Hi, I'm Grant and I am 8 years old. I can't wait
to see the Pyramids in Egypt and I really want to go to the Galapagos. When I am living on the boat, I want a
pet turtle and a bunny but not a cat. While I am gone I am going to miss Eely (my pet snowflake eel), my house, my family
(including Lauren) and my friends but I hope that I make new cruising friends and I want everyone to visit us!
I like fishing a lot!!! We have caught so many fish that sometimes
we have to throw them back in the water. My favorite fish was the king fish that was only a foot long, we threw it back to
grow bigger. My favorite part so far was visiting Mosquito Bay. When you jump in the water you glow. You could also see the
flying fish jumping out of the water even though it was dark.
School is great. My mom is teaching
me a lot. My favorite subject is History. In history, I’ve learned about many famous Americans. Some of my favorites
are John Paul Jones, Patrick Henry, Albert Einstein, Nathan Hale, Ulysses S. Grant, and Ben Franklin. My least favorite subject
is Spelling but my mom says that I have to learn to spell. I have to take Spelling and Math tests just like kids at home.
The subjects that I study are Reading, Critical Thinking, Phonics, History, Spelling, Math, Gods of Greece, , and Geography.
We
are at the mouth of the Panama canal.
When Teddy Roosevelt was president the French
tried to build the Panama canal.
But
too many people died because mosquitoes, 20,000 people died and they stopped.
So the Americans tried to build the canal and they
did it! The Americans lost 5,000 lives.
The Panama Canal is very important to the world because now ships can go through
central America instead of going all the way around South America to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
April 2009
On 3/31/09 we got to the Galapagos. On the first day we saw lots
of sea lions. The Galapagos is known for its cool species of all different animals. We saw boobies, iguanas, sea lions, and
tortoises. In Santa Cruz, the Lynch’s came. They stayed for a few days and then they left. When they were here we jumped
off cliffs and also rode horse and went to the beach. We had a lot of fun with them. I had a lot of fun playing with Jack
again. I liked the food here, too. I liked the Galapagos, it was my favorite place so far.
July
2, 2009 - Tahiti
We went to Tahiti. There was a big city there. We met two kids boat named All the Colors and Hip Nautical.
The kids names are Jack, Alistair, Monica, and Robin. We also caught up with our friends, Seth and Elizabeth on Honey moon
and Orono I, and Arielle.
We did the Rendezvous which is a race to Moorea which is 15 miles. You couldn’t use
your motor so we had to sail. There wasn’t much wind so we went slow. We didn’t win but we beat Honeymoon and
a few other boats. But we had fun. When we got to Moorea we played on the beach and I made a tree house. We also watched Polynesian
dancing and games. There were also awards. It was a fun week playing with our friends.
Sept 9, 2009
- Update from Tonga
Niue is my favorite place that we have been to on this trip. The hikes were awesome.
Some of my favorite hikes were the Togo Chasm and all of the caves.
The whales in Niue come right into the anchorage.
These whales are Humpbacks which are named by the hump on their back when they jump out of the water. Humpbacks are very large
baleen whales. Baleen whales do not have any teeth but instead have something like a giant toothbrush in their mouth that
only lets tiny foods like krill, plankton, and shrimp come in. The humpback whales are one of the most active whales on earth
so you can often see them jumping out of the water. The humpbacks grow to 15 M which is about 50 ft. The whales that were
by our boat were a little smaller maybe 35 ft. The tailfin can be 5.5 Meters across. I really liked seeing them put their
tales in the air.
I really, really liked Niue. You should come and visit it too. It is the coolest experience that
we have had so far.
