Life in P.A.

Almost a month since I got back from Mexico... I focused my mind on the teak deck when I arrived and stayed alone as I wished... quietness and peace brought me back to my soul and I could find my path again...

Eric and Nolwen's visit gently walk me out of my alone stage and now I'm back on track... I can feel the magic again :)

I went to a roast corn party sunday with some friends. Andrew, the owner of the house invites over at  his place around 400 persons each first sunday of august since 14 years, for a roast corn party. He asks his friends to come with new people each year.

On the road sign, some corns are hanging.. cars are parked all along the drive way... people here and there, a giant BBQ full of corn. I arrive with Mickeal, Mariela, Jim and Linda. I tried to make a fondant au chocolat but it became a browny, so I made a salad with homemade vinaigrette. Jim and Linda brought a carrot cake, Mariela made a tiramitsu and Mickeal a greek salad.

I help myself and as waiting for some BBQ fish, Andrew introduces me a young man, telling "here someone that speaks french !!" I was eating some salad and got kind of surprised by the whole situation.. I could stop giggling as I was thinking that I probably have some salad leave on my teeth...
The young man stared at me with and asked me in french "why are you laughing ??? are you making fun of me ? "NO ! I just enjoy laughing... we started to talk and he tells me... "My biggest dream is to have a sailboat and sail around the world"... "You have to come visit my sailboat" I told him... then I ask... what's your name ? "Camille"... I smiled, couldn't stop smiling... Camille is the name of the boy I met 16 years ago on the beach in Moorea. He sailed with his parents from Vancouver, Canada to French Polynesia. He was special to me and I never forgot him. He promised me he would be back... but never did hahaha... When I bought Pangea with Martin, Martin decided that our first destination would be Vancouver island... While working on Pangea to get her ready to come up the coast, I thought about Camille and tried to look for him on internet since I couldn't find his phone number. It would have been good to see him again and especialy arrive there on my sailboat since he never showed up with his !!! hahaha !!!

I found him on his wedding day, I was so excited to know that he was getting married and to see him again. We met the day after his wedding and I met the woman of his life, the beautiful Elise... she became special to me... I was so happy to see them, see Camille... he didn't change much just got taller (he use to be shorter than me).

Camille, my new friend from France, and I left the party to visit Pangea. I was happy to show him Pangea, my dream that came true... we have shared dreams and meeting him wasn't random. We were meant to :-).

He loved Pangea, of course !!! She is beautiful and such a great boat !!!! The BESSSSTT boat in the world... for me :-)

We drove back to the party and spent the whole day togeteher. He was such a matured thinking kid for being 15. We talked about life, had some corn and delicious home made pizza.

The party was very mellow and relaxing, people of all age, food everywhere and drinks cooling in a iced pool...

I left at sunset... Camille promised me he would do everything to realize his dream and see me again... how funny !!! I keep smiling thinking about it, thinking about life, how it is special when we open our heart, listen, feel and live...

Yesterday I visited Jim and Linda who invited me to their house to pick some lettuce from their garden and go berry picking. I arrived there around noon. They moved in P.A. a little more than a year ago and started a vegetable garden. Lettuce, tomato, chard, berries, fruit trees... and much more. With Jim, we drove to a U pick farm. I always wanted to experience U-pick farms and I was really excited because I could pick and eat !!! that's the whole fun about it ! So we did, so much fun, I had a full belly at the end... and 5 pounds of berries !!! yeah !!! It such a clever idea to have these U-pick farm. People come with family or alone and enjoy the experience to the fullest...  I loved it !

We came back home and saw some deer. I layed on the grass, I miss is sometimes on Pangea... Jim brought us an appetizer plate, chedaar cheese of all kind and smoked salmon... DELICIOUS !!! sweet cherries from their young tree, sweet and melting in my mouth. Dinner time... We picked the vegetable we needed from the garden and we went finishing for trouts in their pond. It was so much fun !!! I tried to get a picture of our first catch and while posing with the fish in front of the camera, being a dork as I do very well, the fish got off my hands and went back in the water !!! Oups.... We got 3 fishes but it wasn't as easy as I'm sure they have been told that we were fishing ... :)

I prepared the fish in papillote and some fried potatoes from the garden, Linda prepared the chard and desert... Delicious dinner, beautiful friends and an amazing view over the mountains...

 

Life is beautiful and I'm happy to be here, happy to be... simply...

Love

Poema

Pangea part II

Part I was the shared story with Martin and the boys and « Part II » is when I am alone with Pangea.

