The New Plan

Hi Everyone,
Finally we have had enough rest and enough time to reflect on our predicament and have come to a decision about what to do. When we turned back after leaving San Francisco and diverted into Monterey Bay, that was basically the end of the opportunity to get to the South Pacific directly from the Pacific Northwest for this year. Had we continued we would have passed through the hurricane track, which is the worst between 10 and 20 degrees north, off the coast of Mexico, in the second week of June when
the risk was still relatively small (May would have been even better but we were very slow getting to San Francisco). However by July the risk is up to a 27% chance and these storms are nothing to fool with; last year one packed winds of 125 knots. So, that left us with 3 choices: 1) go to Hawaii, down through the Line Islands, Fiji, Tonga and then to New Zealand, sell the boat as planned 2) go to San Diego, sell the boat, fly to New Zealand like regular people or 3) take the boat to San Diego, wait
until the fall, and spend the fall cruising Mexico. The Hawaii option requires about 80 days at sea in the next 6 months and we would not see any of French Polynesia (Marquesas, Tuamotos, Society Islands including Tahiti, Bora Bora etc). Peter has had a, perhaps romantic, vision of visiting French Polynesia for several decades, we have been to Hawaii and although it is very nice, it is not a great place to cruise. As such we could not summon up the necessary enthusiasm for this option given the amount
of work it required. Although, the Line Islands really appealed to me. Option 2 was very appealing when we first arrived here, we have had very rough, cold weather for nearly all of the trip. Almost all of our sailing has been under double reefed main and staysail or staysail alone and our boat had never traveled so fast under sail. Also, this option frees up the capital invested in Songline and more importantly stops the steady drain of money required to keep her in shape. Nadia is right on the
cusp of being able to go on much longer hikes and she has just started rock climbing. The main reason we started sailing in the first place was that it is something adventurous that we could do as a family when Nadia was young (and our trips to the Queen Charlottes and around Vancouver Island alone when Nadia was nearly 3 and nearly 4 respectively were worth the entire effort of having Songline). We could then perhaps buy another boat in a few years; however, Peter has poured his heart and soul into
fixing, equipping, and learning absolutely everything about this boat and doesn't feel that the energy exists to do this again from scratch. This options also suffers from the "unfinished business" syndrome and the ability to admit that we have not only lost the battle but also the war. So, we have chosen option 3 - travel very slowly down the southern coast of California until fall time. There are some very nice anchorages and offshore islands that we can explore including the Santa Cruz islands
and the Channel Islands. Then we can leave San Diego or Ensenada in the end of October, travel down the Mexican coast and perhaps into the Sea of Cortez and then we will find a suitable dry storage facility to haul the boat out of the water and leave it for a while. We can then depart Mexico in April for the South Pacific and continue as planned. But (isn't there always a but) we can't do this the following April (ie not in 2008) since I am starting a masters degree in mathematics at Simon Fraser
University in January of 2008. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I have spent the last year taking courses and working as a teaching assistant at SFU to this end. This is the only thing I am not willing to give up. So, we are planning to leave the boat out of the water for 15 or 16 months and then continue in 2009. We will incur added financial burden with this option but we suspect (hope!) that it will actually be cheaper to have Songline on the hard in Mexico then floating
in Vancouver. I swore that when we first started on this that I would never cruise in Mexico (wasting time baking in the heat drinking Margheritas is how I labeled it) so I am eating crow on that one. This option does however have the significant advantage that Nadia will be 7 when we leave again and will be tougher. I have worried about her falling and hurting herself during the rough conditions (she spent several days in her bunk and most of May wearing her snowsuit) and while not suffering from
sea sickness per say, she had a severely curtailed appetite and she is only a skinny 42 pounds to start with. She was unable to read, colour etc without getting seasick so some of the days at sea have been hard for her. So, having learned not to make wild predictions about where we will be at any particular time, we are continuing down the coast and will continue to update the blog and the position report as we go. Thanks to everyone who emailed us encouraging comments, offers of help and suggestions.
They are most appreciated!
Brenda.