Iolea
FollowWe are an Australian couple (Paul Duncan & Kate Owen) who bought Iolea in Annapolis USA in 2010. Our cruising adventure started with a couple of years cruising the Caribbean. In 2013 we transited the Panama Canal and crossed the Pacific to NZ. For the past 3 years we have been cruising NZ (north and top of the south), Fiji and Vanuatu. We arrived in the Solomon Islands early April following 6 months sailing through Kiribati, The Marshall Islands and a short stop in Kosrae. This year we are heading back to Vanuatu and then on to New Caledonia before returning to NZ and preparing to head back across the Pacific in 2018.
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Recent Updates
Iolea - June 30, 2019
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After four glorious days and three nights in the stunning Geographic Bay we sailed across to Kodiak Island. Inside Geographic Bay we started with zero knots of wind, as we left the entrance though ... Read More
Iolea - June 27, 2019
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Just when you think it can not get any better it does just that. Yesterday we had a lovely sail from Big Alinchak to Geographic Bay. Had 15-20kts from behind with no swell so we pottered along with ... Read More
Iolea - June 26, 2019
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Moved to Big Alionchak Bay for tonight. Wow, this is yet another great anchorage with a gently sloping sand bottom, stunning views, and great protection from everything other than wind/swell with ... Read More
Iolea - June 24, 2019
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We sailed east to Port Wrangell as locals told us that nothing gets in there, that it is an extremely safe anchorage. Whilst it was well protected it was also tight with steep rocky hills suggesting ... Read More
Iolea - June 24, 2019
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Had a surprisingly pleasant sail east to Nakalilok Bay which offered us a great anchorage tucked into the NE corner up the head of the bay. We moved in the morning to the NW corner hoping to dingy ... Read More
Iolea - June 22, 2019
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Motored 12nm to Hook Bay to check out a local legend's old digs. Many many years ago a Swedish guy called Smokey Chris built himself a cabin in this bay which also had a nearby log cabin version of ... Read More
Iolea - June 22, 2019
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Had another uneventful motor sail today, this time from Kupreanof Harbour anchorage to Chignik Harbour Marina. This is another very safe anchorage. This is a very small town with only 90 permanent ... Read More
Iolea - June 18, 2019
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Had an uneventful motor sail today to Kupreanof Harbour anchorage off Pual Island. This is a very safe anchorage, will be good sleeping this evening. Tomorrow the plan is to head further ENE to ... Read More
Iolea - June 18, 2019
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The wild weather has started to ease so we pulled out of the pen and ducked around the corner to Baralof Bay to check out the old cannery. Now this is an interesting place. You go around to the ... Read More
Iolea - June 13, 2019
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Well Bear Bay is not an anchorage we recommend. You anchor on rock that is poor holding and you get an almighty fetch from the east if there is any east in the breeze at all. So we picked up our ... Read More
Iolea - June 11, 2019
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Got up early this morning to move from Kitchen Anchorage around into the next bay to an anchorage called Bear Bay. Had a pretty unwelcome easterly breeze that kicked in shortly after arriving ... Read More
Iolea - June 9, 2019
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We moved out of the marina yesterday to an anchorage to the east just around the corner called "Kitchen Anchorage". Wow what a top spot, we took the dingy for a spin into the head of the larger bay ... Read More
Iolea - June 6, 2019
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0nms to go to King Cove, yes we have arrived and are safely tied to a great slip in King Cove Marina. Some stats from the trip are: - total passage time was 14.5 days - max boat speed was 10.4kts - ... Read More
Iolea - June 5, 2019
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59nms to go to King Cove; which will make this a 15 day passage. The last few days have been tough; as we've been battling northerly winds and swell whilst trying to go north. The sea state got so ... Read More
Iolea - June 4, 2019
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167nms to go to King Cove. This is turning out to be the most frustrating part of the passage. The last three days are full of northerly winds and swells which has ground a progress down to a ... Read More
Iolea - June 3, 2019
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296nms to go to King Cove. The winds finally eased for us around 4am, had some glorious light wind sailing up to 10am when the wind died and went north so we're motoring now. We are hoping to ... Read More
Iolea - June 2, 2019
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412nms to go to King Cove. Quite a different 24hrs to yesterday. Late in the day the winds built to 25-30kts from the W-WSW, seas built back up to 2.5m from the NW / W / SW, and we've been ... Read More
Iolea - June 1, 2019
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584nms to go to King Cove. After a slow night of light wind motor sailing, the breeze kicked back in late this morning resulting in some extraordinary sailing conditions that were further enhanced ... Read More
Iolea - May 31, 2019
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764nms to go to King Cove. We're hoping this will take 5 days, but the winds in 3-5 days will either disappear or turn northly; if this is the case it will take us another 6 days to arrive. We had ... Read More
Iolea - May 30, 2019
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Only 913nms to go, yeah! This translates into roughly 6 more days. We had a windy night and a squally start to the day; we've never seen squalls move so fast. The skies have cleared though and we ... Read More