Well, as a number of you no doubt know, we didn't get as far as we had hoped on the first leg of our trip.

More on this later, but here is a summary: shortly after leaving Neah Bay, we realised that our autopilot was not functioning.  We decided this would be a good time to learn all about our wind vane, and so we deployed it.  It didn't work as well as we expected, no doubt because we were not used to it.

After 5 days heading toward the Marquesas, having to steer manually 24 hours a day, we decided that this wasn't what we'd signed up for, and that we HAD to get the autopilot fixed.  We reluctantly changed course for San Francisco, also realising that we would be hard-pressed to get the autopilot fixed in time to turn around and safely avoid the hurricane season off Mexico.

Once we were moored in Sausalito, we made the decision to wait until the following spring to restart our trip.  We would work over the winter, to top up our coffers (which were being rapidly depleted every hour we spent in San Francisco!)

After several weeks in San Francisco, during which time Jeff and Mary Tindall graciously entertained us and showed us San Francisco, and spent a day with us in x, we left for Dublin via Toronto.  We checked Ching into a cat spa in Toronto, which she hated at first (she had to share with 20 other cats) but has come to like it over time.

Other major events have occured since then, particularly the birth of our son Conor Francis Macfarlane!  So, our sailing adventure has had to be delayed but not cancelled.

This part of our web site is divided into the following segments:

It is our intention to attempt to update our web site by email along the way.  However, communications at sea are temperamental at best, so updates may be sporadic at times ...

The original plan was to be in New Zealand by the middle of October.