Safe and sound back in our marina berth at Bayswater marina.

Yet another container ship zoomed past early this morning. We attempted to tack, trying to get a good angle into Opua, but alas it was not to be, and we tacked back to port-tack to head further down the coast, in an attempt to get a better angle later today. It’s been one COLD night, we have swell hitting our starboard bow, so it’s a pretty uncomfortable bumpy ride. Really looking forward to seeing NZ, some land, a really long hot shower and a nice cappuccino with cinnamon would be really nice about now. We are motor sailling yet again.

All well on board.

We arrived at 8pm 23rd of Oct, at the Opua quarantine dock, we tried to eat all the bacon and eggs on board, but only got through two of the four packets of bacon. We have already been visited by Jo from NZ customs, and we are now awaiting the MPI officer, and then we'll be off to anchor somewhere, or perhaps to another wharf to give the boat a good fresh water clean. Safe and sound.... HOME.

We’ve sighted (on AIS) another container ship Ningbo Dawn 807ft long! We must be getting close to home – thank goodness, as this messy sea is enough to make Sasha a landlubber. Sasha has slept most of today away, and figured out today that this is the longest passage she has done so far. Our passage up to Tonga was broken by a peaceful 2 day stop at Minerva reef. Next time Sasha will recommend a stop at Norfolk Island for a day or two if the weather gods allow it.

The current plan is to continue on a course of 135 until later on tonight or early tomorrow morning, and then tack towards NZ. Our current ETA into Opua is tomorrow afternoon 23 rd October 2016 which will mean it took us 6 days to get to NZ from New Caledonia. Longer than we had hoped, but a lot of it has been with the wind on our nose.

All well on board.

Another choppy night of motor sailing, the seas have calmed somewhat this morning, which is a welcome change. We had our 3rd cargo ship pass by last night – Bright Hope a 558 ft ship. The last of the frozen croissants are in the oven baking, and we’ll cook up a big Spanish omelet with fried kumara and salami for breaky when everyone is up.

All well on board.

We’ve been motor sailing with a Sou’Easter all day, it has recently gone straight south over the past couple hours. The sea has looked like black liquid metal all day long, and the sun looks like one mega magnet taunting the sea upwards in arbitrary formation – fun to look at, not fun to sail in. Dinner tonight is pizza that we bought from the Casino Supermache in Noumea. Damn good supermarkets there! All well on board.

We are in the 30’s!! That southerly has well and truly arrived. We’ve been motor sailing in choppy seas all night. We’ve been headed a few times, so have adjusted course from 108 to 100 and back again as needed over the night. A very rough night, sleep was a challenge as the sea state is messy, short broken swells.

All well on board.

We motored past Norfolk Island this morning, looks like a pretty cool place to visit, maybe next time. We had one large, lone dolphin come out to welcome us and he stayed with us for about 10mins, playing at the bows, turning upside down to get a good look as us. We also found a dried squid upfront this morning, I wonder what was chasing it, must have been something big to jump up on to the boat. We’ve been motoring all day, in very calm seas. Sasha made bacon and egg cupcakes for breakfast (after the croissants were eaten up), and then made banana and dark Toblerone chocolate muffins for afternoon tea. The steak is out and thawing nicely, we’ll eat that with some sautéed cabbage, and zucchini.

All well on board.

Land Ho! Good morning NORFOLK ISLAND, great to see you and the sun this morning. Morning Patricia and David, we will be tuning in to GHR this morning, but won’t call in unless you need something from us.

We have hit the high, we’ve watched the baro move from 1017 to 1021 since leaving New Caledonia, and as it rose the wind died off (as expected). We have motored on one engine for the majority of the night, with very calm seas so everyone has got some peaceful rest. The curried sausages that Tim-otei cooked up were delish – ps thanks to Erica and Dave for donating all the meat for our passage home, we have so much, not sure we will get through it all. We will have fillet entrecote tonight, which I think is French for Scotch fillet. Sasha has pulled out some frozen croissants this morning, and popped them in the oven, so it’ll be the last of our yummy French Organic Blueberry jam on warm freshly baked croissants this morning.

All well on board.

This morning we listened to GHR, thanks Patricia and David, great job as always. Tim-otei (first time listener this morning) thinks you guys deserve a medal for providing such a great service. Can we ask, did SV INTRINSIC (Lex and Jo) call in? We know they have your 8.750 freq, but we are not sure they found today’s transmission on 8.779 freq. They left New Caledonia the same day as us, from a pass south of where we left from. We are not sure if they are on YIT? We’d just like to know how Jo and Lex are going.

We’ve been sailing very well again all day today, seas have calmed somewhat from yesterday. Much less chop.

Muesli and yoghurt this morning, the last of our French baguettes as chicken sandwiches for lunch. And Tim-otei is cooking dinner tonight, Curried Sausages with mash potato.. yum! We’ve all had naps tonight, and are ready to rock for night shits. We have set night shifts for the first time, which Sasha is loving as she is on the sunrise shift, but also because she can prepare better if she knows when she is on shift.

All well on board.

Good morning everyone. We had a consistent easterly wind all night, and have made great progress with another 200 plus NM day. We had to divert course at about 3am as we had a large container ship called JASMINE just forward of our starboard bow. Back on track now. All well on board.

Hi to Patricia from Gulf Harbour Radio! Patricia, Sasha intends to send a YIT update during her morning shift (3am to 6am) each day of passage, so we don’t have to call in on our SSB, as our historical transmissions haven’t been too clear (apologies for that). We are looking forward to hearing you guys loud and clear now we are away from land.

It has been an interesting first day, as we make our way from Noumea, New Caledonia to Opua, New Zealand. Early this morning (6:30am) the boys (Mike and Tim-otei) whipped the main sail and head sail up. A few hours into our sail, Mike made the decision to get the Screacher up (aka code zero), so the boys pulled that out of the forward hatch and we were soon hoofing it along (10-11knots) then… the Screacher halyard snapped! Drama, drama drama! Nah, not really, the crew acted quickly and calmly; Mike and Tim headed up the front and pulled the sail out of the water, and then got to work removing the snapped halyard from the mast, which they achieved. Sasha stepped up to helm, starting the port engine once the sail was clear of the water, she then removed the screacher sheet off the stern starboard winch and retrieved the halyard block off the bit of halyard that lay on the starboard deck. Our secret speed maker and favourite sail is now out of operation, until we can get another halyard sorted. Luckily the sail is not damaged at all. One thing that Sasha has learned today, (after Tim read it out of one of our Boating New Zealand magazines – GREAT MAGS THOSE!!) is that rope makers reckon once you tie a knot in a rope it can reduce its strength by half. Sasha didn’t know that until today – ya learn something everyday! We had a quick breaky this morning, so we could get sailing early; museli, greek yoghurt and fresh fruit. Lunch was freshly baked baguette chicken sandwiches. We’ve nibbled on a few chocolate biscuits for morning and afternoon tea, and the spiral lasagna is re-heating in the oven as we type. Our pre arrival form has been emailed off to NZ customs, with an ETA of 25th October, 0700 hours, let’s see how accurate our best guess was.

Sasha has downloaded the SSB metservice weather maps, and we are keeping an eye on all those low weather systems way down south.

All well on board.

We are off!! Got a very muffled transmission from GHR this morning (it will get clearer as we get further away from Noumea). Bring on Opua, New Zealand!! Mike, Sasha and Tim-oteh! On board and all are well.

Sitting on a mooring at Ilot Laregnere... We have cleared out of Noumea, and we head off first thing tomorrow. The current predict wind passage forecast has just (this avo) changed from 5-6 days to 8 days. We hope that is wrong! It's going to be one interesting passage home that's for sure! We be listening to GHR from tomorrow morning on, and will be downloading the metservice ssb weather maps too to keep tracks on what's going on down there in the south!

PUBLIC NOTICE: For anyone reading this blog, please note it has recently come to our attention that Sasha's description of SV SKYPOND's beautiful interior may have been comprehended by some readers as a negative one. Please note Sasha never intended this, Sasha thinks SKYPOND's luxurious, Scandinavian interior design is beautiful, and very stylish. Sasha likened it to an IKEA show home, because Sasha thinks IKEA is very stylish, well designed, functional with clean modern lines.

Sasha promises to be very clear from now on to avoid any possible miscommunications.

Ps - All our love goes out to Carl and Roxy (Team SV SKYPOND), we think you two are awesome, and Carl we wish you a speedy recovery.

Anchored at Baie de l'Orphelinat, yesterday we motor sailed into Noumea harbour from Ilot Maitre, where we'd had a rather large night catching up with Team SV ROCKSTAR, as well as new friends Dudley, Tanya and their wee 2.5year old boy Ocean (who seemed to love all the attention), and of course our old friends SV SEACUCUMBER, er I mean COMBOVER, er I mean SEACOMBER, it was to be our last big bash with Erica, Dave and the twins, as they all fly home on Monday. We want to wish them a safe journey home, and thank them for all the tips and tricks they have shared about New Cal, you guys really did make our time here awesome! Ps Erica thanks for feeding us so often too! We owe you 100 dinners. Yesterday our crew for passage arrived safe and sound - albeit a tad bit whiter than we remember him! Tim is on board and ready to rumble! We are keen to head out to Maitre island so we can get him in the water for a well earned kite!

We are actively looking at the weather models every morning, and Captain Mikey is discussing weather window possibilities with Lex and Dave (two very experienced sailors) to nut out the best possible option for us.

Last night we had a delicious farewell dinner in Baie de Citron with Team SV SEACOMBER last night.

All well on board.

Lots of kiting at Ilot Maitre, Mike's practicing his unhooked rally's and backroll kite loops and Sasha is practising switch to toeside carves with a front kite loop. Having a lot of fun! Super Dooper Timmy (our crew for passage back to NZ) flys into Noumea on Saturday, so we'll start to look for a weather window after that, bring on (semi) early mornings again listening to GHR for some weather window advise.

Ile Tenia - a beautiful small island that we SUP'd right around this morning. Stunning white sandy beaches on its western side, crystal clear waters for hundreds of metres out. Turtles are EVERY WHERE here! To spot them is so easy, just paddle around until you see a black spot in the otherwise crystal clear aqua blue waters, then paddle to it.... Stop and wait for the turtle to come up for a breath, and watch it freak out when it takes a look around and spots you.... Man they can move! On our search for some waves, we stumbled upon this epic kiting spot.... There is literally hundreds and hundreds of metres of clear blue water, much of it is waist deep.... Now all we need is some wind! Bacon and eggs for breaky this morning.

Ile Ducos, Baie Des Moustiques. We sailed into this bay, for a quiet place to eat the bacon and egg pie Sasha had just baked from scratch (including her first ever attempt at flaky pastry). The water is murky, and the hills surrounding us looked like something out of a western movie, complete with some pretty randy palomino looking horses. The pie was good, even though the flaky pastry did need to be about twice as thin. We enjoyed a super-quiet night here, with frozen beer slushy (our in-built freezer isn't working -we think it needs re-gassing) so the Waeco is on and in full force, and all our beer is frozen - doh! The water was so still you could see the stars in it. And when Sasha woke in the middle of the night, she looked up through the hatch above their berth and there was Orion in all his glory framed perfectly by the hatch. Just magical! In the morning we enjoyed coffee (Mike had a tea) in the cockpit, and watched Mr very randy Horse get real up and personal with his two Mrs Horseys - he was able and willing, but the two mares seemed less than interested, perhaps it was the presence of a very cute little baby foal they were shielding that stopped any hanky panky.

Ilot Maitre, another small island from the coast of Noumea, this one has a resort on it, so the coast is somewhat ruined by gawdy looking over water bungalows. Apparently the kiting spot here is pretty epic, but there was no wind when we got there. We had a quiet night here, with a small cheese platter and a movie.... A much needed quiet night as we have been very sociable lately.

Ile Nga, or Ile Laregnere. This wee island off the coast of Noumea city is a gleaming example of the French's positive influence. This island is stunning, white sandy beaches, and NZ Doc like infrastructure enabling the public to enjoy a night or two camping ashore (not that we would do that, as there were sea snakes EVERYWHERE!). The moorings here really are first class, they are very well maintained. The surrounding waters are teaming with sea life, turtles galore, Gar fish, and massive snapper looking isn, that literally sit under the boats hoping to pick up a scrap or two of leftovers. Hilariously we were woken up at 7:30am by a pound honk of the New Caledonia Navy, saying we (and the other 3 or 4 boats) had to move as there was going to be an explosion. Sasha didn't believe Mike at first when he tried to coax her out of bed, she thought it was some imaginative story Mike had thought up to get her up earlier than usual. But as it turns out, we all pulled up our picks and headed away as the weekenders from Noumea who had left the night before had found some old mine, or bomb from some past war, and the navy were there to detonate it. A tad scary, and we watched as we motored away, but we didn't see any pyrotechnics.

Baie de Citron - this is where we saw our first dugongs! Slowly eating their way through the 50kg of sea grass they eat every day! We also spent quite a bit of money here, the aquarium is awesome, albeit small. It has a wonderful selection of sea animals to look at, Jo (from SV INTRINSIC) and I spent a good 15mins just watching the mudflat crabs, they have one claw bigger than the other, there were white ones and colourful red/blue ones, and they seemed to be playing some sort of swap game with their sand hole homes. We had enjoyed a well earned cold Number One beer with Team SEACOMBER, and ate massive baguettes filled with hamburger patties, French fries, cheese and more! Baie de Citron is like Mission Bay on steroids, there are bars and restaurants as far as the eye can see. It would be a fantastic place to cycle around. One day while we were anchored here Mike dropped Sasha ashore, to walk over the hill towards Noumea city, she found a small shopping mall and did a quick shop at the Casino supermache, two large locally made chocolate bars were a must, as the chocolate here is soooo delish! She then stopped by the bakery and picked up beautifully light, and fluffy croissants. Produce is so much better than Fiji, the options are endless, but you do pay! Brocolli was $10 bucks a kilo in the local Carrefour supermache. But it's offset by all the cheap as French cheese! We will be so cheesed-out by the end of our time here!

Baie De Prony, Rade De L'ouest - we are on the mainland! And making our way to Noumea. Sasha is only a tad bit excited about hitting up the Noumea supermarche - CAN'T WAIT. Yesterday was a looooong sail, from Kunumera Bay, and the wind was not exactly assisting us in getting here, We tacked twice to attempt to get an angle that would be beneficial, but alas, it was a long hard slog with both motors going. On our way out of Kunumera Bay, Mike taugh Sasha how to raise the main sail, with one reef in it... Reefing (by herself) is a new skill, she can now add to her piratey ways. This morning we discussed how many nautical miles we had clocked up, Our new chart plotter, installed a few months before we left NZ has clocked up almost 5,000 NM, so Mike reckons we'll be close to 4,000NM overseas. Something to add to the LinkedIn profiles, Sasha thinks! Last night we ate cheeseburgers, on boatmade soft white rolls, we've found some pickles that taste exactly like McDonald's pickles, so our homemade burger effort was pretty close to McD's, but probably a heap healthier! We'll swing by Casy Island today, to feed the resident dog some sardines, apparently that is the thing to do. All well on board.

Another historical Yit position update, we up anchored and via Brush Island, re positioned to the much calmer Baie De Kunumera, what a stunning bay! With it's own exotic looking Tor. Mike and Sasha thought this place was very similar to The Beach in that Leonardo Cuppucino movie. One of the two resorts (Oure Tera) is nestled in the corner of a beautiful sandy lagoon beach, Mike and Sasha enjoyed a Kroneburg Beer here, and sat and watched a French family play pétanque. Mike and Sasha walked the length of the beach that evening, proudly (naively)saying Bonjour to every passer by, it wasn't until two French women looked at them strangely that they started to question if they were saying it correctly...it wasn't until the barman said a cheery Bonsoir that they realised they had been using the wrong word to say hello to people that evening. It was at this moment she had paid more attention to her Pappy's French lessons.

