impressed with the Sailomat and would buy one for my cruising boat, if I had such a boat. The food was great and Ken is an exceptionally talented cook. The six bottles of wine we shared along the way didn’t hurt either. We did catch one fish, a small tuna, on Day 2 when we were both seasick. Ken cleaned it up and we tossed it in the freezer to be eaten later. One highlight of the trip was trading limericks with the family on Swallow (one of the boats who joined the impromptu 5H Net - the Hilo Hoppers Happy Half Hour). Once we got to Hawai’i, we caught up with John and Mary from Irish Rose. They joined Ken and myself in exploring Mauna Kea (where all the way-cool observatories are) and Kilauea (the active volcano).

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Well, Ken and I have arrived on Wishful Thinking after 23 days at sea. It was an uneventful passage overall, the biggest problems being related to the self-steering gear. However, we improvised and what we ended up doing in the end was better than what we started with in the first place. Once we tied up and took some hot showers, we snuck off for our first meal on land. The nice restaurant down the street was booked solid for the next two hours, so we ended up at Ken’s 24 Hour House of Pancakes. After staring at a menu with a boggling list of hundreds of choices, we ended up both ordering humongous green salads (Well, Ken got the caesar salad with chicken, I got the chef’s salad). Then back to the boat for lots and lots of sleep.

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Wow, Mexico is great! We’ve been putting in a lot of work on the boat and stocking up on provisions, but I really like the vibe here in Mazatlan. I could see myself coming back to Mexico, especially if I pick up some Spanish.

Ken and I should be casting off the docklines tomorrow afternoon. It will take us about a week to pick up the trade winds, but then we will be rapidly making for Hilo on the Big Island. You can follow our progrss (or lack thereof) via the Pacific Seafarers Net at YOTREPS. See you all in a month!

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After a brief stop in the SF Bay Area, I’m heading out again. Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Mazatlan to connect with Ken. Hopefully within a week we’ll be sailing west to Hilo, Hawaii. The passage should take about a month, so don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me until late May. When I do come back I’ll be heading to Portland, OR to hang with Sarah for a bit, including a trip out to Colorado for Lysandra’s and Craig’s wedding.

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Right, so I flew from Christchruch to Auckland, which was quite uneventful. Upon getting to Auckland I checked in for the last time to the City YHA. It was Oscar night, so I watched the whole thing on TV. I was the only guy clapping when Michael Moore spoke out, which felt a tad weird. The next day I took the InterCity bus down to Taupo. I checked in to the hostel and went to do some food shopping. I wanted to try to finish all the staples and stuff I had been dragging all over the country. Since I had left some jasmine rice, some dijon mustard and some local mauka honey, clearly I needed to make chicken in a honeymustard sauce over rice. Nothing could be easier. I could even make enough to have leftovers so that if I was too tired to cook after doing the Tongariro Crossing, I’d still have good food to eat. So I hit the supermarket and picked up some chicken, some yoghurt for breakfast, a chocolate bar (always a good idea for hiking), a box of apricot granola bars and a 750ml bottle of spring water (to augment my own 1 liter water bottle that I always take with me). I made dinner, ate, and pretty much went straight to bed. I had to get up at 5:45am to make a 6:20am bus to get to the Tongariro National Park. There was an even earlier bus, but that one cost and extra $10.

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Well, let’s take a short journey in the way-back machine. The date is Monday March 3rd. I was quite lucky in that the America’s Cup ended exactly one day before my scheduled-well-in-advance and not-at-all-changeable flight from Auckland to Christchurch. The morning of my flight was a bit of a cock-up as I had overslept and missed the bus I had wanted to catch out of Orewa. Fortunately I had built-in a margin of error in my plans and only lost half an hour. When I got to Sky City, which is also the departure point for the shuttle bus to the airport, there was no shuttle bus. I waited and waited. Still no bus. The taxi drivers eyed me hungrily. Then one new driver pulls up with a screech and offers me a ride to the airport for $6 less than the shuttle bus would have been. Overriding my paranoia, I accept. He gets me to the airport in record time, and I sail through check-in. After boarding the plane we are delayed on the tarmac for both lack of fuel and for an unspecified technical detail. Eventually we get in the air, but no one ever announced if these problems were fixed. As we headed south, we flew just along the west coast of the North Island, and I got an incredible view of Mt Taranaki, which was very cool to see since it was one of my favorite hikes. After arriving in Christchurch and taking the bus into town, I arrive at my hostel, only to learn that my booking was not for the day of my arrival, but the day after. I did some calling around and discovered that pretty much every single dorm bed in the city was take, so I booked a single at another hostel. Upon getting to that hostel and checking in, I went to arrange transportation on the TranzAlpine train for the following day. Turns out that train was fully booked, too. Sigh. I booked in the same hostel for a dorm bed the next day, and then the train the day after. A very roller-coaster kind of day.

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This is coming to you from Christchurch, NZ on the South Island. I have had quite a lot of fun these past three weeks. I hope to upload a lot of pictures in about 3 or 4 days and also give lots of details. Here are the highlights. TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth. Bus from Greymouth to Queenstown, stopping in Hokitika for jade, and Franz Josef and Fox glaciers for full day hikes. Two boat rides in Milford Sound. 3+ days on the Kepler Track (with lots of blisters). Bus to Invercargill and Bluff, at the southern tip of the South Island. Bus to Dunedin and free chocolate at Cadbury World.

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Yes, the America’s Cup is over. Alinghi has won in a 5-0 sweep. Team NZ again suffered gear failure, this time probably due to human error as the spinnaker pole broke toward the end of the 2nd run. As far as the rest of my trip is concerned, everything else is gravy.

Speaking of everything else, I can now follow through with my original plan of flying to Christchurch tomorrow and then taking the TransAlpine railway the day after. I then plan to hop down the west coast of the South Island, starting in Greymouth and then stopping in Hokitika (I want to buy a greenstone hei matau for myself). Then I’ll proceed to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers for some chilly hiking. Things get a little more fuzzy after that. I’ll go to Queenstown, Te Anau and Milford, but I don’t know the order or what exactly I’ll do in those places.

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Yesterday was the first day of racing in living memory. Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. I had left the hostel in the morning and took one look around and almost turned back. I couldn’t imagine racing taking place in conditions like they were. Visibility was way down with a heavy mist and drizzle coming down. Looking off to the horizon didn’t reveal any potential improvements. The wind was up too, with the surf pounding strongly along Orewa Beach. I knew I’d never forgive myself if the race went ahead and I wasn’t there to watch it live, so I forged ahead. I sent Barry an SMS asking for info from the website, and fortunately he came through with the goods in mere seconds. The race was on. I got Barry’s message just as the bus was pulling up, so I got on and went out to Manly.

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That was what Brad Butterworth, Alinghi’s ace tactician, said when he was asked how he felt by the race committee about racing being abandoned on Thursday. He did say it with a good wry, sarcastic tone, since it was obvious to everyone that conditions were unsuitable. Well, the boats never even left the dock yesterday, and racing was again abandoned today. So now I’m the one who is bitterly disappointed. I’ve come halfway around the world and spent over three months watching the Louis Vuitton Cup and waiting and waiting for this event. Now we’ve had three consecutive days of racing thrown away. Yes, I’m disappointed. At least they realize they are running out of time and have agreed to attempt a race tomorrow, which was scheduled to be a lay day. The forecast doesn’t look to promising to me, though, so I’m going to keep my expectations from raising too high.

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