The final few miles into Marsden this morning were nothing short of magical - beautiful blue skies, flat calm seas with a multitude of sea birds, including the regal Gannet, and the majesty of Bream Head - aside from the feeling of "coming home" (this is our fifth trip here), New Zealand always inspires a sense of grandeur and seems like a masterpiece in God's Gallery - so good to be back here! We were at the Q Dock shortly after 1300, all cleared in by 1330, and fueled up and in our slip by 1430. We have cruiser friends here who just completed the trip from New Cal, as well, whom we met at the Marina's Friday afternoon "sausage sizzle" (a grand Kiwi institution!), with drinks to follow at the Marina restaurant; a great way to wrap up a mostly docile passage - and the silence (once we turned the engine off, which had been running for almost six days straight!) was absolutely golden! After a dinner of grilled NZ eye fillet steaks, and a bottle of good French Medoc, it will be a blissful night of sleep, uninterrupted by watch standing. Life is extraordinarily good, and all is very well on board the good ship Bright Angel tonight!

This horse smells the barn! We should be at the Q dock in Marsden by mid-afternoon tomorrow. (The champagne is chilling!) Still motor sailing for now - in light ENE winds, on a calm sea, under blue skies with plenty of sunshine; but make no mistake, we are no longer in the tropics - the uniform of the day is two layers of fleece! All is well on board.

Still motor sailing along (with wind vane steering) - in light ESE winds, on a relatively calm sea (swell is down considerably) under clear, sunny skies! The auto pilot even worked in the almost-no-wind conditions we experienced for several hours earlier today! Arrival at Marsden still anticipated for Friday late afternoon or early evening. All is well on board. NB: This post will show our correct longitude - 172E (I noticed the last post had us at 175E - we have done some detouring on this passage with fickle winds, but not that far east!)

Still motor sailing - and may be all the way to Whangarei if the winds don't start cooperating! (Fortunately, we should have enough fuel ti do so.) Last night was squally, and today has been a mix of sun, clouds, some wind and no wind (variable and erratic at times); at least it appears we are out of the adverse current (for now!). Arrival at Marsden now anticipated for Friday pm. All is well on board.

Started motor sailing last evening when wind dropped to single digits; heading basically toward NZ for a change! Arrival now anticipated Friday am, instead of Wednesday pm. Nice sunny day; seas are relatively calm, but there is large swell with long period. Spent the morning trying to resurrect the generator, but to no avail. Otherwise, all is well on board.

After passage of the front last night, wind filled in from the SE so we were able to tack back toward SW (were sailing E); now it looks like we we are en route to Norfolk Island (but wait, I thought we were going to New Zealand!?). Seas were very lumpy and uncomfortable last night, but have settled down some today; still hard to keep boat speed up with the chop! Looking forward to being able to actually point the boat in the general direction of New Zealand - maybe when the High moves in over the next day or so. All is pretty well on board.

Yesterday was such a nice day; blue skies, great sailing - but today, we are have had nothing but gray skies, periods of no wind, and now we are passing through a cold front with rain, with wind from the SW (wrong direction!), and on top of all that - the generator and auto pilot both died! "Boat For Sale - As Is, Where Is." But, other than that, all is well on board!

Left Noumea, New Caledonia bound for Marsden Cove, New Zealand yesterday at 0830 local time. Good sailing yesterday and throughout the night; first 24hr trip total 146nm. Some rain and lightning last night, but no heavy winds, followed by a distinct wind shift to the NE (passed through frontal band). Had been tracking S & W of the rhumb line, but started coming back with the NE winds. Wind went light about 3 hours ago, so started the engine when we could not maintain 4 kts boat speed. Only problem so far is with house battery bank; will not hold a charge under load (knew this was an issue before we left New Cal, but could not source replacement batteries there); lots of creative energy management and battery charging regimens in place for this trip, and new batteries in NZ! Other than that, all is well on board!

At P Moselle getting ready for the passage to Marsden Cove, Whangarei next week.

looking at sailing to grande Terre tomorrow

En route to Noumea, executing "plan B". When it became apparent yesterday afternoon that we were not going to make this morning's flood tide at Havannah Pass because of having had to ease off and slow down in order for the off watch to sleep the night before, and because the winds were not "as advertised" (SE instead of E-ESE), we motored east to get a decent sailing angle then deeply reefed the sails and set out on the last 130 nm to the pass at 3.2 knots, so as to make the Wednesday morning flood. We will then continue straight thru to Noumea. All is well on board!

We left Vila 0730 yesterday bound for Noumea. As we left Mele Bay, winds were E-ESE 20-25, seas 2-3m. Very rough ride to start, but comfortable now; winds and seas eased overnight. All is well on board!

On a mooring in Port Vila. Finishing up a few boat maintenance projects, reprovisioning (need more Tusker!), and getting a long overdue haircut today, while awaiting a weather window to head south to New Caledonia - maybe sometime this coming weekend (?).

We left Luganville (Aore Isdland Resort) on Tuesday, 9 August, and sailed to Vanihe Bay on NE Ambae Island. The next day we went around the corner and crossed the bar at high tide to enter Lolowai Bay. We left Lolowai on Thursday, 11 August, and had a rollicking sail across to Maewo Isdland, where we are now, anchored in Asanvari Bay, just off the waterfall; lovely spot. Tomorrow, Monday, 15 August, we will start working our way south along Pentecost Island with the plan to be at north Ambrym Island by the weekend to get settled in before the start of the Back to My Roots festival on Monday, 22 August. After the festival, we will start working our way back to Port Vila so we can clear out of Vanuatu and head to New Caledonia by mid-September. All is well on board!

