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Keith's Blog Continued...

April 10, 2007

24.16N // 146.08W

661 Miles Northwest of Hawaii

Late Easter evening we reached The Trades, and we’ve been on a ride ever since.

Since mariners first set sail, the trades have propelled them to new worlds and home again. Across the globe these winds and currents move relentlessly east to west from south of about latitude 25N, and from north of about latitude 25S, almost to the Equator where, on either side of it, in an area known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), both wilt into hot, sticky doldrums, above a weak, opposing west-east current.

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Hour One:
-Update on The Global Adventure – Our first Week at sea.
-Is it time to switch to large-cap growth
-U.S. markets and a surprising jobs report
-A close look at IBM and globalization – Part I

Hour Two:
-A Random Walk Around the World: Iraq , Africa, Somalia , Argentina , Brazil , South Korea , and the U.S. heartland
-IBM and Globalization – Part II
-Calderon’s Excellent Progress in Mexico
-The Chinese Yuan, and the risks of investing in China

Hour Three:
-Update on the Global Adventure trip, and crew
-The importance of land ownership in China and around the world – Part I
-Land Ownership – Part II; and thoughts on AT&T
-The housing and sub-prime mortgage mess in the U.S.

25.35N // 139.20W

About 1400 Miles SW of San Diego

Heading 260 degrees for Honolulu

Today we celebrate Easter from a unique and breathtakingly beautiful perspective.

The same God who gave us his only Son also created this vast expanse of ocean we call the Pacific.

And He has given us this day.

Imagine you are aboard The Global Adventure at this moment. You are in shorts and a t-shirt. You’re wearing sandals, or going barefoot. All of the ship’s top-side hatches are open. The ship is filled with fresh air.

Now imagine the caress of a slight breeze, the whoosh of waves along your hull, the quiet reassuring hum of your engine, water so blue and lazy it looks like ink-colored Jell-O; all embraced by a radiant sky sporting the occasional cumulus cloud drifting slowly overhead.

We’ve even opened the forward hatches on the bow to permit more air below deck. This is a milestone of sorts, as it signals our arrival into the northern fringes of the tropics. But opening the bow hatches is only possible in seas this calm. We really could not ask for a more beautiful day.

All is quiet aboard. Rip and Wolf are snoozing in the main salon. Kate is making lunch. I’m on watch in the pilot house.

Most of us plan to watch The Passion of the Christ this evening, and all of us will be calling home to wish our loved-ones happy Easter.

On this unique and beautiful Easter Day, God’s hand is all around us. We proceed secure in the knowledge that His compass will guide us through whatever lies ahead.

–Keith

April 7, 2007

26.04.100N // 136.16.823W

Midway between San Diego and Honolulu

Bobby Darin’s voice is blasting through the sound system aboard our Nordhavn 55, The Global Adventure. A soft breeze leaves ripples on the water’s surface while gentle swells lift us up and set us down; all as we proceed on a course of 260 degrees for Hawaii.

Earlier today we stopped the boat for the first time in six days — and went swimming in 2500 feet of the bluest-blue Pacific waters you can imagine!
Water temperature is already 71 – up from 59 degrees when we left San Diego last Sunday.

A few cumulus clouds drift lazily around us, but mainly the sky is clear, blue and beautiful.

Spirits are high among the crew, the ship is performing perfectly, and we are on schedule to reach Hawaii on Thursday or Friday.

We’ve increased the RPM of our Lugger 385 hp diesel to about 1350. We’re now averaging nearly eight knots. Fuel consumption is about 6.6 gallons per hour. Even at this slightly increased speed, we will definitely arrive in Honolulu with plenty of fuel to spare.

We keep adding photos to the website, and Rip and Kate are working on getting our very first on-board video to the website for your enjoyment.

We are just scratching the surface of our communications capabilities, and I look forward to providing more photographic and video content for all our website visitors.

