S/V L'ORIENT

View above Musket Cove.....not bad ! We never telegraph our visits to the USA before we leave the boat because it's a "rookie cruising mistake" to tell the world there's nobody on your boat for 5 straight weeks. Things like electronics, outboards, money, and other important items tend to disappear. It was probably an unnecessary precaution in Fiji; these people are like super friendly help-bots. Weird how uniformly happy, helpful, and cheerful they are. Being from Wisconsin, Kirstin feels like she's at home. Being from New Jersey, it makes me feel like there's someone behind me with a gun. Family reunion at a Naples eatery Nevertheless, our visits to San Francisco, Miami, Naples, Chicago, Omro, the Wisconsin Dells, Nashville and Los Angeles were uniformly wonderful, albeit expensive. Friends, family, our beloved Grand-kitty and Grand-puppy were snuggled and lavished with attention. And wow, did we shop up a storm. I didn't actually have any shirts without ...

Sailing under the rare double rainbow.....and on to Fiji I'm generally a bit slow to wake up; there is that "reboot moment" where for a split second, you don't know where you are. If you add the fact that before she was my wife, Kirstin was a work colleague- you have a perfect recipe for confusion. "What am I doing in Fiji with Kirstin?" Don't worry, it passes quickly. I'm aware that if I end up with dementia, all of my moments will be reboot moments. Ah, the sailing life. Upscale, swanky Fiji......a bit like Australia's Hawaii If the flavor of the day is confusion, Fiji adds to it. Here at Port Denarau (L'ORIENT's home for the next two months), I'm not sure what I thought Fiji would look like, but it's not this. Beautiful houses on the bay, high end restaurants aplenty, golf, tennis- this is some weird combination of Hawaii and Florida. It's wonderful. And the people we've encountered are falling all over themselves to he...

Robert Lewis Stevenson's last home Has anyone seen April 23rd? We kind of missed it this year. The 85 mile sail between American Samoa and Samoa went off without a hitch, and we arrived outside of the bay in Apia on schedule at 9:00 AM (the official and oddly late opening time of the Apia Port). 9:00 AM on the 24th despite leaving on the 22nd. Even at our slowest, it doesn't take us two full days to go 85 miles. We had crossed the International Date Line. As instructed, we called in to the Apia Port Control on our VHF in order to get clearance to enter the bay. L'ORIENT- "Apia Port Control, Apia Port Control, L'ORIENT, L'ORIENT" Apia Port Control- sound of crickets Over and over and over and over we attempted to call them, 9:00, 9:10, 9:20, 9:30, 9:40. Nothing (to the 5th power). We started to worry that something besides the date was amiss. Finally we used the cellphone and reached a clerk twice removed and ended up after two attempts to speak with someon...