TODAY'S THE DAY

Today is the day. We're cutting the dock lines and departing the safety of what we know for the adventures of the unknown en route to, and once we get to, the South Pacific.    We hope to make landfall on the island of Hiva Oa, which is part of the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, in approximately 21 days after 2700 miles of sea, sea, and more sea. We'll be joining a group of about ten boats departing today making the same passage.  It's nice to know we'll have company out there and we'll all be checking in with each other twice daily to get updates on location and anything else that anyone wants to share.

I'll write more later today too, but must get to the last minute Departure Day items before we pull out:  Take out the garbage; top up our water tanks; top up the fuel tanks; stow shoe bin (21 days without wearing shoes - weird!); stow remaining items in cockpit and salon; add VHF radios to our ditch bags; finish charging all electronics; tie on jack lines (these are the lines that run along the boat to which we tether ourselves if we need to go on deck to check sails, watch dolphins, or anything else); check out of the marina.

We also hope to be posting blogs at least every other day along the way.

-Barb in La Cruz for only a few more short hours

P.S. So sorry to Carla, Ken, Eric, Ian and Alexis, who are arriving tomorrow (!) - we considered waiting another couple of days so that we could see you, but realized that it is most prudent to take advantage of this weather window as we keep an eye on the five day forecast.  We know you'll have fun in Banderas Bay - it's awesome! But we sure will miss seeing you.