Saturday, December 16, 2017


New Zealand to Tonga / Fiji (May – Nov 2017)


Yes, we are woefully behind on our blog.  Since we last posted, we were getting ready to leave New Zealand and sail to Tonga.  As of today (Dec 2017), we are back in New Zealand from Fiji for another cyclone / NZ summer season.  Not sure why it has become difficult to continue to update our blog.  Maybe posting some pictures on Facebook seemed to be enough, but really, it must be that I (Miriam) am lazy.  Some people might think that cruising is just full of cocktails and sunsets.  Sometimes it is like that, but lots of times there is a lot of work involved.  From constant cleaning, cooking, maintenance, and homeschooling, and weather/passage planning/making and boat repairs.  So, in doing all of these things, sometimes the blog gets put aside.  I originally wanted to blog so that we would have something nice to look back upon, especially for the kids.  A nice memento of our time together before they grew up and moved on to their own adventures.  So, back at it.

Whangarei /Marsden Point Marina, New Zealand – May 2017

We had hauled out the boat in April to replace the keel boats and now finalizing our last weeks in Whangarei before getting ready to depart for Fiji.  

Enough getting ready to go back in the water

We had bought a car to travel around NZ and thought we would sell it.  So, we put it up on Trade Me (kind of like Craigslist/eBay).  But after a week, we decided to just keep the car and come back for it next season.  Yes, we were going to come back to NZ!  


The kids spent their last few weeks at a Minecraft camp and went to the beach for the last days of summer.
At North Tec for Minecraft with their friend from SV Jade


Ocean Beach in the Whangarei Heads with SV Jade

Maori good bye performance for cruisers leaving NZ


We moved from Whangarei Marina to Marsden Point Marina as it was closer to the ocean and we could clear with Customs and Immigration.  Just waiting for the right weather window.  Our Visas were due to expire on May 24, and we thought we would have left by then as we originally planned on leaving around the 20th.  Well, a low-pressure system showed up and made our minds up that we were going to wait, which meant extending our Visas for just a little bit longer.  We really only needed to extend for a few days, as we found a window and left on May 26th.

Marsden Point Marina - getting ready for departure

Tonga (not Fiji) here we come - May / June 2017

We left Marsden Point on May 26th and had a ok first night.   A little rolly, but not enough to get seasick over.  By the 2nd day, the weather was great.  Nice easy 15 knot winds on the beam.  But the wind started to die and we ended up having to motor.  We were trying to reach Tonga in time for our friend's son's birthday in Vavau.  We had been to Tonga the season before and really enjoyed it, but was really looking for to it, as we were planning on meeting friends we had not seen since French Polynesia.  SV Pesto and SV Sang Vind and hopefully our friends on SV  Tika as they were possibly heading up from the Ha'apai group in Tonga.  We motored for about 15-20 hours not wanting to get caught in any possible bad weather approaching, but also to just see our friends.  

Sunset from our boat as we made our way to Tonga


Unfortunately, Geoff smelled something bad and then noticed smoke coming out of the engine compartment.  We did not know at the time what was wrong, but knew the engine sounded really bad and would not stop smoking.  The alarms were going off on the boat and it was noisy and smelly.  We had to decide what to do.  We could not look at the engine while under way, so we decided to stop in Minerva Reef to determine what was wrong and if possible, fixing it while at anchor in Minerva Reef.  At least the wind did pick up and we could sail to Minerva Reef.  We ended up anchoring in South Minerva Reef.  We did need to start the engine again to come into the Reef. That was very nerve wracking as we did not know if the engine would fail and we could possibly end up on the reef as the entrance is narrow and the wind was not blowing up into the reef, but to the side.  We made it in and anchored right at sunset. Whew!  Geoff was able to look at the engine the next morning, and made a possible diagnosis that we probably took on bad fuel and now our engine had failed.  With this very sad news, we made the decision to sail to Fiji.  As Tonga has no real boat yard for haul out or any suppliers with parts that could help us repair the engine.  So, we informed our friends via Iridium Mail, that we would be heading to Fiji and would hopefully see them as they made their way to Fiji in the next couple of months.  Sigh...

Location of Minerva Reefs
Minvera Reef, two submerged atolls in the South Pacific south of Tonga and Fiji.   We anchored in South Minerva, the one that looks like an infinity symbol or figure 8.  We anchored in North Minerva the year before as we made our way down from Tonga to New Zealand.

Fiji here we come!

