When we left Seattle three and a half years ago we knew that at the end of our second or third year we would need to make a work stop. Our plan has always been to stop in New Zealand, and when we were in Bora Bora I made a few inquiries with some tech recruiters about work in New Zealand. The response was positive with plenty of work available, and when I started researching pay scales the reason became obvious. As one recruiter told me, “you don’t come to New Zealand to make money – you come for a lifestyle”. Hmmmm. Even with a reduced cost of living, there would be little in the bank at the end of two years.
So we’ve decided to make our work stop back at home. It’s a long uphill schlepp back into Puget Sound, but worth the trip we think. We’ll get as far as the Marshall Islands now to get out of cyclone season here in the south pacific. Then in the spring after the winter storms in the north pacific settle down, we’ll head up towards the Pacific Northwest. A stop in Hawaii would have been nice, but the requirements for rabies prevention are different than in New Zealand, so we can’t keep Maya out of quarantine there. We know three boats wintering there this year and it would have been nice to join them, but no go.
Sunday we’ll drop our buoy and head north again. We’ve got 1,700 miles to travel to Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. We have to pass through the South Pacific Convergence Zone, where the southeast trades bump into the equatorial easterlies, causing areas of significant convection (squalls with lightning and thunder). The passage consists of an area of about 1,000 miles with little to no wind, until we punch through into the northeast trades in the northern hemisphere. What we’re trying to do is get up there before the winter westerlies fill in, which would give us headwinds into Majuro.
That leaves us with lots and lots of good-byes to make before we leave here. Many of the friends we made in the last three years are either heading south to New Zealand or Australia, or hunkering down here in Tonga or Fiji for cyclone season. It’s hard to say goodbye to so many people and not get to sail to New Zealand like we had always planned. But a lot of things have changed in the last three years, and economically not for the better, so it’s really best we change plans and head home for a couple of years. But like Rob says, we’ll be the only cruising boat in Seattle that’s ready to go, and we can leave again whenever we want. Hopefully it’s not too long before we go again.
Teresa
The boat is here
