Libertalia

40Ft Leopard Catamaran

Posted: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 13:46

The Final Post Well the good news is we made it back in time to watch the rugby (and what a great win it was by England). In fact, we made such good time, we arrived at the Opua quarantine dock

Posted: Sat, 26 Oct 2019 - 01:38

The Journey Home With remaining crew members Simon and Jeff (known as Inky) arriving on schedule at 3pm Friday, I had them clear immigration by 4.30pm making their stay in New Caledonia a whole one

Posted: Fri, 18 Oct 2019 - 14:53

The final Preparations Final preparations for the return home have been in full swing since the Skippers meeting on Tuesday. A lot of the young families are flying home and boats are taking on

Posted: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 - 11:38

Noumea and the inter lagoon One of the highlights of the southern lagoon was Ilot Mato which I’ve talked about before and visited with Douggie. Chris hadn’t seen it, so we decided to visit it again

Posted: Sun, 6 Oct 2019 - 18:44

The beautiful Ils des Pins Arriving in Kuto bay on the Ils des Pins (Isle of Pines) reminded you of a typical tropic island in paradise. It had beautiful white sandy beaches, palm trees, crystal

Posted: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 - 08:48

Some more windward work There was a strong wind warning the weekend Dougie flew into Lifou, so we decided to wait it out and sail across the mainland of New Caledonia (known as Grand Terre) on the

Posted: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 - 14:29

A Tough Windward Passage As I’ve said before, the most dangerous thing on a boat is a calendar. Having to be in a certain place at a certain time, makes you make decisions you otherwise would not

Posted: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 - 17:28

A Changing of the Guard We’ve come to the end of our time in Vanuatu and it’s time to move onto the final country in the rally – New Caledonia. After far too shorter time in some of the northern

Posted: Fri, 6 Sep 2019 - 07:22

Swimming with the Mantas and Dugongs With the new crew safely off the plane and able to find the boat in Port Vila harbour, it was a short 4nm sail across to Mele Bay to watch the circus show put on

Posted: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 - 10:19

A Change of Crew Well after nearly 10 wonderful weeks, it’s time to say goodbye to my very able crew Nickie. We’ve had an amazing time together; she landed by small plane into a remote land called

Posted: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 - 15:46

The power of the Volcano One of the beauties about being on the rally is being able to clear customs in places you normally can’t. In the case of Vanuatu, we had customs fly into Anatom and clear

Posted: Thu, 15 Aug 2019 - 09:47

Vanuatu – a whole new country and culture Fiji to Vanuatu is the biggest inter-island crossing of the rally, a distance of 450nm which at an average of 150nm per day would be a 3-day passage. With

Posted: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 - 15:01

Exploring Western Fiji and Reflections of the Country We are just about at the end of the Fijian leg of the rally. Our delivery crew, Paula and Bill arrive this afternoon in time to watch the

Posted: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 - 08:52

Its Resort Time The Yasawa’s is in the lee of the main island (Viti Levu) and is protected from the prevailing SE trade winds. Unfortunately, what goes down must come up; the beautiful sail down the

Posted: Tue, 30 Jul 2019 - 11:49

The other side of Fiji – in more ways than one Since my last post we’ve done a lot of miles and seen the character of Fiji change as we’ve moved further west. We had a pleasant day sail across to

Posted: Mon, 22 Jul 2019 - 12:43

Survivors and Manta Rays So, we’ve left beautiful Matuku and embarked upon another short (75nm) night passage to the Astrolabes/Kadavu area. Conditions were much calmer this time and much more to

Posted: Mon, 15 Jul 2019 - 11:34

Back in Eastern Longitudes Fiji straddles the line of 180 degrees on Longitude, the opposite place on earth to Greenwich in the UK where Longitude was accurately measured by the British Navy. We

Posted: Tue, 9 Jul 2019 - 11:21

The magic and remoteness of the Lau Group The great thing about being able to do customs clearance at Vanua Balavu (uniquely organized by the Rally administration) is that the rest of the Lau Group

Posted: Thu, 4 Jul 2019 - 15:34

The other Bay of Islands If you thought the Bay of Islands in New Zealand was special, then you should take a trip to Vanua Balavu. Accessible only by boat, their Bay of Islands has a similar feel

Posted: Fri, 28 Jun 2019 - 08:58

Bula from Fiji Another day, another country and another crew. We had a beautiful 2 day (300nm) crossing from VaVa’u to Vanua Balavu; the largest of the islands in the northern Lau Group. Over the

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