We've got a bit of catching up to do with our yit anchorages. This is a retrospective update for the 24th of Sep when we were anchored in Baie de Kuto. It's a beautiful white powdered sandy beach, fringed with pines and coconut trees. The ferry from Noumea comes in every couple of days (or so) and drops off a group of holiday makers who accomodate themselves in one of two hotel-resorts at this end of the Ile de Pins. We've watched many turtles here, some with Ramora (shark sucker fish) stuck to their belly, catching a free ride. We have spoken to several of the cruisers who have spent several nights here, and they say that the dugong are always around slowly making their way like underwater cows, eating the plentiful sea grass. One local currently a guest on SKY POND told us to be wary of horny male dugongs, as they are known to grab unsuspecting humans from behind, and drag them down to the bottom of the ocean floor for a bit of nookie... Sasha wasn't too keen to swim with the dugong after that story. Mike and Sashawalked along the main road, to both shops, the first was well stocked for dry goods, but we had heard the 2nd storefurtheralong was better stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables. We scored a massive bag of 100% Arabic ground coffee from the first (it has a better selection of coffee and can be identified by the CROCS shoe sign outside - yes no country is safe from the global crocs phenomenon). The second store is opposite the ruins of an prison dated back to the 1800's, looking at it, one can see the French influence in it's high stone walls and castle like turrets. Mike and Sasha ventured up the stairs and in, to be confronted by a very large Sandy brown Bull, he was chained, but his poop was everywhere and that made Sasha a little nervous as she didn't actually see what he was tethered too... Perhaps that chain around his big horns was just for looks.

Gps location is from my iphone, so it may be a little off.

All good anchored up at the Isle Of Pines, it's beautiful here. No wind, so looks like a day to go diving and hang with the turtles. Sasha is keen as to see a dugong - so she's keeping her eyes peeled. We are fast running out of fresh food, so we'll be heading to the closest store soon.

Motoring along, been a quiet night, Mike did a longer watch, Sasha started at 2:40am. We have cellphone coverage here which is cool, so I'll post a couple Instagram pics.

We have very calm conditions tonight, as we make our way to the mainland of New Caledonia. Our final destination will be Isle Of Pines, apparently it has it all, it's like a mini New Cal with all that it has to offer in one small-ish location. We just finished vacuum sealing all the dolphin-fish, aka dorado, aka Mahimahi fish that SV SEACOMBER caught, they caught two, and offered us one, so in the middle of this becalmed sea, we motored up to their stern, backed up, and while Mike was at the helm, Dave dropped a massive MahiMahi into the fishing net Sasha was holding up off the stern of MOONFISH. She was a little surprised at how heavy the massive fish was, and was a tad worried she was going to drop it, but we got it into the boat, Mike whipped the filets off, and Sasha finished up making them into portions, removing the skin and bones and packing them ever so professionally with our handy dandy vacuum sealer. Photos galore to come once we have Internet - check them out on our Instagram account SV MOONFISH. Apart from that, Sasha is first up tonight - on watch, from 8:15 till 11:15pm, Mike will be on until 2:15am, then Sasha will do up until 5:15am. We have lots of company with SV INTRINSIC and SV SKY POND ahead of us, and SV SEACOMBER just off our port side.

A big huge apology to Mike's family who are apparently (surprisingly) waiting with baited breath for the update we promised a few days ago. So much has happened I don't know where to begin!


Ouvea is beautiful, the beach is powder white sand, the water is milky electric aqua blue. There does seem to be some sort of algae bloom in the water, in parts close to shore as there is this light green 'stuff' floating, it's not sea grass, it's something else, and it does pong a little at times. We have been super social since we got here, hence the lack of updates, we've met new friends, and caught up with our old buddies from SV SEACOMBER (Erica, Dave And the twins Jazzy and Zoey). Last time we caught up we were all at Great Barrier Island, and we were saying how cool it is, to sit on the very same boats as we did back then, but in a completely different country!


Before I start on today's cruiser story, I have to relay our adventure to We the township near Qanono, on the eastern side of Lifou. The ICA had organised a bus for 1000 CPF each return. We were quite e cited to see a supermarket (supermache) because we had heard good things. WELL LET ME TELL YOU!!! We were like kids in a candy store! French gooey cheese and large loaves of crusty fresh white bread filled our shopping baskets, frozen gourmet sausages, mini pork meat balls, and whole chickens also made it into our baskets, along with decadent muesli, local beer and several different types of potato chips. We were in heaven!


Now on to Ouvea, our new friends Pip and John from SV SHARP FOCUS (a mono hull yacht Mike refers to as a wolf in sheep clothing - because it's a super racy yacht, with water ballast and carbon mast) lent us their super racy full size road bikes, in return for a go on our SUP's (stand up paddle boards). So Mike and Sasha went off for a bike ride to check out Ouvea, it was one looooooong ride, and when we finally reached our destination the store was closed - haha! We were pretty happy we'd brought water with us! On the way back the racy-ness of the bicycle seats were a tad too much for these sailor bums, and we were both just a tad bit tender the next day. While we'd been off cycling around, our friends on another boat had been dealing with a medical emergency, and after some time, it was decided it was time to get the patient off the boat, into an ambulance and off to hospital for observation, a few days later and one appendectomy- the patient is doing much better, and will be reunited with her boat soon. (I've purposely been vague about names here, for privacy reasons). All I can says thank goodness for Pip and her awesome FRENCH speaking talents!!


Lots more to fill you in, but we are heading off the boat to go check out a sink hole! I promise to write a better update soon, as we are planning on heading off to the mainland this evening with SV SEACOMBER - it's about a 20hr passage. I'll write a proper update then, and post once we get to some Internet access.

We have been in Ouvea for one night and two days now... A lot to write, will make sure we post a proper update tomorrow. All well on board.

SKY POND REUNION! I repeat! SKY POND REUNION! Tuesday was one of those days when you realise you are not only in the exact right place, but you are surrounded with all the right people. We had such a great day on Tuesday, with countless belly aching laughs, and as so often happens, the whole day was a series of impromptu, serendipitous happenings, that concluded with one of the best, most entertaining, dinner parties we have had all season. It all started, early Monday morning as we made our way into Gaatsha Bay, Lifou we saw a familiar boat pop up on our AIS, it was SKY POND, and we were super excited to see them again, after our thoroughly enjoyable (hilarious) adventures together trekking across Naveti Island, (Yasawa, Fiji) from our anchorage at Somosomo Bay to find the elusive world war II plane wreck. Unbeknownst to us, Roxy on SKY POND had tried several times to hail us on VHF that morning, but we must have been out of range as we did not hear the calls. The SKY POND team had figured we were ignoring them, and they then pondered what they had done to cause offence. After one of the most super efficient customs and bio security clearances we have ever experienced (the whole fleet was cleared by 9:30am Tuesday morning – Nice work ICA and New Caledonia Immigration Officers, you guys are a well oiled machine!) Roxy attempted to hail us again, we heard it this time, and finally chatted about the possibility of catching up and finally having that wine Roxy and Sasha had chatted about as we watched the sunset at Nanuya Island, Blue Lagoon many weeks ago. Once cleared Mike and Sasha headed to shore to meet some of the other people from the ICA fleet, as everyone had gone ashore to the ‘petit marche’ that the local village had put together for our arrival. John off Windflower (ICA’s head honcho) said over the radio, it was a VERY petit market… (very petit, as in not much of anything) but the locals were planning on getting there to add to the local fruits and vegetables later in the day, to make it less petite. We met Bec’s and her family from QUICKSTAR, a very fit, young family from Sydney, also having the adventure of a lifetime. Sasha and Bec’s traded a few yoghurt making tips.

Then a little later Mike and Sasha got the SUP’s out and headed straight into the wind, to the north east end of the bay to get a closer look at the rocks and coral on the waters edge. As we made our way back along the shore, Mike noted that a women walking along the pure white-powdered beach might be Roxy, as we paddled closer we confirmed it, and the days reunion started. Carl trundled down from the petit marche, and we mentioned that today would be an opportune time for them to finally come and have a look aboard MOONFISH as they had expressed interest way back at the Blue Lagoon. At the same time Carl and Roxy introduced us to Jo and Lex, a couple from the monohull INTRINSIC, which had been moored at Musket Cove while were we there too. Turns out that Jo is the mother of Michael, the builder who did all of the renovations on Sasha’s house in Auckland, we concluded over VHF (after Jo had made the connection) that it’s such a small world, and Sasha 100% agreed. Sasha invited Jo and Lex to have a look aboard Moonfish that afternoon with Team SKY POND, and eventually everyone was aboard, having a tour and a cold drink. Sasha had just popped a date and maple cake in the oven (one of the only cake recipes in the Edmonds cook book she found that didn’t require eggs), so the sweet smell of baking was wafting through the cabins as she took the guests on the tour. That fragrant sweet air was quite possible the catalyst that got us an invite to dinner on SKY POND that night.. (that cake and of course our witty, intelligent conversational skills). We finished our drinks and all headed over to SKY POND for a tour, as Mike and Sasha had not yet been aboard. What an amazing Seawind catamaran, it literally looks like its interior was designed by IKEA, you’d swear you were walking around a Scandinavian apartment, everything is beautifully finished, and there is a place for everything. Sasha loved the glass door (massive) shower best, as well as the BBQ area in the cockpit, which was centrally placed on the stern with plenty of bench space around it. Carl and Roxy were excellent hosts. Lex and Roxy got to work in the galley, Roxy made a very tasty salad, and Lex taught Roxy how to make his famous puttanesca pasta sauce. Sasha and Mike had donated the big piece of Waloo (Thanks for the fish SV ROAM!) , so that got added to the pasta sauce too. We all sat down to a delicious dinner, and chatted and chuckled effortlessly. There were some hilarious moments as Roxy attempted to translate our Kiwi-English into American English. Who knew America don’t have ‘teaspoons’? Or that ‘napkins’ are ‘serviettes’. Then we demolished the Date and Maple Cake which was a rip roaring success, it reminded Sasha of Sticky Date Pudding, but a cake version. Roxy again was perplexed, “What’s ‘Sticky Date Pudding?’ to which Sasha replied, ‘Something you definitely need to try when you get to New Zealand!’ This morning we are making our way north from Lifou to Ouvea, apparently its an absolutely stunning atoll. We are hopeful we will see our friends Erica and Dave and their little, twin, blonde munchkins from SV SEACOMBER up there. We’re coming guys! All well on board.

WE MADE IT TO LIFOU! The last 24hours we did around 178 nautical miles, we are both stoked with how Moonfish handled herself during this passage, she kept us safe and sound. Early this morning Sasha spotted our destination land on her morning shift, and soon after that Mike was up to takeover. We are safely anchored up, and there are a handful of boats here. Lifou looks like a very interesting place to go and explore, dotted with coconut trees, more buildings than I expected, a seashore of bright white sand beaches framed with rock at each end, and a road that winds up and over the hill. It is idyllic. We’ll take a lot of photo’s and load them onto our instagram and facebook account once we get a New Caledonia SIM card…. Not sure when that will be. We are tired, but just had a big breakfast of baked beans, scrambled egg, and the left over roasted kumala, fried in butter. It was GLORIOUS! Now Mike’s got to work cleaing up the boat from passage, and Sasha has a massive box of dishes to clean. Showers after that, and then a well earned afternoon movie and who knows maybe even a nana-nap. Oh and three big daddy of flying fish came aboard last night, Mike found one in the cockpit, and one on the foredeck, and as Sasha was bringing down the mainsail there was one even in the sail! All well on board.

Apologies we’re a little late with this evenings YIT update, I’ll keep it short and sweet. The chicken went down very well! We have been sailing all day with two reefs in our main sail and no head sail out. Just before dark we were slowing a little so Mike shook out one of the reefs. We saw our first big container ship pop up on our AIS, but did not view it with our eyes. Mike spotted a shark… mmm getting closer to sharky waters eh! Oh and in the past 24hrs we did 195 nautical miles. All well on board.

LAND HO!!! At 7am this morning we had completed another 195 Nautical Miles in the past 24 hours, which we were pretty stoked with considering we slowed down to 4-6knots over night to be a little more comfortable. Still have two reefs in, and only a sliver of headsail out. This morning when Sasha woke at 6:30am, she hopped out into the cockpit and saw land!! Mike exclaimed “Really?” as he had been on watch for the past few hours. We both soon figured out that our SUP surf boards had hidden that beautiful thing called land from him, as he sat inside the saloon for the morning watch. Fortuna Island looks like your typical flat top mountain island, and it is currently sitting to our starboard. Coming up on our port forward side is one of Vanuatu’s most Southern Islands (it probably is the most southern island within Vanuatu). I can’t determine on the chart what the islands name is, but we will past its northern bays in a few hours time, Anlaghen Point on the eastern side, and Anewamet Bay, and Itchepthav Bay on its northern side. We both relayed to each other how comforting it was to see land… even if it’s not our destination country. Last night Sasha went off to sleep around 7-8pm ish, and Mike did first watch, Sasha was up around 11pm for her watch, and Mike headed off to our port aft berth for a well earned sleep. At 3am, Mike got up, boiled the kettle and noted that Sasha was fast asleep on the saloon couch, even the whistle of the kettle didn’t wake her. She was keeping watch though, she was putting her iphone timer on for 12 mins, having a sleep and then getting up and looking for any lights on the horizon. As soon as her head touched the pillow after each check, she was out like a light again. Sasha would like to point out here how much she loves Auto Pilot, if Auto (as we call him for short) will do her the honor she will marry him, that’s how much she loves Auto, that wedding would surely make the papers eh? Chicken is pretty much thawed, and will go in the oven in a few hours time, with some kumala – we reckon it will be like having a Christmas lunch, except rather a lot less fancy. A shout out to everyone enjoying our updates, we think there must be a backlog of emails sitting on our sat phone, as it keeps telling us there is a heap to download, which we will do once we get to a place with internet, as downloading all that will zap our sat phone minutes, although we do seem to be receiving short emails, and Mappy we did get your email saying bon voyage. All well on board.

Long day sail today, one teeny tiny flying fish came onboard, we gave him a respectable burial at sea. Eggs and baked beans went down well for breaky, paw paw for lunch with some cheese and crackers, and then Sasha baked a loaf of bread for tea, which went down nicely with peanut butter and strawberry jam, yum. We now have two reefs in our mail sail, and only a smidge of head sail out for the night time, the swell has definitely increased, it was a good 3 metres earlier today, it’s coming and going a little. All well on board.

We listened to GHR this morning, thanks guys for the weather update, we really appreciate all the info you provide.

Well it happened… it had to happen eventually, and last night, after uploading the YIT update, Sasha finally joined the large group of people who have barfed over the side of a sailing boat. The sickness left as quickly as it arrived, and once dinner (canned chicken soup) was well and truly (and unwillingly) donated to King Neptune, Mike grabbed Sasha a Sea Sick Bomber that MALibu had bought and a refreshing glass of water. Sasha took the first watch, now 100% alert as the pills have 150mg of Caffeine in them. And Mike tried to get some sleep…. Rather difficult in these conditions. Mike took over (I guess) around 8:30ish, Sasha did sleep, then got up and stood watch from 11pm to 2:45am, Mike then helmed from then until 7am. Apart from that we’ve made excellent progress, 212 nautical miles in the past 24hours. Plans for a roast chicken dinner tomorrow are underway, with a frozen chick now being defrosted in the fridge. That with roasted Kumala will be a tasty treat! And once Mike wakes up, Sasha will make some scrambled egg muffins in the muffin tray, and in the spare muffin holes head Bake Beans… gotta love shoving food in the oven and not having to worry about it falling all over the place.

All well on board.

. Never in Sasha'??s wildest dreams did she think she would be on passage, on a 48foot catamaran between tropical Fiji and exotic New Caledonia. But here she is, typing up our first YIT updates for that exact passage! Isn'??t it amazing what a journey life can be, when you let it show you the way? Today started with a cup of tea for Mike, and a plunger coffee for Sasha, followed (after a few hours of sailing) by boat-made greek yoghurt, soaked whole oats and fresh pawpaw. We cracked open a dry brown coconut for morning tea, and cur and scraped the hard coconut meat out from both halves of the shell. What a great filling snack! We lunched at noon on fresh bread roll sandwiches with cheese, fresh tomato, and branston pickle.

