Our new home is quite nice, but cold and small. Linzi found herself sick after a tough day at the office, the food is difficult for those who are not used to it. While it may sound like an esoteric thing to go and help others, the question of whether we are helping is certainly up in the air.

On the other hand this is like so many passages and place we have been. Semi lost, not sure what to expect and we are wondering why no one else is 'anchored' here. We were told that we are some of the first foreigners they have ever seen.

We think this will be an amazing experience, we just need a few more words, but like always when we need help, help seems to arrive. Today they arrived in the form of little people who don't speak Mandarin either: 200 babies, what a sight! New jobs and first days, they are always exhausting.

Zai Jian!!

December 20
In March of this year our 'Plan C' was China. It was the longest, hardest and most off the beaten path route we could have picked.

Here we are 10 months later and our listed next port of call is Hong Kong. Palau was amazing, a gem, a find, one of those places that stays with you. It was so easy to be there and all the wonderful 'American' food put a few extra pounds on us. In planning this trip we knew we would be sailing into typhoon ally and since arriving we have seen three pass to the north and right now there is another one brewing west of Japan.

There is a lot of anxiety as we head out to the Philippines, cross the Sulu Sea and then the infamous South China Sea. Lots of unknowns as this is a place very few sail to. Our hope to land in Hong Kong shortly after New Year's will hinge on weather. Unlike Santa we are weather dependent so the next few days look really good with light trade winds from the north east. Merry Christmas and if you see Santa let him know there are two very good girls who have decorated the boat for our passage in hopes that ol St. Nick will see us from above.

Changes to Tracking System as of July '09

Click Here
For More Information

Red Thread Sailing has a new Blog! For recent updates and more info, see redthreadsailing.blogspot.com

Linzi & MeiLing are invited to join Johnson Toribiong, the President of Palau for a wedding reception. It might get boring back in the US unless President Obama shows up for tea.

The mother of all mail calls - Linzi's 8th birthday generated more than 25 cards and boxes from friends and family around the world!

When little girls grow up!
MeiLing turned 2 just weeks before we stepped on the boat. Oh what a difference three years makes! MeiLing turned 5 on May 2nd. No longer the baby she has really grown up into an amazing little girl!

The site for the sailing trip of the Maddox's on the Red Thread
The idea of the Red Thread was to do something meaningful. Putting four people on a boat for a few years, go explore and grow together. On May 23, 2006 our brand new Catalina 440 was christened The Red Thread in St. Petersburg Florida. That is pretty much when the plan started to change.

The idea, to spend time with our children now and not wait until we were older, plus they were small enough we could still over power them.

Our journey took us north to Canada a u-turn to the Caribbean. Our purpose for the trip was three fold:

Connect with ourselves
Connect with our environment
Connect with others we would meet along our travels

Being together in a 44ft sailboat was a little like going into a pressure cooker, by the time we reached Venezuela we started to become a cohesive group as we learned to work well with each other and the boat.

The islands of the Dutch West Indies were put behind us, we explored the Columbian and Panama Coasts before transiting the canal in November 2007. From there we would sail 5,700 nautical miles to Ecuador, the Galapagos, Easter Island and southern Patagonia Chile.

We still work on those three purposes. We will leave Chile very fulfilled by those we have met. On December 28th the Red Thread was re-launched for the remainder of her trip that will take us far across the Pacific twice.

This site will include portions of the boat's log, our real time location and stories of what is happening. Thank you for being part of our thread.