Tag: cruising

  • One Year Cruising Anniversary in Tonga

    Back to Port Maurelle, where we dinghied to a cliff of trees covered with flying foxes (fruit bats); close up photos revealed adorable teddy-bear like faces peeking out from their upside down black wing cloaks.  Chris and I went for a walk to the nearby village – huge solar arrays and a new electrical cord…

  • Arrival Kingdom of Tonga

    Passage from Niue to Tonga On our way from Niue to Tonga; sunny blue skies, the large colorful asymmetrical sail up for downwind sailing.  Cora’s fishing rod whirred and she worked and worked to bring the fish to the boat; it was a large billfish, a marlin.  Decided to let it go and, as we…

  • Magnificent Niue

    Niue – a place I didn’t know existed.  Once I learned it existed, a place I desperately wanted to go.  Once I learned the weather conditions that needed to be in place to go, a place I thought we’d likely never go.  It is a fair weather stop and many cruisers bypass it due to…

  • Ocean Passage to… Niue!

    Day 5:  Decided to go wing-on-wing (butterfly sailing) through the night with some modifications, overall uneventful watch.  Morning started out great, as sleepy-eyed, not yet fully awake Calder joined us in the cockpit and immediately heard the whir of his fishing rod.  Something hit and hit hard, almost spooled him, arms shaking as he brought…

  • Passage Making:Maupihaa to ?

    Day 1:  Due to our last-minute decision of leaving today (rather than tomorrow), there was suddenly much to get accomplished.  Calder and Chris scrubbed the hull, attached our Code Zero sail, and secured the dinghy.  Cora and I prepped passage food, prepared schoolwork that could be done underway, and cleaned the boat.  For this passage,…

  • Maupihaa Part 2: Waiting for a Weather Window

    About 1200 nm to Tonga.  Here we sit at anchor, listening to the wind howl across our boat, waiting for a weather window.  Our weather consultant (Sailing Totem) had warned us that our initial 3,000nm across the Pacific would prove less challenging than finding the right weather window in these squirrelly parts of the ocean. …

  • Maupihaa: Adventures in Atoll Living

    How did we end up on a 100nm overnight voyage from Maupiti to Maupihaa with a local grandmother and a pile of supplies and food for the locals?  While we were in Maupiti, another cruising boat reached out to us from Maupihaa, providing us contacts to organize the passage of a woman named Norma back…

  • Society Islands Part 3: Mantas in Maupiti

    Underway at sunrise, the seas were calm and the winds light, allowing for a “productive passage” of bread-baking, laundry, and water-making.  The entry into the Maupiti lagoon via its one pass, Onoiau, can be tricky and was somewhat exciting.  One cannot enter the pass unless there is less than a 2 meter swell; we had…

  • Society Islands Part 2:  Huahine, Ra’iatea, and Taha’a

    Blessed by a mellow and uneventful overnight passage, as our crew got the necessary sleep to feel better from COVID; we pulled into lovely Huahine, dolphins greeting us at our bow.  Huahine, with only 6,400 people, is lush and scarcely developed.  Unfortunately, we also had some fishing line wrapped on our hull, but were thankful…

  • Society Islands Part 1: Tahiti Tours & Magical Moorea

    The Society Islands Archipelago… home to famous Tahiti and Bora Bora, where Captain Cook made port, and the most populated islands of French Polynesia.  We arrived from the Tuamotus to witness sunrise over Tahiti, as we radioed on Channel 12 to enter Pape’ete, as well as gain clearance to transit the water immediately off the…