Our last few days in Fiji were not the greatest (except for the last couple of awesome surfs we had at Namotu with friends!) we have both had upset tums, but no idea what caused it, after a couple of good night sleeps we'??ve come right, but it was a tad bit worrying knowing we had a passage coming up. A massive thank you to Dan and Lisa on Meari, who gave us not only their activated charcoal pills, but also another homeopathic remedy, that really did seem to do the trick!! Thanks guys!! Feeling rather under the weather, we headed for Lautoka (Fiji'??s second largest city) for passage provisions, and to officially clear out of Fiji, our home for the past 70 odd days. We walked right past Mcdonalds (considering our health) which was hilarious emanating a curry smell (we were game enough to go in and find out why). We headed to the other end of town after tendering in the Lautoka International Wharf. Mike dropped the stern anchor off the back of our faithful dinghy as we were concerned that the rising tide may wedge our dinghy under the wharf. Our destination was Ajax Fasteners, as a few days earlier Sasha was closing the galley hatch on the side of the boat, and the handy dandy turning bolt fastener thingy that seals the hatch, fell straight off in the sea '?? never to be seen again! Super-Mike has since tethered every single hatch fastener, as they are rather unique, and we don'??t have any spares. Yet another thing to sort out once we get back to New Zealand. After stopping at a watersports store, and receiving a hand drawn map of Lautoka, we made our way to Ajax, and picked up some standard bolts that fit the hatch seal thingy, so we could seal the hatch for the passage. A note to all your cruisers out there, apparently there is NO chandlery in Lautoka'?¦Good times.

The Lautoka Market lived up to it'??s reputation as one of the best markets to visit Endless stalls filled with all the South Pacific classics; white cabbage ($1.50 to $2.00), red cabbage ($8 for some unknown reason!?), carrots, onions, herbs and spices, hot peppers, green beans, eggplants, Kumala, potatoes, coconuts, pineapples, mangoes, kava root, taro, giant pale orange pumpins being sliced apart by men with machetes, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and island spinach all available in LARGE quantities. We picked up enough to last us until we get to New Caledonia, the land of cheese and baguettes! As I type this I am trying to drink a glass of Ginger Ale, remind me to add to my list of things to get for the boat a Tommi-Tippy cup for me to use on passage!! I am wearing more of it than I have drunk! All well on board.

Been a few relaxed days here on SV MOONFISH, our sister ship turned up at Musket a couple of days ago, and anchored just behind us. Barry the owner of TWOCAN (a play on two cans, as in aluminium cans) came over with his friend to tell us the tale of TWOCAN and we were happy to oblige with our own boat story. We showed Barry around our boat, and he returned the favour. It was like the twilight zone hopping onto TWOCAN, it was our boat, but everything was back to front and brightly coloured like the Toucan bird the boat is named after. It was so cool to be the only boat in Musket cove with a sister ship also anchored up. And it was so interesting to look around the boat and see the differences in layout. The coolest thing Sasha found was the cutlery drawer under the saloon table, and after living for years without one drawer on MOONFISH she very excitedly showed Mike who gave a look of exhaustion at the thought of having to fabricate a drawer. Heh heh! It will happen!

Yesterday we briefly caught up with Team Bravado, what a cool bunch! They are one of the boats heading to New Cal shortly so we're keen to hear our plans for departure. We haven't checked out Lautoka city, so we are planning on exiting Fiji from there, it's free, and we've heard there is a McDonald's there and we are both just a little interested in tasting a Fijian Big Mac, you know, purely for scientific research purposes, a compare and contrast study with NZ's Big Mac's.. Hehe we haven't had 'real' junk food for months and months - please forgive us.

We spent yesterday afternoon kiting on the 14 metre of the sandbar here at Musket, the wind just kept picking up so Sasha handed over the 14 to Mike, who had a great SESHion but also had to retire when the wind got so strong he was fully depowered, and fully lit.

Today we enjoyed egg rolls for breakfast, and went into the trader for salt, as we have run out of that, then he wind just dropped and we headed out to Namotu for a SUP surf at swimming pools. The swell was affected by the wind, and Mike could see the wind at Cloudbreak heading our way, so we headed back to MOONFISH and weighed anchor back to musket, icy cold beer in hand. Sash whipped up a cheese and pepperoni pizza on the remaining chia seed and cumin boat-made tortilla.

That's all for now, we are loving Musket Cove, and Fiji and really enjoy all this place has to offer, kiting, surfing, snorkelling, and an Island Bar! It really is a magical place.

Ps... Happy Father's Day Pappy!

This is a long one, so for our massive audience of readers out there, it may pay to grab a cup a, and settle in...

We know we haven't YIT'ed for a while, sorry about that, but with Fiji Data SIM cards being so darn cheap ($25 Fijian for 9GB!) we've been posting away on our SV MOONFISH Facebook and Instagram pages instead. But there are several things we need to document from our last couple of weeks, very important things (as always).

Firstly thanks to Greg M for sharing the most interesting story of the pilot from the plane wreck we snorkelled on. It turns out no pilots were harmed in the making of our cross-island trek / snorkel adventure. The pilot was rescued, and it was only after marrying a local Fijian and having children, that his brother turn up looking for his long lost dead body. Happily they reunited much to the pilot's brothers amazement, and the pilot explained he was quiet happy where he was and wasn't coming home. Ha! What a great piece of history!

Another important milestone is that we have well and truly mastered the coconut! Thanks to MALibu, our trusty coconut stick, duck tape and our machete have come in very handy at certain coconut groves around the place. Mike managed to get three nice orange/yellow drinking coconuts down from one tree the other day, and then we set about learning about coconuts on YouTube. We learnt that all coconuts have a wee monkey face on one end, with two eyes complete with eyebrows, and a larger mouth hole. The other end has three ridges that meet and form a kind of seam. We now know that you can cut the husk off, find the face end, poke a hole in the mouth and one of the eyes and the delicious coconut milk will run out easily, filling up one large glass, we share the milk, then Sasha sets to work with the empty coconut to crack it in half (similar to cracking an egg), you hold the coconut in one hand with the face at one end, and the seam at the other, exposing the equator of the coconut shell, then using the back of a good quality chef knife you work your way around the equator tapping the shell, eventually the high pitched tap will all of a sudden go 'thud' this indicates you've cracked it, then you just keep tapping until you can see the shell breaking into two halves. Grab a spoon and eat up all that glorious spoon-meat. So tasty and so good for you! And best of all FREE.

Apart from that Mike and Sasha have spent a lot of time at Musket Cove, kiting, surfing with Dave Kalama and the Google boat crowd (Sasha SUP surfing) and generally hanging out, and thinking bout food, the boat and the improvements/additions we want to make when we get home, and food.... Yes, food has been quite a large part of Sash's thoughts. You see our food stores are getting on the low side (this is not a request for people to start sending food up, there is plenty of food here). What we mean is we're starting to run out of some of our favourite basics (Chilli Flakes, Tomato Paste, Wraps, Baked Beans etc). The most interesting thing is the provision list Sasha has started to prepare for next season, there are so SO many things Sasha would do differently. The major thing Sasha has learnt is that you have much more time to cook when you are not working full time. So this means, ingredients that you never thought - in a million years - you'd use, all of a sudden become desired, the ability to whip up some orange and date scones is no longer a weekend 'might do' in between all your weekend life-admin that you need to squish into two days because the week days are a hazy blur of computer screens and management meetings. All of a sudden if you feel like eating brownie, you can just stop reading your book, or decide not to head out for a paddle and instead you can instantaneously make brownies, and something that use to feel like a hell of a lot effort (i.e. Fish cakes) is now akin to making toast. What a strange but thoroughly enjoyable transition! So what does this mental foodie shift mean? Well it means that what was provisioned on the boat, and what Sasha needs on the boat are two very different things now. With the foresight now achieved from the hindsight of our first provisioning efforts the following list provides some of the key things we will ensure are always on the boat from next season on...

SPICES AND HERBS - these are absolutely essential to add much needed flavour and variety to boat-meals! Let me tell you there 'ain't' no Greggs/Masterfoods spice rack up here... in any store Anywhere!!! Massive opportunity for someone to brand up the spice/herbs industry up here... It's rather limited from what we have seen, you'll have no issue getting ground chilli, curry, mustard seeds, fenugreek (whatever that is!) but that's about it. And in terms of volumes, we'll be buying 3 to 6 jars of each for our next season, as 1 or 2 is just not going to last the 6-8 month time frame, because we are cooking almost every night, and we have gone through truckloads more herbs and spices than we estimated.

Nutmeg, onion powder, garlic powder, onion flakes, thyme, bay leaf, way more chilli flakes, a whole heap of smoked paprika, ground coriander, cardamom, cumin (a small mountain of the stuff! As it is ideal with eggplant, and there is a crap load of eggplant in the South Pacific), ground ginger, dry mustard powder, oregano, mint. It's good to get your spices in small jars, but get several jars of each, that way they'll be fresher than one large bulk jar.

STOCK, PASTES, & TOMATO (canned) - these are the bases of so many delicious, comforting meals, it pays to not run out... We have run out of all three!

Stocks, get a mixture of the jelly type concentrate (it's versatile) and some cubes. Both are better than tetra packs full of liquid stock, as they keep a long time and take up hardly any space/ weight. Bring FISH, CHICKEN, and BEEF stock, as well as Vego if you're that way inclined,

Pastes, tomato paste... Bring it in the tube, in the punnet, and in the little tins.... I definitely did not buy enough! But that's because we have a lot of burritos/mince type meals.

HARISSA PASTE is the solution to all of the world's problems! I cannot do it justice with words! It makes everything taste better, chicken, mince, or even vegetable based dishes.. It is one of the best things ever invented and we will be buying 5 to 10 jars of the stuff for next season!

Other pastes I will make sure we have on board are, Thai Green Curry paste, Red Curry Paste, and Mexican Spice Packets (even though this can also be made up from the spice list above). Miso soup paste is another thing we never had while working, but now on the boat, we want it!

CANNED FOOD

We did alright on this front, although there are quite a few extra's we now desire... Whole corn, (we bought a heap (14-15 cans) of creamed core for fritters, it would be nice to just have a side of whole corn with a meal once and a while. Tomatillos because Posole Mexican Soup is awesome! Way more Mexican/ Salsa beans, and refried beans (20-30 cans) because we love Mexican flavours. On that note Jalapeno's, because cheese poppers are yum! Way more tuna and salmon - yes you can buy it here and tuna is relatively cheap at $1.65 per 100g tin, it's just we are eating far more of it than we expected, because we are not catching fish anywhere near as much as we thought we would, and because Tuna and Salmon fish cakes are rather tasty. Oh and sardines because Sasha loves sardines on toast, that's King Oscar hand packed premium Norwegian brisling sardines, not Brunswick which is the only type of sardine you can get up here and that stuff is cat food! Yes there is a major difference, try KinOscar you'll understand. Canned Mushrooms are also something we would never usually eat, but we would have used them if we'd bought 'em!

Way more Continental Surprise Peas, 200g packets... We'll get at least 10 - 15 packs next season. They are just brilliant, are surprisingly fresh tasting (we suppose that's why they are called what they are called) they are always on hand for that meal where fresh vege is scarce, and very tasty with some butter, rubbed mint, salt and pepper stirred in, or as an additional ingredient for a flash of green in the pot!

Instant mash potato, great as a stand by side, or to thicken soups, chilli con carne etc.

Falafel mix, at least 5 of them, and perhaps a couscous (for carrot and couscous salad - a la Rockstar recipe), and way more polenta for polenta chips, and corn bread. Also quinoa for salads.

THINGS TO BAKE

Apple and Blackberry canned - for pies, strudels, crumbles, muffins, puddings etc.

Grainy bread mix, because we both miss vogels toast, intact I just did some internet research on this and Kibbled Wheat is the answer to making a bread like Vogels, somKibbled Wheat will definitely be on the provisioning list for next season.

Orange essence (for those date and orange scones I was talking about earlier)

Raisins for cinnamon scrolls, and 5-10 big bags off hem because the raisins you can get in NZ are sweet and juicy and delicious and the ones up here are nothing like that!

Chocolate Chips, because we both miss Mike's Mum's homemade chocolate chip cookies (Barbara, how about a Sunday avo chocolate chip cookie session when we get back so we know how to make them?)

Way more easiyo packs, we've only been using Greek yoghurt for breakfast with muesli, but with a muslin/cheese cloth you can make savoury and or sweet yoghurt cheese, and when your cheese options are down to Edam or Tasty.... Yoghurt cheese starts looking pretty damn tasty! A side note: I have one more pack of easiyo yoghurt, so I did a bit of Internet research and it turns out I can make my very own yoghurt with a couple of tablespoons of my previous yoghurt batch, and a litre of milk (made from milk powder in our case)... I made my first batch of really 'home/boatmade' yoghurt yesterday, it set really well, and now I have it sitting in a colander on a piece of paper towel to remove some of the whey so we get a really thick creamy Greek yoghurt, I've already had a sneaky taste, and Oh My God!! Who knew milk and a couple tablespoons of yoghurt could make such great yoghurt!! All you do is heat up the milk on the stove top, to scalding (but don't boil it), then pop it in your easiyo jar, and wait for it to cool until it's lukewarm, then mix in (softly) a couple of generous tablespoons of yoghurt that is FRESH and you know has live cultures in it, and then incubate in the easiyo thermos thingy for 12 - 18 hours, the longer you leave it the tarter, more acidic the yoghurt is. SO easy!! And no I didn't use a thermometer.

Way, WAY more muesli, 20 packs, nay 30 packs. Sasha misses muesli. And it is so SO expensive here.

WAY MORE 'Healthy' SNACK FOODS

Raw nuts, we ran out of these almost on getting to Tonga, depending on how long almonds, walnuts, cashews etc last, we would probably buy 5kg of each for next season.

Oh and we will definitely be making up a Travellers Belly/ Digestive wellbeing food kit because not only has Sasha been struck down with an upset digestive system twice, but several of the yachties we have met have also had upset stomachs. And as I type this Mike is experiencing his first upset yum, we think it might be the eggplant. Our happy digestive kit will include.. Apple Sauce, Rice, probiotics, natural antifungals (such as oregano oil, coconut oil (or Caprylic acid), activated charcoal (thanks to Dan and Lisa on Meari for that tip!) we'll also be including liquid chlorophyll because we really really REALLY miss our baby spinach and silverbeet! We already have the essential greens smoothie powder, but because Fiji is having a banana drought we've had way less smoothies than we thought we would.

So there.....there's some thought for food. Heh heh.

We are sailing! We are sailing! Back to Musket across the sea.

Yesterday was full of adventure! We motored from Nanuya Island, south to Naviti Island, where we had been told of a World War 2 mustang fighter plane which lay in 'snorkel-deep' water on the east side of the island. We anchored up in a western bay and pulled the paddle boards and snorkel gear out along with a pair of jandals and headed ashore. As we paddled in, Carl and Roxy from SKY POND headed ashore in their tender and told us we held the same shared mission - find our way through the treacherous island bush to the other side of the island, and find that plane!! Sounds easy right? But after Cyclone Winston, the 'path' that showed on an old chart we had been given by Tony Whiting had been decimated by fallen trees and was now overgrown with a vivid green vine that loves to stick to you if you touch it. Our American friends came far more prepared for the 'hike', and we're old hand at finding the 'trail', with "definite path" exclaimed more than once as Carl or Roxy lead the way. With their awesome gadget called a 'Bad Elf' they could pinpoint our GPS location and display it on a map on their iPad. This came in very handy as we reached the end of the coconut tree forest, and found ourselves in plains of dry grass high enough to hide an elephant. At this point Sasha did 'try it on' with Carl and Roxy relaying the story of the aggressive 'Fiji Beast' which is kind of like a Tasmanian Devil only three times the size. Unfortunately they didn't fall for the tale - heh heh. In the tall dry bleached blond grass it was impossible to find a 'definite path' and many a wrong turn was taken as we made random crop marking across the plains. Finally we made it to the islands eastern coconut tree grove (the coconuts always seem to grow need the coast, so we knew we were close). By this point in our adventure we had spotted two rudimentary arrows, the first made of coconuts on the ground, the second made with tree branches, and pointing the way we had just come. Talk of 'omens' occurred more than once. And so did the idea of bringing signposts with us next year that just say 'wrong way' on them - chortle! Anyway, after wishing we'd brought our machete - several times, Team SKY POND found the trail again and through the eastern coconut grove we hiked, until.... There is was, the most beautiful sandy white beach we have seen so far, there were two hits set back among the coconut trees, one a traditional thatched bure, the other more westernised, neither had any people inside, as we called out with a few "Bula's" to introduce our presence. As we stood on the beach looking out at the four small islands that protect the bay, we all congratulated ourselves on making it this far. Carl got the iPad out again, as he had prep'd by taking down the plane's gps coordinates (this was one of several times where Mike and Sasha thanked their lucky stars Team SKY POND were on the task, because they would never have made it through the bush or found the plane if it wasn't for SKY POND). Sure enough Carl located the general direction of the plane, and Roxy spotted the buoy marking the plane's underwater grave. We all got our snorkel, mask and fins on, and waded out into the aqua blue lagoon. It was at this moment that Mike and Sasha looked at each other, and both realised they had just found absolute KITE SURF HEAVEN!! The lagoon is massive, it's floor is sand and sea grass, and it is waist deep water for thousands of metres. It's like a tropical Snells Beach, but four or five times the size. We all swam out to the buoy, and there it was, nestled in the white sand with Nemo, and his buddies playing in the nose of the plane. We took turns diving down to take a closer look, the body of the plane is still intact, but the wings are no longer visible. Sasha was amazed and excited when she first saw it, but after a few closer looks started to ponder the history of the plane, and wondered about the fate of its pilot. Once our treasure has been well and truely explored we all swim back to the beach, sitting in the hot shallow water, which reminded Mike and Sasha of a spa. Then it was back into the bush to navigate our way back - turns out it's much easier and quicker getting back than it was getting to the plane. A great day was had by all, and we were all really glad we'd made it.

