Countdown...Delayed

Well, it's a bit of a letdown, but: 1) Alisa did burn the passage cookies; and 2) tomorrow (the day we would leave) is a Friday, and we've never left anywhere on a Friday; and 3) the forecasts are showing some headwinds a few days into the trip.  They're quite light headwinds, but we have a three-year-old who vomits when the wind is forward of the beam, so we're quite happy to use our ability to be picky and have decided to hold off on leaving for Tonga.  The next opportunity looks to be about a week out.

Meanwhile, after all the carryings-on in Australian politics yesterday, non-edgy En Zed is looking pretty fine.

The scene belowdecks.

And the scene abovedecks.

A Great Place to Live, But I Wouldn't Want to Visit There

Lately Alisa has been saying things like, "I don't feel the need to come back to New Zealand.  Maybe we should go to Micronesia for the cyclone season."

So stay tuned to see how that turns out.

It's a funny thing how we see En Zed.  I'll be careful here, as some of our very bestest friends began life as Kiwis (that would be you, Enki, and you, Akimbo).  Being American, I know how it is to listen to other people's opinions about your country - they (the opinions) always sound so incompletely informed.  And I am very aware of what a skewed and incomplete experience we've had of this nation.

But, well... this is one very tame place.  Nothing edgy about the whole country, as far as I can see, and aside from the saving grace of it being Polynesian, nothing particularly exotic.  What it does have is the friendliest, most hospitable people I have ever met.  Take that, and the aforementioned lack of edginess, and I could see us very happily living here in some later point in our lives.  But as a place to travel to...I think I'd recommend giving Alaska a try first.

The good news for the international Kiwi brand is that when I've tentatively tried explaining to the folks back in America that New Zealand hasn't completely taken our breath away, they've reacted as if I admitted to something a bit disgraceful.  From what I can see, New Zealand is still a shining symbol of...something...in Americans' eyes.

~~~

Meanwhile, we've just checked the weather and agreed that we can't see any reason to hang around, bad mouthing the place.  So we're on the final countdown - Alisa even cleaned up our plastic portlights today, opining that being able to see out of them will make the motion down below easier to take.

Before

After

Six

Today's our anniversary - we sailed away from Kodiak on June 24, 2007.

It's been one big, stinking adventure ever since.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013