We are back in the water! Yahoo! I am so happy to be back in my home. I feel confident and excited about this seasons sailing. I have already provisioned the boat fairly thoroughly and every cabinet is stuffed full. We have bought stuff that we will eat and indeed have already started to eat. I have provisioned heavily in the yummy and hard to get categories - like Extra Virgin Olive Oil and imported pasta and sauces.

Jonah has finished his term of school. I met with his teacher to review his work and he has done very well. The school put a lot of focus on reading and he has really moved along in his reading and writing skills. He can write very short stories and can get a lot of words without any help. I am very proud of how well he did at school and how much he learned. I really liked the school system - a bit old fashioned but great. Jonah loved the exercise books for each of his topics and I will adopt using those instead of the US loose paper craziness.

We have a new plan. We were going to leave Tauranga next week and work our way north but have decided to leave straight from here so we can stop at Minerva Reef. It is a reef in the middle of the ocean - there is land only at low tide. There are passes in the reef and it is a safe and comfortable anchorage. We have heard there are heaps of lobsters and are licking our chops thinking about it. It is a nice midway stop to going to Fiji.

We have a huge list of things that must be done till we leave so it is a bit crazy now. I will miss all our friends here - some are staying or going on different routes. We hope to bump into some of them in Fiji but you can never tell. Jonah has loved his time here in New Zealand and will really miss the place. He will miss his friends particularly Victor who has become like a big brother for Jonah (Victor is nine years old). Jonah does seem to be excited to go to Fiji as he has recent positive memories of the place.

The only tentative thing for me is my damn seasickness. All medicine has ranges of effects mostly negatives. If I can get my sea legs, then I will be fine or at least up to around 30 plus knots of winds when I need to get a whole other set of legs for frisky weather. Jonah will be spending more time outside in order to combat his seasickness. I will treat him medically this time as we risked two occasions of dehydration as I tried the natural "get your sea-legs" routine.

Jonah lost his first tooth. Big excitement. Stay tuned for great gap tooth smile pictures, coming in a couple of days.