Greetings Friends! So you've all heard the hype about me flying to NZ and sitting next to the lead singer of the Wailers, Junior Marvin. Well, I rearranged my vaca plans so I could attend their concert in Auckland the Saturday after I arrived in Auckland. So after some sightseeing in the city and a trip out to Raglan we returned for the Wailers live at the Power Station! The Power Station is very similar to a certain choice club that is also a time of day (night) located at 9th and V St in Wasington DC. The Power Station, like [View Full Entry]

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Greetings Friends! Ok, back to NZ and off to Raglan we go. So with Julia as the designated driver and I, the navigator we hopped in Paul's car and headed down the road to one of the country's best known surf beaches. "Courdory sets" it has been described as. Once we got to the interstate our printed directions were a bit dodgy ... and we got lost. We pulled off at a place called the "Greenstone Store" where I went in to ask directions. The owner of the store greeted me and showed me a map of where I wanted to [View Full Entry]

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As a follow-up to my last log entry.. On November 19, I performed a speech in Kingston about my Water Adventure to raise funds for a local charity called Able Sail Kingston (which provides sailing opportunities and instruction to disabled sailors). About 75 people attended and the event raised over $2000 which blew away our expectations! The event was called: "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Oceans: A 46,000 Kilometre Sailing Voyage Around the Planet" The 40-minute speech was recorded but the result was dark and audio lackluster, so I have re-recorded it in the Busco Gusto Studio and pla [View Full Entry]

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Greetings Friends! Before we head down the road to Raglan I wanted to wrap up my Auckland, Part I series. So after my mad-capped marathon through the musuem, we had just enough time before meeting Paul and Inga for dinner, to head over to the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is a big tourist destination in downtown Auckland. It is the highest building in the country standing at 328 meters, thats nearly 1100 feet. It has casinos and restuarants in the first few floors, hotel rooms in the middle and a restaurant near the top and the opportunity to bungee jump [View Full Entry]

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There we were enjoying our voyage across the Tasman Sea en route to the New Zealand Fjords when our ship received a distress signal from a sailor who was in trouble about 300 miles from us. The sailor said that he had lost his steering, he was taking on water and his generator had failed. According to the code of the sea, it is the responsibility of the nearest ships to assist in any way possible. It just so happened that on our ship, Stanislas Mercier de Lacombe had just assumed command of the vessel and this was his first day [View Full Entry]

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After a long delay we are now back on the Blog, safe and sound. The voyage from Safaga to Goa harbour took us a total of 14 days, which is certainly a long time but on the other hand, one of our lives' most interesting fortnights. In the last hour before departure from Safaga all passengers were briefed on the security threats facing the ship in the Gulf of Aden and give the opportunity of leaving then, and the option of rejoining in Goa for the rest of the crossing to Phuket. No-one took these options but it did leave us [View Full Entry]

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Over my years working on ships, one holiday that I’d yet to experience was Halloween. My contracts have always worked out that I have either been at home or traveling on my own. Looking at photos from other crew members, it always looked so fun with everyone all dressed up. So when this contract was sorted out and I knew I’d be on a ship for Halloween, I started looking for my costume! I seemed way ahead of things, trying to find a costume in September, but I knew that the weeks leading up to Halloween would be chaos with me [View Full Entry]

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we spent a week in airlie beach which was really nice, that's the longest we've been anywhere since coogee so we got quite settled. and it was a nice hostel aswell, the bedswere comfy, we had lots of space in the room and we even had a tv which was a real treat! the shower wasn't brilliant though.. We sunbathed by the lagoon alot and there was 30 mins of free internet in an internet cafe down the road and the computers in the hostel all had headphones and camreas so i got to speak to jonny on skype! there was [View Full Entry]

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After a reasonable 4 hr flight we arrived safely in Brisbane airport. After queing behind a lady with a low cut top on with big boobs, been eagerly assisted by the baggage screening bloke, who as it turned out she was a student. She only had about half a dozen bags or so which needed two people to lift them! Yeah student! We got our bags on the x-ray machine, all went thru with no complaints we even declared our tea bags, that was after the lady at passport control said we should! As we were leaving the screening area the [View Full Entry]

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Meanwhile on the other side of the world... Our Eco friendly camper van, which we fill up every night just in case we get snowed in, and still standing by our descision to turn down a nice, lovely, warming heater! We arrived in Queenstown, first impressions.. Saint Tropez! This is where the beautiful people hang out, so therefore we both fitted straight in to the way of life here! We pulled up to a council owned campsite, thought this may be the better option as the more exclusive TopTen one would be more expensive, it probably was, but this cost us [View Full Entry]

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