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10/21/2010 7:01 PM 

Can you remember the long, hot days of summer when you were in high school? Especially those days just before the semester would resume and the freedom of summer days and nights would turn into the routine of education and responsibility. That feeling of change was always palpable within me. Not dread, but the feeling of transition where one thing ended and another began. That same feeling is here now hanging over Neiafu in Tonga.

The long stretches of Pacific miles have removed me from old friends, but also introduced me to new ones. Here, now, in Tonga, boats I’ve befriended from around the world sit ready. We are staged for the last long jump of the season to New Zealand. We’ve shared varying degrees of happiness, heart aches, and hardships. There is only one 1100 mile jump left to the country most of us will be calling home for the next 3 -6 months.

Once in New Zealand I’ll stabilize Jargo for a few months of in the water storage. That means upgrading automatic bilge pumps and cleaning out the fridge & freezer. Once she can be left, I’ll take a month to return to the States to catch up with friends and family. Sometime in mid January I’ll return to the land of Kiwis and don a backpack and second hand motorbike. After that, nothing is written in stone.

I’ve emailed a few boat brokers and there is an outside chance Jargo will go on the market in New Zealand. It is one of the few places I could sell the old girl and make a bit of money. If such a crazy move should occur, the money would go right back into a bigger boat and I’d set off again. More likely, I’ll do what I can to reverse the wear and tear of the Pacific crossing and prepare to set off on Jargo for SE Asia. I am in the mood for a surfboard and a friend is trying to talk me into a weeklong retreat to meditate with some monks.

I don’t call my shots so much anymore. I have no doubt this adventure will continue, but in what form I can’t tell you today. It may be I’ll carry on as usual, but I can’t help but feel I am closing the book on a significant chapter. I look forward to starting the next one.

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