It had become increasingly noticeable (and frustrating) to see how much the performance of the boat was being affected by the dirty hull. In regular sailing conditions (ie +/- 15 knots and an albeit conservative sail plan) we were struggling to get the boat to sail well. Even motoring we were losing at least half …
With Deb on a plane to Italy very soon (niece’s wedding as well as a catch up with Alice and Wil) we were looking very carefully at the potential weather windows to get back to Tahiti. It has been a series of fairly strong marasmus with little break in between, so it was looking a …
We’re currently sitting out a bit of a blow here in Huahine. Nothing too dramatic, but there is little protection from the SW wind in Avea Bay where we are sitting on a mooring. The reef keeps any swell out of course, but there is a fair old chop making trips in the dinghy a …
More fine days enjoying the cruising life and settling into the swing of things more and more. As we await our heat exchanger coming from France we are hanging around our favourite spots in Moorea. Days seem to pass by very easily as we spend the time snorkelling, paddling, various boat jobs and reading. We …
We enjoyed our few days in Opunohu Bay, which is a very pretty anchorage & thus very popular amongst the cruisers. I recall our last time here in 2009 on Vagabond Heart, towards the end of our circumnavigation. I had the brilliant idea that the family should walk up to the Belvedere, (magnificent view & …
We are now back in Opunohu Bay in the eastern anchorage which is picturesque, calm and busy as usual. What it lacks in peace and quiet it makes up for in social life. We have now met a couple of Aussie boats who have been here a while so lots of useful local knowledge to …
We had a quick trip to the UK in February and found time to spend a couple of nights in Mousehole, Cornwall. This is a very special place for us in the origin story of our boat name. It is also a spectacularly beautiful piece of Cornwall – a picture post card Cornish harbour with …
In amongst all our to’ing and fro’ing to Tahiti, we found time to visit family and friends in Europe. Not at all a boat related trip, but part of our busy year which we thought we would include here. This included: catching up with family in the UK – Berkshire, Richmond, Isle of Wight and …
We had several visits to the boat over the year. We were not ready to move aboard immediately with a bunch of things to sort out at home first; not least of which was Deb retiring in June. March 2024 is when we will have shut up shop in Sydney and started calling the boat …
We had been looking at boats online for sometime, getting an idea of what we wanted, what was available and a feel for the market. This whilst we were still both working, but intent on renewing some of our cruising experience once we had retired. We had pretty much landed on two criteria. First we …