We've had an excellent few days!! When we first arrived at the famous Blue Lagoon - we were a little underwhelmed, but after finding a great Kiting spot with nice, consistent wind and meeting a whole bunch of new friends (SKY POND - Roxy & Carl, you are awesome!! And the clan on the mega yacht SHAMAN (82ft long!!) you guys are amazing, thank you for the Bloody Mary it was perfect! And for the mini DELICIOUS calzones!!) and for the tour, your ship is beautiful!). We all went walking up and over the island to Lo's tea house for chocolate cake and tea and after a few days the place really grew on us. The kiting is fantastic, Mike's been rocking out lots of backrolls, and I have finally got my head around popping 180 on my switch side EUREKA!!! Lots of great photos on our Instagram account (search SVMOONFISH) if you are keen to have a look. The island walk was amazing, we all set off thinking 'ho hum, a walk will be something to do' but by the end, after crossing over little stream bridges made out of tree trunks, and finding picture perfect tropical paradise view time and time again, we all concluded by the end that we were so glad we had stayed one more day to see the island properly. Last night was a big a big night with Shaman playing host to almost every boat in the harbour!! What a great family!!! What a boat!! Then we all headed into the Boathouse bar (island: Nanuya Lailai) and watched the Hurricanes tear the Chiefs apart (heh heh! Nice one!!!). Our heads were a little sore this morning, but our hearts were full of all the fantastic memories we have made at The Blue Lagoon. Next stop Champagne Beach, then back down to Musket Cove so Mike can have a few more surfs, and we can get some more vegetables!

We've spent the morning swimming with a manta ray, pretty cool! And now we are heading up to The Blue Lagoon!

Two days ago we got up and headed out to Namoto Island, Mike was very keen to get a surf in, but it was not to be. We anchored left of Namoto in about 20 metres, right next to the surf break called Swimming Pools. It was very windy, and we knew the holding was not very good so we sat on the nets and watched the surf and surfers while we waited to see if the boat would drag, and sure enough it did. It was pretty frustrating as Mike was keen as for a surf, but not keen enough to risk our home. So after a while we decided to up anchor and head back into Musket Cove. As we pulled the anchor up, the windlass seemed to be under more strain than usual, and as we got our 33kg Rocna to the surface we realised what had caused the strain.... Sitting nicely wedged into the anchor was one massive lump of coral, our 33kg anchor had become a 100kg anchor! Sasha was bringing the anchor up, and Mike was at the helm, when she saw the coral head, she let out a rather expressive yell, and looked at Mike threw her hands in the air and said 'Well, I don't know what to do with that!!'. Mike came over to see what she was talking about and his reaction was very similar. While motoring slowly away from Swimming Pools (defeated and depressed), they figured out how to remove the coral, Mike would lift the anchor and the coral head with the boat hook, while Sasha would release anchor chain to give him enough slack to position the anchor so that gravity would assist in sliding the coral head off our beloved Rocna.... It WORKED, whew! It wasn't a complete waste of time though, as we did see where the other yachts were anchoring - just behind Namoto, central to both breaks, (there is a lovely sandy spot) so if we attempt this again in the big boat we'll be anchoring there.

Yesterday we had a supreme day! Got up, had cups of tea, with boatmade marmalade toast, and then watched Danny from Rockstar having a great kite on the sand island. Soon enough we were in the tender with our gear, and pumping up the 10mtr for Sash (aka the wind Guinea Pig) to see how much wind was out there. The spot is amazing! It's hundred's of metres of ankle to thigh deep water (depending on the tide) and there's only a few coral heads around. When it's ankle deep it's a little sketchy but still amazing! So we had an early morning kite, met Danny and Carmein from Rockstar, and then left our gear on the sand island, headed back for a bite to eat, and then headed out again for another session. Then we had the rockstar crowd over for some Sangria that Sasha had been planning to make for a while, a nice bottle of Grenache had been saved for this delicious Sangria, and oranges had been purchased from the Nadi markets especially. While Sasha was cutting up the oranges, she asked Mike to see if there was a bottle of lemonade on the boat, Sasha was pretty sceptical, as she was pretty sure she had drunk all the lemonade, but surprisingly Mike found a bottle and passed it to Sasha. Into a large jug, Sasha added the three juicy sweet oranges, peeled and sliced, an entire tray of ice cubes, and then she poured the entire bottle of delicious, fruity chilled red wine, and then without even thinking she unscrewed the cap on the 'lemonade' (not noticing there was no release of gas from the bottle) and poured three quarters of the bottle on top of the beautiful wine and oranges. And the most god awful smell eminated from the jug in front of her. She stirred it hoping that the smell was not coming from the jug. Then tentatively poured a glass to test it, as Danny and Charmein had already arrived and Sasha wanted to make sure she was offering a drink that actually tasted good. The smell from the glass was enough to know something had gone terribly wrong. It stunk! At first Sasha thought the wine was poked, but after smelling the screw capped bottle she knew the wine was not only perfectly fine, but also realised that this would be a wine that she would never get to savour. Then she thought, maybe the oranges are off, although this was quickly discounted as she had sliced and pealed the. And they were juicy and perfect....leaving only one item...THE BOTTLE OF 'LEMONADE'.... Sasha sniffed the open bottle, with one quarter of its contents left... the sudden realisation that the lovely oranges and beautiful bottle of Grenache we're destroyed suddenly dawned on her, it wasn't lemonade! The bottle had been refilled with saltwater, and frozen in our Waeco Freezer during passage to keep the freezer full, and working at itos optimal best. Somehow it had made it's way back into our Mixers cubboard, where it waited stealthily to kill Sasha's much anticipated Sangria. Trying to explain how putrid that old salt water tasted is difficult, but it was a mixture between wet dog smell and liquified cardboard. It all happened so fast that Sasha literally stood there in the galley looking at the jug, full of rich red wine, ice cubes and slices of orange, and tried to figure out how she could un-mix the putrid old salt water out of her delicious ingredients. Obviously the end result was a sad one... The entire jug went down the drain, and a chilled bottle of cider was drunk instead. Goodbye beautiful bottle of Grenache, we'll miss never drinking you!

After Ciders, we all headed into the Island bar, as there was a buffet, and live music planned. The food was amazing! Green papaya salad, snapper, chicken, steak, sausages, potato salad and much much more, so much food! Then dessert came out, the BEST tasting carrot cake with cream cheese icing we have ever tasted! And there was fresh pineapple, watermelon, rock melon and more to go with it. The live entertainment kicked off just as dinner was finishing, and they were so good! They played covers that everyone knew and soon enough the crowd was up and dancing the night away! It was a perfect day at Musket Cove, and Sasha even managed to almost forget her beautiful bottle of Grenache... almost.

We've been in Musket Cove for the past few days. We've had a couple of decent kites, one right next to the Musket moorings, with some great flat water, the other on the eastern side, where the wind is more consistent but the water is not as flat. Yesterday we took the 'big boat' out to Namoto, and Mike had a surf at Swimming pools. It was our first time out there with MOONFISH and we anchored just left of the swimming pools break, it wasn't great holding, Sasha stayed on board, cooked a sweet banana and egg omelet and monitored the Anchor Alarm which went off over and over again. Once we got back into Musket Mike headed out for a paddle, Sash had a workout and we headed in for the Potluck dinner, Happy Birthday Ian! Looks like it'll be a kiting day today.

One night spent in Denarau, we drunk the Hard Rock

Cafe mega cocktail, complete with a bottle of Corona upside down in the giant cocktail glass! We've dined at Rhum-Ba, and this morning we headed into Nadi on the $1 bus to provision up with fresh fruit, eggs and vegetables. Now all that there is left to do is head to Musket Cove!

We've just seen another Tim Mumby Catamaran (aka our sister ship!), we were sitting at the Hard Rock Cafe sharing one of their famous sandwiches and low and behold TWOCAN motored into Denarau! It has a big pink strip down each hull. We'd love to know it's story, we may be brave and attempt to do our first ever cold call, when we head back in for a dinner out. Apart from that loving Fiji! Loving Denarau, we will head to Nadi tomorrow morning on the 1 dollar Bula bus, provision up and then head to Musket for (fingers crossed) great surfing and more kiting!!

Still motoring along, reef after reef, it's one long winding course, very chuffed that our chart has a recommended route plotted.

We're of again! We've been anchored off Nananu-I-Ra for several days now. We're heading to Latoka to stock up on supplies. We've had a lovely relaxing time here, but it seems we kicked out on wind (for kiteboarding) as apparently it's usually really windy around here. Oh well! Mike's keen as to get to a surf spot and We both know Musket is a kite spot too!

We have made it to Viti Levu, the main island, it's one large looking island after passing so many small ones, all of which look worse for wear after Cyclone Winston. It's a beautiful sunny day, our newly installed Battery charger is working really well, and all seems right with the world.

Heading THROUGH Namena reef

Looks like we'll take the 'save-a-tack' passage through Namena reef now! Very exciting! Apparently there's no fishing in the reef, so we'll be pulling in our lines.

Early 7:30 start this morning, we've left Savusavu and plan to make our way around the eastern side of Namena Island, towards our final destination Makogai. We have a fresh easterly 20knots and 2mtr swells, so it's gonna be a bit of a bumpy sail.

We left Viani Bay this morning, after checking our email and receiving the good news that Waitui Marina had our new Battery Charger. It's funny ya know... How much cruising becomes about energy-management. Without our fantastic charger recharging our house batteries has become somewhat stressful. Especially while trying to keep two freezers full of meat frozen! So we have turned one off, and managed to pack one freezer super full of meat. We have 5 solar panels on our cockpit roof and they are putting in 14-20 odd amps while the sun is shining, so we think we'll double that for next season, so there are no energy issues. Apart from that insight into the daily administration of running a cruising yacht, WE CAUGHT A YELLOW FIN TUNA today!!!! It's our first ever yellow fin, and the beautiful light delicate flesh that came off it is something we are dry much looking forward to eating! Sashimi, pickled ginger and soy sauce will be today's afternoon tea!

When I was about 10 years old, I wrote a poem (with the help of my Mappy), and it was published in the NZ Women's Weekly magazine. After writing this YIT MOONFISH update, it popped into my head and I've just slightly adapted it to fit with the story I am about to tell you. It went almost like this...

"I hate it when I'm in a line,

With nothing at all to do,

And someone rude is pushing in the Customs Clearance Queue,

And people say just look at that!

They're pushing in the line,

There must be something we can do to make them go behind!"

We are anchored at the river mouth at Savusavu. We've stayed in the same spot where customs cleared us. Now our clearance morning is a very interesting tale which we are more than happy to share to ensure other cruisers out there don't make the same mistake as us. FUSIO and MOONFISH were the first boats into Savusavu on the morning of 27th June, reaching the river mouth-harbour before sunrise. FUSIO called up The Copra Shed (our first big mistake!! As we should have chosen Waitui Marina instead, as Jolene who manages the place is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!) any way we were booked in by The Copra Shed, for clearance with the Savusavu Customs & Immigration officials. We were told by The Copra Shed, to stand by on channel 16 as they would call us once Customs we're ready to be picked up, The Copra Shed NEVER CALLED US BACK!!! Several boats came into Savusavu after us, including two ARC RALLY monohulls, one was Meermow (the NZ registered boat with foreign owners, we think they may be Dutch by the sounds of the accents, but we are not sure. They had been waiting out in the ocean and had called us up in the middle of the night as we sailed past them, they were waiting until daylight to come into Savusavu) the other was called Mystic Soul, a boat with the exotic destination of Hull on its stern. Both these boats came into Savusavu hours after we had arrived and anchored, and they also called up the Copra shed and registered their booking for Customs clearance. They anchored up behind us, and we all waited for The Copra Shed to call us so FUSIO could head into the marina to pick up the Customs officials. As an aside we have heard that in the past The Copra Shed use to bring the customs officials out to the boats for clearance but these days they don't). Anyway before we (polite, queue forming Kiwi's) knew what was happening, the ARC RALLY boats exhibited the most shocking and inconsiderate 'Cruiser' behaviour we have experienced so far on our cruising travels! They rudely and impatiently decided to push in front of all the boats that had arrived into Savusavu before them (there was four of us apparently awaiting Customs clearance) and without telling The Copra Shed, Meermow went in and got the Customs Officials, who were none the wiser that Meermow and Mystic Soul were the last boats in the clearance queue. Now The Copra shed we're shockingly bad at managing the situation, not only did they not confirm to Customs the correct order the yachts were to be cleared in, but they also did NOTHING to rectify the situation, In fact it was like there was no actual management going on at all! We found out later, after asking The Copra Shed what service they actually provided, that all they do is phone up Customs, which we considered daylight robbery as they charged both FUSIO and us $20 Fijian dollars each to make that phone call, any easy $40 for them! (CRUISER TIP #1 Waitui does it FOR FREE!!). So there we sat, tired after our 3 day passage, confused and shocked at the selfish behaviour of Meermow an ARC RALLY monohull, as they putted past us in their tender, time after time going to and from the shore with the different Custom officials. They obviously knew they were in the wrong, as they averted their eyes as they past us and avoided any contact. To make matters even worse Meermow's inconsiderate, unKiwi-like behaviour continued as they decided to ferry each Custom official to their partner in (clearance) crime ARC RALLY yacht Mystic Soul, who had the nerve, after taking a rather long time to complete their custom clearance as well, attempted to take the Officials back to shore, instead of availing themselves from the Cruiser misnomer they had already committed by doing us the usual courtesy of ferrying them to the next boat in the queue. Later we learnt that these two troublesome ARC RALLY yachts had botched their Fijian advanced customs forms saying they would be arriving in Latoka, a completely different port in Fiji, hence the extended time Customs had to spend with them. FUSIO actually had to wave down one of their tenders, to stop their idiot-selfish behaviour. The ARC RALLY boat then had the audacity to wave FUSIO over to their yacht and requested they pick up the officials off their boat. None of us could believe the behaviour we were experiencing, and we were dismayed that an NZ registered boat (Meermow) was tarnishing our good Kiwi reputation. The shining light in this story is that (while misinformed by The - to be avoided if you don't want to be robbed - Copra Shed) the Savusavu Customs and Immigration team we're a class act, they we're lovely to deal with, friendly, informative and welcoming, the Fijian tourism industry should be very proud! Oh, and by the by, I had the great fortune of SUPing past Mystic Soul this morning, and took great delight in making sure they were aware of how inconsiderate and 'Cruiser-rude' their behaviour was, to which they reacted with ignorance, and more rudeness.

. BULA BULA!! After 3 nights of continuous sailing we have arrived safe and sound in Savusavu. Sasha and Mike’s first passage alone was a success! Last night was a great night of sailing, with a top speed of 14.5 knots. Mike was considering putting in a reef when Sasha awoke for her shift, but after 30mins the winds abated, and Sasha settled in at the helm, with only the main sail up to monitor speeds of 4 and 5 knots in very calm seas. A yacht (Mooemeer) from the Arc rally (a circumnavigation of the earth) also sailing from Tonga, called up Moonfish on the VHF in the night for a chat. Sasha made sure to say that Team Moonfish would come and introduce ourselves when we saw them in Savusavu. Moonfish passed them during the night as they were waiting out in the ocean for daylight so they could navigate their way into Savusavu. We were very lucky not to have to do the same, as we followed FUSIO into the harbour (once they caught up to us heh heh). Once in the harbou r, FUSIO went to check out if there were any quarantine moorings free, but we watched them on the AIS and they soon turned around and came back out. Opting instead to motor around in the calm with Moonfish as all the moorings were taken, bar two which they were not sure the owners of. FUSIO also relayed that the wind was all over the show on the passage, this information greatly relieved Sasha (and her crash gibing tactics) sharing that the wind was very varied, moving from 27 knots to 9 knots at times, and that it had done a couple of 180’s which meant the fault was not in the helmswoman. The smell of land is always so apparent after some time at sea, a sweet smell of smoke and lush tropical forest is easily identified. We are both very well, and so happy and excited to be in Fiji for the next part of our adventure. One of the first things to do, once we have cleared customs will be to purchase a Fijian sim card, and give all the parental units a call/skype, upload all the outstanding Tongan photography onto Facebook, and see what’s happening with friends back home. Now, off to make some creamy banana porridge for breaky All well on board.

