Yearly Archives: 2016

Waiting for a New Zealand visa….. Zzzzzzz

Upwind aboard "Pelagic Australis"

Upwind aboard “Pelagic Australis”

We arrived at Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, late in the evening of 28th August after a fairly average voyage over from Cape Town. I wrote a blog entry for TIMEZERO by Nobeltec that covers the navigation side of the voyage and you can read that here https://blog.mytimezero.com .

It was a very average voyage in many ways; a little colder than usual due to making it earlier in the season than is normal, it lasted an average time (26 days), the weather was average but we caught more fish than usual. Read more ›



Tracking Pelagic Australis

For those who want to track our voyage from Cape Town to Stanley; you can view the boat’s tracker via the Pelagic Expeditions website via this direct link.

Estimated departure is the morning of Wednesday 3rd August.



Cape Town to Stanley

TIMEZERO weather routing CT to STYA screenshot from TZ Navigator V3 showing some of our past trips (in red) and a couple of sketched in options (in blue). The forecast is long range one paused on 12 August and the little blue boat icon shows our forecast position as if we were following the lower blue track. The coloured blobs show rain and I often include that layer as it shows up the fronts well. Read more ›



Time out in Cape Town

Cape Town from Blouberg Strand

Cape Town from Blouberg Strand

A couple of pleasant but busy weeks in Tahiti saw Morgane cleaned, maintained, and prepared to be left alone on the hard at the Tahiti Nautic Center . Morgane was very professionally hauled out and parked up by Yvan and his crew. Read more ›



Tahiti – paradise, not; and expensive to boot.

17:43.94S 149:19.65W

tahiti-itiDawnLight by .

Tahiti-iti at dawn

Hao was a very pleasant stop but soon it was time to get moving again. We had been continuously watching the weather forecasts looking for a good window to move on to the next destination but as previously mentioned the forecasts in this part of the world seem as much use as a chocolate fireguard (especially in these temperatures). Read more ›



The Dangerous Islands

18:04.50S 140:56.60W

Hao_Landfall by .

Landfall, Hao – Can you see it?

The Tuamotus have been known as the “Dangerous Archipelago” in the past due to their very low aspect and poor charts. The highest point on Hao is recorded as being only 3m above sea level. The coconut palms grow to about 15m. The atolls are difficult enough to spot during the day with good visibility and at night virtually impossible. Read more ›



Living off the land in the Gambier Islands

23:06.75S 134:57.98W

breadfruit on the tree

Breadfruit on the tree

Plenty of food lives on, grows on or swims around these islands. A good thing too as food in the shops is seriously expensive apart from the things with red price tags which are considered staples and are subsidised by the government; rice, flour, baguettes, etc.. Read more ›



What will this tropical weather do?

23:09.61S 135:02.32W

I mentioned before the fact that we had been struggling to get our heads around tropical weather and its forecasting. Last weekend had not just us but every boat in the area studying the weather situation very closely. A tropical depression was coming right over us (TD18F was its label) and as it was our first experience of one we were not sure what to expect.
Read more ›



Does it rain in Paradise?

23:06.75S 134:57.98W

SunriseAukena by .

Sunrise over Aukena with rain clouds brewing

Yes it does! The last week has been very wet but only slightly cooler than the previous couple of weeks. We have been swimming every day but that is about all our outdoor activities have been limited to Read more ›



An invasion of Falklands registered yachts

23:09.02S 135:03.30W

Peregrine Morgane Sunset by .

Peregrine and Morgane anchored in Onemea Bay

We now have two cruising yachts from the Falklands in the Gambier Islands. This is probably a first outside of the Falklands and what were the old Falkland Islands Dependencies of South Georgia, the various British sub-Antarctic Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. Leiv Poncet arrived aboard his boat “Peregrine” on a solo voyage heading for Alaska. Read more ›



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