So here it is… my last day on board the Explorer and my journey on SAS has come to an end. In less than 24 hours, I will arrive in Miami, Florida. In some ways, the time has passed quickly, and in others, I felt like this day would never come. I am ready to go home. I am looking forward more than anything to being re-united with Andrew, my family, friends and to face my next challenges in life. I am eager to find out what those challenges are and to see how it ...

Today we passed through the Panama Canal crossing from the Pacific Ocean through a series of locks and lakes in to the Caribbean Sea. It was a beautiful day and a long process. I woke up nice and early to have breakfast and with perfect timing to see us approaching the first set, the Miraflores Locks. It was pretty cool and pretty boring at the same time. The whole concept is neat to pass through a land mass by way of a man-made canal, being raised up and lowered...

May 3rd - Happy Birthday Heather We spent 2 days in Costa Rica and I feel like it was almost a forgotten port for many. We were so focused on the 19 day crossing of the Pacific and preparations for arrival in Miami, that when we arrived in Costa Rica, it was a surprise! I enjoyed our time there and felt it really brought the voyage back full-circle. I walked off the ship and down the long pier back in to the hot sticky equatorial climate and Spanish-speaking cou...

What a long stretch at sea! Things are pretty much as usual and its starting to feel like we're wrapping things up out here. Both nothing and alot seem to be going on at the same time. In the past few days since we left Hawaii, there have been alot of ups and downs but overall I know that I'm ready to come home. I will say that I'm a little disappointed we haven't sailed though any real storms thought. How is it possible to circumnavigate the world and not hit an...

The Explorer stopped in Hawaii today for one day! What a tease... it was kind of like making a pit-stop on a long road trip from Japan to Costa Rica. It was really a great day and I definately would look forward to going back someday. It was my first time on US land since I left Florida on January 18th and although I had never been to Hawaii, there was a sense of the familiar there. People spoke English, took US$, drove on the right side of the road, we didn't ha...