We just finished a trip to Anambas Archipelago, part of Indonesia. A bit strange to have Indonesian Islands in between the Malaysian West and Borneo side. But when we visited the Johor parliament building we learned about the split up of the old Sultanate into Modern Johor and Singapore between the Sultan and the English. The Dutch intervened and out of there strategic interest of the Borneo island they claimed these islands in the middle.
Centuries later we enjoyed the beauty of this part of Indonesia. I wrote the full story including some sailors tips and tricks a a permanent page under the routes menu Anambas – Riau Islands
Going around the Tarempa – Mubur Islands in Anambas Archipelago
More Indonesia
Last year, 2025, we joined the Sail 2 Indonesia rally organized by Raymond. Over a period of about 3-4 months we went from the North West side, Kaï Regency al the way to Batam. Route and experience is in the subpage Indonesia under the Route menu.
Malaysia
From November 2025 to May 2026, we did the west coast of Malaysia, Putri Harbour to Langkawi, and the Phuket area as a bonus, before coming back to the Pinetree Marina, crossing the Singapore Strait and motor-sail al the way up to the Northern Islands above Terengganu. A description, text still being added, of both coasts is in the page Malaysia under the route menu.
And Terengganu was our exit point toward the Anambas Islands….
This week we were asked about some technical stuff related to the sails and the rigging, our experience in Indonesia and something about a not working Peplink, Starlink setup on another cat.
Some of that info was on the website but in different sections. The problem was, should it be organized by subject, like electrical, engine etc or by object like boat, maintenance etc. I did both a bit. Called it Projects, which where options, after market additions and maintenance projects. But also had a menu called Kiskadee.
Yesterday was a good day. I saw structure and decided my menu items will be Boat, Maintenance, Routes and Stuff.
SVKiskadee.nl, best view for static pages on a Tablet or Notebook
Boat is now the place with general information of Seawind 1260. As this model is going out of production early 2026, info is no longer available on the company website. Follow the link for a pdf with all specs of the base 1260. I will add more details, it will function as an archive.
And then of course Blogs. A personal note on things, a journey report and a few pictures. Since Google killed the previous Photo Gallery’s interface, no more complete albums.
So a clear website structure. Then the work of moving content. More work of separating things, and throw away complete blocks of text. I can talk forever, my early texts were lengthy as well. I think, hope my website readers are experts, so a lot of basic explanation is deleted.
I am serious about sharing information so I need to do a better job at adding stuff in time. There is still a big gap of North Pacific info missing. And yes I had a long call with Victor about that experience. So my next write up is about that period.
Arriving in Sydney in mid-December—after two months of slow sailing and 600 NM south from Bundaberg—we had accomplished a major goal: to be in Sydney for New Year’s Eve and watch the amazing fireworks.
Our first surprise came while we were anchored in Farm Cove, literally next to the Opera House. We were suddenly yelled at from a passing motorboat—but it was fellow Seawind owners! It turned into a wonderful afternoon, meeting in person all the people I had previously only known from the Facebook owners group.
Welcome to Farm Cove
Family Visit
Of course, a highlight was the visit of my oldest daughter. We enjoyed long talks, walks, and swims from Manly Beach to Coogee and everywhere in between. We anchored at a few different spots, visited Taronga Zoo and some museums, had drinks downtown, and bought an Aussie rugby shirt—she collects shirts from all over the world. What a delight.
Tasmania Road Trip
While the boat was in Annandale for some projects, maintenance, and warranty issues, we decided to do a road tour to Tasmania. It is good to have some time off the boat. Everything is big in Australia, so this was another massive distance covered on land. We drove the beautiful coastal road all the way down to Melbourne, took the ferry ride, and spent 10 days road-tripping around Tasmania
The boat show in Hobart was nice and lively. We visited a zoo with indigenous animals which was sweet, although the lion seemed a bit misplaced in that collection! There is so much nature there and it is so different—from the very dry west side to the rain forests of the northeast, plus wine valleys and cattle land.
Sydney Time
We had a great time in Sydney, even though we were in a maintenance berth at Annandale and unable to get out. Repairs were done; some spare parts arrived quickly, while others took much longer—up to almost three months
However, this gave us time to relax. We met many local sailors and toured around to visit people we had met earlier in the Pacific. Since it was sunmer season in Australia, the weather outside was nice so we were busy doing nothing. We did manage to sail a few Thursday afternoon Seawind races, which usually took an hour of sailing followed by several hours of “evaluating” over a few drinks…
Up North Again
In April, we left. My flight to the Netherlands was booked for July 8th from Cairns, so we had a new deadline to behold. But we had time. We took a look at Middle Harbor, which feels like the middle of nowhere but is actually the northern part of North Sydney
We skipped Pittwater and Newcastle and went straight to Port Stephens Bay, another huge area where we spent almost a week. Beautiful. It feels so remote. We stayed at Soldiers Point Marina—a bit remote and run down, and very shallow. My 100 meters of chain in the front was not needed at all.