. Flippy is still sitting on the foredeck. We’ve had all sorts of excitement today, Sasha managed to crash gibe more than once, her reasoning was that the rainy squalls dotted all around, had caused sudden directional changes in the wind. Mike was not impressed, as she got him up twice from slumber to ask for help on how to deal with it. Sasha has almost finished Pride and Prejudice, and can’t help but note that all the ol’ English language has affected her written sensibilities. Just capital it is! Mike has finished the Captain Cook book he was reading, and has lamented for the most part of today about what he shall read next. We had full intentions of listening to GHR this morning, but in all the commotion of Sasha’s sailing expertise missed the transmission. Tomorrow we expect to be moored in the designated quarantine area by daylight. FUSIO is in plain sight now, and we have chatted about their fishing prowess this afternoon. All well on board.

Another nights sailing completed, we have spotted land, Cakau Lasemarawa, which presides in front of the more substantial Yarova Island. Or the land we can see may be perhaps the even larger island to the north, Yarova Island. We have also received the standard Fijian cellphone companies “welcome to Fiji” text messages. FUSIO is no longer on our AIS, and we have passed to very lit up fishing vessels during the course of the night, one with NO AIS which was strange. Sasha spotted some strange white flashing lights, several of them and has assumed they were marking on of the outlying reefs. Mike is enjoying a well earned sleep, and Sasha watched the sun rise. Sasha is contemplating unfurling the headsail, but we are ok with this speed for now, until we see FUSIO again on the AIS. All well on board.

A great day sailing top speed for the day 15.6knots under main sail only!! Both Mike and Sasha have had naps to prep for another nights sailing. Dinner was a delicious chicken harissa casserole, with kumara, and tomato base sauce. Sasha is reading Jane Austen’s classic ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and Mike is reading ‘James Cook’s Lost World’ a novel by Graeme Lay. We’ve been in VHF contact with Fusio, all well on board there, we can see them just behind our starboard aft now. We’re still smokin’ along with only our main up, and for some fun, Mike has turned off Auto and is surfing down the waves for something to do. We’ve had a tiny casualty – there is a tiny dead flying fish sitting up on the deck, we’ll give Flippy an appropriate send off when we are in calmer waters. We’re having a tad bit of difficulty with our battery charger, it’s showing the correct indicator lights when we pop on the genny, but it isn’t charging, which is a bummer. Anyo ne got any clues/tips? We’ll take a better look at it once we are at Fiji.

Goodbye Tonga!! It was good to be able to catch up with Team BRAVADO (Al and Shirl) in Tonga, and we look forward to seeing them again at Musket Cove. Well we are well on our way to Savusavu, Fiji now. We decided to head to Fiji instead of staying in Tonga longer to catch up with our kiting mates, as we are not too familiar with the Fiji customs processes, and Team FUSIO have been brilliant showing us the ropes. This morning will be the first time in a long time we will turn on the SSB and listen in to GHR for a weather update, as we had been using the local VHF cruiser net (channel 26) in Tonga for our weather updates. FUSIO is also on passage, although last night we lost them on our AIS (auto identification system). This is the first passage Mike and Sasha are doing by themselves, 3 hours on, 3 hours off is what we’re currently trialing. We estimate our arrival to be Monday morning. We’ll be eating last nights dinner leftovers (butterflied lamb and roasted (Tongan) golden kumera) for lunch today – might roll the whole lot up in two wraps and toast them, YUM!

We’ve been really busy… busy KITESURFING at The. Best. Spot. In. The. World! It’s a 15 minute dinghy ride from Kenutu Island, we park up the tenders on a little sand island (aka Kite Island), there is miles and miles of aqua blue ankle to waist deep water, there’s ramps, and flat water, and a sand bar to jump over. There’s even a spot with deeper water for jumping beginners. It’s better than Aitutaki!!!! I know, that is a big statement to make, but IT IS!! Because there is NO ONE THERE!!!! We had the place to ourselves day after day, and finally when a boatload of about 5 kiters did turn up, they pumped up their kites, and we’re gone again in ten minutes as they headed off on their down winder. Awesome! The wind conditions have been perfect for Sasha to get her backrolls more consistent (awesome photo’s to follow on facebook when we get internet access - and yes the arm feels a lot better) and to start learning jumping on her switch side – so she can get onto those Jump Transitions. Mike’s been doing massive jumps, tweaking it out, and also jumping on his switch side. He’s also been carving it up on the surfboard. It is such an amazing place, we are thinking about staying in Tonga longer, and catching up with the kiting crew coming up from NZ on the 1st of July. We’re heading back to Neiafu today, we’ve run out of fresh vegetables, but we still have banana’s, so many in fact that Sasha made a delicious flour and sugar free Banana Cake with Salted Date-Caramel icing. We still haven’t caught a fish, go figure!! Warwick and Layne are keen to watch the rugby, so we’ll head into Bounty Bar for another All Black WIN tonight.

Anchored at the southern end of Pangimotu Island, in a little lagoon, surrounded by Afo Island and Tapana Island. Okay so today’s update is a tad bit different to normal…. yesterday we finally downloaded all of your YIT comments via a café wifi, and this morning Sasha (yes I am referring to myself in 3rd person to keep things easy to read – well it’s an attempt to keep things easy to read and understand) read every single comment for the first time since we left NZ. WOW!! We cannot get over how many of your are following our adventure, it’s really cool to hear from you and get your reactions and comments. The below is an attempt to respond; BARBARA (aka Mum Watson) – So glad to hear the Olive harvest went well, we are still using the beautiful olive oil that Tina and Ross gave us, it really is fantastic oil! CRAIG & SONJA – There’s no swell in Vava’u’s protected harbours, but we will be off to Fiji within the next two weeks, so let’s hope there is no more big WA swells to affect our 2nd passage: Vava’u to Fiji, as it will be the first passage that Mike and I do alone, with no additional crew.

BIPPY (aka Carl) – it IS crazy that we sailed to Tonga, Sasha can hardly believe it herself. Glad you are enjoying our blog, also Pappy tells me you have started the new job now, we hope it’s going well? JILL & LONG JOHN SILVER (aka Clive) - HULLO!!!!!! How come you had had a few rough days in the waterways? Was it just cold or was there a storm too? No sign of Capt’n Jack Sparrow yet, but I have no doubt he’ll make an appearance sooner or later!! You guys need to get Panache Cat ready to rumble for next season and COME WITH US!!! Jill I am sure we can organise some nice young men for your crew – wink wink! RICHARD – How’s NZ life treating you? Must be a touch bit slow after the Big Apple eh? Yip, I/Sasha do write in 3rd person, a touch odd – I’ll grant you that, but it’s just to try and keep our blog easy to read. We are glad you are inspired by our adventures, it really is the best thing I have ever done! SIPPY (aka Katya) – Thanks for all your comments, you guys are really following us on our adventures eh!? Are you reading the blog to Connor?? Does he know what his Auntie Sippy is up to? We didn’t even know the earthquake had happened, which was a tad scary since they are often followed by tsunami. We only found out about it cause Mappy emailed us. How did your Melbourne presentation go? Thanks for the “Wahoooo Congrats” comment, we we’re glad to finally make it to Tonga too.

GREG M - So glad you are enjoying our adventures, we heard the weather in NZ turned really bad just after we left Opua. But don’t think we are sitting up here working on our tans, we are suffering our 5th day of tropical downpours – no sun for 5 days in a row!! It’s wet here too, and also not in a good way.

KEV, TRACE, and ya beautiful GIRLS – So glad you guys are enjoying our blog, we wish we had downloaded Google Earth before we had left (Cruisers Pete and Wanda did tell us too! Doh!) as we would like to be zooming into where we are too, and doing some kite / surf research. But there is always lots to explore, and that’s keeping us busy. Oh, and yeah, we do turn our other engine on if/when we get to far behind. It’s just a tad more difficult refueling up here, so the less we use the less we have to refuel. And also have no fear, there is always a Steiny near. Ha! PAPPY and MAPPY – Uoleva is definitely a archetypical tropical island, except for the RUBBISH on the sea facing side. It is a real shame that there is no real rubbish system up here, Tonga does desperately need to rectify that, as it’s only going to get worse, and it’s such a shame to ruin such a beautiful place. The sun rises at about 6:30am, and sets at about 5:30pm – that’s if it ever comes out again. RAIN RAIN RAIN! And yes, that 2015 in our YIT description is an error, it should say 2016, I’ll update it when I get access to the internet again. Minerva definitely is a very special place, and I feel so lucky to have been able to visit, especially since so few humans get to experience it – just awesome. And yes MAPPY, if I ever attempt to catch a BIG fish again, I will make sure I am tethered to the boat! THE CHISHOLMS! – Hey guys, so glad you FOUND our blog! How are you all? Have you moved into the new house yet? Tonga is most definitely an awesome place to sail too, if funny actually, because we are anchored in a place right now, that really reminds me of Great Barrier – where we met you guys!! No issues having bonfires on the beach here I would suspect, only issue you’d have would be actually getting a fire started – so wet here at the moment.

SALLY & NICK – Yes, totally this life is much more like being on a cruise, than hardcore sailing. Although we shouldn’t speak too soon, as we’ll be on passage to Fiji shortly and that means 3 to 4 days sailing non-stop for Mike and I, as there will be zero crew – wish us luck. We have popped some photo’s up on our SV Moonfish facebook page – hopefully you’ve seen them? Oh, and sadly I don’t think we’ll be in NZ to make your wedding on the 16th of October.. I am totally bummed! As I would love to go.

TONY – So glad you are enjoying our blogs, we are definitely getting great use out of the books you lent us, they are full of useful info – thanks so much. We’ve been singing your praises to team FUSIO, and they are looking forward to meeting you. We hope your back is healing well, oh and we did see the boys from Bravado, they didn’t like all our Blue Marlin action on passage as they had no luck and yes the clams and snorkeling at Minerva was the best I have ever seen! Just EPIC TIMMY – Hullo!! There was a bit of ‘are we there yet’ getting to Minerva, as we were motoring so much. Sasha couldn’t really believe we had finally go there. It was so good to finally stop and sleep properly. The ‘Tall Thing’ is still the right way up, and we have swum with the bitey things a couple of times now with no bites – which is a nice surprise – Lanie says just treat them as you would a dog, which has changed my ‘JAWS’ perception somewhat. Today was my first SUP since the ‘arm-gate’ incident – it’s still locking at the elbow so no burpies or crunchs for me, the bikini is getting tight.. gasp! GRAEME & BEV – We can’t believe you guys are following us!!!! Fusio is ONLY faster when we are motoring, and that’s ONLY because we use one motor, not two, as it uses less fuel. We’d leave them in our tracks if we ever get a beam reach 15 knots, our code zero sail and dagger boards would have us ZOOMING along at 10/11 knots. You got a rig in that boat of yours yet? Let’s race!! THE DELAMARES – Unfortunately we can see many fish work ups here in Tonga, and we have been trawling through a lot of them with different lures, but we cannot for the life of us CATCH a fish!! Any tips on how we are suppose to catch fish in Tonga??? Glad you guys are enjoying our blog.

DUGGAN (aka Jo) – Glad you’re keeping tracks on us, you need a YIT for all your adventures!! You guys must be hanging out for TONGA now? When do you arrive? TINA & ROSS – Thanks for looking after Blackie, I really REALLY appreciate it. Ps you should be roasting all that delicious pumpkin you have – not having baked beans for dinner! We figured out how to deal with it on board, we use the machete to chop it up, it really was one of the best pumpkins I have ever eaten – full of flavour, so thanks.

LIONEL & IRENE (aka Team Kiapa) – Sorry Lionel we only just received your comment on YIT, we have your email now, so you can’t get away now!! Heh heh. Thanks so much for hosting us in Minerva, it was awesome meeting you and your crew, and seeing inside Kiapa, such a beautiful yacht! We’ll track you down in Fiji!! Where abouts are you guys? FOODSTUFFS TEAM – Hello Karuna and Team Foodies!! I wondered if you guys were following the adventure, so glad you get to join in the fun! Karuna I only just saw your comment from the 10th of May today (13th of June), we get access to the internet maybe once or twice a week. Say hi from me to everyone there!! I haven’t forgotten to send lude postcards.. Just need to get to Fiji where they will sell them… stand by for awkward snail mail deliveries.. muhahahaha!

Still on Mooring 43 in Neiafu. Yesterday it rained, then it rained some more. Sasha attempted to make Moonfish Buns (aka Hot Cross Buns, but instead of a cross on the top, she piped big ‘M’s). It was the first time baking these types of buns and using Edmonds Surebake, (which is yeast with additional agents that supposedly assist with bread making). The dough did rise a little, but Sasha thinks she may have killed some of the yeast in the dough making process, as the dough did not rise as much as she is use to – the top half of the bun have risen nicely, it’s just a tad dense in the lower half – definitely still edible so they’ll still be enjoyed. Mike and Sasha headed into Neiafu for afternoon tea in between the torrential rain, and went to the café where the owner offered Mike some PDF guides for cruising Vava’u as well as surfing/kiting spots – pretty nice of him really! We gave him a usb stick and he loaded it all up for free. After that Mike was pretty chuffed to find a single box of BIG bottle Steinlager (12x750ML) – that should keep him going for a while. Last night we all clambered into our bathtubs (aka our dinghy’s filled with rainwater) to watch the All Blacks V Wales game at Laurence’s Bounty Bar, the 10 strong crew from the Super Launch were at Bounty too, their business tycoon owner had left that morning, so they were all celebrating, as they had been working some long hours up until then – they are a very funny international bunch, and made for great banter and atmosphere in the bar. On a side note, FUSIO watched someone on the boat next to them have a bath in their tender the other day, it was full of fresh rainwater, so they just hopped in with some soap and lathered up – just brilliant! Another boat used all their tender rainwater to do all their laundry, it’s cool how cruisers find a use for everything! We’ve been catching rain in buckets and pouring it into our tanks, and Mike has solidifi ed his design plans to make a dual-function rain catcher to tank system and saloon rain-hatch-cover all in one – that’s the engineer in him being put to good use!

This lat and long was from my iphone, not our chartplotter (which is turned off, and hard to get to when our boat is all shut up for the rain) so I hope it’s accurate? Currently we are on a mooring in Neiafu Harbour. We got here yesterday after the VHF 26 channel cruiser-net spoke of 360 degree winds – that’s always a scary thought when you are anchored in a sandy spot with coral heads all around you. So we came in and picked up a Beluga Dive Mooring ball. Pretty cool actually, the mooring ball has a number (43 in our case) and then a VHF channel number – 9, so you just radio up Beluga Dive on the VHF, and let them know you’re on their mooring. We had been anchored for most of yesterday at Port Maurelle, there was this massive super launch (164ft long 33ft beam (wide)) anchored in there as well, and with that massive vessel in there, it’s hard to find a sandy spot for little ol’ Moonfish. Apparently it’s owned (surprise surprise) by some business tycoon , so has decided to take a year off (rather surprising for a business tycoon) and go around the world. How’s that for a plan!! You should see how many staff they have on board, they even have a camera man taking footage of them on a separate tender!! Sasha went for a snorkel from the boat all the way to the beach – it’s like swimming in a tropical aquarium, so many fish, parrot, clown (I FOUND NEMO!!), little electric blue ones, and larger white-as-sand ones that seem to like it right up in the shallows of the beach – no sharks though which is nice for a change! Mike was also snorkeling but more to check on the anchor, as there was quite a bit of coral around. Lanye from Fusio joined Sasha on the white sandy beach, and we spoke about kitesurfing as Layne, Warwick and Mike have gone kiting on the sand island out from Kenutu Island for the past two days. Sounds like Layne is really picking it up well. Sasha it looking forward to her arm being normal again, so she can join in too, after consulting with Nurse-Mappy and Doctor Pappy, it sounds like there’s a little bit of nerve and tendon damage (pins and needles), so Sasha it going to keep resting it for a few more days to help it heal. As Layne and Sasha were talking on the beach there was a rustle from the bushes, then a random cow trundled out of the bush stared at them for a few seconds, then carried on her way, it is so weird for a cow to appear from no where on a tropical island and then just saunter back into the bush, like it’s no thing. We’ve been asked for rope twice by different locals, they say they want rope to tie up their cow – hilarious as we had been told this was a line they give to sailors and then they sell the rope in the markets at exorbitant prices. If we ever come back here we will buy a heap of cheap rope from The Warehouse and have a ‘rope-scramble’ in the market one day in exchange for fruit!

