Hi Evan,

Sounds like a great trip...guess you really liked Morocco. Hope you do something like that again someday (well, maybe not quite like that...) does your wife like to travel? hope so.

>Tell me about this 7 year trip.
I left Silicon Valley in 1986 on a 40' sailboat, w/my partner, whose "golden handcuffs" were finally released (after putting in his time at a successful start-up - his 3rd try).

We made our way across the Pacific to New Zealand, taking a year to visit French Polynesia (Marquesas, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora-Bora, etc.), the northern Cook Islands, Am. Samoa, Tonga. Spent Typhoon Season (6 months) on the North Island of NZ.

I returned to SF to work for a few months and my partner sailed from Tonga to Samoa to Palmyra Island and Hawaii (did you read/see The Sea Will Tell? a murder mystery that took place on Palmyra Island).

Then we joined a race from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, Japan (so, even though I've only been in a single race, I can call myself a "professional ocean yacht racer!")...it was billed as a peace race - we came in last, but in the money, as they handed us 500,000 yen just after we crossed the finish line. Spent 4+ months in Japan, then visited Chi Chi Jima, a group of islands about 800 miles south of Tokyo (part of the island chain that includes Iwo Jima).

Then we arrived in Guam (1989), where I worked for the first time since leaving...I'd worked for a networking/time-sharing company in CA...and in Guam, I was hired to install these things called "LANS" - had never heard of 'em - but the concepts were familiar. ;-)

After over a year in Guam, we went to Yap (the most traditional island in Micronesia - the women, mostly, are topless, and the men wear loin cloths), Palau, then spent a year in the Philippines, and back to Palau.

Highlights (lots, but I'll mention a few):
- living (and snorkelling) in the uninhabited Rock Islands of Palau
- seeing the Green Flash on Venus, while anchored in an atoll 300 mi. south of Tonga (where we arrived after almost SINKING and putting out a MAYDAY - whew!)
- meeting people who live in places where there are no TV's (RARE, even in the S. Pacific!), hotels, restaurants, etc.
- just about everything about Japan
- some CALM moonlit night watches at sea (although I must mention that the actual sailing was my least favorite part - i get seasick - loved the life style though)

Jeeze, I could go on for a long time about this, but I'd better get back to work...thanks for asking ;-).

J