After my Mexican trip, I came back on her and finally settle down. I started to work on the deck, taking off the seems with a cutter, and deepening all the shallow seems rail, a pretty hard work as you are on your knees, with a gigantic hook  (like Captain’s Hook), trying to carve hard wood… Rob, a friend we met while at dry dock, came by the other day and made my work easier, he custom made a U-shaped tool to take the seems off easier and he used his dad screw driver for it. « My dad would have been happy to see it used like that ! ». I’m almost done with the prep, Eric, a talented wood worker will come this week to finish up with me and we will put new seems on very soon. Everytime my back, hands, knees hurt, I just dream about my so wished perfect teack deck and it gives me energy. Plus with all this, I’m learning how to do it and I will be proud of it because I would have done it.

While in Los Angeles, I was chating with Nolwenn, our french girlfriend who is living with Eric in Ventura Marina, who celebrated the multiple Ventura Pangea departure. She was telling me about her dreamed of owning an aluminium sail boat, and she has a pretty big project that could become true soon…. It’s in the oven. I invited them to come on Pangea when I will be back in Washington and here they are. I was so excited to see them, I cleaned the boat, prepared their room… Pangea is the first « house » I owned and they were my first visitors, so special ☺…
They arrived in Seattle and rented a car to drive up here at around 1.30am in the morning. I was so happy to see them !!! We talked for two hours and went to sleep.
When we woke up, we went for a zodiac cruise in the marina. I wanted to show Nolwenn a massive aluminium boat that just arrived for dry docking. It was huge. The owner custom made it in Australia and sailed across the Pacific with it, but this boat is so big and strong and everything you can imagine (beside good looking) that you would think they’ve been in Antarctica with it or will…
Then they met my friends, Paul, who was trying to start an old motor he fixed, Eric who was waiting on his costumer to come pick up their sailboat he worked on.  With Eric approval to go sail with the open deck, Eric and Nolwen went for grocery shopping and I prepared the boat for our week end trip to the islands.
We decided to go to San Juan Island as Martin told me Griffin bay was a really nice anchorage. We took off around 4.30pm. I was a little nervous as it was my first real cruise without Martin. We got off the slip (in and out off slip manœuvre are probably the trickiest) like a flower and put the sails up in the bay. Pangea flew with the wind on her back and we made up to 8 knts with the genoa and main sails up in butterfly. It took us around 6 hours to get there, we crossed the fog, first time for Nolwenn and I. We arrived in Grifin bay around 9 pm and anchored in front of a beautiful endless beach and pine forest. Pizza and beer for diner !!!
I woke up early the next day, and took the zodiac for a sunrise cruise. The water was like a mirror and Pangea was touching the sun… walk on the beach, random forest trails, diamond line left by spiders all over the trees… I could see Pangea thru the pine threes. This bay was the most beautiful I’ve seen since we arrived in Washington state, I will come back.
I hang out on the beach, and then row back to the boat. Nolwenn and Eric went to land for a forest/beach walk too and I cleaned the boat. When they came back I went to swim and we took the zodiac to visit the little marina at the end on the bay. We saw jelly fishes of all size and color, huge crabs caught by local fisherman and seals jumping out of the water.

