I would never have described cruising as relaxing. There are relaxing days, even relaxing weeks, but overall the words that spring to mind when I think of my life cruising are words like exciting, overwhelming, and intense rather than words like relaxing, mellow and comforting.

So, it is with some surprise that after 5 months of traveling by plane, car and other people’s boats, I am finding living on my boat, in a dusty boat yard, in Fiji’s tropical heat to be a relief. Tension that I didn’t know was there is seeping out of me. Apparently, even for someone traveling full time, traveling without my “snail shell” is tiring.

I am home. My home is a mess and she isn’t her finest as a living space while buried in a keel pit, but still, I am home.

We had so many cool experiences, of such variation in type, over the last 5 months that I still find myself sifting through the memories and trying to fit them together into a coherent narrative.

We had our two months living in a tree house on a private island in Tonga, kiteboarding ourselves silly and playing with other people’s dogs.

We had two months vagabonding around New Zealand. During that time, we were hosted by three cruising friends. Luckness showed us the Bay of Islands. Nomad showed us Great Barrier Island and part of South Island.  Dream Time showed us Waiheke. We also were able to visit with the crews of Nyon, Bravo and Celestial.

We traveled by bus, by rental car, in our friends’ van, hitch hiking, by ferry and we slept more than half of those two months in our trusty tent which finally fell apart and was left in NZ. We rock climbed on both North and South Island and my oh my it felt so good to be back on the rock.

Then I went to see my family whom I missed dearly, two childhood friends, and ran out of time, and frankly energy, to manage to see anyone else.

So now I’m back and somehow returning to the boat makes me feel like writing again. We are taking the day off of boat projects today. We’ve had a great run of ticking projects off the list. It’s been a very productive haul out and we expect to spend another week in the pit, a week on the stands and put Estrellita back in the water by the end of the month.

FIJI – here we come!

We still love Bora after a second visit. Overwhelmed by tourists? Yes. But it is also incredibly beautiful and we keep meeting such nice and generous people each time we visit. If you stop in Bora, use the Bora Laverie for your wash and take some time to chat with the owner. We didn’t have much time to play while we were here this visit.

Our plan is to apply for a long stay visa for French Polynesia which must be done in our home country. We leave the boat on the hard in French Polynesia and fly back to Seattle in early December where we will apply for the visa in Vancouver. The visa should allow us to stay in French Polynesia as long as we want, which we currently are guessing is about 1.5 years after our return flight in April. More on that application process after it is completed.

We spent over a week in Bora Bora getting our legs back under us after our passage from the Cook Islands back to French Polynesia. We needed to refill the boat with propane, gas, diesel, water, and fresh food. We also scurried around making reservations, booking tickets and arranging all of the things we needed arranged to leave our boat on the hard and fly out. We had avoided making any of those plans because, as mentioned previously, we weren’t 100% sure we would make it back.

We’re also looking forward to seeing our families and friends and all of the things we’ve missed about N American cities like sitting at coffee shops and going to the movies. Lastly, we’ll buy all of the crap we think we need for the boat and haul it back in our luggage.

I still can’t believe we’ll be visiting in winter.

If you know of any fun events or opportunities, suitable for two cruisers who just bought plane tickets from French Polynesia to SeaTac (that means poor), send us an email (s.v.estrellita@gmail.com). We’ll be in and out of the Seattle-Vancouver area with possible side trips to Quebec and, if we can find miles tickets or similar, Colorado.

On the ocean in four separate countries, over the course of 21 months, I have spent many days, shed not a few tears and swallowed my fair share of salt water in order to learn to ride back and forth on a kiteboard.

Kiting was not easy for me to learn and I have never struggled so hard and persevered for so long just to master the most basic of skills in a sport. I have learned and enjoyed sports that I initially feared (climbing and heights) and even though kiting was a bit frightening at first I didn’t expect to struggle with my fear for so long. I have learned physical activities that I had absolutely no background in (swing dancing) and so I didn’t expect my lack of board sports background to pose such a challenge.

In short, I didn’t expect to spend so long sucking. Just being able to ride back and forth, stay upwind, and make 50% of my turns is a sweet, long sought after thrill.

Kiting is one of those sports where you can spend a long time in the learning process without actually “doing it”. First you learn to fly the kite on the beach. Then you take the kite in the water and let it drag your body around. Then you take the board and the kite into the water and use the power of the kite to come out of the water and ride across the top of it. Until I was able to ride back and forth, I didn’t feel like I was actually kiteboarding or that I was a real kiteboarder.

A friend was joking that Carol and I were “rad” kiteboarders and I explained that although you might call me “brave” or “persistent”, I certainly hadn’t reached “rad” yet.

