[OcelotNews] Back in the US of A //WL2K

[KD7NDG at Winlink.org]

Dear Friends & Family,    12 July 08, Northern California, USA

USA!?!  When we last left you we were thinking of sailing back across the Indian Ocean & flying back to the US from Malaysia.  Luckily, sanity prevailed at the last moment - & I mean the very last moment.  We'd already checked out of South Africa - a LONG process, involving 6 different offices & much officialdom.  We were all provisioned for 2 months at sea when we realized that we'd be at sea for all of July & most of August, probably the best months in the Pacific Northwest.  Silly in the extreme!

So we checked back into South Africa(!) & bought tickets to San Francisco (via Durban, Jo'burg & Paris), rediscovering the joys of locking oneself in a screaming metal can for hours on end.  Since landing we've reconnected with Jon's Dad (who has loaned us a nice car) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

California in the summer is always delightful, with long conversations over lazy meals, catching up with friends & family.  We got to spend a day in San Francisco proper, a wonderfully nostalgic trip.  We've been berry picking, picnicking, & enjoying all the temperate fresh fruits & veggies we can get our hands on.

We're now driving up to the Seattle area.  On the way, we spent 3 days in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, getting the granite-mountain fix we've been craving.  A friend loaned us his mountain cabin from which we staged day hikes past countless blue lakes set like jewels in the fields of yellow, lavender and white wild-flowers.  We trekked through grasslands & ancient forests of the high-country (9,000 feet, or 2,800 meters), all presided over by glacier-polished granite mountains, still highlighted
with patchy snow-fields.  After so long at sea-level, the fragrant air was positively intoxicating.

Our current plans (as always, set firmly in custard) are to stay in the Seattle are until mid-October.  Until then, we'll be getting Amanda settled into the University of Washington (Oceanography) & trying to reconnect with as many friends as we can.  Since our house is still rented out, we'll be couch-surfing much of the time.  If anyone has a house that needs taking care of this summer, please let us know.

By about mid-October we're scheduled to drive back to San Francisco & fly back to Ocelot in South Africa.  A few weeks to get her ship-shape again & we'll head down the coast towards Cape Town, hopefully in time for Xmas.  We'd like to start our Atlantic crossing in January, heading for tiny St. Helena Island.  At least, that's the plan today...

We now have a US cell-phone:  +1-425-894-2231.  We'd love to hear from you.

Fair Winds & Calm Seas  --  Jon, Sue & Amanda
http://HackingFamily.com

PS - Our email servers now insist that //WL2K appear on the subject line of your first correspondence with us.  Once we reply to you, you'll be on our white-list & the //WL2K won't be necessary anymore, but you need it the first time & we won't even be notified if your email doesn't get through to us.  A simple reply to this email should get through, but please remember to cut off our message, as we don't need it sent back to us.  Thanks!!