Adios Amigos!

(Received on 3.12.10)
Today's our last day in our lovely paradise village marina. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and although we've been quite busy provisioning and preparing for our trip we've had a bit of time to relax as well.




Not only have we enjoyed the comfort of Paradise Village but the people we have met here have been very good to us. We are by far the youngest cruisers on the dock and a few couples have tried to take us under their wing, it’s really nice and informational although at times Lou gets frustrated with the constant advise. A guy named Steve helped Louie install our HF radio, very exciting because now way out there in the big blue we will be able to listen in on weather facts and other boats around, even out of sight. A couple we plan to leave within a day of and meet in islands all the way back to Aus are Sherry & Gordon, who have also helped us immensely with information and some supplies. We are also going to set up a time every day or every other day to check in with each other on this HF radio, they will most likely end up a day or so ahead of us so they can tell us what weather we will be heading in to! They had us on their beautiful 52 foot boat for dinner last night and tonight we are going to see Alice in Wonderland w/them in 3D (or as they call it here in Mexico "Alicia en el pais de las maravillas").

Once we leave here (hopefully tomorrow Sat morning) we’ll head over to La Cruz which is just north of us and fill up on fuel and head out to the end of this massive Banderas bay at to Point Punto Mita for a night before we head out to sea. It’s a rolly anchorage and should help us get a feel for the motion of the boat again. So after a night there (hopefully Sunday) we’ll take off for our 25-35 days without land.



When we leave Punta Mita it will be about 250 miles before we get to the tradewinds which will take us nearly 3 days. The tradewinds will take us most of the way to French Polynesia following the northern trades until around 128 degrees west and approximately 5 degrees north. From here we pretty much head straight south through the ITCZ and equator until we arrive in the southern trade winds. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the area encircling the earth near the equator where winds originating in the northern and southern hemispheres come together. This area can be unpredictable, the seas could be confused and it's well known for thunderstorms, or it could be dead calm with no wind for a couple of days, although we don't have a whole lot of fuel I'd hope for calm before crazy! Once in the southern trade winds we resume our course heading for the bay called Altona on the island of Hiva oa in the Marquesas. I can only imagine what it will be like to spot land again!!!!?? You can keep an eye on our weather on the website we have been using to keep watch of it... it's really great because you can even animate the page! Plus it shows the ITCZ as well... it is a very obvious usually white line across the middle when looking at the right screen, you can also tell where it is by the direction of the wind. http://www.passageweather.com/

This should be our last letter until the South Pacific but as soon as we arrive we will try to touch base with everyone, but don't stress too much it may take time for us to find internet again! It will be an exciting journey and I look forward to sharing it with you when we arrive!

Much love from Louie & Alicia

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo