Two and half years ago Pete bought Absolute, a 32′ Islander, here in Guam.

About six months after that he met Jackie, a teacher and water girl who loved to sail lasers.

They got to talking and she thought the boat idea seemed pretty cool.  He asked her to sail around the Pacific with him.

Two years later those plans are days away from becoming reality.

It’s been a lot of work.  We’ve gotten good and breaking, redesigning, and rebuilding things.

Living in less than 150 square feet of space together has, at times, had its challenges.  And if I had a nickel for every time said, “Boats are holes in the water that you throw money into,” or other ‘words of wisdom’, we could probably afford all of the upkeep on 34 year old boat.

But above all, thus far, this has been an incredible learning and growing experience. Our living space limited but we live only with what we deem necessary.  We spend our time in a small space, but we spend it together.  We learn and teach one another about the boat and sailing.  We have also connected with an incredible community of other people on Guam, and elsewhere, that are always willing to share their experience and knowledge or lend a helping hand when a friend is in need.

All of the prep work over the past two years has been leading up to a big trip we are hoping to leave for in the first half of March.  Here is the map of our planned route…

The intended itinerary*

-Guam
-Yap
-Ngulu atoll
-Palau
-Yap (again)
-Ulithi & Fais atolls
-Guam (return for a week or so)
-Rota
-Saipan
-Tinian
-Pagan
-Maug (maybe)
-Return to Guam before typhoon season starts

* These are loose plans.  Our plands, both for reasons on sanity and safety, are to have no plans. At least no rigid schedule.  We’ll move on to the next place when we are ready and when the seas and weather look reasonable.

Our shakedown cruise is this coming weekend.  We will head to Rota, the closest island to Guam, with a crew of four.  This is a trip we have done twice before on Absolute and once on another friend, Mike’s, boat.  The channel can be rough, but it will hopefully give us an idea of anything else we need to do before we leave for the 5 day crossing to Yap and give some of our friends that we interested in the boat life a chance to do a short cruise and hang out on beautiful, sleepy Rota for a weekend.

As I type away, Pete is grinding our rudder post down to replace the stuffing box that leaks when there is a lot of weight aft, like extra water and diesel jugs.  We are replacing it altogether, so hopefully it is ready for this weekend.  Getting a summon to come help…

Wish us luck!

Absolute