We arrived at the entrance to Port Stephens at dawn on a beautiful sunny day and dropped the anchor in a couple of metres at Winda Woppa on the northern side offering protection from the NE winds. Sadly these were also fanning a big bushfire near Buladelah which filled the air with smoke and dropped …
To be honest I was glad to leave behind the frenetic activity of the Gold Coast waterways, let alone the incessant fierce storms. I was hoping that Iluka or Yamba, (on the north and south sides of the mouth of the Clarence River respectively), might offer a rather more chilled vibe – much more to …
After our brilliant Bangkok sojourn, we arrived back in Bundaberg with a few chores to get sorted – in particular, it was time to stock up on provisions which is always more easily done when we have a rental car. I now feel that we are back in the land of plenty – with the …
Having arrived in Noumea, we took the opportunity to stay a few nights in the marina for a decent rest and the convenience of having everything so much more easily accessible. Also, very importantly, Bill could give the boat a really good hose down on the dock, which the boat sorely needed. We are forever …
We decided that it would be prudent to haul out Mowzel Cat to be cleaned & antifouled in preparation for our return to Australia. The last time this was done was in Raiatea last November & in fact the antifoul was overall, holding up pretty well. However, we face the daunting prospect of passing the …
Bula visitors! The passage over the top of Viti Levu was much as expected. The easterly winds continued to blow pretty strongly, but this made for an easy passage westwards on flat calm water within the reef. We stopped overnight in a sheltered anchorage, surrounded by shallow reef & mangroves near Vatia, then continued around …
After a wonderful 10 days in the Lau islands, it was time to head back to Vanua Levu, the smaller of Fiji’s two main islands. We had a brief stop overnight in a wonderful anchorage in Malagi, then headed to Viani, a cruiser friendly bay on the eastern side of Vanua Levu where we we’re …
After returning from Europe we had a few more days at Nawi marina, whilst we got ourselves fully organised for the next leg of our trip. This included quite a large reprovision, as I had let our supplies dwindle quite significantly over the last couple of months, anticipating that Fiji would be a good place …
Our trip to Europe was one of necessity as much as pleasure. We needed to get over to Jersey where my elderly father had recently been admitted to a care home to sort out a few things. Nevertheless, we took the opportunity to stop in Sydney on the way over & it was a very …
The Kingdom of Tonga! It was a 10day passage from Maupiti to Vava’u in Northern Tonga – the longest passage so far. All the wind models indicated that we should take a broad northerly sweep to avoid high seas & strong winds further south. So with this in mind we set sail early morning, bouncing …