Margarita's
Voyage
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Margarita's
Voyage
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Friends along the trip At the beginning of the trip, going down Baja, we were all extremely doubtful that we'd make any friends along the trip, and certain that we wouldn't like them as much as our old ones at home. By the time we were a year or two into the trip, however, we had changed our opinions. Below is a list of the more major ones that we spent time with; there isn't room to list all of the ones we made, so people we've met who don't see themselves here shouldn't take it personally. Hoptoad
The Hoptoads are our oldest friends along the trip, and the ones we know best, although at the beginning friends was the wrong word to describe us. We met them in San Diego, California, at a doughnut and coffee hour at the Downwind Marine marine store, and the kids quickly cemented our friendship by having a fight over a running race on the sidewalk. We didn't see them for a long time after that, until Tonga, almost a year later. After that we met them after over half a year in Vanuatu, and then again in Australia and Indonesia. After that our longest period of separation was when they spent Christmas in Barcelona and we went on to Gibraltar, and we met again in the Caribbean, after about half a year. The Hoptoads are Sonny, a welder and electrician, and Margie, whose main hobbies are baking and the keeping of a "bead log" of their trip; Jeff, who was thirteen when we first met him and aspires to attending the Air Force Academy and being a pilot; and Shawn, who was almost eleven in San Diego, the only ambition we can get out of whom is to be a helicopter pilot. They live on a 38-foot-long gray steel boat, Hoptoad after the boat in Pippi Longstocking, and come from Renton, very near our own Mt. Vernon. Max The Maxes should be at the beginning of this list, because we were good friends with them before we were with the Hoptoads. We first met in the Cook Islands, and after that were together for most of the time until the final separation in Fiji, eight months later. We were very good friends in a very short time, and much regretted not seeing them in the Caribbean, where our paths came close. The Maxes are Thomas and Irene, a Swiss-German couple who speak English as well. They went back to Switzerland over a year before our return to Washington, but they lived on a plywood boat they made themselves after a professional boat designer's design, a very tidy and clean and beautiful boat called Max because they didn't think it looked very feminine. Freya We met the Freyas in Mexico on our way down, and they were our best friends throughout French Polynesia. We went down from Tonga to New Zealand with them as well, although they went earlier than we did. On the way, however, their boat sank in a storm and they were helicoptered off. We saw them living in a friend's boat in a boatyard in New Zealand, and again on a visit back to the States. They are from Bellingham in Washington, and are a house-builder, Bruce, Marion, who is a school counselor, and their only child Heath, who is a year older than Douglas.
Ashanti We met the Ashantis briefly in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, longer in New Zealand, then again in Fiji, but although we corresponded for a long time after that our routes didn't converge again. They are: David and Liz, with sons Dominic, who was nine for most of our time with them (slightly older than Emma) and Joshua, who was seven. They had a lot of fun playing and fishing with Douglas for most of the time. They're British.
Nanamuk
We met the Nanamuks in Israel for the first time, and buddyboated along with the Hoptoads through the Mediterranean. We met them again in the Canary Islands, and briefly during our long stop in Bequia in the Caribbean. They are Canadian, from Victoria Island, and returned there the year before us. Nanamuk is a more traditional-style boat than any of the others we know, named after an Inuit word for otter or something. They are: Rob and Grace, both pharmacists, with kids Alan, fourteen last time we saw him, and Janelle, almost thirteen. Alan has been exchanging emails with Douglas. Windflower The Nanamuks introduced us to Windflower in Gibraltar, then again in the Canaries. They continued with Nanamuk through the Caribbean a year faster than we did, so we didn't see them again till we met them on our way through San Diego for several days. Windflower is a 48-foot boat. We actually didn't get well acquainted with the parents, Gary and Karen, but their youngest son, Nat—who was the only kid on board when we were with them, as the others were grown up—joined the Margarita and Nanamuk kids on the docks in Gibraltar and beach in Graciosa. He was fifteen then, went around listening to music on his Walkman, and provided a stimulating fellow arguer for Douglas and fellow writer/youngest child for Emma.
Loblolly
We met the Loblollies—or
Loblollians, as they call themselves—in Gibraltar, although we only saw them
very briefly before they left. We saw them more in Bequia, where they came
several times during our two-month stay there, and spent many afternoons playing
cards and games of Ultimate Frisbee. They sailed back to where they live in
Michigan long before we headed up the coast, but we still get letters from them.
They are: Mark, a doctor, and Karen, with kids Ches and Val, or properly Chester
and Valesta, fourteen and thirteen all the time we were with them. Also with
them when we saw them was Peter, a crew and friend of the family. Gypsy We spent most of our time in the San Blas Islands of Venezuela, Central America, and the beginning of Mexico with Hoptoad and Gypsy. Gypsy is the ketch around Hoptoad's length, owned by Kit, a singlehander from New York who came down the coast from Oregon to spend a year or two in Central America and Mexico. He is a journalist and his "Gypsy reports," emails, were fought over every time we printed them out. For at least half of the time he wasn't really singlehanding, with his sister or friend or a crew or something. We said goodbye to him after the beginning of Mexico. back to top Revised: 06/19/02. |
