Around the world in three years for Olympia sailors

Ken Pugh and Paula Rauen of Olympia stood on deserted tropical islands, swam with humpback whales and went 22 days without seeing land during a three-year, five-continent sailing trip around the world.

The journey ended Saturday as they sailed back to Olympia, from which they sailed away on July 1, 2006. The mast of their 42-foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey boat, the Suzanne2, was festooned with flags from many of the approximately 35 countries they visited.

Pugh said they hatched the plan for the trip in 2004, after reading a book called "World Cruising Routes" by Jimmy Cornell. Both are retired; Pugh was a teacher for 15 years and worked for the state for six.

The couple stayed connected to friends and family by using a marine VHF radio and a single side band radio, which Pugh described as a ham radio for mariners. They also frequently had e-mail access while on land (and chronicled their voyage at www.paulaken.blogspot.com).

"It's surprising how many offshore islands have Internet cafes," he said. "Much more so than we had expected. Sometimes we had to go to a little town library to use the computer, because they didn't have a coffee shop."

Pugh said that he and his wife didn't tire of the unchanging scenery during their 22-day stretch without seeing land, which began at the Galapagos Islands and ended in the South Pacific, 3,000 miles away.

"That's one of the reasons you go out there, is for that feeling of being on the sea," he said. "At the midway point, we were 1,500 miles from land in either direction.

"You get into it."

However, he acknowledged that finally reaching land in the South Pacific provided one of the emotional highs of the trip. Among the other highlights, he said, were swimming near humpback whales off the coast of the remote South Pacific island of Niue and reaching the Pacific Ocean after passing through the Panama Canal, allowing them to head north toward home.

Rauen said the rich cultural education the pair received was among the trip's biggest rewards.

Pugh estimated that the couple sailed 35,000 miles and stopped at about 250 ports and anchorages. They encountered two rough storms — one off the Oregon coast shortly after the journey began, and another in the South Pacific.

Pugh said that being in such close quarters for an extended period wasn't a problem for his wife or him.

"I go on record that one of the best parts of the trip was that I got to spend every day for three years with my wife," he said, adding, "It was a romantic trip, which added a great deal of meaning. It's something we will remember."

www.paulaken.blogspot.com