We have been anchored off Kenuta Island, Vava’u group, Tonga for the past couple of days. Mike has gone kiting of the sand island (yesterday and the day before). Sasha is resting her wrenched arm (thanks to the crazy local dancing woman!) and resting up from a bit of a dodgy tum – yet another reason to stay away from rum punch, she thinks it may have been the ice in the punch that caused it. We all went for a walk yesterday, and headed up to the ‘German’ bamboo chair on the ocean side of Kenutu Island. It’s a rather impressive drift wood, bamboo looking structure with the remains of one of those plastic deck chairs tied to it – apparently the story goes the plastic chair was salvaged from some German boat wreck, hence the name ‘German Bamboo Chair’. We all climbed up onto it, it’s seems very sturdy, and has apparently lasted several cyclones including Winston – now that’s impressive, especially considering all the blown-to-pieces coral we have seen about the place. Kenuta is a small island, but it has many amazing views, Sasha brought her phone along and got several shots of the raw beauty of the place. The soil is a rich red, the bush is a rich green colour and there are spots that Sasha knows her Pappy would love, they look like little magical gardens, and they are completely natural. There were several stop offs at tiny beaches, and each time one of us would exclaim “This looks like a Hollywood movie set”. Mike and Sasha went snorkelling in the lagoon yesterday and saw this absolutely massive starfish, it looked like something off the set of Jurassic Park - it’s centre would have been the size of a laptop bag, hate to think what it eats!!

Thanks Patricia at Gulf Harbour Radio for the tip with getting a better signal out from our SSB, I will try the ‘talking sideways’ thing, MALibu also mentioned this, but I didn’t take it on board, as Vaughan had told me to pt the mic right up against my mouth, so I thought I was doing it right. Right, here’s what we’ve been up too… We’ve walked around Neiafu, the Vava’u groups main hub. Gone to the market and picked up eggs, beautiful finger banana’s, tomatoes, and pineapple – with our purchase the egg lady gave us free some fresh rosemary (which we used on our butterflied lamb that night yum!) and from the banana and pineapple lady we got what Sasha believes are those scarily hot chilli peppers – as in the world famous, don’t eat them they will kill you – chilli peppers, they look like mini red capsicums – Sasha tried the tiniest sliver of one the other day and her mouth was burning for hours!! We think the Banana and Pineapple lady played one hell of a joke on us! We also went in for some drinks one night to Bounty Bar, and after that we headed to Aquarium bar and restaurant – where there was some scary ‘dancing’ going on, long, blurry story short, Sasha had a pretty sore arm the next day due to one local woman’s ‘scary’ dance moves. Suffice to say Sasha will not be partaking in the Neiafu Rum Punch ever AGAIN! Luckily Emily a nurse from another boat anchored in the harbour had a look at the arm and made sure no major damage had been done - whew! Apart from that we ate like kings today, banana pancakes, and yummy banana smoothies, we snorkeled in Swallows Cave which was amazing, and then we went fishing to see if we could catch something from the workup’s happening just by our anchorage, but no luck yet. Sorry we haven’t been keeping up with the YIT updates, we will try to be better from now one.

This is a post for yesterday’s activity – we anchored off Ha’ano, the final island in the Ha’apai group and had a most excellent time on our SUP’s playing in the soft rolling surf. What made it so fun was the mushroom shaped tor (small little rock island) that the break was curving around – Mike managed to catch the first wave and rode it all the way, right around ‘Island Mushy’. When the wave hit Island Mushy’s curved walls, it curled under the curved rockface and spat back whitewash in the riders direction. After Mike had well and truly got rock-barrel, it was Sasha’s turn to give it a go, pure-stoke was the result as she let out a ‘WAHOOOOOO! I got that one on go pro!!’. Layne and Warwick both got Island Mushy rides too, and we were all yelling out hoots and wahoo’s! It was a bit of a wait between the swell-sets, so we’d sit down on our boards and put our bootie-covered feet in the water to cool down. One set came a little too quick for Sasha, so she rode the wave sitting down – Kayak styles, hooting all the way! Then it was time for tandem wave riding, first Layne and Sasha got on the same wave and after a slight board collision we were sorted and riding past Island Mushy. Then Mike and Warwick did the same. It was a truly awesome day, we literally spent the majority of the day in the water, playing on those little waves – everyone was stoked and very tired once the sun started to set and it was time to paddle back to the boats. Later that night, Warwick and Layne had us around for dinner on FUSIO, a lovely MahiMahi Green Thai Curry, with fresh carrots, cabbage, and onion!! Fresh veggies still on FUSIO with no shopping since NZ!! That is amazing! We had a few issues getting our anchor up today, blimin coral!! More to come on that later!!

Hello everyone, well it has been an eventful couple of days. We dropped MALibu off on Saturday, well actually Matt and Jodie from Ha’apai Beach Resort dropped him at the airport (thanks again M & J). We all had lunch at Ha’apai Beach Resort’s beautiful beachfront bar and café, this time Sasha and Mike had the Breadfruit Crabcakes (YUM!), Lanye had the Pumpkin and Pele (island spinach) ravioli and Warwick and MALibu had pizza (which I reckon is some of the best pizza I have ever had!!) Thanks for lunch MALibu! You were very sneaky getting that all paid for without any of us realising!! Maybe that was due to all the IKALE lagers eh? We went to pay after you had left with Matt for the airport and were told there was only one outstanding IKALE to pay for… it took us a few seconds to realise what you had done! Naughty MALibu, that was suppose to be a lunch on us! You won’t be surprised that the next day we were all nursing fuzzy heads, as we’d all had quite a few drinks.

That night Layne from FUSIO made us all dinner, it’s pure magic how Layne still has fresh vegetables on board!! She dished up boiled eggs, tuna and a delicious green salad. Sasha is still in awe of her provisioning prowess. Yesterday we started getting into some routine. Sasha cleaned the galley top to bottom, and plans to do the floors in the port hull today. She also did the first load of laundry in paradise. It was mostly all our warm merino stuff from the passage – it dried almost instantly hanging on our new dyneema lifelines. We’ve been for two, big, morning Stand-Up-Paddle (SUP henceforth) Board adventures, one from Pangai, all the way north, past the Ha’apai Beach Resort where we saw Jodie going for her morning run, up to the Lifuka Airport – just before the Lifuka island ends, and Foa the next northern island begins. The other SUP was from our favourite anchorage in the middle of picture-perfect Uoleva, all the way around the southern tip, and half way up the eastern side. We saw a couple of turtles taking a breather, and Mike and Warwick were game enough to have a play in the little waves rolling over the reef. It was too shallow with too much sharp coral around for Sasha or Layne to play that game.

Yesterday afternoon Craig at TaliTali’anga Resort called up Fusio and informed them the kiting crowd from further up the island had dropped in for a cold beer, so we all bundled into FUSIO’s tender and met ‘Glen’ (or Glan as the locals call him) his lovely lady who’s name escapes me, and their two recent recruits (unfortunately I can’t remember their names either – I was rather tired yesterday afternoon). They were all very excited about the 30knot wind forecasted for next Tuesday onwards – keen kiters! Hilariously I remember the names of both their puppies, ‘Lucky’ was saved by ‘Glan’ from some locals that were using him as a football (a horrible story, but a very happy ending for ‘Lucky’) and Jenga a big pawed black dog. Both of them were very cute, and they could not wish for better owners. We left Craig’s with a bunch of his homegrown island Bok-Choy (thank’s Craig!), which Mike and Sasha had for dinner with garlic, chilli and sesame oil, just as one of the Kiters had advised - it was delicious! Oh! Sasha forgot to relay that Moonfish finally caught a fish, but in a very unorthodox way!! For you non-boaties you may not be aware that many ‘heads’ or toilets on boats, pump saltwater into the bowl for the flush. As Sasha flushed the ‘head’ the other day, a little black and white striped fish was pumped into the bowl. Needless to say Sasha was super excited and came running up to tell Mike and MALibu what she had caught! MALibu pointed out that the only way out for poor Mr Fish was via the Macerator – a set of sharp blades.

Magic-Mikey has been on form and this morning solved our solar panel mystery. We had been told that up in the islands our solar panels would not work as efficiently as in NZ – but Mike thought something else was up… he found a loose wire and all of a sudden our panels were putting twice as much into the batteries – WHEW!! As we were a little worried we would be struggling for power for months to come. Just as I type this Mike has been playing with the squid hanging about underneath our port hull. It’s so cool all the marine life around here.

Still at anchor in almost-paradise: Uoleva, (an island sou’west from Pangai.) Turns out Paradise rains. Paradise rains a lot!! During the sunny bits, over the past couple of days team Moonfish and team Fusio have walked part way around Uoleva, had swims, met an Italian couple staying at Captain Cook ‘resort’, had beers and nibbled on fresh coconut at Craig & Wanita’s (his dog) camp resort called TALITALI’ANGA (awesome beach bar!! Well worth a look!), had BBQ’s, and one night we all watched a very funny Australian comedian do his stand up act – I think his name is Jim Jefferies (very rude, but well worth a watch as he is one of those smart-comedians who makes funny but well thought out social commentary). We’ve all met Barry the (so-called friendly) Barracuda. Sasha spotted him first, hopefully pointing him out and exclaiming “kingfish” (to date Team Moonfish has yet to catch a fish!). MALibu and Mike laughed at Sasha’s fish identification, Sasha then suggested ‘Shark?’. Mike got his snorkel and mask and lay on the transom while tentatively putting his face in the water to get a better look – definitely a very curious Barracuda with those big fangs!! Mike fed him a salted pilchard as he skulked under Moonfish’s hulls , Barry made short work of that, guzzling it down quickly. Layne was keen to swim with him – she is keen to swim with anything that has large teeth, that looks very well equipped to do one serious harm. The next day she did end up swimming with Barry, but wouldn’t have known if it hadn’t been for Warwick pointing Barry out to her. Sasha got gopro footage of Barry, so he will be one of her holiday-movie’s guest stars.

While MALibu walked right the way around Uoleva, the rest of us attempted to go kiting yesterday morning at the northern tip of Uoleva. It was windy when Mike and Sasha set out in the dinghy (well past 10am when Sasha finally decided it was time to get out of bed, after her cuppa and a read). The sea conditions made the tender ride to the supposed kiting spot unbelievably uncomfortable, we got there and Layne and Warwick were already there amping to go! Mike and Sasha beached their tender, and walked out to meet team FUSIO on the sand spit, unfortunately their dinghy parking wasn’t that flash and soon their loaded-up tender was getting swamped by waves, Mike ran back to save it, and began bailing. Once that was sorted, we made the decision to kite closer to where the boats were anchored - this was our undoing. By the time we had got to the designated spot, pumped up our kites, walked out our lines, the wind had gone. There was much disappointment at this point in our trip, a nd in jest Sasha’s sleep-in was blamed as the key reason for this disappointment. On that note, Sasha’s sleep patterns seem to be one of the favourite conversation topics here in paradise – Sasha can’t understand why she is being berated for sleeping when it is one of the best things you can do for your health. Yesterday afternoon the rain set in, and it has rained all night, not ideal when you need hatches open to ensure the boat is ventilated – we did purchase one large black plastic fan that can be wired in, which may well be a job for Magic Mike one of these days. While Mike and MALibu had a few beers on MALibu’s last afternoon, Sasha made burger buns from scratch, and started preparations for Mega Awesome Moonfish Hamburgers, homemade meat patties, fried red onion, cheese, pickle, mustard, tomato sauce, beetroot - they were soooo good! Sasha was up early today – to listen to GHR – it only took her 15mins in her sleepy stupor to realise she had messed up her timing calculations yet again, and had unnecessarily awoken one hour earlier than need be. Ha, thought Sasha…. math eh… pretty useful stuff to know even in the islands.

At anchor in paradise - Uoleva island, a perfect tropical island sou’west from Pangai. Yesterday we unlashed the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boards from the dinghy davits and went for our first SUP in Tonga. Uoleva has plenty of coral and reefs around it, however compared to Minerva Reef it is far less ‘alive’ with underwater sea creatures. Mike played in the tiny waves rolling slowly over the reef. Warwick and Layne went for a walk along Uoleva, after their snorkel. And MALibu took Moonfish’s tender and went for a snorkel too. We met an Italian couple who had walked around Uoleva, they were staying on the island on one of the two resorts – there was no power, it seems ‘resort’ is used rather loosely in Tonga. We had cocktail hour on FUSIO last night, which was lovely. And then a quick bang-up-meal of bolognaise with buckwheat pasta and powered parmesan – it tasted much better than expected. Sasha was in bed early, leaving the boys to their nightcap, as M ike the captain had requested we be up for the GHR weather report. Unfortunately this morning we all forgot about the time difference and got up at 7am Tonga-Time, and only realized after waiting on the SSB for 15mins that we’d missed the weather report completely. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

We made it! At 2pm on the 24th of May 2016, the awesome crew of sailing vessel MOONFISH navigated their way (by following FUSIO) into Pangai Harbour (actually we anchored just outside it). Our route into Pangai was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Sasha awoke after a luxuriously long passage sleep (Captain Mike had taken her early morning shift which was very VERY nice of him- he may have been too frightened to wake her – gulp!), she eagerly headed out to the cockpit to establish the current location. Sasha watched Mike walk over to the port hull, spread out his arms and proudly say “LAND HO”. Sasha spied two islands, and later learned the large one that Mike referred to as ‘Rangitoto on Steroids’ was called Tofua, its main attraction - a large (507m tall) rather active volcano with a huge crater lake called Lofia. The smaller of the two islands looked like a miniature version of Mt Fuji, or NZ’s Ngarahoe (sorry about the spelling – I have no google!!). This smaller, bu t taller, cone peaked island is called Kao (1046m). These two menacing volcano (Sasha has made an executive decision and decided the word ‘Volcano’ is like the word sheep, and requires no plural – haha that’s for you Margo!) drifted off into the distance as Moonfish sailed past postcard picture-perfect white sandy beach islands – their plentiful palm trees waving us on. It was at this point we were greeted on VHF by an Australian accent “To the two sailing vessels arriving into Pangai - This is Ha’apai Beach Resort, Ha’apai Beach Resort”. Warwick on Fusio answered the call, in a very serious tone which quickly warmed as we all established that the Ha’apai Beach Resort was able and willing to contact the immigration and customs office and ask if they could clear us in that afternoon at 4pm. We were all very thankful, and sure to their word three staff, Customs, Immigration and Health all turned up at the Pangai Wharf, awaiting Warwick to pick them up and take them out to Fusio. Within a matter of minutes both FUSIO and MOONFISH were bringing down their Yellow fluttering Quarantine Flags, and hoisting the red and white crossed Tongan flag, with the good ‘ol NZ flag whipping in the wind beneath it. It was a proud moment, we had successfully completed our first ocean going passage. There was a $100 Tongan fee per boat for the Health Board, a $23 immigration fee, and we were told to head into town tomorrow and finalise our clearance by paying the Marine Infrastructure Fee (for the channel markers and light houses etc), this we found out later is based on the tonnage of your boat, Moonfish is 8 tonnes and this fee cost us $6.44 Tongan, we handed over $7, and were given no change – but we didn’t care, we were just over the ‘MOONfish’ that we had finalised our clearance and we were able to up anchor, away from the Pangai harbour and start our Tongan adventure. Once we had hoisted our Tongan courtesy flag, and after Team FUSIO had had a swim, we got in the dingy, picked up Team FUSIO and headed into the wharf as Matt and Josie at the Ha’apai Beach Resort had agreed to pick us up and take us to their beach front restaurant and bar. We all hopped in the back of their van, with Spud the dog sizing us up, and snarling at Lanye (hilarious!). The Ha’apai Beach Resort reminded Mike and Sasha of Aitutaki Rarotonga, laid back beach style, with well made wooden tables and chairs, and the odd up-cycled piece of old boat to jazz it up. The proprietors Matt (an Aussie) and J (which we think stood for Josie or Jody – sorry J was a kiwi) were really friendly and very welcoming. The bar was well equipped with nice cold local 5% beer called ‘IKALE’ lager the label proclaimed ‘The First Beer in the World Everyday’ referring to Tonga’s close proximity to the international date line. It was very easy to drink and everyone savoured more than a couple in celebration of the passage finishing. The dinner menu came out with Mike, Warwick and Layne selecting the MahiMahi Fish Pie and MALibu and Sasha opting for the Island Pizza. The meals were delicious, and Lemon Passionfruit cheesecake was shared as a sweet treat afterwards. The prices were affordable and Layne and Sasha were very appreciative to have a night off cooking. We all headed back to the boats for a long, peaceful sleep – until at what seems like 1am in the morning, the Pangai bells started to toll.. and toll… and TOLL some more. It must have been 6am, but far out did they ring for a while.

all well. Sounds like gourmet cooking on board.