Looking at the distances, we realized we needed to up the pace. Port Macquarie was a one-day stop, and Coffs Harbor was next. We renamed it “Coffs Horror.” The marina was full, and a double depression built up over two days, sending 4-meter waves rolling into the inlet. We saw waves breaking on the rock barriers and generating 10-meter high sprays. People stopped rock fishing after day one, but unfortunately, a drifting boat sank and a surfer lost his life on the next beach.
On top of that, we had a bent rudder indicator, and the raw water pump flywheel/pulley on the starboard side stopped working. The good thing about cats is you still have a second engine.
Newport
The next stop was Newport in the Brisbane area, coming into Moreton Bay around Moreton Island. We had a multi-day sail to get as far away from the Tasman weather systems as quickly as possible. All went well until we got around the north tip of Moreton Island: a squall hit with a lot of rain. We were in a specific route between shallow parts with too much sail up to steer easily. Exhausted, we dropped anchor in the middle of the bay in just 5 meters of depth. We dragged about 0.5 NM but had 5-8 NM of space around us. I put 60 meters of chain out, and I think that finally held us in place.
The day after, we took a berth in Newport. A very helpful Yanmar dealer had all kinds of parts and shipped them quickly. Another week of traveling time lost, but we made the best of it. We met Dean and Karen again and spent a lovely weekend at their house, talking about the good things in life and some serious topics too. We repaired the raw water pump and sailed on.
Lady Musgrave
Going North, we traveled inside the Great Barrier Reef—hundreds of miles of small anchorages requiring active navigation through channels. We did a 2-day passage from Newport to the lagoon of Lady Musgrave, entering at noon. We had a rest, a snorkel, and stayed two nights before continuing
Our passage took us to Great Keppel, Pearl, Hunter, and Curlew on the Capricorn Coast. Like Lady Musgrave, Great Keppel is a popular anchorage. At most places, we entered a few hours before sunset and left the next morning. There was always time to swim, snorkel, have a good meal, and get an even better sleep. Pearl and Hunter are as beautiful as they are remote.
In Curlew, we met Steve and Clara again. We first met them in Suwarrow (Cook Islands) and then on many islands between there and Australia. Steve’s home port is Mackay. We anchored close to Vivaldi and had a sundowner on Curlew. We stayed for three nights, and I remember Mackay Marina best for a steakhouse where we had two perfect dinners.
Up to the Whitsundays
We continued North in day trips, stopping first at Roylen Bay at Goldsmith, followed by Burning Point at Shaw Island. The next passage is famous, going along the white beaches of the Whitsundays where we anchored at Tongue Bay. To be honest, some of the islands up to and after the Whitsundays are just as beautiful but much less crowded. My favorites are Orpheus, Dunk, and Russel on the Cassowary Coast and the approach to Cairns
Cairns
With a last stop at Fitzroy for a night at anchor, our final destination was Cairns. Cairns is the last big stop in Australia with chandleries and auto shops (the best places to buy oil and electric stuff), as well as a hub to order parts from distributors based in Brisbane.
Cairns is a lively city, full of Japanese tourists, great steakhouses, bars, and a gathering place for everybody joining the Sail 2 Indonesia rally.
We also picked Cairns for its airport. Air Singapore is the only carrier that lands in North and West Australian cities and flies to Changi (Singapore), offering connections to the rest of the world. It is time to fly home for my youngest daughter’s graduation.
I’ve started moving scattered blogs to structured Pages under Routes — a cleaner, more practical way to organise sailing knowledge. It brings together navigation notes, planning tools, chart comparisons, and tested resources that actually work aboard Kiskadee. Each page is built on real-world use, focusing on what’s relevant to sailors crossing oceans or cruising coastal routes.
