Giving Thanks

While all of you Americano's sit down to feast on some gobble, Nicole and I peer at the calendar and realize it's our 2-year anniversary since sailing away under the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco. The synchronicity of it also being Turkey Day here in PNG, we dive into the bowels of our little freezer and pull out some Scotch Filet steaks from Vanuatu, our last of the treasured organic top grade beef we still have onboard DK. Accompanied by some sweet potatoes and some fresh greens, tonight we will have our own type of special meal to celebrate the big events.

It's been 2 years and roughly 14,600 nautical miles since we slipped out of Pelican Harbor and headed south to Monterey Bay. Looking back on it all, it seems like yesterday, and at the same time it seems like a decade. It's amazing how much our confidence has grown, how much better we know our boat, and how much more we trust ourselves to be able to deal with almost any situation that comes up. We have certainly slowed way down and most of the time we have learned to become more patient and flexible. Sometimes we still struggle with the patience piece, not sure if we will ever make peace with that one.

In the last 2 years, we've traveled to 11 different countries and we're on our way to number 12. We have counted 64 different islands we have anchored at since leaving Mexico; countless more we have visited. We've sailed along with humpback whales, gray whales, false killer whales, pilot whales, spinner dolphins, pan-tropical spotted dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. We've eaten abundantly from the sea: crayfish, crab, mahi mahi, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, and reef fish. We've spent time and shared stories with so many great local people, as well as the hundreds of yachties we have met from all over the world.

We realize we are fortunate to have this life and yet we have chosen it and made it happen. We are the first to admit it is not always easy, and sometimes it just plain sucks. Sometimes we feel very disconnected from our families and our close friends. We sometimes dream of having a little piece of land, a little house, a big garden, and access to beautiful open spaces where we can walk and run and ride our bikes. These are all the things we have given up to be where we are now.

It's been 2 years and we are finally almost out of the Pacific Ocean. We have been through Polynesia and Melanesia, and we are on our way to Micronesia. Then, in April of 2009, it will be completely new worlds, new cultures, new languages, and new religions when we sail into the islands of Indonesia. We are not even half way around the world, but we are almost half way done with our journey. That means the next 2+ years we have some serious miles to put under our keel. Palau will be our last extended "rest stop" of over 2 months. Right now we are looking forward to that rest.

So today we give thanks that the dream has taken us this far already and is still going strong. We celebrate our health, our boat and home DK, all the people who have welcomed us into their homes, and our friends and family that have believed in us.