Correction on current location: Lat is 17 33 (not 13). Might be time to get my vision checked again!

Broke free of Port Vila on Saturday morning, 16 July (we were there 10 days), and motored to Mele (Hideaway Island) - enroute testing the autopilot we "recommissioned" in Vila to exorcise some sort of gremlin that possessed it on the passage from Tanna; all worked well (fingers crossed it will continue to do so!) - where we spent two nights and one windy, drippy afternoon exploring the local beaches and trying out the Beach Bar; good food, cold beer, and very good live music! Today we enjoyed an exhilarating sail under mostly sunny skies to Havannah Harbour. After passing up anchorages at Ai Creek and Matapu (neither of which looked at all appealing) we ended up near the head of the harbour at Esema Bay, where all of the other cruisers in the harbour (five other boats) are anchored. Very peaceful and quiet here; no "resort blight" - just lots of locals in seriously overloaded boats who love to wave and say "Hallo" as they go by! We'll probably relax here for a couple of days before heading further north. Tonight, though, we'll be doing our "homework" for tomorrow's grib lesson on GHR!

near the end of their passage from Tanna to P Vila

We're here - Anelgaohat Bay, Aneityum Island, Vanuatu! Anchor down yesterday at 0900 local time (1000 NZST). The bubbly was great (but it was too early for Scotch!). Seven other boats here; one more came in this morning. Clearing in yesterday was a piece of cake; despite the "official" admonition 'drop anchor and stay on board until cleared-in' (which came with our written permission from Vanuatu Customs to land here - not an official port of entry), we were told (via another cruiser) to go ashore at 1400 to clear in; Customs and Immigration officials, just up from their afternoon nap, gladly took our $Vatu, stamped our passports, gave us our cruising permit, and said "Welcome to Vanuatu" - no official ever came aboard, or even asked us what we had on board (dang! Think of all the extra IPA and Marlborough white we could have stashed!). After a bar-b-q'ed eye fillet steak and a bottle of good French red, we turned in for a 14 hour nap in blissfully calm, quiet and warm conditions! All is very well on board the good ship Bright Angel today. Now, off to do some exploring!

Land Ho! And by moonlight, no less - how cool is that!? We are less than 15 miles from the anchorage, with an ETA of 0815 local (0915 NZST); we are crawling along now under seriously shortened sails, so as not to arrive in the dark. It has been an interesting day weather and wind-wise, but who cares about all that now!? Bubbly is in the frig, and when that's gone, Skipper gets his Scotch! Even as easy as it is with modern electronic navigation, it is always a thrill to set out over 1000 miles of open ocean, dealing with whatever Mother Nature throws at you, and end up at the precise spot on the globe that you intended! It really makes you appreciate the challenges faced by earlier generations of mariners who did it all with a sextant, a stubby pencil and a paper chart; especially those who were making up the charts as they went along - thank you James! And thank you GHR for all of your assistance with the weather, both for passage planning and en route. All is indeed very well on board! Steak on the barbie tonight!

Winds have gone to the north of east, giving us poor sailing angle. Fortunately, seas are calming down somewhat, so beating may at least be tolerable. Just over 100 miles to go; will have to slow down or heave to, to avoid a nighttime arrival tomorrow. Other than being tired (tough to sleep well in these conditions), all is well on board.

Challenging conditions yesterday afternoon and last night; winds increased to 28-32, with gusts to 35 (despite gribs calling for 18-19 kts, and GHR advising "fresh breeze" of 17-21 kts!) which persisted until early this morning (2 am) when we entered a band of squalls with their own brand of fun! Its been like riding a freight train through a field of boulders! Looks now (6:30 am) like the squalls might be past, and the wind and seas have settled down a bit. That, plus the noticeable increase in atmospheric thermal agitation means life is good! We are about 240 miles out, so we should make landfall at Aneityum early Wednesday morning. All is well.

Nice day, but a bit blustery yesterday. Winds "freshened" throughout the day, and by evening were 24-26, with occasional gusts to 28-29 and showers. Seas built up, too, and below decks trying to sleep in the sea berth was like trying to sleep in a washing machine! Things have settled down a bit this morning; much more comfortable ride. A little over two days to go! All is well on board.

Beautiful sunny day yesterday; the multitudinous layers of fleece are starting to come off! We had a pod of small whales (largest was about thirty feet long) keep us close company (too close, really - as little as twenty feet from the boat at times!) last evening just about dusk; they stayed with us for just under an hour. The seas have calmed down, but never being quite satisfied we are now hoping for a bit more wind out of the SE! All is well with all on board.

Squally day yesterday, and through the night, with lightning for added fun! Max winds in squalls 30 kts. Sailing wind has finally shown up. Still cannot hear GHR well enough to make out anything they are saying; maybe tomorrow. All is well on board.

Warming up a bit - at least the Boss isn't being quite so vocal about the cold! Hoping the wind will build enough to turn off the engine today! All is well on board.

Dodging cargo ships and searching for he breeze. The Boss is complaining about the cold, but other than that, "All is well on board."

Last night in Marsden; clearing with Customs tomorrow a.m. and departing for Vanuatu. All is ready and all is well.

Still in Marsden Cove, awaiting a weather window to sail to Vanuatu; possibly departing on Tuesday, 14 June. The cabin heater is keeping the crew comfy and happy. All is well on board!

Moved "down river" from Whangarei to Marsden Cove Marina on the late afternoon tide today, where we will finish up some "non-essential" boat projects and wait for a decent weather window to sail to Vanuatu; could be a bit of a wait - but that's okay, we have lots of good books on board! All is well.