So today we saw land for the first time in 5 days and I was kind of surprised at how exciting it was. Our new friend Mark Jachec saw it first, off in the distance, and figured out it was the islands of Alofi and Futuna, of the Republic of Wallis and Futuna, that sit about halfway between American Samoa and Fiji. Futuna has a population of 11,232 and Alofi has a population of 2. Talking about off the grid!

So I want to mention again that we’ve had a rather significant itinerary change, announced two days ago, that has us now crossing from Perth, Australia across the bottom of the Indian Ocean to first Fort Louis, Mauritius, and then on to Cape Town, South Africa and up the west side of Africa to enter the Mediterranean at Gibralter. We will not be transiting the Red Sea and Suez Canal due to the conflicts in the Middle East. We’ve updated the Ports of Call page to reflect these changes and hope to have the map updated in the next several days.

Tomorrow, Fiji!!