Leaving Mexico

Our time remaining in Mexico is coming to a close, sniff! We sure have loved it, but it's time to head out on new adventures. We have our final checkout inspection with Customs scheduled for 9:00 this morning, then we are off to Hawaii! Winds aren't shaping up for a fast passage, but we will have plenty of food.

The to do list is mostly crossed off, so we are feeling pretty ready, some final stowing so we are ready for sea and then it will be good enough. A week ago, we left La Cruz for the Marina in Puerto Vallarta in order to be closer to provisioning stores, and be away from the distractions of La Cruz, We have been able to get a lot of work done while still having time to do some exploring in Puerto Vallarta. Old town is great, as is the Zona Romantica and we've had some really good, shrimp heavy meals.

Riki Tiki Tavi came down from La Cruz for a last good visit and to see us off. It's been wonderful to be with them, our families have become very, very close. But we are starting to experience that terrible part of cruising, saying goodbye to dear friends. Odin is bereft about saying goodbye to Neli and Liam. He was totally exhausted night before last which certainly compounded things, but he basically cried himself to sleep. I rubbed his back until he fell asleep for the first time since he was a toddler. Tough, tough, tough!

But, we are excited about the passage, and excited about Hawaii. We have two newly minted swimmers that will be ready for snorkeling when we get there! Can't wait for some family snorkel time! They also have been able to try out boogie boarding, so I think that once we get to Hawaii, Yare will be sporting a couple of new boards for lots of beach play.

The passage is about 2800 miles and given that winds aren't shaping up for a fast passage, we are guessing it'll take us close to 4 weeks to get there. We have plenty of food, and I hope reading material! I plan to post to the blog from our satellite phone daily with a short update of our position and progress towards our goal, plus anything else that seems noteworthy :).

I hope to have time to catch up on the blog while we are at sea, we've had a wonderful time in and around Banderas Bay since we last posted. But I haven't even had time to download photos from the camera, let alone blog over the last month.

We're off!