Featured

COVID Interruptus

Our last post was January 2020. We all know what happened next! But finally, over a year later, we have some new cruising plans to report.

Featured

Japan: Is it a Shrine, a Temple, or Both?

There are approximately 180,000 temples and shrines in Japan. On a per capita basis that’s more than the number of churches and synagogues in the US. Like churches and synagogues, temples and shrines are very different.

Featured

Underwater Favorites

This post shares some of our favorite pictures taken while scuba diving in Fiji and Indonesia.

Featured

Cruising Japan’s Southwestern Island Chain

We spent our first three months in Japan island-hopping at a leisurely pace between Ishigaki (our port of entry) and the mainland island of Kyushu, where we are now.

Featured

Looking Back: Vietnam and Cambodia

While curating our photos yesterday, I came upon some gems from a “land travel” side trip of several weeks to Vietnam and Cambodia, which we never got around to posting on our blog. I thought some of you might appreciate an armchair tour in photographs.

Featured

Palau to Ishigaki, Japan

After making the 2.5-day passage together from Raja Ampat, Indonesia to Koror, Palau, I spent a week with Stan, at anchor in the gorgeous Rock Islands and snorkeling in its pristine waters.

Featured

Raja Ampat, Indonesia

Our last travel-related blog ended with us making our bedraggled landfall in Sydney, Australia after a somewhat traumatic crossing of the Tasman Sea from New Zealand. By way of catching up, we spent a lovely few weeks in Sydney, including a visit from my sister Jody and her good friend Valerie. Cruising your own boat […]

The Spice Islands! And Buffalo Soldier Goes AWOL.

Some of the rally sailboats opted out of the passage north across the Banda Sea to the Spice Islands, a cluster of about half a dozen small islands in eastern Indonesia. This was primarily because it would necessitate beating back south later, with no help from the tradewinds blowing from the southeast. We didn’t have […]

Hello Mister!

That’s what we heard shouted in our direction, in every town and village, in every anchorage in Indonesia. By grinning kids canoeing up to Buffalo Nickel in their outriggers, by adults walking, or zipping by on motorbikes in the busy market streets. Once in awhile someone with better English would wave and say “Hello Missus” to […]

Australia – The Short Version

The 1,300-mile passage from Vanuatu to Cairns, Australia took us nearly six days, but was one of our most comfortable and uneventful crossings to date. Seas were 2.5 meters for the first couple of days, but all well aft of our beam, making for decent surfing conditions. We hit 15 knots with regularity, and had […]