Christmas Letter

 We have not posted in a while.  But hopefully our Christmas letter will help catch you up.

2025 has been a year of surprises and changed plans. It was pointed out to us that cruisers write their plans in the sand on low tides. We did not sail south as planned and instead stayed put in Ensenada.

There were a lot of plane rides during the year. Pauline went back to Singapore mid March when her mum passed away and stayed a few weeks and again in August for a total knee replacement, where she stayed for 3 months. She finally flew back to San Diego early November when she felt competent and mobile enough to travel. 

Mark did not fly to Singapore with Pauline in March because he was on call for a job taking a barge from Honolulu to Seattle. He went to work again in May, taking a barge from Seattle to Cape Lisburne. Cape Lisburne is way above the Arctic Circle and they were actually delayed due to ice blocking the way, in July! They stayed around Nome waiting for the ice to break up. Nome though not in the Arctic Circle still has pretty much 24 hour sunlight at that time of year. it never got darker than dusk as the sun

only set for an hour or so. What was really strange to see was when they finally made it to Cape Lisburne, the sun only went down to about a finger width above the horizon and crossed the sky and began to rise again. A memory he will keep forever. He got back to Ensenada just before Pauline left for Singapore. He could not go to Singapore with Pauline in August because he had to work, from Seattle to Nome, with stops along the way. In fact he worked 181 days in 2025. Not bad for being retired.

We spent Thanksgiving in North Carolina with Mark’s parents and his sister Laura and brother-in-law Steve. We barely got back to Ensenada before we went back on a plane to Seattle for Mark’s company Christmas party.

We are both tired of being on airplanes and will spend Christmas and the New Year in Ensenada.

Our plan for 2026 is simple. Pauline will be going back to Singapore in the spring to get the other knee replaced and Mark will be trying to work while she is gone. Sari Timur will be staying in Ensenada till the end of 2026 and if things go according to plan, we will start cruising south.

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2026

Back on Sari Timur

 Friends John and Ivy drove Mark up to San Diego Monday to pick Pauline up from the airport.  Mark and Pauline then spent a couple of days with the Skerritts before heading back to Ensenada Thursday.  Today Friday we are glad to report that Pauline is capable of getting on and off of Sari Timur by herself without any assistance.

Life Changing

Wow thirty years ago today (Singapore time), I met the woman who changed my life into something worth living for.  Thank you dear and get that knee working again so we can go and create some more adventures!  Love you

Quick Update

Mark is in Bethel with the Fish Hawk.  They are scheduled to leave this evening for Nome, but the weather does not look good for any Nome activity.  So they may drag their feet for a little while in the Lower Kuskokwim or/and maybe head for Port Clarence to wait for a decent weather window.

Pauline is getting her stitches out tomorrow.  She grossly underestimated the severity of this surgery and is feeling the frustration of the long road to recovery.  However, when she looks past how slow her recovery is, she realizes just how much progress she has made in just the week since getting out of the hospital.

Life

Pauline is in Singapore.  She is getting a new knee on Thursday.  Mark is back on the Fish Hawk making his way through Canada  back to Alaska.  He is towing the barge that he has moved now with four different companies.  And owned by three different owners it has also had three different names.  When he was first shifting it around Seward it was called the Washington, then Ron bought it and completely refurbished it and renamed it the Steel Trader.  Now DeForge ( the other company Mark works for) bought it and renamed it DM236.  And now Alaska Logistics has leased it.

New Dodger

 Pauline has been working on our new dodger.  She almost finished it before she had to leave for Singapore.  The windows still have to go in as well as some tightening up to reduce some of the wrinkles, but it is pretty good even in this state.  I’m so proud of this first attempt I had to post it.

Heading South Again

Yes that is ice in mid July

 We made it to Lisburne and successfully discharged our cargo.  We did find some ice, but it was all small bits.  We were just under the pack.  We could see it with the binoculars.  Now on our way back to Nome where I can get off and head back to Pauline and Sari Timur.  But Mother Nature is sending a couple of waves of weather at us so we have to hide out a couple of places on the way.  It’s looking like we should be able to sneak back into Nome on Wednesday night.

Fun thing is last night the sun didn’t set.  It got close to the horizon but was visible as it worked its way across the northern sky.  Now that we are a hundred or so miles further south the sun dipped below the horizon.  It isn’t dark but the sun is not visible.

Update on Mark

A couple of days ago everything from Bering Straits up was packed in. Now there is that huge piece heading out of the strait.  Note the southern part of that is further south than us here in Nome

We got finished in the Columbia River on time and were making record time to Kodiak when weather hit us.  We spent a day doing round turns in Whale Bay and when the front left us we raced to the other side and hung out in Uyak Bay doing round turns for three days while the next terrible low hit.  We made Dutch Harbor in a total of 16 days with almost four days of hiding from weather.  Very respectable.  After Dutch we raced to NakNek and knocked it out within 24 hours.  We were beginning to think we were on a roll until the ice report alerted us the Bering Strait and all points north were socked in with ice.  Even Port Clarance which is south of the Strait was blocked.  New plans were set and we are heading to Nome tonight, to wait for the break up.  Predictions are for about ten days from now.  The good news is we had a pretty good low pass over us on the way up here.  And the ice map today looks infinitely better.  Port Clarence has cleared out and a huge mass has broke away and is floating south of the Bering Strait.

Up in Alaska Again

Well, Mark has found his way to Alaska again.  He flew up to Seattle on the 13th.  They picked up a barge and went down to Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington to load it the rest of the way.  They then shot north.  The weather picked up so they hopped into the inside passage just north of Vancouver Island.  Just now they crossed into Alaskan waters.  Heading for Dutch Harbor, NakNek, and then Cape Lisburne .  Cape Lisburne iis well up into the Arctic Circle and further north than he has ever been!  I guess he will miss another summer.

New Winch

The New Mizzen Halyard Winch Mounted and Loaded

Pauline arrived back on Sari Timur last week.

Mark just arrived back to Sari Timur on the 23rd of April.  The last five days of the trip they ran into system after system creating enough seas that they had to slow the barges down to sometimes under a knot in forward speed.  Frustrating when they were so close to the destination.  

They were several days over the original estimate and therefore earning a bit more cash.  Mark decided to take some of this cash and purchase a winch for the mizzen mast halyard.  Fisheries Supply in Seattle was selling them at a reasonable price so once they passed 22 days offshore he ordered it and one of the guys shoreside picked it up for him.  It is a two speed Andersen 34 and is self tailing.  The winch it replaced was a single speed 16 and not self tailing.  So we now have more than double the power to deal with the mizzen and the ability to use both hands.  Not to mention it is a pretty piece of boat jewelry.