Libertalia

40Ft Leopard Catamaran

Posted: Sat, 22 Jun 2019 - 15:35

Who knew I had a Joker Valve Today is our last day in Tonga; we set sail for Fiji after breakfast tomorrow. The wind gods have been kind; the forecast is for 15-20kts SE Trade winds on a broad

Posted: Wed, 19 Jun 2019 - 08:58

Birthday on the High Seas We’ve been in the VaVa’u group of Tongan islands for the last few days, after a beautiful 10 hour, 68nm sail in SE trade winds (15-18kts) from the Ha’apai’s. We were here

Posted: Fri, 14 Jun 2019 - 15:44

There’s beer in the Bilge It’s amazing how thin aluminum beer cans are these days; leave them for a couple of weeks in contact with a little salt water and bingo they erode away and deposit their

Posted: Mon, 10 Jun 2019 - 16:09

Discovering the Ha’apai Islands The southernmost island in the Ha’apai is called Nomuka and is 55nm north of Tongatapu, so to ensure we arrived in daylight, we set the alarm for 11pm and motored

Posted: Thu, 6 Jun 2019 - 16:40

We’re on Tongan Time After a week of 4 hour watches it’s been nice to unwind and have a whole night of uninterrupted sleep. Most of the fleet are now at Big Mama’s (there are a couple of

Posted: Wed, 5 Jun 2019 - 10:05

We made It – Tonga here we are Wow what an adventure. After 7 days and 1113nm (just over 2000 kms) Libertalia has arrived at Big Mama’s in Nuku’alofa in Tonga The second half of the journey was

Posted: Sat, 1 Jun 2019 - 09:29

Half Way There The weather window said we had to get north as soon as possible, which meant leaving Opua as soon as there was some west in the wind indicating the departure front was upon us. We

Posted: Tue, 28 May 2019 - 07:59

Departure Day Today is the day; it’s going to be a bit wet this morning, but sunny topical days are ahead You can watch Libertalia from here https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Libert

Posted: Mon, 27 May 2019 - 13:15

The Ready for Departure Last night I enjoyed my 3rd Sunday Roast at the Opua Cruising Club; much as I enjoyed it, I don’t want another one any time before November!! The good news is that

Posted: Sat, 25 May 2019 - 11:10

The Weather Window Opens This is the end of the 2nd week in Opua Marina and the troops are getting restless. We’ve been watching our weather GRIBs every 12 hours waiting for a window to depart and

Posted: Tue, 21 May 2019 - 15:04

A Waiting Game Well we the fleet is still here in Opua (we should have left yesterday) and it looks like we going to be here for a least another week!! There is topical depression over Fiji

Posted: Sun, 19 May 2019 - 15:47

Here's another site you can track my progress, but the advantage of this one is that I can post to it while on passage over the Satellite https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Liberta

Posted: Sun, 19 May 2019 - 13:45

Rally Preparation Week We’ve been up here in Opua (the Bay of Islands) for a week now, meeting the rest of the Rally members (there are 38 boats here with 2 joining us later) and getting to know

Posted: Sat, 11 May 2019 - 15:06

The Voyage Begins Well the day finally arrived to set sail on this South Pacific sailing odyssey. I’d been watching the weather all week, with a planned departure of Saturday 11th May and had

Posted: Tue, 7 May 2019 - 14:25

Libertalia Departure date set - Friday 10th May @ 2pm With some bad weather forecast later in the weekend, I've decided to bring forward my departure up to Opua in the Bay of Islands to this

Posted: Fri, 3 May 2019 - 15:08

One Week to go With only 1 week to go, we’ve passed an important milestone – Category 1 certification. In little over an hour, all the necessary safety requirements were ticked off making the 6

Posted: Fri, 26 Apr 2019 - 10:26

Two Weeks to go With only 2 weeks to go, the ‘to do’ list still doesn’t seem to be decreasing, it just seems to be getting longer. Libertalia spent the Easter weekend around Waiheke, hosting a

Posted: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 - 10:08

Five Weeks to go Since the last post, we’ve been very busy getting Libertalia ready for the Pacific Rally, which is now only 5 weeks away. New Zealand has some of the strictest safety regulations