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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.

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Crossing the Tasman Sea

[Val here. I write nearly all of our blog posts, but since Stan’s been researching in the aftermath of our recent passage, it’s only appropriate that he write this one. You’re in for a rare treat!

Our Big News

It’s not new-news, because it’s a choice we made last spring, while we were aboard our boat in Thailand. But the decision did cause us to jettison our plan of making our way to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, via Japan’s inland sea followed by a passage to the Aleutians. Instead, we turned about, scooted […]

Passage New Zealand to Fiji, Day 5

This should have been the day we made our landfall in Lautoka. But with all the scurrying hither and yon avoiding nasty weather, we lost a day. The great news is conditions have been lovely last night and especially today. Lat: 20 26 S Long: 176 03 E Winds: light and variable, NW, expected to […]

Passage New Zealand to Fiji Day 3

Lat:27 03 S Long: 171 26 E, a little over 600 miles from Fiji, heading northeast The last day/night have been no picnic, but things are settling now. Last night and early this morning we had 30-35 knots, and 18 foot seas cresting 8 seconds apart. We tried to take them off our bow as […]

Passage New Zealand to Fiji, Day 1. No, really.

Those of you watching our SPOT tracker will see we have been having a merry time exploring an unremarkable patch of ocean. But hey, we were told it would be good to put more hours on our engine. Turns out we did that. After gathering as much info as we could and the Stans poring […]

Day 1 New Zealand to Fiji… or not

We are just about 24 hours out from our departure from Marsden Cove toward Fiji. The past day has been an ideal one from the cruising power boat perspective: very light winds, comfortable slow-rolling seas, no rain, running at nearly 10 knots. The four of us had a marvelous meal last night, pan-seared New Zealand […]

Casting off, New Zealand to Fiji

Today’s the day. Our friends Stan and Diane arrived from Ventura a week ago, and they’ve been invaluable in helping with all the final labors and preparations. Having two Stans aboard can be a bit confusing, but for my part I’ve solved that dilemma by thinking of Diane’s husband, for reasons not expedient to elaborate, […]