Tips and Tricks NoForeignLand
NFL? Yes, sailors know we’re talking about NoForeignLand — one of the most valuable apps for cruisers in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. It’s our go-to for tracking passages, finding anchorages, and following fellow boats. In this page we share tips that aren’t immediately obvious. Turn off intrusive notifications at phone level to keep peace on board. Use the Day map layer to reveal island and village names and discover the real power behind features like Measurements, Position, and GPS Heading. We also dive into managing map clutter with Saved and Followed filters, creating a clear overview of anchorages and snorkelling spots. With Starlink and near-continuous internet, NFL’s Record My Track and Live Updates replace expensive trackers like YB or PredictWind. It’s the perfect example of community data improving navigation, one marker at a time.
C-Map vs Navionics
Both C-Map and Navionics are compatible with the B&G Zeus3S, but after years of use, we’ve seen the landscape change. Once the budget-friendly choice, C-Map has increased prices to match Navionics while shrinking regional coverage. For instance, what was once a single Australia chart is now divided into three. Subscriptions for both brands now cost about 50% of the purchase price annually. We continue using both: C-Map on the B&G for redundancy and Navionics on the tablet for flexibility. In the Pacific, Navionics offers wider and more reliable coverage, especially around Japan and Micronesia, where C-Map gaps exist. Feature-wise, the Navionics Boating App outperforms C-Map’s in speed, usability, and sync with chartplotters. For route planning and satellite overlays, Navionics feels more intuitive, while C-Map’s pseudo-3D and relief layers add little value offshore. Accuracy still varies by country—Mexico and Fiji remain off, while Australia and French Polynesia are spot on. Our rule: compare multiple data sources, use satellite imagery for complex entrances, and always avoid night approaches.
Tools in Australia
For sailing, local resources make life easy. Beacon to Beacon Guides from MSQ are essential for Queensland, while NSW Boating Maps mark moorings and bridges in remarkable detail. Add to that AU Tides for real tidal data, Willy Weather for push alerts, and Deckee for crowd-sourced anchorages. We also cover bar crossing safety — go with the flood tide, never turn mid-bar, and if in doubt, wait. With proper planning, coastal sailing in Australia becomes a pleasure, not a challenge.
One of the best tools to help you do inland crossing.
This section is a living collection of sailing knowledge — blending tools, apps, and first-hand experience. It grows with every passage, refining what works best for sailors navigating the same waters.
Today, Kiskadee crossed the equator once more — bidding farewell to the Southern Hemisphere and setting course for new latitudes. A familiar line on the chart, yet each crossing feels different. This one, after months in Indonesian waters, carries a special weight.
Indonesia has treated us well, though not always gently. Neptune’s domain has its moods — long days of calm seas and motor sailing, followed suddenly by thunderheads rising like mountains, squalls hitting without mercy, and rain so heavy the horizon disappeared. We’ve been tested often: night watches wrapped in lightning, winds that howled through the rigging, and anchorages where the rain drummed for days. Yet each test was met, and each one passed. The boat can handle it, the crew wil bounce back…
So today we give thanks to the old sea god — Neptune, guardian of those who venture between hemispheres. He has watched over Kiskadee and her crew through reefs and rocks, passes with funky currents and monsoon swells. A small offering went overboard, a sailor’s quiet gesture of respect. After all, the sea has its own rules, and gratitude is one of them.
Crossing northward feels like turning a page. Ahead lies a new chapter: Malaysia and Thailand, new people, and new seas to learn. But leaving the Southern Hemisphere is also saying goodbye — to anchorages under the Southern Cross, to trade winds steady and kind, to the endless blue that carried us across from the Coral Sea to the Java Sea.
For sailors, the equator isn’t just a line — it’s a reminder of scale. It’s where the sky, the stars, and the compass seem to shift ever so slightly. It’s the moment you remember that every latitude crossed is earned, and every safe mile is owed partly to skill, partly to luck, and perhaps mostly to Neptune’s patience.
So here’s to the South — to the monsoon that taught respect, and to the calm that followed. And here’s to the North, where the adventure continues, one nautical mile at a time.
Funny thing, being Dutch and living there for decades Going North is synonym with colder climate, short days in the winter etc. Being in Australia going north is better weather, going closer to the equator, well at least the sub tropics. And then off course my winter is your summer…. Even the moon is upside down, and on a new moon it’s a smiley growing to a lower half circle.
From Sydney – Brisbane
Animals
Strange country Australia. Funny animals, at least a dozen species highly venomous. And we are water people, I like to swim or at least DIY cleaning your hull and inlets etc. Almost all anchorages or Marina’s are inland, in a river system or near a Fish cannery. Bull sharks everywhere. So in general don’t swim in murky beach water, not from dusk to dawn and never in a muddy river system. We are still waiting for our first sighting of a Salty, recent reports say they as far southwards as Bundaberg in the Burnett river.
