And we're off!!

The boat is clean; there's muffins, bread, cookies and lasagna prepared; the winches are greased; the bottom is scrubbed; the rigging is inspected and the pitch in the prop is adjusted. Now all we need is a bit of wind. With 5 knots of wind on the nose, we're motoring out of Tonga en route to New Zealand. I can hardly believe it. It's with mixed emotions that we embark on this last passage. We'll be leaving the tropics soon as we cross the Tropic of Capricorn and bringing to an end 10 months of sun and sand. Again, we're heading south instead of west, bringing an end to our rise in longitude. By the end of this passage we'll have sailed 10,000 miles.

We left the northwest last September at the start of fall. We entered the Sea of Cortez, (beginning of tropics) in the beginning of winter. Spring came just days before we headed across the Pacific and changed to fall as we crossed the equator. Now winter has passed and we're in spring again. Starting in Puerto Vallarta, the average temps started hovering in the 80's. Now we think that anything below 78 is cold. We haven't been in a summer season the whole trip, but the weather has seemed like one long summer. Summer in the tropics is cyclone season, so boaters avoid it like the plague. Spring in NZ is a bit like home, with average temps in the 60's. What a shock to drop 20 degrees in a week. The kids think their warm clothes are like costumes. They've outgrown all their socks and most of Ellie's sweatshirt sleeves came half way up to her elbow. I did plan ahead and bring some warm clothes for them to grow into, just for this time, so we won't freeze. I hope I remember how to tie shoelaces.

The radio has been humming these last couple of days as everyone jumps on this weather opportunity to head south. Scheduled contact times (nets) have been set up twice a day by various groups to stay in touch and report positions. We're listening in to four nets per day and checking in a group kid boats. We're calling ourselves the "Giddy Up Net." By my count this morning, 25 boats are underway within 200 miles of each other. Some left from the north group and some from middle and south so we're spread out a bit, but all sharing our experiences together. As of this morning no wind was being reported anywhere in the group. It's forecasted to pick up tomorrow, so we're planning to motor overnight if necessary to arrive in NZ before the next group of lows is forecasted to arrive around the 3rd. I always like hearing all the familiar voices everyday. We know all most all of the boats and nine of us have kids. By the way, I mentioned back in Mexico about a boat called Tournisol with a blind couple on board. They are part of this fleet and we heard them on the radio this morning reporting all is well. check out www.blindsailing.com

All for now. We'll keep you posted.

-K