A little bit about Joe...

Vance sort of made an underlying theme for the trip. A quirky movie called "Joe vs. the Volcano". (Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan) In the movie, Joe has a crummy job, gets diagnosed with a "brain cloud," gets offered a chance to be a hero as he lives out his last days; goes on an adventure on a ship across the ocean to get to the island of the Waponi Woo. Process of self discovery, finding meaning of life--more than just work. :)

Movie quote: (Patricia) "My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement."

In a text from Farrell, he said: "It is still so surreal being here. It's almost hard to realize that we're here in the middle of the ocean cruising around on this amazing ship. It really is the experience of dreams."


Vance is holding a contest as part of the trip. The guys earn points for various things. For instance, rock climbing; what kind of sea life they're lucky to find while scuba diving; if they eat some of the foods being served (grubs anyone?... just wait until day 10!); How often they can naturally use a Joe vs. the Volcano quote in conversation. Vance is the judge.

There's some cash at stake:
1st place = $2,000
2nd place = $1,000
3rd place = $500

A little pampering, please...

On Thursday night, Kim (Vance's wife) threw a little "Pamper Party" for all the wives. We had such a nice time... not everyone was able to make it though. bummer. Kim served yummy salads and rolls, then everyone brought a desert. (Killer apple pie, Katie!) And she hired some spa ladies to come and do pedicures or glitter toes and you could get a shoulder massage (I need to take that lady home with me for sure). Very fun, Kim--you're the best! :) From left CW: Amy Jones (Mike's wife), Kim Cook (Vance), Kim Copeland (Matt C.), me, Heidi McMullin (Todd), Katie Howard (Jason) and Jenn Mattson (Paul).

Kim took a picture of all the sparkly toes, plus Jenn's lovely brown socks :) and was going to try to send it to Vance and have it be one of the challenges in the contest: Whose toes belong to which wife? Go Farrell! While we were at the party, Katie looked at her phone and Jason had just texted her. So we're all pulling out our phones... They happened to be sailing through an area with cell coverage.

So after all that texting back and forth, how's Farrell? Great, but battling sea sickness--not because of the boat, but rather from the scuba diving. While they've had a lot of adventure, there's also been some nice down time while sailing for reading and playing cards. He says the food is good and jumping off various parts of the boat is fun. :) (Of course!) And between all that, he misses me. Aauw!

post from Vance's facebook page:

Vance Cook and the group are passing through a rare reception zone. Having a wonderful adventurous time scuba diving the most beautiful reefs I've ever seen, jungle trekking, snorkeling through caves in the dark (shiver), rock climbing over the water and jumping in (1st ascents I'm sure), and eating and living in better conditions than we deserve. Everyone is well.

Jason doing a little deep sea fishing (above).
Brian, Paul and Todd by the scuba equipment. (below) Lounging on the deck, Mike and Jason in the foreground

DAY 5: Was spent in the Misool area, snorkeling and diving. Early afternoon set sail for the area of Kiti Kiti.

DAY 6: Sailing miles and miles along a coastline of uninhabited, towering mountains covered with thick jungle.

DAY 7: Arrive in Kiti Kiti. Here, in complete wilderness, a roaring river cascades down the jungle-clad mountains' and crashes right onto the white-sand beach. (note: pictures below are not from the group; they are off the internet)

Phone call

Farrell called at 5:45 AM this morning. He said "there's nothing wrong. Please get a pencil and paper and write this down." He gave me a number to call him back. I quickly did, but no answer. I kept trying and finally he called back at 6:30 AM. Needless to say, despite him saying there was nothing wrong, I had spun a fair number of scenarios in my mind!

He began again with "nothing is wrong" to which I replied "you don't sound all right!" Turns out he has a sore throat from the diving compressor, but says it's no big deal. He was making a quick call as spokesman for the group (and for me to let the other wives know) so we know how they are.

He is great! He said the reveal with the ship was just unbelievable. Everyone was just so excited. Vance had told them earlier that this was not a luxury vacation... but the ship... it is a luxury vacation. The diving and snorkeling is FANTASTIC. Amongst the group, they have seen big sea turtles, sea snakes, dolphin and (went through?) a long cave.

The hike in the jungle was Amazing! He said it seemed impenetrable, but it wasn't. They saw huge spiders. They're all happy, not sunburned, dealing well with the diving and no one is too sick. And it's all just so fantastic. :)

Apparantly he was using a satellite phone which is pricey and getting a call through is really sketchy. But they're hoping try to make contact again in a few days.

So mid-afternoon today (Wednesday, Nov. 11) will be the start of Day 4 (Thursday) for him.

What day is it anyway?

So we keep trying to figure out what time it is for Farrell. For instance, it's 11:00PM on Tuesday here--which makes it 2:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday for Farrell. The itinerary Vance gave me says Day 1, Day 2... maybe because of this very issue: My Tuesday has already happened for him. K. Now I'm confusing myself again. All of these pictures are off the web. Vance hasn't made any facebook posts since they first got to the ship. I see scenery like this and think "Oh! Farrell is going to miss me!" :)

DAY 1: Last bit of travel to get to the harbour. Board Atasita and depart in direction of Raja Empat islands.

DAY 2: Explore underwater world of the Raja Empat area.

Waters are full with big fish and fantastic corals. Today they will make three dives.

DAY 3: Today they will wake up early in the morning in front of the Island Batanta. Put on hiking shoes and make a spectacular jungle trek. In the night time: set sail for the island of Misool.

DAY 4: Early morning they will wake up in front of the Island of Misool. This large island is surrounded by lot's of small mushroom type islands/outcroppings of rock. This is the place they'll do some rock climbing.

I totally forgot to mention that part of the preparation for this trip was to watch the movie "Joe vs. the Volcano". I'll have to tell you more about that later...

Where in the world is Farrell?

Turns out my niece, Holly, was on the same flight as Farrell going to Los Angeles. It wasn't very full, so they moved and got to sit together. Holly is flying to Georgia (via LA??) to see her husband, Chase for a few days before he is deployed for a year. Farrell was headed to Indonesia, via LA. (And here I'm being all weepy over Farrell being gone for 17 days. Silly me!)

In the past, Farrell's boss (Vance) took his company on adventurous trips over the years. The last one was nearly 8 years ago: 2 weeks in Africa (safari and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro). There were trips before that, but Farrell didn't work there yet. So, a few years ago when Vance sold Headgate to EA Sports, he decided to set aside some of the proceeds and take those with stock in the company on one last big adventure trip. They started planning a year ago, but when it came down to it, Vance said "how about I just surprise you?"

They decided on the dates, Nov. 5-22, then Vance provided them with a to-do list and a packing list. Things like: get scuba certified, train for rockclimbing, train for hiking, what shots to get, update passports,... show up at the airport at 7:00 PM.

So he left Friday night at 9:00 PM and after 40 hours of travel (25 hours on planes) they arrived in Makasar, Indonesia. Got to sleep four hours and then one more flight to really begin their adventure...
This is home base for the next 2 weeks: the Atasita.

Post from Vance's facebook page:

"We have boarded a beautiful, hand-made, wooden, Phinisi schooner. Loved the moment as they discovered this surprise. We have the schooner and a crew of around 17 to ourselves. Not quite rough'n it just yet. Tomorrow we trek into the island of Batanta and do our first practice dive."

So there you go. What an amazing adventure! Vance had a meeting for the wives 2 weeks ago and told us all the details. So I'll post updates of what I know was planned... and hopefully be able to get more pictures from Vance. Iffy, though. Farrell said the likelyhood of web access for these 2 weeks would be really low. The kids and I are really excited for Farrell--but we also really miss him. :)