dinghy ride

The boat feels awfully small this week. The weather seems to be imitating the northwest, with partially cloudy, chance of showers, breezy cool conditions. I could see my breath inside when I woke up this morning. We don't have heat, which seemed fine in the tropics, but not so fine now that we're here and used to the tropical heat. Yesterday we really needed to get away from the boat and marina so we loaded up, grabbed the kids from Ocean Breezes and dinghied to a playground about a mile or two away. It only took about 15 minutes, but with the wind, it was a bit rough and wet. Not to worry though, the boat kids handled it like pros and had a nice time climbing, running and swinging at the beach front park. It seems that parties are the order of Opua, so we had another dock party last night to celebrate two more arrivals (Wyndeavor and Sea Fever) and say goodbye to some others who are heading to Auckland. The kids ran up and down the dock, thundered down the ramp and drove scooters around like maniacs. A couple of scooters are definitely on the list for our kids now that we're more land oriented. It's much more of a challenge to run off their energy without the snorkeling and beach games.

Pete thinks he has a ride lined up today to go buy a car. That will be a relief to be mobile, especially as we hope to do some camping and traveling in the next couple weeks.

Last summer before we left I was perusing a cruising magazine at Pete's parents house and found a letter to the editor asking how a middle class family could possibly save the money to go cruising. I've been pondering whether or not to write back with our financial details all this time. I finally did it about a month ago, and Lou e-mailed recently to say that my letter is in this month's issue of Latitudes and Attitudes. I'm quite interested in doing some professional articles, so this has boosted my confidence a bit.

We're debating a lot at the moment about how to sell Imagine. In New Zealand the seller must first import the boat. An 18% tax, or something hideous like that, must be paid on the value, up front. That's not an option for us, so we're thinking that Australia is the only way to go. Apparently, Australia has a much better market for heavy blue water boats anyways. We might list it with an OZ broker before we come home and see what happens, but we really think that Pete will have to sail her over in the spring. The kids and I might fly to meet him, but I'm all done doing passages. If anyone has some time off in March, how about a nice trip to NZ and Oz? Doing a bit of sightseeing in southern Australia over next summer might be a nice way to finish up our Pacific tour, even if it will be winter there. It's a hard decision because airfare is expensive and the logistics of getting our stuff packed up, not knowing if it will sell in NZ, is causing a bit of stress. We're by no means the only boat in this situation, so we'll have good company sailing over next year if we go.

See you all in 5 short weeks, Kellie