My brother John is again off on his round the world galavants. This time he’s stationed in Puerto Vallarta Mexico helping get a 46 foot Beneteau sailboat ready to ship off sometime this month for the South Pacific. They are going to head south west from PV with their first stop at the amazing Marquesas (in the middle of nowhere). This small group of islands are among the most remote on the planet – with their nearest continental land fall being Mexico about 3000 miles away!
With a full on collection of equipment for accessing the Internet through Sattelite we can look for daily updates from the “big pond”. Internet in this part of the world is certainly not cheap. They are using and Iridium phone an Inmarsat BGAN Wideye to remain in contact with the rest of the world during their sails.
And getting more than they bargained for, they’ve been motoring outside of the bay all day today waiting out the strong surges from the terrible Tsunami in Japan that keeps inundating the harbor where their boat was originally moored.
I’ve started reading “The Boy Behind the Gate”, Larry Jacobson’s stories of this same trip but longer – as in six-years! You quickly start to pick up the sailing terms, Society of Shellbacks (those sailors who cross the equator in the ocean), Puddle Jumpers, Buddy Boaters etc. There is *a lot* of freedom in this type of travel!
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