Repairs in Paradise

Hello All,
Laurence and I enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Westlake Yacht Club tonight. We stopped by to drop off a poster for the LA Gathering on October 26th and were quickly sat down to a beautiful dinner! We spoke briefly and had a lot of laughs which were much needed.
In case you still haven't heard about the gathering, here is the info. Please seriously consider coming. Bill Mann is running what is turning out to be a splendid silent auction. There will be a lot of food and fun for sure!


LA Gathering/Fund raiser
A celebration presentation of Zac's trip and a fund raiser for his adventures will be held on Sunday Oct. 26 from 3 to 6 pm at The Organic Panificio Restaurant located at 4211 Admiralty Way (at the corner of Palawan Way) in Marina del Rey. Laurence & Marianne Sunderland, Zac's parents, will provide an update on his trip, including never before seen footage of his adventures at sea and a computer video presentation of his planned route. A question and answer session and a silent auction of donated products/services will follow. The highlight of the evening will be an attempt to contact Zac directly at sea via a satellite phone connection for an additional on the spot update. Light appetizers will be served and a "cash bar" will be available.

As space is limited, reservations are required. Cost for the event is $20 pre-paid, $27 at the door and $10 for children 12 and under. To pre-pay reservations go to Zac's website at http://www.zacsunderland.com/, click on "Store" and follow the prompts. For additional reservations, information or other payment methods: e-mail Marilyn at mmailto:mgsimcox@yahoo.com or phone (818) 703-1154. Become another proud member of the "Zac Pac". Hope to see you there. Please RSVP by 10/23.

Anyone wishing to donate an item, product or service for the silent auction, please contact Bill Mann by e-mail at bmailto:bill@barstools4u.com or by phone at (323) 205-0417.

For those Zac supporters who are unable to attend this event due to prior commitments or geographical location and who would still like to support Zac in his adventure, you may do so by making a pre-paid reservation and inserting in the comments section, along with your name: "teenager donation". We will then see that a teenager from one of the local youth groups gets the ticket to attend the event in your place, along with your name as the benefactor. Thank you for your continued support, it is much appreciated.


As for Zac in Paradise...
He has definitely hit the ground running. There has been a steady trickle of boats arriving at Cocos Keeling. They are all on the fast track to head down to Mauritius and beyond as quickly as possible to avoid any early storm activity. Zac has figured out the ferry system that takes people around the 3 islands in the atoll and has hooked up with the right people. He will have to blog about all of the amazing connections he has made. He was introduced to the woodworker from Home Island 2 days ago. Zac marveled at the man's shop where he was building beautiful wooden sailing boats all with hand tools. He was happy to repair Zac's tiller and fashion a new one out of a nice chunk of teak he had in his shop. Thank you to whoever it was that suggested the Home Island woodworkers!
Thank you for all of your emails of concern and advice regarding the repair of Zac's boom. His mission today was to haul the 5 foot piece of broken boom around with all of Laurence's ideas for possible makeshift fixes in mind and attempt a timely repair. The issue of repairing the boom is being weighed against the cost of delaying his departure into the already brewing Indian Ocean this close to cyclone season. He does not have the option of waiting for a new boom nor of waiting 2 weeks while a repair is made. With the well established weather patterns and expert meteorologist David Morris watching for danger from the satellite imaging, he should be able to be routed safely across.
On a positive note, Zac has been eating lots. He finds the canned food in CK to be a bit odd with mostly canned mac and cheese and canned beans for sale. He'd better do some fishing on this next leg! Meanwhile, he is filling up on fresh food which is fabulous. He hooked up with the local missionary doctor on Home Island, who had heard of him, and was given a once over and a shower. He weighed in at having lost just about 10 pounds. Probably mostly muscle as he had been working out pretty consistently with Laurence before he left last June. He did attempt to swim, the water is beautiful, but noticed a few sharks swimming by and changed his plans. Not sure where people dive there but none of the cruisers at Direction Island were swimming after that! Most of the cruisers/boaters who are there right now are part of a round the world rally and are at the tail end and passing through fairly quickly. We are speaking only once a day now because of the time difference. Hopefully, he will get his blog out soon because our sat phone connection has not been very good (in fact, neither has my cell phone?) and I miss a lot of what he says.
Thanks for listening. Zac should be back in a day or two!
Cheers,
Marianne
PS: Here is a link to a wonderful photographer from Cocos Keeling. Her shots are absolutely breathtaking!
http://www.karenwillshaw.com/