In fact it's made me a little melancholy for Mexico. The reason I started it before the passage is because we had back burner hopes of making this passage twice as long by heading for Manzanillo instead of for Hilo. We considered it long and hard; even did the food inventory with it in mind (enough meals for two months? Yes!); but it all depended on the southerlies holding, and they didn't. Bob on Taisho departed Nuku Hiva on 10/20 and should still be working his way there, but we were too late to catch any favorable winds for making that passage feasible. We miss our Mexico friends and the great life there, but that will have to wait for another few years. Oh, and if our track looks like we're headed too far to the east for Hawaii, that's because Randy, a Pacific Seafarer's net controller out of Hilo, advises that we'll appreciate all the easting we can get when we get close to the island and those NE trades intensify. I can hardly wait...
It's with a little trepidation that we return to the States (even Hawaii) with the boat. It's one thing to visit for one or two weeks (which I love), but I'm frankly nervous about living there for a few months. It's going to be difficult to avoid the siren calls of fast food, marinas, television, Trader Joe's, cell phone internet (!), laundromats, and shopping malls. Will our budget fall victim to the consumer culture of America? I'm hoping we can remember we're cruisers first, consumers second. Hopefully we can pretend we're just visitors to yet another country and thereby avoid getting sucked back into our old gotta-have-the-latest-gadget lives.
Oh, I doubt it. Just thinking about all the magical possibilities gives me an adrenalin rush. But at least we'll approach it with good intentions!
Linda