In other sports, you may suck, but at least you are actually engaging in the sport from the start. When I learned to climb, I could climb easy routes on the first day. The first day that I tried snowboarding, although I sucked, I was at least standing on top of the board (mostly) and sliding down a mountain. Even though I was not good, I was doing it. I first flew a kiteboarding kite in Bahrain in 2010. I didn’t kite again until July 2011 when I took lessons in San Francisco. I didn’t learn to stand up on the kiteboard until my third country, Mexico, where I spent several days a week for three weeks trying to do so. I wasn’t able to ride back and forth consistently until Bora Bora despite a week on the water in the Tuamotus and I just learned to stay upwind in Maupiti.

Why did I push through and stick with it? Even early on when I was afraid, I had glimpses of  the thrill of it and I knew how much I would enjoy it after it clicked. Particularly now when we are gliding across clear water, startling sting rays underneath our boards, and I have enough extra brain cells to ride, fly the kite AND watch the stunning scenery pass by. Plus, I need a sport I can do with the boat, with my husband who has been my activity partner since we met, and which gives me that wonderful exhausted, soaked in the outdoors feeling.

I need another week on the water and then I plan to start eating salt water on a daily basis again…but this time because I’m learning how to jump. ((Our kite beach, near our boat, below))

A big kudos to my fantastic husband who has spent this entire learning process as my “support and gear” team, doing whatever he could possibly do to make it possible for me to focus on learning to ride. He took over gear prep, gear put away, rescued me numerous times in the dinghy when I drifted too far away, and generally is the reason I was able to keep at it for long enough to get it.

These are mostly from our trip down the outside – documenting how the temperature and water gradually changed as we headed from Tofino to Cabo San Lucas.

First kiteboarding (in wetsuits): San Francisco (California)

First place Carol dove off of the boat before coffee: Catalina Island (California)

First foreign port:  Ensenada, Mexico. Because Livia is American, the US doesn’t count.

First sail off and onto anchor: From one side of the bay in San Quintin (Pacific side of Baja) to the other (hey – it counts). We’ve sailed off before and sailed on before, but never both in one run.

First “tropical” fish catch: Bonito – on passage to Bahia Tortugas (Pacific side of Baja)

Livia threw away her tattered fleece lined mittens: Bahia Tortugas

First passage where Livia did not wear a hat on night watch: On passage to Bahia Santa Maria (Pacific side of Baja)

First Dorado (a.k.a. Mahi Mahi): On passage to Bahia Santa Maria

First shirtless/bikini sailing day: On passage to Cabo San Lucas (Southern tip of Baja)

First time we thought “holy crap we need to finish installing those extra fans”: On passage to Cabo San Lucas

First place where we kayaked to a snorkel spot and snorkeled: Cabo San Lucas

Livia’s first free dive attempts: Cabo San Lucas

First margaritas at a beach bar (which we kayaked to): Cabo San Lucas

First time we realized that WE are that boat anchored in front of the tropical vacation spot: Cabo San Lucas

Where would I have spent more time and where would I have spent less time if I had one Spring/Summer in BC?

The answer for Livia depends on the weather”

In a sunny summer year I would have spent my time basically as we spent it, a short early visit to the Gulf Islands, a medium amount of early season time in Desolation Sound before it is overrun, a quick trip to the Haida Gwaii primarily to visit SGaang Gwaii, and then a long visit on the outside of Vancouver Island.

However, what we had in 2011 was a rainy summer. When the weather is crappy in BC it is usually nicer on the inside of Vancouver Island than outside and nicer in the South than in the North. So I would have spent more time in the Gulf Islands where it would hopefully be drier and warmer until the crowds drove me out, and more time in Desolation even with the crowds. I probably would have chosen to visit the Broughtons (which we skipped) when Desolation became too full. I would still consider the long trip the Haida Gwaii to see SGaang Gwaii even though overall I was not enthralled. I would have spent the end of the summer, when it was hopefully warm, on the outside of Vancouver Island.

Carol answers the same question:

If you have seen the Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands, I would get as quickly as possible to Princess Louisa Inlet and Desolation Sound – doing those areas early. Then make your way to the West Coast of Vancouver Island and spend the rest of your time there, skipping the Haidi Gwaii which takes a lot of time to get to. If you haven’t seen the Gulf/San Juan Islands it is definitely worth stopping, particularly in the Gulf Islands.

Carol’s favorite spots in the Gulf Islands are: Portland Island and nearby Russell Island, the NW side of the anchorage in Montague, the town of Ganges, and Wallace Island.

I agree and also enjoyed the space between Tumbo and Cabbage Islands.

Hover over the photo for the location:

You may have read blogs that showed you THIS picture from cruisers transiting San Diego.

Or a variation on THIS picture:

But how many show you THIS picture – oooh la la!

I could tell you how our time was at Mission Bay, but how much more fun would it be to read about us on our friends’ blog (Bella Star on left) and see their photos of us and their perspective for a change?

The anchorage is about half full of mooring balls but there is still a lot of room to anchor.