Category: Uncategorized

  • Day 2: Passage New Cal to New Zealand

    Overnight, the bucking bronco sensation of the boat (vertical acceleration), combined with the total darkness, caused Cora and I to feel quite seasick. I made it through 3 hours and 15 min of my 4 hour watch, but then had to pass it off early to lay down. Calder saw a brief heavy rainsquall. Otherwise,…

  • Day 1: New Cal to New Zealand

    At 8:25am, we left our mooring ball at Ilot Amendee, next stop Opua, New Zealand (with a possible stop at Norfolk Island along the way). Trying some different seasickness meds for Cora, as the scopolamine patch itself doesn’t make her feel well. While passage planning and looking at all the different variables in this crossing,…

  • New Caledonia: Ilot Exploration

    Hadn’t expected much for wind, but ended up having a truly “dreamy sail” from Ile des Pins to Ilot Ua, steady light winds with minimal seas and clear skies. We had planned on doing lots of wing-foiling in New Caledonia, but instead have been given flat calm seas, lagoons of pure calm turquoise waters, wonderful…

  • VIDEO: New Caledonia Passage

    Calder has started filming and created a video of our recent passage from Fiji to New Caledonia. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/@SailingTerikah44

  • New Caledonia: Ile Casey & Ile des Pins

    Out of the capital city of Noumea, motored in zero wind to Ile Casy, an uninhabited nature reserve, immediately greeted by bird song and the visually stunning mix of palm and tall pine trees. These endemic columnar pines stand like beacons, survivors of Triassic vegetation from some 230 million years ago, at the time when…

  • Noumea, New Caledonia: Where Cultures Converge

    New Caledonia is a place of mind-bending contrasts — somehow both French and Oceanian, European and Melanesian. Floating in the middle of the Coral Sea, it’s a French overseas territory whose main island, Grande Terre, stretches 400 kilometers in length, a rugged spine of mountains running like a backbone through the center. Along its edges…

  • Day 4: Arrival New Caledonia!

    Calder awoke to the announcement, “Fish On!” He jumped out of bed and started reeling. A morning gift from the sea of a large wahoo that will feed us many meals. So thankful! Just after Calder finished processing the first one, the line whirred again – another wahoo! This one spit out a squid beak,…

  • Day 3: Passage from Fiji to New Cal

    Continued rain squalls on and off this morning. Winds have decreased to 17-23 and we’re cruising along at 7-8 knots. We have to maintain an average of 6.7 knots to get to Havannah Channel at slack tide, a narrow coral-strewn channel that can have standing waves and fast currents if timed incorrectly. Seas currently down…

  • Day 2: Passage Fiji to New Cal

    Calder reported that the screen of his window must have been ripped off by a wave overnight. Woke to decreased winds in the 20s, seas still a good 3 meters. We’re making good time to beat a system that is coming in on Wednesday afternoon to New Cal, hoping to arrive Wednesday morning. My seasickness…

  • Day 1: Passage Fiji to New Caledonia

    Coordinating a check-out over the holiday weekend (Fiji Day!) took a bit of extra coordination. Chris and Calder into the water to scrub the bottom for a faster passage, as we need to get into New Caledonia before a system comes in. The forecast looks a bit “sporty” (code in cruising for bigger winds and…