//WL2K Deep thoughts (sorta)

Turns out that sailing a slow boat across a large ocean affords you alot of time to sit and think about stupid shit. I’ll spare you the truely stupid shit I think about most the time. The other day I was sitting in the cockpit watching the waves and swell passing under the boat and thinking that over the last two years of sailing/traveling from Seattle, Canada, The Pacific coast of the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatamala, Belize, Nicaruagua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Galapagos, Ecuador….for some reason it occured to me that other than a very small handful of items, Me and Tawn have no souveniers of our trip. Pictures and memories by the pant load, but no stupid little knick knacks. I shifted my focus from the waves to our shitty old outboard engine hanging off the stern of the boat and I notice the steel cable I made to lock it and our dinghy to trees when we go to shore. Then it hit me….we actually do have a crapload of souviners. In no particular order starting with that rusty old cable. We got that in Chinendega, Nicaruagua at a hardware store. It took me 20 minutes to explain I wanted stainless steel cable. After much hand waving and 3 guys nodding and me speaking louder and louder in shitty spanish I finally got my stainless steel cable…..that is decidedly NOT stainless steel. There are the two new Solar Panels that we bought from an old British dude that runs a solar store in Antiqua, Guatamala, which is just outside Guat. City. He fudged the invoice (thinking it would help us out), it did not and got us thrown off the bus at the El Salvador/Guatamala border. Only with the help of an english speaking business man did we make it across the border and back to the boat. Picked up the perfect oil funnel in a 99 cent store in Port Hardy, Canada while we waited for the liqour store to open up next door. Two surfboards, mine we picked up in Pismo Beach, California and the metro bus driver would not let us on the bus with it, so the stoney surf bum that sold it to us agreed to bring it to us after he got off work. Tawns board we picked up in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. We played the two shop workers there against each other and got it for $50 dollars less than they wanted to sell it for. Which reminds me of the surfboard rack that holds them to the side of the boat. Half of it is a couple lengths of stainless steel (for real) tubing we got in San Salvador, the other half is tubing we got from our friend Josh on Gitana. Which we walked around Hualtuco, Mexicoj with in the blazing sun looking for a machine shop that would bend it for us. Two little porcelin bowls we found in a wierd little store in Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. We needed something to mix wasabi and soy sauce togather for sushi nights when we catch fresh tuna. There is the ugly ass metal dryer vent hose that we use to vent out the engine compartment. Picked that up at a Home Depot in La Paz, Mexico. Tawn’s new Android tablet that we got in Panama City in a shop in “Chinatown”. NOOOO WAY that thing was not stolen. My two Machetes, one I got in Mexico and the other in Zacatecluca, El Salvador along with a casting net for fishing. The list goes on and on…. The travel and visiting the tourist sites and seeing the sights your supposed to see are all very cool, but honestly, for me the best part is the adventure of doing the random crap that I like the most. Finding parts for the boat, stumbling into the wrong part of town or getting abit lost and getting help from random people along the way.