But for right now, on this beautiful Saturday before Easter, I think we’ll all just kick back and enjoy the ride of a lifetime.

–Keith

28.40.73N // 129.38.54W

About 680 Nautical Miles Southwest of San Diego

Today is picture perfect. Almost flat seas, warmer air and sea temperatures (the water temperature is up five degrees from when we left San Diego, to 64F, a gentle breeze under five knots, and clear blue skies ahead on our current course of 248 degrees. Thanks to our weather routing service, we seem to be threading the needle between two storm fronts: one directly to our east-southeast, and the other to our distant northwest. This is a far cry from our first 36 hours. Captain Wolf estimates we experienced 15-foot seas then. And spray even hammered the fly bridge the floor of which is about 15 feet above the water line.

But that was then and this is now. It is perfect!

By any standard, the Nordhavn 55 has a spacious interior. Still, having four of us aboard is reminiscent of college dorm days, except back then no one pulled night watch.

But the crew is getting along wonderfully. Captain Wolf is a serious and skilled mariner, and an excellent engineer. He is constantly checking and rechecking systems. Watching and helping him is a real education. First Mate Rip keeps diligently working on our communications gear, with the help of Kate, his unofficial granddaughter and family friend of many years; and every day we become more proficient at sending content back to the site.

Meanwhile, Kate keeps cooking, cooking cooking!

This morning we enjoyed eggs benedict. She pulled the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, and the result was something that would make Martha Stewart proud!

And for those of you who keep asking: I PROMISE you some onboard photos of the crew in action later today! We may even get lucky and have our first video posted today as well! Also, by early next week, when our stateside webmaster returns, we are going to start separate blogs on our site for both Rip and Kate. Captain Wolf says that writing is not his thing. Fair enough, but we’ll keep you posted on his musings as well.

More later…

Keith

29.49.411N // 126.46.18W About 515 miles SW of San Diego

The seas are calm, we all slept well last night, and our trusty Nordhavn, The Global Adventure, is plying the seas at almost 8 knots. Our fuel consumption is excellent: Just 5.5 gallons of diesel hourly. At this rate we’ll more than satisfy the “arrive with at least 25% of your fuel” rule, as we reach Honolulu.

Moments ago we switched our KVH SAT-COM antenna from their Atlantic satellite (which ironically also serves the U.S. west coast) to their Pacific satellite. We will continue to use this connection until we enter the Indian Ocean early next year.

We will be adding some additional photos of the launch to the site today. the photos were taken by PAE’s photographer, Dave Schuler. You can catch more of his work at www.yachtphotography.com.

Also, although we are still in a “learning mode” regarding some of our on-board cameras, we hope to have a short video or two posted from the ship very soon.

–Keith

It’s overcast today which is a gift. We’ll get plenty of sun as we head further south.

Speaking of south, our weather routing service has recommended that we push south a bit more quickly than we had planned. A low pressure ridge with large swells is forming north of us. The believe that by increasing our bias south, we should miss the storm and the heavier seas.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
31.25.05 N//112.42.143W
About 290 miles Southwest of San Diego
7 AM MST

Oh, the horror!

Our satellite TV system stopped working 40 miles ago! Direct TV, in its wisdom, apparently does not send its signal this far out to sea.

And to make matters worse, it’s baseball season! Yesterday we watched games on the large TV in the aft salon, and on one of our Furuno monitors in the pilot house.

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About 90 miles SW of San Diego
01:45 MST

Underway

It’s official! We are now well underway for our first stop, Hawaii!

I’m on graveyard watch – the midnight to 0300 shift. Seas are lumpy with occasional waves over the bow, but we expect this to pass by later today.

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Do Annuities Belong In IRAs?

My advisor is recommending that I “lock in some profits” within my IRA by putting my gains inside a fixed-rate annuity paying six percent. The annuity would stay inside the IRA. Is this a good idea? He also said I could get out of the annuity at any time without penalty.

— Ethel – Dover, Maine
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