2021
Yamba to Newcastle, NSW.
During our stay in Yamba it became clear that the eastern Australian region had moved into a La Nina cycle with rain and southerly winds. The usual El Nino cycle at this time of the year would be dryer with N-W to N-E winds. The rain and wind direction had us waiting...
Brisbane to Yamba, NSW.
Leaving Brisbane on the 10th November at the 2pm high tide, in order to use the outgoing tide while motoring down the river, it still took us three hours to the harbour. There, we were met by a 30 knot Northerly wind, which under jib alone, had us flying downwind to...
Fraser Island to Brisbane.
On the 28 th October 2021, we filled the water tanks and motored out of Bundaberg Marina, with the promise of a good N-E wind to take us south to the Great Sandy Strait between Fraser Island and the mainland. Fraser Island is the world’s biggest sand island - from...
Digby Island to Bundaberg.
We pulled up the anchor in Basil’s Bay on Keswick Island and motor sailed the 46 nm to Digby Island, where we anchored in the South bay to shelter from the wind. On the way, Annie caught our favourite fish, a Spanish Mackerel 85 cm long, no scales, no bones and firm...
Whitsunday Islands 2.
After our second sortie out to the islands, we had a productive week starting Monday the 4th October 2021. Matt brought our water maker pump unit back with new seals, new everything, connected it to the reverse osmosis units and ran the system. It was as good as new,...
Whitsunday Islands.
Click on images to enlarge. While waiting for the watermaker to be serviced, we also had to send our Fusion radio/hi-fi head unit back to Sydney, after the LCD display faded away. Getting the replacement unit back to Airlie would take about the same time, so on...
Airlie Beach.
Before I write about Airlie Beach, I have to apologise to those followers of our blog, who haven’t received our last two posts. I built this website on the cheap six years ago and didn’t realise the content would eventually exceed the capacity of the shared server I...
Fitzroy Island to Shag Islet.
On the 18th August 2021, it was a 17nm motor sail, from Cairns to Fitzroy Island where we picked up a Parks Board mooring in Welcome Bay. We spent two nights here and had Mike and Anita McMahon from “Curried Oats” over for drinks. We got some exercise by doing the...
Cairns, Northern Queensland
Fourteen days quarantine in the Pacific Hotel in Cairns was compulsory for us after our arrival in Far Northern Queensland. We enjoyed the stay and the meals from the 28th July to the 10th August 2021, but not the cost of $4,130 plus $1,894 for a marina berth while we...
Pacific Crossing Part 2: Maupiti to Cairns.
We set sail from Maupiti, French Polynesia on Monday 28 th June 2021, to sail directly to Cairns, Australia. We had almost three months in this lovely Pacific nation which gave us the opportunity to explore all the major places. Some cruisers hang around here much...
French Polynesia: Bora Bora & Maupiti
We arrived in Bora Bora around 5pm on the 19 th June 2021 after a pleasant sail from Tahaa Island. We picked up a mooring next to Andrew and Carolyn on Askari and joined them for drinks aboard. The next day wet tied up our dinghy at the Bora Bora Yacht Club and walked...
French Polynesia: Raiatea and Tahaa Islands
Raiatea and Tahaa Islands are two separate islands, surrounded by vast coral reefs. We arrived here on the 9th June and after entering the lagoon through a northeast pass off Tahaa, we motored into a few bays in Tahaa to find that the bays are all exceptionally deep....
French Polynesia: Huahine Island.
On Monday morning 31st May, we anchored at Fare village on Huahine Nui Island, 90 nm northwest from Moorea. Picture pretty, but without the dramatic mountains of Moorea. Huahine is known for the vanilla bean pods it produces and visiting a vanilla farm, plus cycling...
French Polynesia: Tahiti and Moorea.
It was a slow passage in light winds from Fakarava to Tahiti, where we arrived after 48 hrs and 250 nm (motor sailing for 24 hrs), in the southern anchorage of Phaeton Harbour. We arrived on the 28 th April 2021, which was my 74th birthday, so celebrations that...
French Polynesia: A small sample of the Marquesas and the Tuamotos.
French Polynesia is the remote hub of the South Pacific, comprising the four island groups of the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society and Austral Islands. Most sailors crossing the Pacific from Panama and North or South America make their landfall in the Marquesas, the most...
Pacific Crossing: Las Perlas to Marquesas Islands.
Note: Click on any image to enlarge. We set sail from Isla de Rey at 9:00 on Saturday the 13th March 2021. Just offshore, we had a farewell from a huge pod of dolphins, swimming with us for an hour. It was a clear sunny day with a 10kn N-W wind and flat seas, allowing...
Panama City and the Las Perlas Islands.
Hi Folks Rather late than never - this post is 4 weeks late! The reason? We were anchored off Pedro Gonzalez Island in the Las Perlas group, where I did this post with good phone reception. I should have published it then, because when we got to Isla del Rey, the last...
The Panama Canal.
Correction: My previous post stated that Karen and Evan hiked in NZ over Christmas. Not correct - they hiked in Tasmania - sorry guys! Limon Bay is a large anchorage for ships, protected by a long breakwater on the Atlantic or Caribbean side of the Panama canal. The...
The Colombian and Panamanian Islands.
On the 11th January we motored the 14 nm from Cartagena, south to the Baru peninsula which has a beautiful long white beach with clear water on the North west side, called Playa Blanca. We found a sheltered anchorage in the lee of Punta Gigantes and it was so...
Christmas and New Year in Colombia
Originally, our plan was to spend two weeks in Santa Marta and then move on to Cartagena (pronounced Carta-hay-na) for Christmas and the New Year. Our anchor and chain, sent in for re-galvanizing, was supposed to take 7-10 days, but was eventually, only returned the...