Australian Family Arrives on Sonrisa

Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sun 10 Oct 2010 15:53
Mid way through yesterday afternoon Sonrisa pulled in with Nick and Mel and the two boys pulled in flying the Australian flags, it is a Lagoon 44 Cat they have sailed from France 2 years ago. They are going north with "Joss" (who has been tied up next to us for a week. Their plan is to spend a year or so in Mexico, and then maybe the states or do land travel in the states.
Their boys are 4 and 1, Nick has been away from Australia as long as I have been as a captain on mega yachts and Mel is a cook, now they living their own experience, interesting Mel comes from Nowra (near where Mum is on the NSW coast) but they now live in Tasmania.
Sean had been waiting 2 days for them to arrive so was over joyed to have a friend to run about with and Alex is big enough to join in, so they were playing pirates around the pool.
We had a good dinner, and today we will go over to beach and a bit of surfing, after we complete some school work. It's another clear day with a nice breeze, we have a tropical storm brewing on the Caribbean side of the country, but it seems to be staying that side. Many of the people are saying the dry season may have come early this year as it appears pretty clear all the way down, but we will not hold our breath as things can change in the next 2 to 3 weeks, it is officially meant to end in Nov.
We plan to leave tomorrow about 5 Pm on the high tide and do an over night run, catching up with Sunsentaion at St Elena in northern Costa Rica.
This gives today and tomorrow for the boys to play, before move on.
Mike and I have been playing with solar panels which appear both to be working but I am not seeing the full potential which could be a regulator issue which I will look at latter on, certainly the cleaning helped, I am going to do some more calls tomorrow to check things out.
We also found a air leak in the dinghy probably from the pole rubbing on leaving Bahia last week so I have patched that, and greased the bearings ready for the next 2 to 3 weeks going through Costa Rica.
Stay tuned.