S/V Adventurer

There is one simple fact that every boater knows. Boats need work. Sometimes it's a lot of work and sometimes it's just general maintenance, but either way, they need work. Our boat is no different. During our 3 months of sailing through the San Juan Islands this past summer, we had the usual doo-dads and gizmos that needed tweaking. Most of the time I could do some quick boat Yoga (contorting into tiny compartments) and either twist a wrench or swap a part and then we were good to go. Brenda tells me that I'm pretty handy to have around, and I have to admit, I am. I am pretty good at fixing junk. You have to be when you own a 30 year old piece of junk...I mean a 30 year old boat. But sometimes there are things that pop up that even my handy skills can't fix. During our 3 months of sailing this past summer, 2 big things reared their ugly heads. First, our diesel tank started leaking into the engine room. It wasn't a fire hose type of leak, it was m...

If you have been following along on our adventure, then you probably know we just spent a little over 6 weeks sailing a boat across the mighty South Pacific. We had planned on a much longer trip with lots more islands explored, but an emergent situation forced us to abandon ship and hop on a plane home. I guess 6 weeks of South Pacific exploration isn't something we should be sad about, but we really had hoped to spend a couple more months roaming around seeing the sites. Oh well. So here we are. We are back in the good ol' U-S-of-A. There is nothing that says USA better than just stopping by a grocery store and seeing all that is available to us. Want 62 different types of cookies on one aisle? We got it and yes I counted. How about a whole aisle devoted to just soda pop? We got that too. Want something deep fried? You guessed it, we can get anything we want deep fried in oil and what do you know, it tastes great. Wanna know what else? We can drink the wat...

Well, we've made it to Majuro in the Marshall Islands which means we are on the home stretch. We unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time in Kiribati as we felt like we wanted, but that's the way things go sometimes. After a day in Majuro, we feel like we are ready to move on. We've explored the entire atoll (it's tiny) and had hoped to do some diving and exploring of the outer islands but the weather isn't cooperating for any of that. The seas are raging and thunderstorms and rain squalls and high winds are making traveling to the outer islands and atolls not something that is feasible. So now, we are sitting in a resort where we await for a plane ride to the States, of which there just happens to be a flight tomorrow (there is only one a week). Majuro is a place that we are glad we have seen but we are even more glad to be leaving. It doesn't have the friendly and welcoming feel of the last few countries we've visited. People seem...

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. If you are at the equator, it's gonna be hot. That may seem like not much of a secret, but it's something that I don't think I was exactly prepared for. Especially since I am a white boy who grew up in the cooler climate of Seattle. Being that I'm a white boy, you can only guess how red my normally white self gets with a little exposure to the equatorial sun. The other thing that I was not prepared for that goes along with the heat and sun near the equator, is how much it is humanly possible to sweat. I called that massive amount of sweating a glistening, but Brenda called it a hot mess. Whatever you want to call it, we have been pretty disgusting. We have been dripping, literally dripping, from every square inch of skin. I didn't know my shins could sweat, or my ears, or my elbows, but surprisingly, they all can...profusely. Yep, we've definitely been a couple of hot messes. We are currently ...

There are lots of ways to tell boys apart from girls, but the only scientific way that I know of is to watch how someone pees. Girls sit and boys stand. You can trust me, it's science. It's one of the many reasons why boys have it easier than girls in this world. When walking through the woods, there is a tree every other step that is a natural bathroom for boys, boys can write their name in the snow while peeing, and boys get to melt ice in the urinals at finer bars and taverns all over 'Merica. I don't know that girls have any of those luxuries. And boys, if you think you have it tougher than girls, try pushing a watermelon out your man parts and then talk to me later about how easy that was. I'm telling you about this well known fact because we were just out to sea in the mighty Pacific and it's been rough. We've been pummeled by monster waves and strong winds that have had the boat rocking and rolling and had us struggling to stand upright. ...