A year ago at this time, Kay, Petar and I were provisioning Quijote for a month-long crossing of the Pacific toward the Marquesas islands in French Polynesia. We were a week away from departure, when the destination countries in the South Pacific started closing their borders to avoid pandemic contamination. Had we departed in February or early March, as many boats we're doing, we would have found ourselves leaving Quijote in Tahiti to fend for herself while we were repatriated.
Thankfully we were able to acquire one of the few remaining spots in a boat yard in La Paz. We made our way home knowing that Quijote was secure and out of reach of the corrosive effects of the tropical marine waters.
Now here we are a year later and French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand all still have border restrictions. It's a tough time to be a recreational boater. That's OK. We'll steer Quijote back to the Pacific Northwest and enjoy the familiarity of home and the cooler weather of the higher latitudes.
But first... we have to get her there and there is plenty to do to make that happen. The work started at the end of November when I flew down to check on Quijote. She wasn't exactly where I'd left her, since the yard shuffles the boats around periodically, but she wasn't far away. She was happy to see me and looking just as good as she did last March, if a little dirtier. Sitting in an unpaved lot, the wind picks up occasionally and blows dirt around the yard, leaving a film of dirt over the boats. The first order of business after she's back in the water will be to hose her down and scrub the decks.
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