Captain’s Blog: Start of 2018 Season

Jan 16,

Hi All,

Well….as the saying goes…..”We’re BACK”!!!!!

We came back from USA on Jan 2 arriving here in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia on Thursday Jan 4 around noon time….about a 25 hour trek door to door…..we crossed the dateline so lost a day….all things considered to travel half way around the world in 25 hours is pretty remarkable….and we were only 15 min late to the KK airport….whoa!!!!

Everything on Mystic was in good shape….although she needs some exterior TLC…we had horrible luck finding any good boat detail/washing people here in KK…oh well, maybe in Philippines.

Both us were extremely tired….not just from the horrible jet lag but from a really, really great time we had in the USA…..we are very blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends….and we try to get in 10 months of catching up in 2-months and thus we were feeling the 2 months of jocularity…but all was worth it…every minute of it!!!

So…what all did we do…..first up was 6 days in NOLA to attend a 40/41 year Tulane/ZN reunion…..wow….did they have fun….saw maybe 20-25 old college buds, some we have stayed in close contact, others we had not seen in the 40+ years…..but as Kathy said….it was like coming home to family!!! We even got to sepnd a day driving around our old haunts in NOLA….our 1st home, Folger’s plant that has tripled in size and a great lunch with Pastor Norman!!

Then we had a few weeks of boat part buying…..this year was a record…we brought back 7 bags of 70 pounds each, plus 4 carry ons….yikes. And, many doctor appointments…but all is good…both of us got another hall pass for this year….let the good times roll!!!

We had lots of family time, especially with David and Dana who live in Livermore about 15 min away. Little Miss Kennedy, affectionately called MK, is 15 months and such a character…..she had me literally on the floor rolling around within 5 minutes of seeing her again. We had Thanksgiving with DD and MK….David did a smoked turkey…yummers!!!

Then Jim & Caz came for a several day visit….half day in Livermore wine country, Monterey aquarium, day in the City and a limo to Napa valley wine tasting…..then Brett & Stacey came for a few days….more Livermore wine country…yep, it’s a tough life:))) From there we went to Phoenix for a Selene/cruiser reunion….6 couples rented a house in Scottsdale and boy did they have fun!!!

Oh….in between all the jocularity was more parts buying and getting ready for Christmas….TG for Amazon!!! We spent Christmas with Josh, Courtney and precious 4-year old Sadie Rose….wow, is she growing up fast and quite the charmer!!

The Plan:
2018 is the year we go back to USA….we both know it’s time to go to part time cruising and spend more time with the grandkids/family and do other things on the bucket list. More on this later!!

Boat Stuff:
I was able to reinstall our Garmin fishfinder on the dinghy…yea….we will need this in Alaska if we do any salmon/crab/prawn fishing from the dinghy!! I also was able to install the Iridium GO satellite phone. Unfortunately it is still at very slow speeds….Iridium is several years late getting their next generation satellites launched so it could be another 1-2 years before the faster speeds are available. We learned in the 2013 Pacific crossing we needed 2 SAT phones as the FBB unit did not work half the time. We hope to use the Iridium GO mainly for UUPlus emails and Predict wind weather….we shall see how it goes on this next leg!!

Hope all is well!!

John
mv Mystic Moon
Kota Kinabalu Sabah Malaysia on Borneo