Voyage North Update, and Practice

Hello from the Pacific Ocean! I thought I would send a quick blog update to practice using our Single Sideband (SSB) Radio emailing and updating capability. We cant post images, but hopefully this text update will work!'

We are currently 12.5 miles off the coast of Mexico, approaching Manzanillo after leaving Zihuatanejo 23 hours ago. (technically we're at 18 degrees 22 minutes North Latitude, and 103 degrees 47 minutes West Longitude - for Grandpa Carl) We had a great quick visit from my younger brother Andreas and his fiancee! (a 24 hour old engagement)We love having family on board and getting to share a little bit of this life with them. We got some quality beach time in, Andreas and I stood up on the same wave surfing, and all importantly, we got to enjoy some fabulous rum drinks together at sunset - a Family Circus favorite for the adults.

We had been pretty stationary for about a month, so we are getting used to old routines , that are pretty weather dependent. We had a decent first 12 hours but they were pretty bumpy as we were heading in a direction that the waves, and light wind didn't want us to go. The seas have flattened out today but the wind is still super light, and in the wrong direction, so we are a very sexy motorboat for the moment. Unfortunately our starboard engine has a pretty serious oil leak that makes it only useful for docking and emergency use, so we are hoping our fuel in our port engine tanks gets us where we need to go. Worst case we could take another shot at repairing the leak, or switching the oil pipes from the port to starboard engine- but all that would require us either sailing, or bobbing for an extended period of time- we should be OK and will know it the next 30 hours.

We've decided to head back to La Cruz/Puerto Vallarta for a final few weeks of preparation before we head off across the Pacific. We will probably try and get up there as quickly as possible (maybe motoring three days straight) to avoid some weather forecasted for tomorrow night that would make it super uncomfortable. Worst case, we can pull in to a number of anchorages along the way and hang out if we needed to.

The crew seems to be doing well. Tristan and I just finished another game of Stratego, Heather is beading after she cooked two nights' worth of dinners, Mykaela is lounging after standing watch, Lexi and Lina are watching movies and listening to music, and much to no one's surprise, Amaia is reading! Its a bit too rolly to read or study too much, so homeschooling is taking a break, though I might try one or two subjects in an hour or so. The boat really is quite comfortable and we have lots of stuff to do- its just adjusting to the motion that is still taking time, and on our crossing, we are expecting the first two to three days to be the worst from a seasickness perspective.

After catching and releasing two skipjack tuna last night, the fishing has been quiet, except for a big bite this morning that kicked free before we could set the hook. Definitely wasn't a skipjack! At least some flying fish are wizzing around and a pod of dolphins came to hang out with us for a while- a sight that never gets old.

So all in all- life is really good. We miss our friends and family a lot, but are excited to be continuing the adventure, and taking on a new, big chapter shortly. Hope you are all doing really well! Keep the notes coming! CHRIS

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