Information and Itinerary

I just returned from a visit with family and friends in the Midwest. It's the only trip I had planed for the year and it went by quickly and with much success. I had the chance to catch up with family members that I hadn't seen in years. And of course there was an unending list of questions that I said I would try to answer here in our blog... wish me luck :)

Our itinerary is still quiet loose, but to give you some idea of where we will be and when, here goes... We will be departing the Bay Area in the beginning of January 2011. We don't have a set date because it all depends on the weather. From here we'll head south along the coast. Even if the weather isn't terrible, it will still be cold so we plan on heading straight for San Diego. Once we arrive we hope to meet up with family and friends and spend about a week visiting.

Then we'll sail onward into Mexico- clear through immigration and customs in Ensenada and cruise the Baja Peninsula. Krister plans on hitting all the best surf spots while we continue south. We don't have definite stopping points yet, but we do plan to make the most of our travel guides and to meet up with whomever flies down to meet and visit with us.

We'll continue south until the land turns east- around Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, at which point we'll provision the boat and head west. Hurricane season dictates our departure. The South Pacific storm season usually last from late November through mid March. So we'll try to avoid storms and stay in Mexico through April.

After leaving Mexico in April 2011, we'll be on the longest open water passage of our trip; out of sight of land and on our own for four to five weeks crossing the Pacific. Our first landfall will be the Marquesas in French Polynesia. After checking in we'll have a 90 day Visa to visit the islands. We'll island hop through much of the South Pacific, snorkeling, surfing and hiking until the storm season comes around again.

In September of 2011 we'll sail south to New Zealand for the winter and stay for the season. The four month down time may be spent making repairs and improvements on the boat, traveling inland, or trying to earn a bit of cash.

After so many months we'll begin to make our way home in April of 2012. From New Zealand we'll sail north, back through the islands and onward to Hawaii. We're hoping that during the trip we'll have time to consider what we really want, where we really want to live and such, so that we have a plan in place when we return. As for now, we think we'll be back somewhere on the west coast of the U.S sometime in the Fall of 2012.

It just occurred to me that this is the first blog entry with no pictures. So sorry. But I promise there will be some next time. Krister and I are having the boat hauled out for a bottom job tomorrow. We'll have her cleaned, painted and back in the water by next week.

For those of you who are still a bit uncertain of the sea worthiness of Britannia, or would just like more information on our boat, Krister found these great reviews on line.

http://www.closereach.com/csoa/sailingtodaycs36.pdf

http://www.closereach.com/csoa/cs36trev.pdf

Enjoy!