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 ›



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 ›



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 ›



Landfall; Rikitea, Mangareva, Gambier Islands

23:06.79S 134:58.01W

A pearl farm in Rikitea, Mangareva, Gambier Islands

A pearl farm in Rikitea, Mangareva, Gambier Islands

We have finally arrived somewhere that has a proper anchorage, somewhere where we can anchor in still waters, and somewhere that we can set foot on dirt. We had been 32 days at sea (including one night in that very uncomfortable anchorage at Easter Island). Read more ›



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