Blog Archives

To Fiji

I have been totally useless at keeping this blog up to date; so once again it is catch up time.

The voyage from Tahiti to Fiji continued much as it was on my last update; fairly fast and boisterous. We caught a nice Mahi Mahi that we cooked as steaks fresh from the cutting board, canned what we could fit into our spare canning jars and made escabeche with the rest.

Mahi Mahi for dinner

Mahi mahi for dinner

One of the downsides of not having a fridge is that we are forced to process our catch quickly so within about four hours of being caught that fish was either being digested, cooling in jars after coming out of the pressure canner or gently pickling as escabeche. Read more ›



Maururu Tahiti

Wind Generator sporting new tail

The wind generator with its new tail

Monday 21 August 2017
16:25.60S 158:40.80W

Well it’s been a while and I know a few of you have been waiting for an update knowing that we are back aboard “Morgane”. We have been a bit busy and haven’t had time for writing blog entries or much else except work for that matter. As well as working on “Morgane” we have both been working remotely on our land jobs.
To cut a long story short we flew back to Tahiti from New Zealand at the end of June.

Read more ›



Re:START in Christchurch

Re:Start container shopping centre

I’m writing this entry from our home for the next couple of years in Christchurch, New Zealand. A city that is, like us, going through something of a re birth (or Re:START) after the damage caused by the 2011 earthquake. Read more ›



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 ›



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