Having had a superb time in New Caledonia, particularly in the Isle of Pines, we arrived safely at the Rivergate Marina, Brisbane just over a week ago. The passage was uneventful with two days of motoring but comfortable sailing and the gennaker flying for much of the time. We are now located at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Manly and will update with photos in a few days. It's been busy with varnishing and working on the engine since arriving so no time for luxuries like uploading blog pictures! Later! Today, as you see a little time was found after [View Full Entry]

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After one month in Fiji, we have visited the areas of interest and clear out from customs in Lautoka tomorrow. The three day passage from Savusavu took us through the Bligh Sea and the Northern Passage of the Yasawa's Islands and into the first most idyllic, tropical paradise, which we had to ourselves for nearly a week. Heavy plant equipment was sitting on the hillside poised to develop the area with hotels and 50 waterfront properties, so the local chief advised. We had arrived just in time to enjoy the natural beauty of the area. Three boats joined us after a [View Full Entry]

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After a magnificent 7 night sail from Auckland, with South Easterlies on the stern quarter, we arrived safely on 25 June. feeling great. First saw land about 120 miles from our destination of Savusavu as the sun rose behind the island - a stunning and memorable moment. Camelia and Matt, the crew we picked up in Auckland are currently looking for another boat possibly onto Vanuatu and we're heading east to Viani Bay to catch up on boat jobs and enjoy the dive sites. The weather here is delightful with a washdown early in the morning, sunny days in the uppers [View Full Entry]

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We're less than one week from departure. It's a three day weekend (celebrating the Queen's birthday) and the tradesmen are not here again until Tuesday. We have crew joining us on this leg to Fiji - Matt and Camelia from France are Oestopaths, which might be useful and are available until August when they're moving to work in Christchurch. One of the highlights of our time in NZ has been live music ... here are a few artists who play regularly at the venue One 2 One Ponsonby. [View Full Entry]

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After nearly six months of Marnie being in New Zealand we find ourselves watching the weather over Australia in order to plan for departing for Fiji soon, but we can't be more specific right now. When a pressure of 1020 is developing over Sydney it suggests relatively good conditions for a 6-7 day passage north. This together with winds from the SW and we're set to go. As I type however, there is a silver lined gaping chasm where the fridge used to be located in the galley. For the past three weeks we've been patiently awaiting tradesmen to custom build [View Full Entry]

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After five days in the Opua Marina, we’d straightened the boat and had a thorough wash down to clean off residue salt. We started the process of acclimatising (brrrr) and felt ready to swing 'on the hook' again so headed to the nearby island of Russell, in the Bay of Islands. We'd visited by ferry on our second day in Opua and found it very appealing. This sleepy, quaint island houses 600 off-season residents but during the summer months an additional 5400 people descend. On hearing this we were glad to have arrived in the spring while the charm was still [View Full Entry]

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We coincided with the build up to the Teuila Festival in Apia, Samoa, which is primarily a singing and dancing competition from each area, in addition to fire dancing which is pretty exciting and definitely not something to try at home. It provided evenings of entertainment in front of the Government buildings and in an auditorium when weather proved inclement. Apia is a laid back capital sitting on the northern coast overlooking the harbour which is about to undergo chaos when their right hand drive have to change by law to left hand drive because of a policy to buy cars [View Full Entry]

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.........before departing Bora Bora for Samoa. We will provide details of our time in The Society Islands when internet access is more readily available. Happy days. [View Full Entry]

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May 30 OK, here’s the text that did NOT get uploaded to the blog in the Marquesas. Well, we’ve been living on the boat for about four months now, we’ve sailed over 5,000 nautical miles together, and we’re all still friends! We left the Galapagos over two months ago, spending 22 days at sea on the crossing to the Marquesas Islands. At 3,210 nautical miles, that will be our longest ocean passage between home and New Zealand. (A nautical mile is 6,000 feet, a bit longer than a statute mile, so that works out to almost 3,700 of the more familiar [View Full Entry]

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Galapagos is wildly beautiful. Can´t believe how much life there is here, all around all the time. Truly special place, at a juncture of global energy, confluence of a number of ocean and atmospheric and geologic currents, generating upwellings of nutrients at the very base of the food chain and stimulating such a celebration of life in a barren volcanic landscape. Weird and amazing. Hope humankind can manage to avoid destroying it on our watch. A particular highlight was snorkeling with sea lions off Floreana Island. They were quite curious and playful, doing underwater acrobatics all [View Full Entry]

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