In the afternoon, we sail up to Orca island. We tried to anchor at Massacre bay first but the anchorage wasn’t good so we motored to the next bay, Deer Harbor. The cruise was really nice, ferry passengers waving at us « that makes me realized we are doing something special » said Eric.
Nice appero in front of a big cliff and early night for us.
We decided to leave Deer bay around 10 to be able to get to Port Angeles before sunset. We motor up to the straight separating Canada to USA and saw Orcas. We were so excited, I’ve waited so long for them, one of the reason Martin wanted to come here… and here they were… whille sail motoring to get close to them, I smelled burn and ran down thinking that it was the oven but no flamme there… All I could remember was my Basic saftey training teacher telling me that fire is the worst case scenario on a boat !!!! No way !!!! I ran out to turn the motor off, call Eric and Nolwenn, run back down to open all the door of the motor case… Eric arrived with the extinctor… no flamme… what could it be !!!! we look around and I noticed the alternator has a different color, I touched it and it was burning hot. It burned out. We kept on looking around for any fire, Eric opened the hatches while Nolwenn was outside steering the wheel. We calm down and started to think about a solution. We had to sail and I would take the alternator off to find out why it was so hot. I was still shocked by the events but we were sailing, and there was no fire…. I started to read about mechanic and alternator, check if there was water in the motor… The afternoon was pretty frustrating, we spent around 6 hours drifing with currents, no wind, then wind but strong current and San juan Island was still as close as 2 hours later. We tried to tack but we got sent back twice to departure point. Eric then decided to riff the main sail, thing that I never done and we started to move faster. I felt better and focus on getting a solution for the motor for emergency use and entering in the slip. During the sail back to Port Angeles, I learn alot from Eric who is a great sailor. They both kept their zen when I was stressing about not getting them back to Port Angeles. We sail with front wind and tack. It was great. I customized the alternator, unplugging all the electrical line and using it as a pulley to run the water pump. I had enough charge in my battery with the solar pannel and I didn’t need the electrical use of the alternator but the water pump is a must. We ried the engine for a little bit and it worked !!!! YEAH !!! My first mechanical/electrical experience !!! I was so happy, laughing about the drifting situation and relived to no have had a fire on board. We arrived by night in Port Angeles, with 7 hours delay. The wind blew strong enough to fly us at 5 knots to the bay then it died when we enter Port Angeles bay. It was like it just helped us to get where we needed to… I started the motor, we put the sails down and slowly motored to the slip. The water was like a mirror. I jump on the dock and hugged Eric and Nolwenn, I was relieved and felt so good. It was 1,30am, Monday morning, Nolwenn prepared dinner and we went to sleep, exhausted by this big day. It was a real adventure !!! BIG THANKS to Eric and Nolwenn for everything they’ve done and the great week end !!!

A home call Pangea...

Back home…

My little Mexican excapade got me back on my feet but I had to come back to the startintg box of this life cycle to understand what happened this past months, why everything was such a struggle and hurtfull. I’m back on Pangea, where it all started. I got lost but I never gave up on my dream… I needed to be quiet and listen to my heart… submerge myself in nature and take time for myself to find my path again.

My sailing dream is a new cycle of my life. I think we all have several cycles in our life and they are all connected. Realizing our dreams, is never an easy job, but at the end it’s not the goal that really matter, what really matters is the journey that we made to get to it… and my journey to my sailing dream just started… it will take some time for me to get to sail alone but I will get there slowly… always remember that nothing is a failure when you are trying to live your dream, they are challenges we have to face because we need to learn something from it…  there will be tears because we go deep inside us to find what we want, what we are and we will have to overcome our fears…. And trust life…

Going to Mexico, I  met my sister and her family, I saw pure beauty and unconditionnal love in her child.  I met Janice, a friend I could laugh with, José who got me closer to Cuba and gave me strenght, Juan who gave me a ride and showed me that we were all one, Roberto who made me feel special again, Nadia and Ismael who let me in their world, Dina who remind me how special my life is, Martin who take good care of Pangea, Noah, who help me understand myself… and Nature who brought back peace in me, letting the stars shines over my dreams, sun reminds me who I was and where I’m from, water cleaned me… pelican flying gracefully over the water, full moon rising thru the clouds while surfing at sunset, beautiful flower in the desert, islands coming out the water, shark whales and so much more… and you, who are reading me and putting energy into this journey……..

Thank you all,

Love

Poema

Mexico burning roads

Thursday, 7th of july

Early morning departure for Mexico, Bahia de Los Angeles. We hit the road at 4am and I fell asleep right away... didn´t see anything of the road until we got to the border. We pass with no problem following the bus of students that are heading down to Bahia de Los Angeles for two weeks of summer class.
The USA side of the border is already mixed. We drive by the biggest line of car in the world. Kilometers of cars waiting on passing the border to go work in USA, hours of waiting... to get closer to the "American dream".
Desertic landscapes, square colourfull houses with concrete roof, giangantic Jesus Christ, fish tacos and dirt everywhere, no shade. We crossed "forest" of cactus. The colors are ocre, and the sunset light soften it all and turn the hot environment into a beauty... We arrived in Bahia de Los Angeles after the sunset... there is still some light and I can see the Sea of Cortez. The island of the bay are amazing, like flooded mountains, the surprise is breathtaking...

My little house by the beach is cute and confortable, I sleep under the stars with the view on the islands.
I wake up with the sun slowly coming out of the horizon behind the island, swim with shark whales, see bottle nose dolphins, almost touch them, snorkle on a white granite sandy beach, turquoise water with a desertic mountain on the background, boat trip to the islands and more shark whales, rays jumping out of the water...

