Late June we left Kauai. Terry followed us down the stunning Na’Pali coast.

We saw two types of dolphins,
bottlenose and probably Hawaiian spinner. They played in the front of our boat.

We anchored off of Nihau
to get a good night’s sleep. We could not go on shore but there was lots of plastic (black buoys) on the
beach.
Then we set off in the rising sun. At first there was no wind but then there were lots of big waves and we
were all seasick to death. We were joined by different types of albatrosses. Otherwise we didn’t see a lot.
One day we saw another sail boat but they didn’t respond to our radio calls. We had two ‘blind passengers’
on board, they were two fish we found on deck. One was a small Marlin and the other was a flying fish. It was
miniature.

We haven’t seen a whale yet. On day 9 we got to open a present from our friends in Hanalei. It was full of so many delicious things! Thank you!!

It was nice and warm but now it is getting cold. Meret is our English
teacher (yay) and Cornelia our regular teacher.
-Salina, over and out.

Now, we are really near to the high. We have noo wind so we made an ice ladder. We were climbing it like
monkeys. We saw a big white buoy floating by from up there, Noe saw it first.

One week later we see dolphins for the first time since we left Nihau. There were about 30. They didn’t
come to the boat and swam past quickly. Sometimes 7 or more jumped together. It was amazing.
Then, someone called Andri had this crazy idea to go swimming in the cold water. We put a yellow rope with
a red fender out the back of Pachamama. There was a lot of current so we held on tight. The jellyfish stung
us like mosquitoes!

The next day we saw a yellow part of a boat floating in the water. I made a pizza for dinner. It was the first
one on Pachamama for years.

A few days later, we were at dinner and then Salina spotted a whale. He was big.
-written by Andri

It was so grey and rainy. Salina was the first to see land. Yaaay! Alaska is awesome. It was really really
good to see land and all the green grass again.

So we saw really much puffins and we saw a seal and then we
saw lots of sea otters. And then we even saw a whale, it was a small humpback. Maybe it had just left its mum.
The water had a lot of kelp. There was a strong current and there were lots and lots of tornadoes (whirls) in
the water. We saw a big boat when we came around the corner, it was there last time too. Maybe it is anchored
because it hasn’t moved since last time. We think it gets fish from the little boats. There was much smoke coming
out the top of it.
We are in the Aleutians. We saw some solar panels for a little weather station. There was an eagle on the weather
station. We thought we saw a sheep too. It was like all the animals from Alaska came to say hello to us.
-dictated by Noé

A huge thank you to Cory and Anna for making us the best arrival breakfast feast ever!

To follow us while we are underway, click here.

The TOPtoTOP DVD is now online!!!

TOPtoTOP in Southern California
Here is a video by Gary Headrick.