The last few months we traveled all the way to Cape York, the tip of NSW but no crock sighting so far.
Weather systems between North and South
Oké I am a bit off a weather Nerd, so looking at the bigger offset of systems is my thing. Comparing models and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology info you see 2 dominant systems collide with each other. Mostly outside the coast around the New South Wales and Queensland border. Being now inside the Moreton Bay, Brisbane area it should be better now. But as I said earlier on on FB post being a weather man in Australia is hard. Predicting the winds is a hard job and the weather in general is more extreme, so its even harder.
Hard sailing
It took us 4 weeks to get us North from Sydney to Brisbane. 5 days of sailing and 3 week of waiting for “better” conditions. Better means not blowing totally from the wrong direction. So we have been sailing in high winds, big gusts and horizontal rains. The routine we developed is looking with our radar at cells 5 NM away. That gives us the change to trim the Genoa down to 50-40%. Passing the cell sometimes we need to steer up or down 60 degrees not to tack or gyve. Mostly a cell passes in 25-30 minutes. We sailed constantly with the first or second reef, no time to adjust the main.
There is only one way to plan, anticipate these gusts. Use PredictWind weather routing and look at the detailed wind per model related to the time. If one of the 4 main modes predict a gust be alert, switch the AutoPilot form Wind to Compass heading and keep on looking the Appeared Wind Angle.
You need to see Tasmania everybody says. So we planned it, not by sailing there, but a road trip, take the ferry, do it slow. Go all the way south from Sydney to Geelong, next to Melbourne and then 10 days into Tasmania, doing (again) a big circle.
Rental hassles
When in Sydney rent a car locally. Sounds logical but renting it outside Sydney will save you 800 AUD on a month of rent. So thanks to Franko and Liliana for the ride we rented in Wollongong. We talked to the employee about going to Tasmania and driving on to the wine valleys in Victoria and so on. All ok but avoid the dirt roads. Got a call while driving south and they said it was a breach of contract to take the car onto the ferry. Actually that is the case with every major rental company. So we either cancel booked ferry and hotel tickets or we ditch the car in Geelong and rented another in DevonPort. Still fighting with Sixt over not paying back rental days and extra costs.
Because of huge one-way extra costs, flying into Hobart is economically a better thing to do. Renting in Tasmania is a good option.
Hobart Wooden Boat Show
In the first or second weekend in February the Wooden Boat Show is in Hobart, Tasmania. Some tall ships, far more lovely classic sailing ships, sailing dinghies and all kind of craftsmanship. Topped up with some local ciders, whiskey and BBQ, it is a fest. The harbor waterfront and the Salamanca area for a stroll, lunch and drinks is a nice place to be.
While driving visit Mount Wellington, this high top has good views, as long as the weather is clear. Halfway done there is a little restaurant and parking place. And the start of a nice walk to the waterfall. The way back is a steep climb, I was exhausted.
Mount Wellington and water fall with Clara
Zoodoo Zoo
In Richmond on our way to the North East side of Tasmania we visit Zoodoo Zoo in Richmond. A small zoo but with almost all local, Australian, animals. Do you known Australia exports Camels to the Middle East? And a Tasmanian Devil is not a beauty and hyper active. Therese and I are most impressed by the bird life. So much variety, colorful, loud and vibrant.
North East
We did a multiple day tour going to Port Arthur, Swansea, Bicheno, St. Helens all on the East coast of Tasmania. Although on the same island, the scenery is completely different. Every day the forest was more dense, older, more humid. We have never seen ferns that big. over 3 meters high and vibrant green.
Port Arthur island has been a hard labor prison camp at some time, mining Coal. Still some ruins left, the opening of a mine shaft, again stunning pictures form the bay and sea.
We were driving on the A3, A4 and on a B route. I like it a lot, narrow, bendy and a lot off hills. Active driving and yes there are truck on the road as well. We had a near miss with a motorbike he was riding on the middle line and hanging toward us in a dead corner. Saw his helmet go past our right side mirror, close so close… I liked my Nissan X-Trail, sturdy SUV.
The ICE sign was an a hazy day, the air was thick with smoke from the bush fires in the West
The Middle
From St Helens to Launceston via the little villages of Branxholm, Derby, Scotsdale, Springfield, Nunamara. Leaving the woods and driven in wide, open hill sides. More and more big cattle land and crops. At least you can see upcoming cars and again, its a A route so trucks as well. Not a road train but for sure long vehicles.
