Kingdom of Tonga

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We arrived in the Kingdom of Tonga first thing in the morning and spent the last few miles making water to wash the boat. Nothing feels so good as having a salt-free boat as we drop anchor in a new spot after a passage. For those curious, this boat came … Read More

American Samoa to Tonga

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American Samoa has not really felt much like a tropical paradise. Since we’ve gotten here we’ve had almost nothing but high winds and rain. We are soooo over it at this point. Every dinghy ride to the town dock ends with salt-spray soaked clothes. This particular storm got frisky enough … Read More

Chaos

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Lowe is loving the strong winds. He pushes off the stays on one side of the boat and flies effortlessly around the back and over to the other side. He can do it with no wind, but with big winds it’s just so much more fun. I was talking with … Read More

Rainbows and Rubbish

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It rains in Pago Pago every day at some point. One of the peaks surrounding the harbor is even called Rainmaker Mountain. Usually, it’s a quick drizzle that passes before we even need to close the hatches. And quite often the result is a rainbow, or two, like this. Goofing … Read More

Pago Pago

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We got anchored and were ready to finally get some rest, but then realized that we needed to contact Port Authority and let them know we were here. They told us we’d have to come on over to the dock to get cleared in. In most countries, we arrive, fly … Read More

Bumfuzzle’s 20-Year Anniversary

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Twenty years ago today I wrote Bumfuzzle’s first blog post. I hit publish, and immediately four parents and maybe a sibling or two could follow us around the world. Remember the internet twenty years ago? I remember teaching myself how to use Microsoft FrontPage 2000 in order to design and … Read More

Moods

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The ocean has moods, and as sailors it is our job to anticipate them. We can choose to sit quietly during one of her calm periods, we can argue and ride out a bad mood with our anchor set, or we can run and try to get away from her … Read More

An Island to Oneself

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A bit of an ode to Tom Neale, who penned An Island to Oneself back in 1966 and no doubt inspired many thousands of cruisers to detour their milk run circumnavigations to include a stop here. Tom “marooned” himself three separate times in order to live alone and forge a … Read More

12YO

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Birthdays in our family are sort of floating dates. We’ve been known to celebrate a birthday everything from a month early to weeks late. Lowe’s twelfth got the week late treatment. Despite best laid plans, we had neither his main gift, nor the eggs to make his cake with. A … Read More

Aitutaki Whales

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The main reason for us coming to Aitutaki was to swim with the whales and do a bit of diving. Within a couple of days we had managed both. It’s humpback birthing season and the new babies are sticking close to their mamas. It didn’t take us long to find … Read More

On to Aitutaki

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We were sailing along beautifully towards Aitutaki, with light following breeze and seas. That’s when our new halyard chafed through. Fortunately, the knot caught the block and kept the whole thing from falling into the water in front of us. The halyard comes out of the mast, drops down through … Read More

Bora Sharks

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We stayed in Bora Bora a little longer than we first thought we would. We had friends in the bay with us, the kids were having fun swimming and playing Fortnite together, and we were feeling pretty content just sitting here enjoying the view. Every day there is a group … Read More