Had nice sail from Tutukaka to Bream Head today and went up the river to Riverside. Great to be back!

Sailed down the coast to Tutukaka from Opua today. Very nice sailing conditions in 10-15 knots from the ENE.

Got a great boost from the wind this morning and were able to make Opua and get cleared late afternoon. We'll be in Opua for a few days before heading south to Whangarei. Very good trip. New watch schedule (8 on/ 8 off) worked really well.

Wind has backed around and we're sailing again. Hope to make Opua today if all goes well.

Motorsailing into light winds. Passed through a weak trough last night. Wind shifted all around and we had some rain, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. Ken lost a boat shoe overboard. At least he didn't jump in after it.

Wind held for longer than we expected and had nice sailing conditions all day. Turned on the motor early this morning as wind backed and lightened. Full moon making night watch keeping much easier.

Picked up some nice wind overnight and having a good beam reach at the moment. We know it won't last and expect to have to motorsail again.

On our way to NZ from Isle of Pines. Light winds, so motorsailing to keep speed up. We're trying new watch schedule at night (8 on/ 8 off). Will see how it goes. Weather very benign for departure.

Leaving today for New Zealand. Had several nice dives at Gadji. Hard to leave this place!

Left Port du Sud today and are at the entrance to the Bay of Prony. A beautiful spot in these light conditions.

Motorsailed back to Noumea today. Will spend a few days doing errands and then plan to check out for NZ. We hope to spend some time in Isle of Pines before heading south.

Dove on the Prony Needle today. Water was very murky and it started out a bit creepy. The needle structure is alien and eerie. We saw lots of interesting fish and creatures, including a group of spadefish who greeted us as soon as we got in the water. They followed us around for the entire dive, sometimes getting right up close to our faces. Ken got an otherworldly picture of a collection of extended coral polyps that looked like an exploding galaxy. The center of each polyp was glowing like a little star. We hope to go back again tomorrow.

Moved to Ile Casey in Bay of Prony today. Very peaceful in the mooring field. Looking forward to diving the Needle of Prony sometime in the next few days.

Still at Mato. We keep spotting new (to us) species (or variations) during our dives and are stoked about what we are seeing even though visibility hasn't been great. We plan to stay here until the wind really settles down and then move south to Ua before heading back to Noumea to checkout later in the month.

Pried ourselves away from Noumea and are now anchored at Mato Island. Absolutely stunning here. We're anxious to get in the water tomorrow. Quite a few boats anchored nearby, but plenty of room.

Tied up at the dock at Port du Sud. We had anchored out in the bay but the marina captain asked us to bring the boat to the dock for clearance. A very stiff sea breeze had built up (up to 23 knots) so it was quite choppy out in the bay. Lots of racing boats parading by for Wed races. Met a very friendly couple who live on their boat here. He's 80 years old but seemed much younger. We're looking forward to exploring Noumea.

Arrived in New Cal this morning. Anchored in Port Boise, waiting for morning tide tomorrow to continue to Noumea. Beautiful spot.

Expect to get to Havannah Pass in the morning. Pleasant sailing conditions with minimal seas. Looking forward to first visit to New Cal. Adverse current.

Left Port Vila today for New Caledonia. Nice sailing conditions. Stars out in force. Water temp has dropped over 3 degrees since started this morning.

Anchored by Iriki Island in Port Vila. No moorings available as ICA fleet has gathered for the trip to New Cal later this week.

Sailed to Mele Bay today. Nice sail for first part of trip but then motored up the bay toward Port Vila.

Moved up the coast a bit to explore other possible dive sites. Haven't found anything else yet. May move again soon.

Moved anchorages a few days ago closer to the Havannah Harbor entrance. Previous anchorage too exposed to swell. This new anchorage very good in ESE winds (though winds are gusty in here). Have dived on Paul's Rock (to the south) several times and it is surprisingly good. Rock area is in a bit of a reserve (buoy says "taboo fishing"). Interesting sponges and squirts. School of barracuda and good number of larger fish. Also saw a beautiful green turtle. Water very clear. Site is still diveable even when ESE winds are up.

Sailed over to the Havannah Harbor area today. Anchored a bit south of the harbor entrance. Hope to visit some dive sites nearby while the weather is settled. Very peaceful, though a bit rolly.

Arrived safely in Port Vila. Nice to be back in Vanuatu. Sky was overcast when we got in, but no nasty fronts yet.

Another pleasant day of downwind sailing. Sun was out for part of the day. Slowing down as we make our final approach to arrive in Port Vila in the morning.

Nice placid day of downwind sailing. No rain today. Cloudy tonight but some stars around. Ken broke a tooth this evening. Hope to find a dentist in Port Vila.

Saw sun for about 2 seconds during day, otherwise completely overcast with squalls. Wind up to 32 knots for brief time. We have been paralleling a fishing boat since we left Suva. Luckily he has AIS so we can both keep out of trouble.

Left Suva this afternoon and on our way to Port Vila. Light rain as we left. It was so dark that we thought we were having our own eclipse. Small squalls throughout the day so wind up and down. Moving nicely with wind behind us. Some stars are poking through now. Very pleasant temps.

We sailed to Suva today from Beqa and had great wind for most of the trip. Much better trip than we were expecting. Suva Harbor is very dirty. A big slick (diesel or gasoline) floated by after we were anchored.

