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Kumai River Cruise The sail to the mouth of the Kumai River was lovely. We managed to put the ballooner up for the first time in a long time to take advantage of the downwind sailing conditions. From there, however, it's a bit of a slog upriver to get to Kumai, and...

Lovina Beach While most of the rally boats headed to Benoa in the south of Bali, we headed north to Lovina Beach - where the Sail 2 Indonesia rally stopped in previous years. In contrast to seeking the wild party life to be found down south, particularly in the likes...

Gili Air The World Arc boats were gathering in Lombok for their onward journey towards South Africa. So. with limited room in the anchorages and no mooring balls free at Medana Bay marina, we decided to head over to one of the islands opposite Lombok, Gili Air. It is...

Badas Badas was a disappointment. We stopped here for one night, anchored amongst the commercial traffic while savouring the fumes belching out of one of the ships at the dock. And there wasn't a t-shirt shop (or any other shop for that matter) in sight. The next...

Rolly Road to Rakiet We believe Moyo Island is very beautiful, but because the anchorage was packed with rally boats anchored in deep water on a lee shore, we decided to give it a miss and carry on around the corner to a more peaceful place where we anchored in 15...

Bima Either they have cleaned their act up, or the comments we have heard regarding Bima's cleanliness are a bit harsh. The photograph below, taken from the back of the boat, illustrates three things: the water shows no obvious signs of sewage, the fishermen work hard...

Labuan Bajo This rally schedule has been so packed that I haven't had time to put my fingertips to the keyboard. So, once again, I am going to stretch the limits of my memory to share what we have been up to in the last few weeks - and that's the reason why some of...

Hoga The wind was light and blowing directly into our eyeballs as we left the marina at Wanci. So, rather than risk arriving at Hoga in the dark by attempting to sail by doing a thing called tacking, we used Yanmar-san to get us there by the direct route. If there...

Festival time 17th August is Indonesia's Independence Day, and in the run-up towards that, there is a lot of activity here in Wanci. So Nuzri thought it might be fun for us to take part in a celebratory parade. How could we resist? As far as I can work out,...

Wangi Wangi Island Grab a strong coffee - here's a bit of etymology for you: The name Wakatobi is derived from the first two letters of the four main islands. The WA represents Wangi-Wangi. The rest of the word contains the leading letters of Kaledupa, Tomia, and...

Jefry's Fish Restaurant We had heard of this place and seen the pictures but didn't really know what to expect. Located just off the coast of Ambon, Jefry's Fish Restaurant - otherwise known as Rumah Makan Apung Emas Biru - is a unique place. We haven't encountered...

Kawe - Equator Island I wonder if they have this right. The Raja Ampat Equator Monument on Kawe is supposed to be at 00°00'00" - 130°07'28"E - bang on the equatorial line of latitude. But my phone didn't agree, and neither did our handheld radio's built-in GPS. I'm...

Leaving Ambon Secure in the knowledge that the back of my eyeball wouldn’t end up at the front - and in a place where there are few people and definitely no clinics, we decided to head north to Wayag in Raja Ampat. We left Jefry’s place early on July 12th so that we...

Welcome to Debut We arrived in Debut after four and a half days of near-perfect sailing from Thursday Island. The only hazards along the way were occasional clusters of fishing vessels. Fortunately, these were either lit up like Times Square or splattered across our...

Great Barrier Reef There are a few entrances to the Great Barrier Reef, some more challenging than others, and all less than perfect. After a couple of hours trying to figure out which to choose and how to weave through this maze of reefs, I came across a book on...

After almost six months in New Zealand, we sail just over 1000 miles to Tanna, then overnight to Port Vila to catch a flight to see the land divers of Pentecost Island.
I also used the time on passage to write about what we’ve been up to. I’ve been a bit slack on the writing front because it has been a busy few months of sightseeing, boat fixing, and travelling around Aotearoa. But now we are just about up to date.

Leaving New Zealand We wanted to sail up to Opua to see Bertrand and Pascale one last time before we each headed in different directions. But with the wind hurling down the coast from the north, that wasn't going to happen. Instead, we anchored at Urquarts Bay for the...

Riverside Drive We thought we might like New Zealand but were wrong - we loved it. The scenery is stunning. The people we encountered were friendly, helpful, and present. And we could get things done. New Zealand has some very skilled people, and the quality of work...