The big difference between Europe and Australia is the speed limit for trucks. In Europe on all highways the truck limit is 80 or 90 km/hour, here it is the road limit. We were at one point chased by truck, he pasted, we lost sight of him in the next corner and we never saw him again.
Tamar valley and DevonPort
Wine, hill sides and ocean views.
Beach with a view
Hobart airport experience
So because of our car experience as well as not willing to add another one-way penalty fee, we decided to fly back to Sydney. Prices are moderate, even cheap if you consider a ferry and train ticket to get back to Sydney.
And of course things went not as planned. Due to a shortness of air controllers the number of flights to Sydney airspace was reduced and our flight was one of the cancelled ones. So we spent a night at the local Travelodge with one big advantage. Big bubble bath, made my day, twice.
Next stop, back to the boat in Annandale. Work hard on the to do list and start thinking about going up North again.
After Bundaberg we spend quite some time in Sydney harbour. It’s a very vibrant city, big & busy and lots to do. And off course the famous fireworks at New Year’s Evening.
Sydney anchorages
Center
Coming in from Pittwater a strong southerly wind was predicted, so any anchorage on the center side is sheltered. We decided to anchor in Farm Cove in the Botanical Garden behind the Opera House. Beautiful spot and nobody there except the floating party boat “Inland”. Later on we heard it’s a typical lunch, Charter boat destination. We spend 2 nights and enjoyed it. Loud music from Inland but quiet after 23:00.
We met a lot of fellow Seawind owners who came along on a motorboat the second day to say welcome to Australia. Nice meeting some of fellows I correspondence with in the Seawind owners group.
Motored to Athol Bay near Taronga Zoo to check out this spot for NYE. Again very busy and a week before Christmas already a lot of boats anchoring close by. It’s high season and the office Christmas party on a boat is popular.
Guests on the boat
We had 2 guests around with Christmas. My oldest and a girlfriend from Therese. Both around Christmas until the first week of January. Picking up people needs some preparation, in Sydney. You need a bay with a public dock to park the dinghy and access to public transport. We choose Rozelle Bay in Annandale, close to the light train, connection to Central and the train to the Airport. Worked out well.
Marlene and Gabriella as special guests
We motor sailed to Manly, anchored and took the dinghy to shore. There is a nice seaside pool we enjoyed. Next day we move to Rose Bay with a public dock, a ferry dock, bus stop and a very nice view of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House. Rose Bay is a nice starting point for some city sightseeing.
Spend a lovely time with my daughter walking coast trails, a little bit of swimming, musea, the Opera House, famous buildings, shopping and NYE. Good seeing you my love.
Friends
In Sydney we met Shane again. Our first encounter was in Houbihu, Taiwan, at the start of our Journey, early 2023. Nice to meet again and grateful for his local knowledge and the help with the sails. Had a good NYE and and even better diner in Chinatown, The Eight at his last day.
Friends is a central theme since we start sailing and it continues in Australia. We meet and re-meet friends here from Taiwan, Canada, Mexico, in the Pacific and now in Australia. Quit unique. Fellow people as committed as we to nature, people, culture and the slow life is a new experience for us. The sailing community is a bless and we like it a lot.
Road trip
Australia is unique, even the weather. Big as it is, watching the news and seeing a report on one of those big southerly storms, extreme heat and bush fires and 1000 mm of rain and flooding, all in places we intend to see or go to.
So we berthed Kiskadee in the marina of Multi Hull Center in Sydney for some warranty and maintenance issues, thanks Paul and Mike. We rented a car to go to Tasmania, another 1200 miles and an eight hour ferry trip.
There is a trent, we like to do it slow, day trips, if possible a siësta , to be continued…
Bundaberg, a lovely little town on the Burnett River in Queensland Australia. And our Port of Entry at the Port Marina. As long as you follow the rules, fill in your forms online and the pre-notification, it’s an easy entry. Friendly and a bit expensive due to the bio security which is a paid services. Come in at high tide, the marina is getting more shallow every year. All info as usual on Noforeignland
Welcome to Australia with a sailors BBQ every Friday and a courtesy bus bringing you to Bundaberg town, a 17 km drive. Come back with the bus, but be careful the last one runs at 14:10. So get your stuff done in the morning. And then ofcourse have a Siesta in the afternoon.
Land live
We really enjoyed being in Bundaberg Port Marina. Live is easy, a lot of fresh water, so longer showers aboard. We still prefer our one, full standup, shower over the marina facilities. Just before bedtime, not worrying about clothes etc. In the morning after a job, in the afternoon just for fun. Man a lot of fresh water is a luxury.