We moved around the corner to Malumu Bay in Beqa. We'll sail to Suva tomorrow and spend a few days provisioning and doing errands before checking out for Vanuatu.

We did 2 shark dives with Beqa Lagoon Resort yesterday and they were fantastic. Saw a tiger and lots of bull sharks, huge schools of snappers, remoras, bannerfish, etc... plus an enormous giant grouper. The crew at BLR is amazing (very organized and helpful). The weather for the dive was perfect and there were only 10 divers (not counting BLR divers), so lots of room to move around on the boat and in the water. Highly recommend!

Moved back to Beqa Island and are anchored near Beqa Lagoon Resort. We're scheduled to do the shark dive on Friday. Hard to leave Yanuca, though. Very accessible dive sites there with beautiful fans and hard corals. Some nice soft corals too. Visited village on Yanuca (on east side) and saw interesting water desalination system at the village. They can process about 1000 liters every 2 days. Very friendly villagers.

Yanuca island. on the west side of beqa lagoon

Moved over to west side of Yanuku. A film crew was here making a movie called Adrift, based on the book Red Sky in Mourning. We had to move the boat several times to get out of the way of filming

Moved over to west side of Beqa, just off RaviRavi village.

Sailed to Beqa today. Had nice run and caught a mahi mahi on the way. Anchored in Malumu Bay.

Moved back to anchorage in Nabouwalu Bay yesterday after wind shift to the NE made the other anchorage too rough. Nabouwalu Bay is protected from all directions except WNW.

As of 2017-07-16 01:00 UTC: Moved around the corner earlier today.

As of 2017-07-14 02:00 UTC: Arrived at Ono Island after an overnight sail from Koro Island. Very quiet and peaceful here. Will do Sevusevu tomorrow.

As of 2017-07-13 14:00 UTC: On our way from Koro to Ono. Very pleasant sailing conditions in light wind and minimal waves. A small passenger ship is doing donuts in front of us. Not sure what they are up to. They never answered our VHF call. We just changed course to get further away from them.

Sailed to Koro Island today. Plan to see some friends here.

As of 2017-06-18 05:30 UTC: Sailed until 6 am local time today and hove to for 6 hours. We made our way up to Savusavu and anchored about 5:15 pm local time. A very nice trip. The most wind we saw was on the trip down the river from Whangarei to Marsden. Very nice conditions. We motored for a total of 72 hours since we left Marsden. We will clear in tomorrow.

As of 2017-06-17 13:00 UTC: Shook out the third reef during the day and let the boat stretch her wings a bit. We expect to arrive near Savusavu this morning and will heave to for a chunk of the day to time our arrival at dusk. This will allow us to check in on Monday and avoid over 300 FJ in overtime charges. Had some small squalls during the day with a brief gust to 31.8 knots. Crossed back over to west of the dateline. Very nice sailing.

As of 2017-06-16 13:00 UTC: After several hours of super sailing, we decided to slow down to arrive later in the day on Sunday in Savusavu. Now sailing with triple reefed main and no headsail. Caught two more fish at the same time during the day. One was a yellowfin and the other a skip jack. We kept the yellowfin. Temperature jumped to 26c. Wind up and down.

As of 2017-06-15 13:00 UTC: Wind picked up yesterday morning (local time) and we started sailing again. Caught 3 fish (all skip jacks) as we passed to the west of S Minerva Reef. Kept only one. Still battling pesky adverse current that has been our companion for days. Water temp jumped to 24c. No more fuzzy hats!

As of 2017-06-14 13:00 UTC: Another placid day of motorsailing. Wind backing around and increasing so we should be sailing again soon. No bites on the fishing lines today.

As of 2017-06-13 13:00 UTC: Motorsailing in light wind. We lowered the mainsail during the day in order to replace our new main halyard with the old halyard. The cover of the new halyard is too slippery for our spinlok clutch. Conditions were very placid for the switch. Temps rising steadily and we have shed our jackets. We're headed east of the rhumb line to get a better angle when the wind is expected to build out of the ESE in a few days.

As of 2017-06-12 13:00 UTC: Wind died off and we are now motorsailing. Caught a small skipjack but threw him back.

As of 2017-06-11 13:00 UTC: Nice sailing all day. Expect winds to lighten considerably over coming days, but we're enjoying the nice sailing for now. Weather has been mild and the full moon makes nighttime watchkeeping very pleasant. Water temp took a big positive jump a few hours ago so it is quite comfortable.

As of 2017-06-10 21:00 UTC: Left Marsden about mid-day yesterday, bound for Savusavu. Had problem with the autopilot (communication error) and the boat turned hard to starboard. We were in the ship channel going down the river from Marsden when it happened. Thankfully no one (and nothing) was nearby so we just did a 360. Fortunately we didn't have any sails up. We suspected problem was with an add on box to our Robertson autopilot and we were able to bypass it. We decided to motor without sails for a few hours to make sure the autopilot was behaving properly. It all seemed ok so we are pressing on. No repeats of the problem since. We are now using the monitor windvane so won't get another chance to test the autopilot until later on. Very pleasant conditions and sailing nicely downwind.

Leaving for Savusavu today from Marsden.

We decided to wait for another window out of here.

We arrived at Marsden mid-afternoon after a boisterous trip down the river. Blinding rain and wind gusts to 34 knots. Will decide tomorrow about leaving on Sunday or waiting for a better window to Savusavu.