Tag: Antares

  • Day 4: Passage from NZ to Fiji

    Temperatures rising. 71 degrees F today, long underwear off and barefeet out. Each day increases just a bit. Needing to top up our batteries, but found that our generator stopped working, as cooling water wasn’t circulating correctly. We ran our boat engine, but this was a very slow and inefficient way to top up batteries.…

  • Day 3: Passage from NZ to Fiji

    This morning, Code Zero up in light winds. Ahhh, now this is lovely sailing! Not going as fast as before, but feels more peaceful and able to move about the boat much easier. It’s calm enough where Calder can attack the mountain of dishes in the sink. Every morning and evening we check the weather,…

  • Day 2: Passage from NZ to Fiji

    Woke up to no sight of land, still some seabirds about. We can visually see one sailboat in the distance and are in a “lump” of about 8 boats on our radar and AIS system with many other boats pouring out of NZ behind us. Continuing on with beam seas and winds, which gets a…

  • Day 1: Passage NZ to Fiji

    Enjoyed our cozy night in our quiet, warm boat. Watching boats leave about every 30-60 minutes, as they check out with Opua Customs. The weather window is looking better and better; we have our normal pre-departure anticipation, excited and a bit nervous to go. 1pm appointment with Customs – the Customs Agent who checked us…

  • Boat Sweet Boat: Back to Terikah

    Back to boat late after helping a friend on SV Linnaea with a haul-out in Whangarei. Home sweet boat – the distinct smell of our boat greeting us, the comfort of the warm wood interior, and a cozy cabin in which to sleep. We all slept great. Next day, busy with work for me and…

  • Boatwork in Exotic Locations

    One oft repeated phrases is “cruising is boat work in exotic locations.”  Cruising also involves play and exploration in exotic locations, but there is a constant background of boat maintenance with intermittent large projects.  I am taking a break from our regularly scheduled program of boat fun to bring you…boat work! We pulled into Opua…

  • Northland New Zealand: New Year 2025

    Matai Bay on the Kerikeri Peninsula, the furthest north we would venture in the Northland, turned out to be the perfect location for a New Year’s gathering for 8 kid boats, as well as a secure sandy anchorage for winds that hit 42 knots. Calder was stoked to wing foil daily. The beach was perfect…

  • Christmas & Maori Lands

    Who uses solar-powered Christmas lights? The southern hemisphere where it’s sunny summer in December!  Christmas here is not commercialized (perhaps as it is a majority secular country? summertime?) and it is focused on spending time with family outdoors, camping and having a BBQ in the warm weather. We went to a Christmas parade in Paihia,…

  • Camping & Anchoring in Northland, New Zealand

    We kicked off December by a “shake-down” camping overnight to nearby Whananaki.  We walked the “Longest Footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere” at 395 metres, which was constructed in 1947, enabling the children living in Whananki South to attend school in Whananaki North.  Previously the schoolteacher rowed a boat across the estuary twice a day to…

  • Our First Weeks in Aotearoa

    The morning after our November 12, 2024 arrival, we were greeted with a Welcome Bag of goodies including honey, cards, coupons for free drinks and bread, and rum?!  Customs could not have been friendlier, funnier, or easier; as one agent on board disclosed his fishing hot spots and tips with Calder.  Biosecurity agents reviewed the…