What has Milly been up to?

As we float at anchor in Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia, it is time to resume blogging.  There have been plenty blog worthy to write about over the three years since the Ecuador trip but the writer has just felt like a blog break.

Where have we been for the past three years?  There has been one wedding, two births - we now have three gorgeous grandsons - one funeral, very sadly, two trips to Norway to visit Peter's mum with a side trip to England to reunite with cruising buddies, and another to Spain in the company of dear friends, three SailGp events with accompanying local exploration.  Last year we hiked from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, 265 km in 16 days.  We checked out Mexico City - highly recommend - and a mountain village a truck ride away from our Mexican base in Bahía de Banderas.

Tom and Fer's wedding day.  We were so happy to be part of it!

Sammy, born April, 2024.  Completely unexpectedly, I was attended the birth with Gid.  A privilege and an honour!  Although, a little tough hearing the exclamations of pain from my darling daughter.

Vicente/Chente, three weeks old, with proud and adoring parents.

And this little cutie turned four!

We've spent six months of each year enjoying Stony Lake living.  It was overdue for some TLC after a lengthy period of neglect.  Amazing how fast nature can take over.  With YouTube University as our guide, we have rebuilt two of the walls including windows and door in the original cabin with leaning walls, sinking floors and asymmetrical roof lines.  We have constructed a new dock and built a new cabin with loft from a kit.  We've also enjoyed lots of family time, visits from old friends and three separate visits from cruising friends.  We have discovered that we love living at the cottage during the warmer months.  Life is simple and as busy or relaxing as you want it to be.

Our new loft cabin.  Foundation, deck and cabin built by two (previous) city folks.  Took us all summer.

During our time in Mexico, we cruised a little north and a little south along the coast.  We loved being close to Tom and Fer and now Chente and enjoyed seeing Gid, Em, Leo and Sam each year at Gid's family reunion which, thankfully, happened to be close by.  We got to know the Bay very well and had many close encounters with humpback whales.  

The clan in Punta Mita.  Very happy times! We are so darned lucky!!

But much of the time was spent caring for Milly.  Her systems were showing her age after 10 years living aboard and two ocean crossings.  We knew we wanted to continue west at some point so we took the time in Mexico to prepare and stock up on spares.  When we went to Canada with two carry-ons, we returned with two large duffel bags and a sail or two.  We discovered that importing to Mexico is an uncertain and expensive endeavour.  Oversized luggage on a flight is simpler, more timely and much less costly.  

Over the three years we have replaced our watermaker, replaced and increased the length of our anchor chain as well as windlass and gypsy, replaced our main and Genoa sails, replaced all standing rigging, bought a new parasail for downwind, pampered our engines including the generator which wasn't working, replaced water pumps etc. etc. etc.  The list goes on.  Small things and large.  

I spent a lot of time sewing with a new industrial sewing machine.  My mum whose skills and talents as a seamstress I now appreciate as extraordinary, taught me the very basics as a teen.  She believed that, rather than paying a bomb for an art or a craft, she could do it all herself, a notion that in my older age, I have somehow inherited.  It becomes a curse when projects include a 21' long sail cover and two cockpit enclosures, one for shade and one for foul weather.  Our cockpit was often ripe with choice words - sewing in a small space with large pieces of canvas that somehow shrink when hemmed, plastic mesh which stretches and, the very worst, plastic that bends awkwardly and scratches, is patience testing.

We were pretty on top of things in the fall of 2025 when an electrician we had hired to replace our AGM batteries with lithium - a major upgrade we knew to be "a game changer" - called us at the cottage to say we had been indirectly hit by lightning and most of our electronics had failed! We immediately began the process of claiming insurance and when we returned to Mexico a less than adequate surveyor came to inspect.  Based on the surveyor's comments, our insurance adjuster initially judged that the damage was due to poor workmanship of the electrician and so our responsibility.  I went into overdrive to prove our lightning claim.  Even though there was an enormous deductible attached, the ultimate bill was almost triple.  I collected a history of lightning strikes during the period we were away and before the electrician was on board as well as the account of other boats in the marina that had been struck.  Eventually, the claim was okayed.  Thank goodness! 

In the new year, the boat was hauled out, bottom painted, engines mounts replaced and realigned - huge messy job - through hulls inspected and one replaced, vulnerable bolts replaced and others de-rusted.   Life raft re-certified, fire extinguishers recharged, propane tanks topped up.  

It is recommended that provisioning cover the passage plus two months of island hopping in the Marquesas and the Tuomotus. Overwhelming! I parboiled and froze veg and berries, stocked up on nuts, beer and nonalcoholic beer, sparkling water, UHT milk, all sorts of cans and bottled products, toilet paper, paper towels, crackers, cheese etc. etc.  Multiple trips with Tom's truck to various supermacados.  Buying was only part of the job.  Then there was storing.  Our port forward berth became a table for drinks under the mattress.  Bins under the settee were full to overflowing.  The pantry was packed, the new once built-in oven space proved to be a perfect place for grains, nuts, dried beans, seeds etc.  

Oh and lots of diesel.  We have never carried so much.  And a good thing we did - foreshadowing for the passage blog.

Finally, came clearing out of Mexico.  We have cleared out of many countries over our 11 years on board.  Only Brazil ranks as complicated and onerous as Mexico.  Multiple forms, copies galore, contrary directions of where to go and who to speak with (in Spanish).  Several days of running around, paying fees and trying to be polite and charming rather than irritable with eyes rolling was exhausting.  Finally, they made an appointment to inspect the boat after which we were not allowed to get off the boat onto the dock and had to leave immediately.  Six people in uniform came to the boat!  One in army camo opened cupboards and asked if we had drugs, ammo, fire arms or nicotine??  The remaining filled out forms with Peter.  

Boater to be.  What else?

And then we left!  It goes without saying that we were, oh so sad to leave Tom, Fer and Chente.  But it felt very good to be off the dock and on our way to a new adventure.

The last day hanging out with the little fam, just before we left.  Fun and games!