Wow, sorry for being so terrible on updates – I’ve been busy with a new job (yes, I have a job – more in another post!), a little traveling and more work on Constellation, as she continues to get revamped for the voyage ahead.

While I haven’t been great on posts, I do upload photos and other things periodically – the frontpage always contains all updates related to my trip – Photos, twitter, blog etc.

Mari, who has been dedicating a lot of time and effort to help me over the past month, continues to assist, and Constellation is really coming together. We’ve even managed to build a new boom from a Catalina 30, that was lying in the yard in gross disrepair. With all manner of noisy tools, we cut two feet off the end, re-fashioned the end-boom roller fitting, and made various other modifications. With most of the new boom finished, we mulled over how it was actually going to connect the boat, at which point Mari disappeared to his computer and made an Autocad drawing of the stainless pieces we needed. He then emailed off to his friend Peter in another state, who had the pieces made and Fedex’d back – Genius! Thanks so much to Peter for helping out! If I hadn’t ended up being surrounded by engineers, I would have been left to fashion it Nick style, which no doubt would have involved lashing the boom to the mast with tin wire and electrical tape.

While Mari did beautiful things with hot air guns and soldering irons:

I pulled the starboard toe rail off, and re-bedded it in an attempt to stop the mysterious leaks I’m encountering. Constellation continues to look forlorn on land, but, of all the boats in the yard, she definitely looks like she’s sailed the furthest, and in my opinion, looks pretty cool with all that gear hanging off the stern (not including the fenders)!

My new job allows me to work from anywhere (perfect!), so I took the opportunity to visit Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I’m really falling in love with the North East of the USA, and I’m putting on weight as I sample as many New England Clam chowders as possible. I’ve even had lobster roll or two, in attempts to make up for overdosing on Ramen for the past year. I might grow a big bushy beard and start wearing flannel.

The US media continues to attract my attention with its madness over the economy and the election. I remember how lucid and relative things felt, when I was somewhere about here. It’s places like that where you have happy existential moments, if you can imagine such a thing.

As to how Constellation will get to the Pacific, I still don’t really know. I do hope with my new job I will be able to save enough to truck as planned, and as the petrol prices seem to have plummeted of late, maybe it will become more affordable. I’ve recently heard rumours that boats have traveled overland via the Canadian railway, but I can’t really find any clear evidence or services. Is there anyone out there that knows something about this?

I’m very much looking forward to some deep offshore sailing with Constellation, and I really just need to get to San Francisco for an April/May 2009 departure. I now look at a map, and while we have a long way to go, sailing direct from San Francisco to the Marquesas, or even Fiji direct chops off a massive part of my voyage in a single stretch. If all goes to plan, I may very well be in Australian waters by this time next year. That may sound like a long time, but it isn’t – it’s just around the corner. Around this time last year, I was in France just about to do my first big offshore leg across the notorious Bay of Biscay, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Back then, I was terrified but adamant; unsure of how I could keep things rolling. But we’ve come a long way since then, and now it’s all just a matter of more hard work, time, and good fortune.

Thanks everyone for your continuing support and good wishes – I continue to get emails every week from well wishers, and they never cease to amaze me!