Today we motored ALL DAY LONG… Sasha had the first nana-nap, it was lovely! Then Mike went down and slept for a long time, but MALibu untrue to usual form did not partake in the napping business today. Dinner will be roast butterflied lamb with an anchovy, mustard, butter and herb marinade, with two types of roasted vege chips; chilli garlic carrot chips and herb and olive oil golden kumara chips. This dinner will be the highlight of what has been a rather monotonous day, if this no wind thing keeps up, we’ll reach landfall by tomorrow afternoon. Oh, by the way we have a fourth crew member again, who joined us shortly after sunset – it’s a different bird, same spot though. Yellow feet and a long yellow beak, with white chest and black wings.

We had a ‘takeaway’ Sunday dinner last night – Sasha made up a coleslaw that was reminiscent of KFC coleslaw – Grated Cabbage and Carrot, with half a very finely chopped onion – mix in a good heaped tablespoon of Best Foods Mayo, a teaspoon of Dijon Mustard, liberal salt and pepper and a dash of lemon juice, and you have yourself a mighty fine-tasting ‘slaw’. Sasha panfried bacon to crispy morsels of deliciousness, Mike panfried chicken thighs with a sprinkling of chili flakes. All of the above was rolled up in spinach wraps, with the end result being finger lickin’ good! As the sun set sending bursts of brilliant orange and red flames into the dusk sky we were joined by our 4th crew member – Boobie the Bird. He circled Moonfish over and over, at times MALibu let out a yelp or two as Boobie got very close to his head. Eventually Boobie settled on the starboard pulpit, and there he sat, having a well-earned rest. Sasha started off the night watches at 7:30pm with both boys hitting the sack straight after dinner. Sasha woke up the wrong person for the second time on this passage, (this time Mike was rudely awoken around 11:30pm), it seems that the 5pm Crew Meeting, where the night-watch roster is discussed and decided upon is a little hard for Sasha to remember. She thinks someone should write it down for her heh heh. Around midnight Mike turned an engine on as the wind had dropped – we see a pattern emerging here, nighttime equals no wind. MALibu did the shift after Mike, and Sasha was up and away (thanks to her trusty dusty alarm clock) at 5am to take over from Mal. At 6:15am the next morning Sasha watched as Boobie flew away, leaving only his nocturnal motions behind. Thanks a lot BOOBS! Speeders FUSIO are ahead of us, but still in VHF contact which is nice, we chatted today about the GHR barometer readings, apparently our baro may be giving us some dodgy readings, so this calls for a Baro-Calo-Cocktail party when we reach our destination Pangai. GHR also mentioned that there is a boat missing out here somewhere – which does provide a sober reminder of the serious of our situation out here in the middle-of-nowhere. The boat’s name is Dignity, and there is a south African couple on board. The don’t sound to well equipped, as they have no SSB radio (which is what we use to listen to GHR) nor do they have an EPIRB (which is what you set off if you are in real trouble, as it sends out a signal that helps the Rescue Coordination Centre find you. They were destined for Vuda Point, Fiji, but they haven’t turned up after some bad weather – fingers crossed they are just delayed, and still making there way there. All well on board, except we all miss Boobie a little, oh and we miss the WIND a lot!

heading to Pangai Tonga with Fusio

Great first day sailing out of North Minerva Reef today. We had a warming bowl of apple-date-cinnamon porridge this morning, as the day looked like it was going to be a rough bleak one, so we exited through the pass with one reef in, but the cloud dispersed and we have sailed with a following sea, in a good breeze all day – reef shaken out and headsail furled out completely. We each had a hot shower during our sail today, and nibbled on biltong made by our local butcher at Hauraki Corner (the chili version is well worth a try!). Chicken wraps for tea tonight, nice and simple as it is a tad bumpy out here this afternoon.

Yesterday, once the sun came out we headed to the reef at low tide, and walked to an old anchor, that seems to be one of the few remains from an old shipwreck, the coral has anchored it to the reef. Walking on Minerva reef is like walking on a wet-Mars – red spongy coral gives under your feet, and rock cod dart away from you with every step. Brightly coloured clams are dotted all over the place in less than 20cm of water – it’s such an unfamiliar place – but the best rock pools Sasha had ever explored! (yip Pappy, even better than your magical mystery tours to Takapuna rockpool heh heh). Yesterday evening we hosted twelve people for drinks and nibbles; the crew from Remedy (Greta, Dave and Drew), Fusio (Lanye & Warwick) and Kiapa (Irene, Lionel, and their two lovely crew who’s names escape me). Fusio bought with them fresh yellow fin tuna, that a near by catamaran had gifted them, and Remedy bought fresh crayfish they had caught at midnight on the reef the ni ght before. MALibu bbq’d up the Tuna, and it was perfectly cooked. The feast was plentiful and delicious! It was nice to be able to host the Kiapa crowd before we headed off in different directions – they are off to Fiji. Afterwards the boys watched The Dark Horse (and NZ film), and Sasha hit the sack. It was a windy night, with gusts up to 35knots, but the wind settled down to around 12-13knots this morning so it was time for the Moonfish Crew to up anchor and continue on their adventure. Sasha just checked out Satellite Phone credit and we have over 178 minutes left, I will check the credit remaining after sending few emails and find out how much each of these updates is using – as currently I have zero idea – which for our emergency communications tool is probably a little naïve on Sasha’s part – there is however nothing stopping us emailing the boys at Wright Comms and getting more credit added. We are all so grateful to have had such a fantastic time at M inerva, it should be classed as a ‘Wonder of the World’. This is not ‘goodbye’ Minerva, it is only ‘see you later’, as you are too magnificent for us not to visit you again – not to mention we did not kitesurf here, and the spot we found yesterday was made for kitesurfing, we WILL be back!

Thanks to all who emailed us to confirmed these YIT updates are getting through – Mappy (Sasha’s Mum), Mum Watson (Mike’s Mum), Pappy (Sasha’s Dad), Pauline (MALibu’s Wife), Erica & Dave (long time cruisers and legendary advice providers), Team Stanley-Hunt, Pete and Margo (Sasha and Mike’s adopted parents, and grammar teachers), Tina and Ross, Tony Whiting (long time cruiser, sea bird specialist, and excellent chart advisor), and John Valentine (MALibu’s mate, welcome to the Moonfish Party!). Sasha misunderstood what Pappy was emailing about – it wasn’t our YIT updates, it was the Marine Traffic website that uses AIS (automatic identification system) technology that doesn’t seem to have updated for several days. Not sure why, perhaps we are out of range? Either way if you need to know where we are, look on this page, and you’ll soon find us. We are also receiving quite a few text messages to the Satellite phone which are (like short emails to ou r onsatmail email) always a welcome surprise to the Moonfish crew. Sasha reads them out, and the boys enjoy listening to the words of support, or updates from back in NZ. Only issue with the text messages is you need to pop your name at the end of them, as we can’t tell who’s texting us. Someone has texted a few times asking about some strange symbols I am using in my updates. Perhaps it is a ;) winky smiley face ;) that isn’t translating correctly once on our YIT page? ;) You’ll note this is an extra long update, that’s because Sasha didn’t want to write up yesterday’s update if none of it was getting through… so grab a cuppa and settle in… YESTERDAY, we had a brilliant day, we motored in glassy-calm seas from South Minerva reef to North Minerva Reef, we had walnut, apple, date, maple porridge for breakfast along the way. Before we had even entered North Minerva Reef Kiapa called us via VHF and invited us to a potluck BBQ dinner, which we happily accepted (although Sasha was a little nervous as to what she was going to dish up). Shortly after that a large powerboat put out an invite to all the boats in Minerva saying drinks at 4pm – all invited. It was then that the crew from Remedy (Greta, Dave and Drew) in their tender, greeted us as we came through the cut in the reef – the cut is man made, the US navy blew it up so they could anchor their fleet during the war. Remedy had spent a lengthy amount of time exploring the reef by the pass where all boats enter into North Minerva. They had collected some scallop looking shellfish, but said they were oysters, as they had collected some yesterday as well. They tol d us of snorkeling adventures yesterday where people had been circled by up to 12 grey reef sharks – that was enough for Mike to verbally opt out of snorkeling for the day. Then the Fusio crew popped over, just as Sasha had pulled a homemade meatlovers pizza out of the oven – Edmonds Cookery Book Pizza Dough (proofed once, kneaded twice), Pizza tomato puree, spicy pepperoni, cubed scotch fillet steak (leftover from the previous night’s dinner), spicy chorizo, fresh red bell pepper, fresh finely chopped onion, Italian herbs, cheddar, anchovies and olives. It was delicious, the dough was soft and light, it reminded Sasha of the pizza bread that her Sippy (Katya) use to make in the old family house in Murray’s bay. Everyone commented on how tasty the anchovies were. Once we had finished eating we all hopped in the tenders and headed out through the pass for a snorkel, Lanye (as always) was first in - she has no fear! Then MALibu was next, then Sasha – who quickly swum over to Lanye for morale support (and a human physical barrier just in case). Mike and Warwick stayed in their tenders – scaredy-cats! Layne is absolutely fabulous to snorkel with, as she keeps you calm and has absolutely know fear, she reminds Sasha of two friends back home; Rochelle (NZ’s top spear-fisher women and general fear-free water guru) and Bex who should show more fear after all the body parts she has broken but who continues to do extreme things! Miss you gals! Layne spotted a funny looking fish, and pointed it out to Sasha. With one look both were above the waterline, snorkels out of mouths, letting out hoots of laughter, as it really did look like a cartoon fish – it was a large brown spotted fish, with a huge comical cute face, massive eyes either side of its moon face, with a small mouth that curled at the corners – it almost looked like it was smiling at us. Later that day we looked it up in the ‘Reef Fish Identification’ book while at the potluck BQQ dinner aboard Kiapa (a stunning pristine Gunboat Catamaran owned by Lionel and Irene) we believed we had seen our first Porcupine Fish. It was at that point on our snorkel we saw the first of several reef sharks, decent sized ones too! Layne grabbed Sasha’s hand (Sasha found out later that Layne did that to stop Sasha from leaving the water - which was definitely Sasha’s first thought). The large grey sharks, with black tipped tails were stealthily cruising around the reef, seeming almost curious at our presence. At one point we had three circling us. MALibu was unphased, and was very comfortable in the water with them. Sasha was really proud of facing her fear head on, and shortly after the shark encounter hopped back into the tender and encourage Mike to hop in and do the same. Mike tentatively hopped over the side, holding on to the tender for a short while before heading off to where Layne and MALibu were to explore the underwater Minerva world. As Mike and Warw ick (who had succumb to peer pressure and hopped into the shark infested waters too), slid back into the dinghies, Layne and Sasha clapped and congratulated them on swimming with the sharks. Mike was pretty chuffed he too had faced his fear. Swimming with sharks for the first time – TICK! And to think two years ago in Tahiti - Mike and Sasha wouldn’t even entertain swimming with the barbless, very friendly rays at Tahiti’s Moorea island. Once back from snorkeling, we had a celebratory beer for being so brave, sunbathed, and Sasha thought about what she would prepare for the potluck dinner aboard the stunning aqua green hulled Kiapa. She finally decided on using the other half of Tina and Ross’s pumpkin. After a pumpkin cutting war (which Sasha definitely won), a substantial amount of cubed pumpkin was spread on an oven tray, drizzled with home made olive oil (also from Tina and Ross’s farm – thanks again guys xx), Italian herbs, salt and pepper, and popped into th e ovan on low while the Moonfish crew headed over to Domino the powerboat with party on their minds! The Dinghy’s at Domino’s stern were three deep by the time we arrived, the party was pumping, Almost every crew from every boat had turned up. Quite a few people were taking photo’s of the tenders, and it must have been a record, there was so many of them!! About 45mins later (and a lovely glass of chardonnay) Sasha had to jump over three dinghy’s to get to Moonfish’s so she could check on the pumpkin and turn on our stern light, as we had all enjoyed another green-flashless sunset by then. Much to Sasha’s amazement the Pumpkin was not mash, and was perfectly roasted. She headed back to the party on Domino (almost falling into the water as she attempted to get back on board). A glass of chardonnay later, it was time to head to Kiapa for dinner, the Moonfish team headed back to finish the Pumpkin salad. Crispy Bacon pieces, and dry-fried pine nuts finished the d ish – it was delicious and the first salad to be finished – Sasha was very relieved! Lionel took us on a tour of Kiapa, beautiful large bathrooms, with perfect, in-built wooden draining grates, and a stern porthole that offered the user beautiful views from head or shower. Luxurious island berth’s, for a weary sailor to rest his head. A massive saloon, with a centered helm - inside on the forward wall of the saloon, with a massive wheel – Sasha thought that would make for a very comfortable and dry passage! A massive galley (up), bigger than most apartments in Auckland! And a huge dinner table with room for more than 8 people. The coolest thing was the artwork that Lionel and Irene has put up around the boat, Lionel had used white, plastic, electrical tubing to create lightweight top and bottom frames, and then threaded the top and bottom of beautiful canvas printed photo’s of Kiapa at sunset into them, and attached them to the wall with double sided adhesive tape - such a simple, clever idea! Well that’s us for this morning, we are currently outside the reef trawling for fish (again), the boys are keen as mustard to catch some lunch, but we are yet to bring anything on board. All are very well on board, after our Muesli, last fresh orange, apple and yoghurt breaky. :) (that’s an attempt at a smiley face)

PLEASE CONFIRM OUR UPDATES ARE GETTING THROUGH? Sasha’s dad has emailed today saying the last ‘Yachts In Transit’ update from Moonfish was back on the 14th of May? Today is Friday the 20th of May. This really confuses Sasha as she has been emailing a templated update to YIT every day, and has assumed each one has been posted on our moonfish page. Can someone please email us at moonfish@onsatmail.com and let me know if our updates are getting posted on our YIT moonfish page or if there has been nothing? www.yit.co.nz/yacht/moonfish.

We are anchored next to Fusio in South Minerva. We arrived here yesterday around 10am (which is when Mike woke Sasha up for the second time yesterday morning – the first being at 7am to call into GHR). Sasha made a rookie mistake the night before last, offering to do the first night shift (which is not an issue in isolation), but if one does the sunrise shift and the first night shift in the same day one ends up being awake for 20 plus hours. Now, (as Sasha’s parental units know very well) being awake causes ‘the mass destruction’ of Sasha. Sasha’s ‘off-switch’ was well and truly on yesterday morning, aa she attempted to function on half a cylinder. Not fun for anyone and one of the reasons why no position updates were sent yesterday to YIT or Maritime NZ – which is not good at all, so Sasha won’t be falling into that trap again, she’ll be making sure she knows well before our 5pm Crew meeting what her first night shift will be so she can manage to get a nana-nap in. Around 11am yesterday the Fusio crew headed over in their tender and we eventually hatched a plan to go for a snorkel. It was the best snorkeling Sasha has ever done, it was like swimming in a Hollywood underwater movie set! We saw lots of different fish, huge amounts of healthy coral, Mike and Mal saw a moray eel (Sasha had just swum directly over it), the giant clams were abundant and everywhere – with different bright blues and purples and aqua colours and nearing the end Mike spotted a rather large shark, and told Sasha, so they both made a rather hasty exit from the water. Warwick was already up on his tender, so he headed over to Layne who didn’t want to get out, she wanted to see the shark (go figure!), and Mal (un-phased) made is way slowly over to our tender, taking everything in. We came back to Moonfish, and ate a delicious Mexican/Spanish omelet – combine and fry cubed golden kumera until brown, add leftover nacho mince (from last nights d inner), pour in scrambled eggs and then top with one cracked egg for decoration and grill the top. It was delicious! We had the Fusio crew over at 5pm for cocktail hour, and shared our Blue Marlin ocular proof while they shared all the lovely sunset shots they got of Moonfish sailing – just awesome! Then we had our first steak dinner of the passage with more wind-making sautéed butter cabbage and a can of ratatouille. We all went to bed pretty early and contended with the south Minerva swell – which made for a bumpy ride.

