2019 – Our Plans for the Year

January 1, 2019 – What do we have planned for our cruising aboard Avante this year? If all goes well with boat and its owners, we plan to resume last year’s postponed plans and sail east to French Polynesia. Exciting as this trip will be, The Captain and The First Mate view it with a bit of sadness. It will be the beginning of our returnto the States. We know we ultimately want to do that, for 2 senior citizens cannot keep sailing a boat like Avante across oceans forever.  Eventually, Avante will have to be sold, and the States is where we will get the best value for it. The voyage back could take several years and will be an adventure, and adventure is something we very obviously crave. We’ll explore the islands of French Polynesia again, sail on to Hawaii and then north to Alaska to eventually turn south and sail down the coast.  Is it a challenging plan? Yes! An exciting one? Yes! Full of adventure? Yes! But there is also sadness and melancholy, for we will be leaving the islands of the South Pacific that we have so thoroughly enjoyed for the last 8 years!

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Thus, our plan is to sail with cruising friends, Lyn and John Martin, to the Austral Islands, where we will clear into French Polynesia. That passage will be a 3-week crossing of the Southern Ocean, a nasty piece of water with frequent bouts of high winds and seas. Once there, the exploration begins. First, we’ll cruise the beautiful and seldom visited Austral Islands and then sail onto the Tuamotus and the Marquesas. Just writing these names makes The First Mate edgy with delight and anticipation. On into 2019!

A stature at the harbour entrance in Fatu Hiva, Marquesa Islands, French Polynesia