San Diego, California

It's almost four weeks now since my surgery and I'm almost back to normal and we are looking forward to going back to New Zealand next week and getting started on this years cruising season. This last month has been very quiet and I have been able to do quite a bit of reading. I never had the opportunity to watch daytime TV before and it is mostly quite apalling. I can tell you that I really don't like Joy Behar and her pals. I have also been looking over my logs for last year and I have compiled some stats from the last season. October 26 2009-November 7 2011

• Days cruising 378, I spent 376 days on the boat and the Admiral 266 days.


• Total distance covered 11,234 nautical miles. Under power approximately 3000 nautical miles Under sail 8,234 nautical miles.


• Days at anchor or mooring 192 Days at sea 144 (part of one day counts as a full day) Days in a marina 42.


• Countries visited 9, Islands visited 28.


• Maximum wind at anchor 45 kts. Maximum wind at sea 50 kts.


• Biggest wave 20 feet.


• Fastest sustained boat speed 10.5 kts


• Diesel fuel used 2245 liters or 590 US gallon or 498 Imperial gallons.


• Engine time 607 hours Gen set time 690 hours


• Major engine failures 2 ( I hate Volvos)


• Lightening strikes 1 Groundings 2


• Biggest fish a 55 pound 60 inch Wahoo caught on a cedar plug. (Mexico)


• New experiences Too numerous to count


• Hours spent doing surgery 0


• Number of phone calls from patients 0


• Days wearing socks, long trousers or shirts with a collar 0 Haircuts 2 (under duress)


• Gallons of red wine and beer consumed too difficult to calculate


• Air miles flown by the Admiral 55,265

San Diego, California

The Admiral and I are in San Diego, where I am recovering from some elective surgery on me. I can tell you that it was a humbling experience and that it is much better to be on the giving end of sharp instruments than the receiving end. All went well and prognosis is good and we look forward to resuming our cruising activities in May of this year. We should be back in New Zealand at the beginning of April and Callisto will get a haul out and bottom paint and some electronics and engine work.
We plan on leaving for Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in early May. There will be crew opportunities on the trip to Oz from New Caledonia in October