The house spirit’s mischief, heading farther west, saying goodbye to friends, and how to receive a letter from the heart of the ocean
You may remember that we wrote about the house spirit aboard Lady Mary, nicknamed Yachtie. We think we’ll rename him Kuzya. It sounds rather sweeter. Although this yacht-dwelling Kuzya did sabotage our engine on the way to the neighbouring island, we weren’t too cross with him—these things happen, don’t they?
Today the house spirit hid the postcards and envelopes we had prepared a month ago in Tahiti to send to our family, as well as to our most inspiring commenters! Our nearest and dearest have been receiving greetings from us for ages, since either Europe or Africa. And in the Galápagos, we decided that, in addition to our regular letters, we’d send a couple of postcards to our beloved support team too :).
Greetings from the Galápagos, the Marquesas, Easter Island and Pitcairn have already reached our most active readers and friends.
Kuzya the House Spirit
Today, just a few hours before weighing anchor, we turned half the yacht upside down looking for the postcards, as usual, but Kuzya the house spirit had stuffed them somewhere in the other half—the half we hadn’t yet finished turning upside down. The captain and the sailor have gone off to the boat show, while the junior crew member and I are turning our floating home inside out and hurriedly putting it all back together again. We have to find them urgently, because we have this habit of leaving important things until the last minute, then waiting until that very roast rooster, so vividly described in this post, comes along and pecks us where it hurts).
After turning the yacht’s innards upside down and back again, we have to lash everything down securely, stuff the tins into every nook and cranny, and decant the flour, sugar and grains from their packets into large containers... Well, you get the idea: the junior crew member and I are Cinderellas today...
Where We’re Heading
In theory, we still haven’t given up hope of reaching New Zealand before typhoon season. In practice, for now we’re leaving Tahiti and heading towards Samoa, calling at other Society Islands along the way. The photo shows a chart with a dot marking our current position and the end of the line at Samoa. We’ll take a quick look at Bora Bora—they say it has the most beautiful landscape in the world, but there are so many hotels that there’s nowhere to drop anchor. We’ll stay for a day or two, then move on. From Samoa, we can run north to the equator to wait out the stormy summer, or head south to New Zealand and look for the 37th parallel, as we’ve dreamed of doing since childhood.
For anyone who wants a postcard from the other side of the planet, we’ll write a post in our VK and FB groups.
Stay tuned! (That’s what cool bloggers write, I think :).
And before we leave, we absolutely have to have a farewell tea with the gang—Natasha, Max, Ksyusha and Polina. Only then can we set off.
Right, we’re off to find Kuzya, our yacht-dwelling house spirit, and give him some porridge with jam so he stops playing tricks. Then we’d better get writing those letters. Such is life aboard ship 🙂
Hugs!
Write in the comments if you’d like to receive a sunny greeting from us!
Yours, #TravelyFamily