Tuesday 12th of july. I decided to hitch hike south to go surf. A little over 1000 km to get to Cabos from where I start, in the middle of nowhere, in the desert. The morning is fresh and I even feel cold. I set up a confortable place to hitch hike, an use tire where I sit or lay in. I quickly figured out which car will take me and my surfboard... not much. Trucks won't take me and small cars neither. I start to read to no get impatient. The pages goes and goes and still no car... I start to worry but it will be ok, shouldn't be that late... A car finally pull up. A mexican man, going to the next town, 130 km away... well it´s a start. We exchange some word. He used to live in USA and work there but didn´t like it. So he moved back to Mexico, with less work but he could enjoy life better. Time went by since Jose dropped me off at 6am. It is 1pm when Juan drop me off where I can have the most luck. It touch me, and straighten my feeling that we are all one in this world... I gave him two oranges and I took a picture of him...
Realizing how much more I have to hitch hike, I get on my feet and stood for 5 hours before I decide to catch the bus. Hitch hiking is not my thing... I don´t have time to do it, I rather go surf than spend time on the road... The bus ride was just perfect. I enter and sat on the front row, paid 1000 pesos (around 90 USD). I was full of dust and never felt so wrecked before... I fell asleep as I felt better and in security knowing where I was going. Hitch hiking is definitively out of my wish list... It was a great experience though and don´t regret anything, laughing about it. The bus arrive in La Paz around 5am the next day. I had a good sleep and the bus driver helped me around.. I guess I really looked wrecked !! haha.. I bought my ticket to San Jose del cabo and jump in the next bus. Sun rise thru a foggy desert, mango trees here and there, waves hitting the shore... I´m getting closer to my goal.
I try to get off the bus on the first surf beach I see but I have to ride it all the way to the terminal. I get off, find a rental car and drive to the beach. Nice waves but it´s so hot, unbearable... The session was good, I had a lot of fun. I came out after may be 5 hours and new that I was sun burned. I went to the panoramic site to look at the surf from above and just chill. Drove around town to find water, food and internet. I´m planning on sleeping in my car. I meet a mexicain men, Roberto, at the panoramic, he is a handcrafter, painting on shells and selling it to tourists. Even though I´m not interested he comes back to me and we start to talk. He is from mainland and lives between Ensenada and Los Cabos to work. The season haven´t been very good for him but he offers me a painted shell before he leaves and tells me to take care... Right after his departure, a young man ask me about renting board. His girlfriend speaks french to him so I start to speak to her. Nadia and Ismael, they are maroccan but lives between San Francisco and Vancouver since a couple years. We talked about my travels and and we ended up swimming at the beach together under the moon light. They invite me to their hotel so I can take a shower. We swim at the pool, slide ride and jacuzzi. They insist on having me sleepin on their couch and I accept. It was such a nice evening, getting to know their beautiful love story. I felt blessed being with them and meeting them. They made me feel like I was part of their family for the time spent with them... I slept like a rock exhausted from the great day I just had.
I woke up around 8.30 and drove to the airport to figure out a better deal for a renting car. I decide to keep the one I have and come back to the beach. I sat by a wall full of vine, the only shady place I found. I fell asleep there and wake up hours later... It felt very good. A surfer walk by and ask me if the nap was good. I smile.I watch the kids skimmimg and the surfer. I decide to not surf as it was too crowded and drive to town to find a place to stay... may be there is a cheap room for rent. Internet search, I buy my ticket back to Seattle for the 18th and I ended up in a room at a hostel in the center. 250 pesos (around 21 USD) not the cheapest but I can do it. It felt so good to have a room, a shower and I fell asleep right away in peace.

I went to check the waves when I woke up and it was perfect. Cloudy and no wind. I surf a new spot and get out of the water around 3pm... even more sunburned but I can´t do anything about it.

I met the locals surfers and Spencer from Los Angeles. He went to Tahiti and Huahine many times and kept a good memory about his trip. He invite me to stay at his place, in a trailer but I feel like going back to the hostel, just need to be alone, I enjoy quiteness and having somewhere I can call my room... I miss having a place... It has its cost but it's worth it as it makes me happy...

Love

Poema

Here come the sun little darling....