Now, getting to Fiji without an engine.  Hoping the wind would continue to be favorable so that we could sail the whole way.  If there was no wind, we did not have a chance of motoring there.  We waited for a day or two and luckily, the wind was good, 15-20 knots for the next several days.  The last day the wind increased to 30 knots on the nose and getting into the pass to Viti Levu, Fiji's big island, was a challenge.  The winds have a cape effect coming from east to west and really sweep around the corner where the pass entrance is.  We could see the pass, but getting there took several more hours that we had anticipated and it was a bumpy ride.  
We made it into the pass and the wind was nice and calm, 12 knots, so we were able to sail the next couple of hours to the Quarantine buoy of Vuda Marina!  We were so relieved and exhausted.  We were able to come into the marina and get checked in and finally rest!

Viti Levu - the big island of Fiji

The warmest and friendliest greeting from the folks at Vuda Marina. 
What a welcome!

 next post - 2 months in the "pit" for engine repair.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Back to the North Island and to Whangarei

We had to make it back to our boat in Opua as Geoff was going to work in South Korea for about 3 weeks.  We raced back from the South Island and took the boat down about 80 miles to the town of Whangarei.  They have a great marina in the Town Basin and is close to everything in town.  There was lots to do and the kids and Miriam had great friends to hang out with.  As Geoff was away, we enrolled the boys in the local school, Whangarei Intermediate, so they (and Miriam) could take a break from "boat school".

Sharron (Whangarei Marina), Michelle (SV Jade) and Miriam 
at the Fancy Dress (costume) Dock party in the Whangarei Marina

Kai (SV Tika) celebrates his 13th birthday at Naylene and Phil's ranch. 
We camped out and had a great night.

Greer baked an amazing mocha cake!

Eric and Vandy from SV Scoots around the campfire

Camping fun

Lots of folks from the marina joined in for the day of camping fun

The next day, we had ice cream before Tika left to sail to the South Island.

Some fun activities while in Whangarei - Zumba!

Noah and Ferne joined a Zumba class with us

Horatio and Noah in their school uniforms

First day of school - Noah, Noah (SV Jade) and Horatio

Noah with a fresh head.  Nice haircut.

Noah's Year 7 teacher performing at the Love Mussel restaurant and bar. 

Bowling and Laser tag in the same building!!

Sinking - one of the unfortunate things that can happen to boats.  

Lots of folks from the marina rallied together to help save the boat.

Lots of water came rushing off the boat once the pumps were set up.
The boat did not sink and is now dry and being repaired due to the water damage.

We got tickets to the WOMAD,world music and dance, festival that was being held in Taranaki.  
4.5 hour drive SE of Whangarei.  Another long drive, but worth it!

Jade caravanned with us and Tika sailed to New Plymouth/Taranaki and our friends from Nogal flew from Australia to all join together for this incredibly fun 3 day festival.

Food and Fun with Friends

Jade, Tika, and Nogal and Enough 
all enjoying the very late night waiting for the Specials to perform

They had a Kid's Activity Center and the boys made this amazing cardboard house

The house was our meeting point with the kids during the festival as the grounds were very large and very spread out.

The WOMAD festival photographer taking a picture of the boys in their house.

La Cymbalobylette
One of the really inventive artists at WOMAD.  La Cymbalobylette from France. Horns, cymbals an bells work by peddling this bike.


A day in Auckland with friends from Hawaii

The Mehta's.  Friends from the San Francisco bay area that now live in Hawaii happened to be in Auckland for the day.  We spent the afternoon with them on Horatio's Birthday.

Back at the marina, Horatio had cake and brownies for his birthday cake

12 candles!  

Clothes exchange evening at Sharron's house. 

Great evening to meet new friends and exchange clothes

Easter Egg hunt

While the boat was being hauled out, we rented a house across the street from the marina.  It was a great location and had great views.  
Having Easter Brunch with SV Jade and SV Velic

Fun day at Ocean Beach in the Whangarei Heads.

oh, the thought of leaving them buried!

Time if coming for us to leave New Zealand and head back to the islands as cyclone season is almost over.  Seems to still be in effect, though! Lots of late cyclone activit.  But knowing that we would be leaving soon, we would need to haul out and at least paint the bottom.  Geoff  also wanted to make sure the keel bolts on our boat were still good as we did not know if they had ever been replaced or maintained.  So, we hauled out and Geoff managed to pull all the keel bolts out.  The good news was that luckily only 2 were bad, but the bad news was that the two that were bad were under the galley. So, they galley had to be taken apart!

Bad keel bolts

keel bolts

After, with the new bolts in place

template of the bottom of the keel

Cut and ready to be glued up
Epoxy and fiberglassed

Glued on and epoxied into place


Almost ready for paint

Ready to be lifted and then back in the water.

After 24 days, Enough is going back in the water.





Back to Town Basin to finish the floors and galley and
 then get ready to provision and head back up to the Islands - Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia (at least that is the plan so far!)