With Fusio and others

It was lovely to receive Barbara’s (Mum Watson’s) email during my shift tonight, thanks for sending an update and we hope Vicky is recovering well - plaster up to the knee definitely calls for a little bell to ring every time she needs something. Sasha will make sure she reads it to Mike in the morning. Sasha is currently working her first starting shift tonight, because tomorrow we need Mike (our captain) on helm in the morning as our chart plotter says we are only 9.5hours away from Minerva Reef. Mike needs to be on so he can decide what he wants to do, i.e. go in, or wait outside until we have more daylight. We should get there around 7ish – which is the same time as the Gulf Harbour Radio net, so we won’t call in tomorrow with a report, as we’ll be busy ‘checking-in’ to Minerva. Sasha has been on since around 8:15pm, and is trying to stay up as late as possible to give the boys a decent sleep. Mike’s up next, so Sasha will try and hold out till 1am . It’s almost a full moon this evening, which makes it so much easier to see – I had to turn the starboard engine on about an hour ago, as the wind dropped right back, so we are back to motor sailing – again. We had nacho’s for dinner, and after the cabbage from last night, and today’s corn fritters there has been a little more wind on board.. but not the kind we actually want. The auto helm that Mike installed just days before we departed, has been an absolute gem thus far. The performance is far superior to our old flux based auto helm system. We had a fish on the lure today, and the boys are determined to teach me how to reel them in with the whole gymble (I hope that is spelt correctly, otherwise Margo will tell me off when I see her next) setup. Sasha tentatively prepared herself with all the straps and what-have-you and Mal handed her the rod, while saying don’t worry it’s only a little one. Well that ‘little fish’ only had to tug on that rod once and Sasha was hanging on the Mal’s shirt for fear she, the gymble setup and the rod would all end up in the drink. Unfortunately because Sasha didn’t reel in fast enough, the fish managed to bite the line clean through, so there was no fish for dinner, and two rather patient but disappointed lads on board. Sasha tried to explain that she doesn’t need to be the one that catches the fish, she’ll just cook it and eat it. The boys replied, “You have to learn to be on the reel, as Mal won’t be here all the time, so Mike will manage the boat, and Sasha will manages the reel”. Sasha wondered at this point where and when this strategy had been plotted, as this was the first she had heard of it. All well on board.

Happy Birthday Pauline!!! We will all ‘cheers’ to you at our 5pm crew meeting (which is really just an excuse to have our one drink for the day). Hi Margo and Pete, we received 2 of your 3 text messages to our Satellite Phone this morning. Regarding the English degree - now that I know you guys are reading these updates, I feel super-nervous about starting these updates in third person and ending in first person! And am more worried about my grammar!! At least I haven’t written “Mike and me” yet! Ha ha! (ps – the nappies are still in their bag – thank god!) It was another S.L.O.W night motor sailing - the wind gave out on us, so back on the motors. Mike and Mal did the hard yards again last night, from 7:30pm to 4:30am, and Sasha did the prized sunrise shift again, so she was awake to tune into GHRadio at 7am. Last night Sasha learnt about the Sagittarius constellation, and the crown of stars at his horsey feet. In the sky Sagittarius has the torso of a man, and the body of a horse, and has his bow and arrow pulled and aimed at the Scorpio constellation. Sasha’s younger brother Carl (aka Bippy) is a Sagittarius and Sasha and her twin Katya (aka Sippy) are Scorpio’s, so it’s rather entertaining learning about the impending war happening in the heavens. She’ll read up about Scorpio tonight (on her iphone star app), to see if Scorpio is aware an arrow is on it’s way. Hi to Bippy and Sippy!! Congrats on the new role in Sydney Bippy! And Sippy give a big hug to my favourite nephew Connor and niece Rose! Our chart plotter says we have 1 day until we get to Minerva Reef, which has everyone just a tad excited on board. The weather forecasts suggest there is some serious wind up north that we may feel the tail end of in a few days time, perhaps 25-35knots, so our plan to stay a few nights at Minerva may end up being a rather quick day and one night visit. Captain Mike says hi to Mum Watson & Flex! He hopes you guys are tucked up nice and warm as we hear the weather has turned considerably nasty. Apart from that breakfast was nut and fruit muesli, with yoghurt, fresh orange slices and a drizzle of passionfruit syrup. Lunch will be corn fritters with chilli sauce.. and dinner, well… I don’t know what’s for dinner yet, but there is plenty of time to think about it. Screacher is out, and we are motor sailing – still.

sounds quiet and peacefull on board, except for the motor.

How we looking on the Pacific AIS page now? We’ve been sailing hard today, with surges of speed up to 15.2knots!! Awesome eh? We reckon we will reclaim ‘front of pack’ status overnight if the wind gods favour us - as they are now. Today we have all had a bit of sun time, reading outside in the cockpit on the beanbags, or lying on the squabs on the port hull deck (where the sun shone all day). We had a celebratory beer at noon with some salted peanuts (For any Foodstuffs readers: YES, Eta sorted it the nuts were perfectly salty) and after that both Mal and Sash had naps – a beer in the sun does make one a tad sleepy doesn’t it? We’ve been gybing today, in an attempt to get back in front of the pack, or at least catch up with those speeders Fusio! By mid morning we had COP-E CAT, WINDFLOWER and FUSIO all on AIS again, and Sasha and Lanye (on FUSIO) had a catch up over VHF. VHF is the new FACEBOOK, Mike is disappointed as he was hoping Sasha would have a nic e break from her phone. Sasha is super-excited as her phone has been replaced by Moonfish’s suite of radio’s onboard. Sasha completed her first report to Gulf Harbour Radio (GHR) this morning at the end of her shift, she is still not 100% sure it was heard completely, as Patricia at GHR was very faint at the other end. In Opua Patricia sent Sasha a list of things to run through, and the order that she should report it all. It’s a lot to get through and Sasha wasn’t sure if she should say her report in bits and get some sort of reply from GHR, or all at once. In excitement she said the Lat and Long in one go, and then all the rest; Course, Speed, True or Magnetic, Weather, Wind Speed, Direction of Wind, Cloud Cover, Barometer read, Sea State and any other comments. Apart from that Layne on Fusio topped my encounter with Dippy, they saw a whale this morning, pretty cool stuff! Also Fusio have caught a MahiMahi (one of my favourite eating fish) so they are having some f antastic dinners aboard at the moment. We had homemade pumpkin soup for entrée, Tina (Mike’s sister) and Ross her partner grew it and gave it to us several weeks ago. Mike and I got out the big machete we have on board to deal with any large fish that might come our way, and chopped up the pumpkin in the cockpit, then Sasha set to work making the soup. It was delicious and there is leftovers for the night watch crew too (thanks Tina and Ross!). For mains we had butterflied lamb with sautéed buttered cabbage. Sasha is really impressed at how well the cabbage has kept, just wrapped in handy towels in a dark ventilated bin. Sasha has finished Johnny Wray’’s ‘South Sea Vagabonds’ – an absolute fantastic read, and has started on ‘The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew’ by Lin Pardey with Larry Pardey, heaps of handy tips like how to keep your eggs fresh, just turn them upside down daily – who knew!? Well it’s 7:21pm here, so I am going to hit the sack, Mike is already there… and Mal is on watch first again. Mike’s given me the sunrise shift again (Erica if you’re reading this - your words of wisdom shone through on the boys today, because I am doing the cooking and the radio I’m getting cut some slack on shifts yay!) so I can call into GHR again tomorrow for the weather report from David. Wow! It’s busy on a boat in the middle of the ocean! We’ve reduced our headsail, and have discussed putting a reef in the mainsail, but not actioned that one yet. All are very full, and well on board.

Back at the back of the pack again, another night of motoring – come on wind gods!! We lost all sight of Fusio last night, not on AIS and not on Radar, although we email each other our positions every day and plot them on the paper chart. Last nights Chicken Paprika was a raving success! The Marlin Catching SV Moonfish crew feasted on lashing of roasted golden kumera, creamy Chicken Paprika and a crisp and crunchy slaw salad. The only thing I’ll say is (based on my first Edmonds Recipe) I reckon Edmond’s recipe’s really do need a little spicing up, so from now on, I’ll be ‘free-styling’ a little extra-dextra spice and herbs to dial them up a tad more. It was delicious though so I will definitely be making that again! Mal did dishes after dinner, Sasha went straight to bed (around 7:30pm) as she had not had an afternoon nap (like the boys) and was due on lookout at 4:30am. Mike stayed up for a while and watched a surfing movie. Mal took the first looko ut shift, then Mike took over at 1:30am, and then at 4:30am Sasha woke after a luxurious 9 hour sleep (awesome dreams!) and started her shift. At around 4:45am or maybe 5am Sasha got a wee bit of a fright when a blowhole was heard, she was enjoying her rave-party-of-one and had music blaring out of one headphone ear plug and thought she was hearing things, but once the music was turned off, sure enough a big grey dolphin shot through the black-as-night water to position itself right next to the starboard hull just metres from where Sasha was sitting. It was a big dolphin, and seemed to be by itself. Moonfish was parallel, but still quite a way to the west of the Kermadec Islands, perhaps Dippy The Dolphin was also on passage to or from the Kermadecs? Sasha and Dippy hung out for about 20mins, chatted, compared pirate notes, and then Dippy left. Sasha was over the moon about the encounter, and if it wasn’t for the tether attaching her to the helm seat, she would have run downs tairs and woken up both Mike and Mal to let them know what was happening. For breakfast this morning (17May) we will be having Kumara Hash, Streaky Bacon and Scrambled Eggs – man oh man this passage stuff is hard ;) . All very well on board. Thanks for the emails from Pauline, Pappy and Barbara – good to hear you are enjoying our updates. I hear NZ winter has well and truly arrived – Brrrrrrr! Ps – we no longer need jackets on night watch, as it is much warmer.

calm seas so all is good on board. great radio signal

Well this morning got off to an exciting start ‘we’ (Malcolm) caught a 180kg BLUE MARLIN!!! Sasha saw it take the lure, just a few moments after she witnessed a school of flying fish dart out of the way of our starboard hull. Mike had taken the sunrise shift, and due to his Captain Jack Sparrow skills we were sailing very well at that point, and had secured the front-of-the-pack position again. The Marlin jumped completely out of the water showing off all its electric blue colouring. Sasha was awe struck, it truly was an amazing sight. We furled in the head sail, popped on the engines and Mal begun the fight to reel it in. We got it to the side of the boat, and took some gopro footage, and then let poor old Bluey go (no room in the freezers). Apart from that Sasha did the graveyard shift last night and saw THREE shooting stars – as bright as anything while listening to Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of NOW” – ironic eh!! This morning we feasted on Muesli and yoghurt with fresh sliced oranges and apples. For lunch we had the last of the crisp fresh lettuce in wraps with salami, brie, mayo and Dijon. And tonight I will attempt to cook dinner – Chicken Paprika from my brand-new handy dandy Edmonds cookery book (because Google does not exist out here), with roasted golden kumera. As I type this Mike and Mal are both sleeping like babies on the saloon couches, so Captain Sasha is at the helm (and the computer heh heh) – we’ve been motor-sailing since we caught the marlin – a tad bit more wind would be ideal right now, I’m starting to get the hang of this ‘trimming’ thing!! I’ve just downloaded all the metservice weather maps and looks like there is a little LOW sitting up above us at (roughly) 180E 30S, with a ‘tits & bum’ front south east of it’s center. We’ll definitely be tuning into Gulf Harbour Radio tomorrow morning for a weather update, we missed it today as Sasha was sleeping after her graveyard shift . All very well on board.

All very well on board. There is very light winds today, the ocean is so calm, with minimal swell, it is very pleasant indeed. Apart from the fact that we are motoring, when we would much rather sail (we go much faster when we are sailing). This morning we went from leading the pack of yachts out here, to dead last – as we are only using one engine to conserve diesel (2.5Lt per hour is pretty economical). We switch engines every couple of hours to keep things exciting – ha! Today the last of the lasagna was hoovered up by the boys at lunch time. Sasha made a chestnut puree chocolate fudge cake, which became afternoon tea firsties, and then we had apple, orange, almonds and cheddar cheese for second-ies afternoon tea. Tonight for tea we are having another Pauline special Chinese Beef Stew with rice – thanks again Pauline, having these prep’d meals are just awesome!! Sasha downloaded all the South West Pacific Metservice weather maps this afternoon today, the couple of big highs are nice for the settled sunny weather, but we’d love a tad more wind because it looks like we’ll be motoring for a good couple of days yet.

Our first night was plain-sailin! We had our screacher up all night, and had to pop on the engine around 1am as the wind disappeared. The overnight watch was started by Malcolm with moonlight shining. Sasha was too excited to sleep so she got out the iphone star guide and made sure she knew which cross constellation was the Southern Cross, as well as finding out where Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) is located. She did a short watch starting around 11:30pm, until Mike turned up about 20mins later and started to trim up sails and get the boat going as well as possible. Earlier in the evening we all had dinner - Pauline’s delicious lasagna – Sasha wasn’t brilliant at heating it up, so there were hot, warm and cold bits, but we sorted it in the end. This morning Mal and Sasha had bacon egg burritos while Mike slept, we couldn’t believe the delicious smell of bacon wafting through the boat didn’t wake him up – he was out cold! All very well on board.

Great first day sailing, averaging a good 9 to 10knots with our Screacher sail. We all watched the sunset – no green flash alas! All well on board.

Brilliant start!!! Loving this, but still a fair way away from the real southerly swell - all very well on board, cups of tea, oranges, apples, cheddar, ginger nuts and almonds for afternoon tea.

Today IS The Day!!! We have cleared Opua customs, and are currently making final preparations to set sail for Minerva and then Pangai Tonga!! Super excited! Big thanks to FUSIO and Gulf Harbour Radio awesome support and advice!! Thank you soooo much for the Lasagne Pauline!!! Not so much thanks to Pete and Margo for the nappies, the boys keep asking me when I am putting them on!! You two will keep ;) - love to you both!! Timmy, keep track of us, we'll see you in no time!! Mappy and Pappy and Mum Watson we'll attempt a Skype once we set sail!! For those who wish to satellite-phone text us, you can do this for free at iridium.com, pls don't expect replies though as calls and texts out are very expensive. 008816 32557476. All well on board!

this is a test via our sat phone and onsatmail

As you can probably tell Super Sasha is having a few issues updating an accurate GPS of Moonfish on YIT.

Still in Opua, Magic-Mike as installed a new super-duper Raymarine Autopilot, and we've completed a quick trial and new 'Auto' is working just perfect!! While Mike was 'magic' - Sasha was not so 'super' in getting the Iridium Satellite Phone working, it seems a rather temperamental system - in saying that we've just received Phil's (Sasha's Dad) text and we also just (this moment) received the test text that Sasha sent to MOONFISH's sat phone via iridium.com 's messaging system. If we get the sat ph up and running we'll post our phone number and how you can send us a free text message via iridium.com. Apart from that, FAR OUT!! There is a heap of stuff you need to get organised if you want to pirate yourself off New Zealand!! Whoa darn!

We have made it to Opua, the autopilot is still playing up so Mike ordered a new one, we'll spend tomorrow waiting for it to arrive, get final provisions and then plan to head off to Tonga Saturday.

We've made it up to Mimiwhangata, pretty sloppy 10plus hour sail/motor today... With our autopilot playing up until Mike the magician fixed it! Gosh he's a clever poppet!

Woke up early in Bon Accord Harbour. We're now motoring our way up to Tutakaka - hopeful we'll get the Scretcher sail up today, it's been like a mill pond out here.

test - we are send our first YIT email template to see if it updates our page

We fought the new Raymarine Quantum Radar today... and it won. Mike and I have been alternating going up the mast - countless times today. We've removed the old Furuno Radar, and got the new Quantum up there, but we can't seem to get the power working, such a pain! A marine electrician has been called. On a positive we got our Category 1 certification today, EUREKA!! That means we are all good to legally set off into international waters!! #onestepcloser #thestruggleisreal

At the marina, in full preparation mode