It's funny how better I feel in the sun, never realized until this second world trip... well I guess Ben Harper song was written for me "she's only happy in the sun" ;-)... The week-end with my sister in Tacoma was really nice, beautiful weather. The area is really green and all the island make it even more special, cliffs and long beaches, 5 miles park where you can walk thru the forest and see begging racoon on the side of the road. I spent the first part of the 4th of july there and celebrate Henry's 1st B-day. I never saw as many american flags as seen in their garden. They had more flags than the whole neighborhood all together... hahaha, so funny...
I flew to Burbank and Frank sister, Bernadette pick me up at the airport... I was thinking about sleeping at the airport but didn't know that it was a VERY small airport... Wouldn't have been a good plan to do that there and I was pretty stocked to see Bernadette and have a room at her place. The next day, Janice pick me up. Janice is Frank 's friend and she is going to Baja Mexico for two weeks tomorrow. Frank hooked me up with her and now I'm set for a nice trip.... She is so much fun and her son nicely told me that I look like a tahitian girl... Well I'm glad still I do... :-)

I'm going to have a swim in our pool and grab some orange from the tree for lunch.......

Bisous

Poema

On my way to the sun...

It's been two months and a half since I got embarked on Pangea in Ventura, lots of waters and winds came thru my life. Hard work have been done by the boys to get her up for sailing and of course Martin knowledge made the most of it. I did most of the cooking and little work on the wood... yep I guess I wasn't really ready for such a huge job and so much responsabilities in my world trip scheddule... I should have thought about all this before but I couldn't... I had to experience it to realize it... life is my school... and I have no regret and take it as a challenge. My sailing dream is to come true with a lot of patience and hard work.

I met people that were in my heart and that I haven't seen for over 16 years. I finally got to meet them during my trip here in Washington and Canada. First, Camille, a boy I met when I was about 11 years old, on a beach in Moorea. He sailed to French Polynesia with his parents and made me dream of sailing escapes... I found him the day he got married and met him the next day... it was like seing a brother, I helped his lovely wife Elise to put her dress away and watched Camille favorite you tube videos and their wedding pictures with them. It was a special moment for me.
Then Sophie, my sister. The last time I've seen her was when I was around 13 years old I think. It feels great to spend time with her, Martin, her husband and her beautiful family. She has a gourgeous red hair 7 years old daughter and a one year red hair baby boy. I'm enjoying their company and love. It is an important part of my journey to finaly see her again after so many years of silence...

I am on the road again for the next two weeks, flying down to Los Angeles for a road trip to Baja Mexico with Frank Murphy's friends... I needed some sun and warm water to fill up in positive energy...

Life is funny and has always some magic moment to cheer me up and help me find my way. I needed some time away from Pangea and everything felt into places, like it used to be when everything was meant to be.
As you must have understood, this journey around the world is not a simple trip to see places and visit whatever should be seen in the world... to me it is a journey thru myself, to find what's burried inside me and understand what my heart tells me... and it hurts sometimes...

Love

Poema

Pangea and her crew...

The story : While on Hanse, an afternoon in Antarctica I was talking about my sailing dreams to Martin and we had a similar one which was to sail across the Pacific. I was kind of planning on doing it at the end of my world trip. We started dreaming together about it, and buying a good size sailboat together with some of Hanse's crew would be nice. The idea already went around during some conversation in the past but never came true. In Ushuaia, Martin found several boats online. He contacted few of the owners and had a long chat with Pangea's owner... Two weeks later, everything fell into places perfectly and it was just our faith to get her sailing. We finally ended up buying it together with Martin as the other crew didn't really felt like following the crazy project.
The crew : Martin, 38, from Germany, lives in South of France, works as a captain on Hanse Explorer. He sailed a lot since he is a kid, help his dad building sailboats and owned several smaller sailboats, loves epoxy and sopalin. Patrick, an editor from Paris, in his 50s, just published a book about and for the Elysée.. loves Clint Eastwood and is always surprised to see the size of the american cars. He is the bosun on Pangea. Thibault, in his early 30s, first time in USA like Patrick. He sailed alot with his dad in the Mediterranée but he has strong sea sickness. He can't beleive how jeans and shoes can be so cheap in USA. He is the deck hand and my shopping assistant. Then myself... never owned a sailboat but always dreamed to....

The route : Pangea was parked for years in Ventura, went out couple of time to the island with her previous owner, Mickeal. The idea came from Martin to sail up to Vancouver island, one of his dream, with Pangea. It would have been  a trip against the wind but we could figured out what needed to be fixed before the big Pacific trip to French Polynesia. To me it would have been the opportunity to learn how to sail and get use to her. Canada sounded like a sweet destination too... and I have a very old friend I'll be happy to see in Vancouver, Camille. I met him when I was 13, on a beach in Moorea. He sailed with his parents in French Polynesia and promised me he would come back... he never did so it would be cool to show up there on my sailboat... My sister lives in Seattle, another good reason for me to go there...