I meant to tell you about our adventure crossing the dateline. Our navigation software, which is directly connected to our GPS, was having trouble plotting our course to New Zealand, the distances and numbers were coming out whacky, and Frank was struggling to make it behave. He finally gave up plotted a course to the dateline, and we figured we’d cross that bridge when we got there. On the day we crossed the dateline, the most amazing thing happened, we actually circumnavigated the globe in less than a second. We have the trackline as proof. Our 10 hour distance traveled was 19487.7 miles (approximately the circumference of the globe at that latitude minus our approach to the dateline), and our 10 hour average boat speed soared from 8 knots to 1828 knots. We must now hold the record speed for circumnavigating the planet on any vessel.

I think I’ll buy a license to put out with the milk and cookies for Santa this year. Think of the efficiency gains, no more mucking out reindeer stalls for 12 months a year, no feeding elves to mine the magic dust, and no hassles with the planet’s psychological associations for all that dream manipulation sugarplum voodoo (and the risk avoidance – Santa an unlicensed practioner!). He can drop it all, just plug in his GPS and head for the dateline.

Then he can take the savings, close down his sock, underwear, pajama and tie departments, and open up a nanotechnology department. By this time next year, we’ll all have supercomputers in a paintcan, just paint a layer of supercomputer on your desk. I hope my new superthin desktop computer is waterproof though, shouldn’t be hard, just use a urythane base instead of water-based paint. I’ve got some good ideas, I could help with the reorganization, maybe he’ll hire me to oversee that department. That would perk up my wilting-by-the-day resume.

I know it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but what are you getting Santa for Christmas?

xoxomo

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That Blue is gone. It’s been cloudy on and off the past couple days, and That Blue always took on a steely edge on a cloudy day, so I don’t know exactly at what point it disappeared completely, but the ocean is not That Blue anymore. It’s as if the cloudy day colors common to these higher latitudes, have permanently bled into the ocean staining it a dark green gray blue. The new color is similar to the outer waters of California’s ocean, but more gray than green; a color only an albatross can love. There are lots of those monster gliders now, soaring along gazing down into this darker brooding sea.

And the sapphire gems that were nestled under every whitecap, have disappeared with it; even in the same bright sun, the whitecaps now just settle back into the ocean with a froth, no sparkling blue treasures between cap and ocean.

That Blue had become such a constant presence in our lives; only changing a little with the weather, or as the waters became shallow it would break down into it’s component parts of indigo, pure turquoise and emerald. But this total disappearance is a surprise. We’ll miss That Blue.

xoxomo

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Less than 100 Miles NE of New Zealand 28 Oct 2010 34.0450S 174.6741E

Actually I slept pretty well last night, I’m getting acclimated to watchlife, the seas are amazingly calm, and Frank gave me a break on both ends of my watch. As we get closer to land, Frank sleeps less, worrying about fishing boats and all. Despite the calm seas, we have good wind, so we continue to make 180-190 mile days. We’re staying ahead of the cats which has Frank in a perpetually good mood. But all this ends tonight sometime – at our current pace, it’ll be sometime around sunset. Then tomorrow, we face New Zealand Customs.

From what we understand, they have a very thorough customs process. Their list of banned products is longer than Santa’s and potentially touches any item in our pantry, and anything we’ve collected in our travels. They’re very protective of their island paradise, and it’s unique flora and fauna, so food and wood products from other countries go through an especially rigorous inspection. There may also be an element of market protectionism, not wanting us to import beef from other countries, or maybe they’re just worried we’ll invite their citizens aboard and intentionally feed them hormone-laden meat products.

At any rate, our larders are full, since we stocked up in Samoa expecting to stay in Tonga longer than we did, and expecting this crossing to take longer than it did. We’ve been eating like Polynesians for the past week, 3 big meals a day, bacon and eggs for breakfast, roast chicken for lunch, curried beef for dinner. We won’t be able to step over the lifelines to the customs dock when we arrive, due to the extra pounds. But there’s just no way we can eat it all. We caught a Mahi Mahi, and vacuum packed it and froze it solid in our new refrigerator – we’re hoping they won’t take that away. I’m sure we have pulses on board that have been here since way before the boat was built in ’88; I mean, who doesn’t have a bag of beans in their pantry from their childhood – or at least from their kids kindergarten class – you know that first Turkey project where they glue multicolored beans down. A boat is a small confined environment, beans are not high on our list when it comes to meal choices, but for some reason we have a bunch on board. Interestingly the one time we did have a bug problem it was weevils in the chocolate milk powder – I’ve never seen a single weevil in the beans – even weevils won’t eat 20 year old legumes. No chance of importing bugs in those bags, but they won’t be missed. I’ll look at this as an opportunity to clean out the pantry cupboards; but when I see the pile of food they toss, I know I’ll be kicking myself for not leaving it with a nice hungry Tongan family.

On the collection front, we’ve been sincerely trying to collect mostly pictures. In Samoa, we sent a few packages home filled with shells, seeds, baskets, feathers (anything containing organic matter). But this is a kid boat, and who knows what’s stuffed where, that could be a banned organic substance. I just noticed our sea urchin mobile is still swinging in the window, an old lure handmade with pearl-oyster shell and sprigs of what is probably horse hair, is hooked on a wire above Frank’s monitor a keepsake from early days fishing with an old Polynesian fisherman. I forgot about my fly tying kit, stowed with the fishing gear, full of feathers, moose hair and rabbit fur. We’ve heard they go through every cupboard, if any of you have seen our storage capacity, you’ll understand why that would be a daunting task on this boat. I should ask them to look for a list of things that have gone missing in my cupboard dance. I’m sure I had a copy of Cameron’s 1995 South Seas Adventure on board, and somewhere we hid quilts and warm sweaters – we could really use those now, it was 60 degrees out this morning.

I don’t know what they’ll find in the forepeak. I’ve been trying to stay out of that zone since we moved onboard – teenagers need their space and all. But we could be carrying toxic waste up there, what’s the sentence for transporting undeclared hazardous materials (month old half eaten candybars? dirty clothes? hermit crabs collected on a beach months back). I wonder if Kiwis imprison mothers who allow their children to live with beasts in squalor? Someday I’ll have to send you the warning sign Logan and Kennan made for the entrance to their zone, it includes a long and creative list of things one might find in the forecastle. I’m afraid the customs officials may not find it as humorous as we do, especially when they have to start digging through the pile. I hope my next post will not be from an Auckland jail begging you to donate to the Silver Lining Academy Legal Defense Fund.

Wish us luck, xoxomo

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