Being on the dock is a lazy life. Check your lines, do one choir a day. And after the first fully stocked supermarket, a nice mix of home cooking, eating lunch on the restaurant, a bottle of wine, white, red, rose. A beer or GT or rum coke. Always a lime and an ice cube. All possible.
Shops, shops and shops
We prosponed some personal shopping until Australia. So we had quite a list. Eddie needs new glasses, he is on his last pair and being 3 years old and many many hours of Sun and UV they are becoming brittle. Therese had her eyes on a new softer mattress, old bones need a more gentle touch then our original boat mattress. We found a Clarks Rubber, they even cut it round after bringing our old cover.
We buy ourselves two new phones, our old ones where five years old and not able to handle an eSim. We both have an Australian number now, we are staying a year and some of it off the boat. So convenient, lots of data and minutes. Eddie bought a new tablet and stored it. The old Tab 6 still working although also 5 years old. We are getting better in buying stuff in advance.
And then we found Bundaberg Bunnings, a hardware store. In there standard assortment, they have Phosphoric Acid, Bee wax, Oxallic water, Auto shampoo with wax, all for boat maintenance. But also little solar garden lights, 500 Christmas led lights etc etc. 100 ailes of goodies. Very nice and super affordable
Internet photo of Bunnings and Dan Murphy
And for the essentials there is an Aldi. Yes, the one we know from Europe, Germany. A bit better organised, well stocked and again a joy. Cheeses, bisques, biological, cold cutes, my favorite vanilla yogurt, sweet sojas sauce. But no liquor, beer or wine. That is the business of Dan Murphy. I think we lowered the waterline. Which I blame on completely filling the watertank.
Relax
We took the bus to town as well as too North and South Bundaberg and the botanical garden. We walked to Burnett head twice for some shopping the first day and had a dinner in the pub with some sailor friends. An Australian pub is more like an efficient dinning hall, well light and has nothing of the old fashioned English pub.
The walk in the botanical garden was a pleasant one, it’s more of a park with two big ponds. Had some nice coffee and cake, which is all it takes to make us happy. Small things that matters, the sun on your back, walking around with your beloved one, a quite place and friendly people. Makes us smile. A promising first three weeks in this huge, divers country.
We are still going west, but slow cruising more and more, staying longer at anchorages and marinas. The new life style, when not sailing, is: getting up at 8 or 9 in the morning, breakfast, 1 chore, lunch with a beer or glass of wine, siesta, swim/dip in the pool/walk and then happy hour. Diner, eating more out then in. Sleep again. It sounds boring but it is not. So the list of tasks to do slowly grows, including publishing a new blog.
Languages
Cruising to beautiful Islands with remarkable names, Bora Bora, Maupiha’a, Suwarrow, Samoa etc. All Polynesian languages treads every vowel as a new syllable, so Maupiha’a is pronounced Ma-u-pi-ha-a. Beautiful, you can listen and have absolutely no clue what they are saying and 60NM is enough for a different language. Proud people, so not a dialect, no Sir it’s different language…
So we have been talking Spanish for almost a year all over the America’s, 3 months of French in French Polynesia and now the second language is English in Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji and among sailors.
And yes, I looked up a few Hindi words and it’s starting to come back from my childhood and teenage years because of the large Indian population in Fiji.
Different cruising route
The initial idea was the southern route, leaving Bora Bora, the favorite place for a French Polynesian check out, towards Nui, Tonga and then Fiji. Tonga is a long archipelago, multiple islands over 370 NM. Famous for diving and swimming with the whales.
But it is winter in the southern ocean and the weather this year is full with big lows and highs. And the ITCZ (InterTropical Convergence Zone) is below the equator and has deep lows. Between all these systems there is a lot of wind and high seas.
So the northern route is more busy and that is fun. We met boats again in different places. You start to recognize ship names on the Noforeignland app or AIS.
Maupiha’a
Again an atoll with a narrow entrance channel and beautiful anchorages inside. These atolls are 10-20 NM wide, long and protected by the reefs, very calm inside. If you are on the leeward side of an island a perfect place for some nights of solid sleep.
Maupiha’a has 8 inhabitants and they see a supply ship once every 2 to 3 years. They need to produce 40 tons of copra (the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted) before a cargo freighter can be booked. Family, one atol down East ask Sailors to bring food and supplies to them. They live on birds, eggs, fish and coconuts from the island.
In general they have enough flour, rice, cassava, oil, onions and things like that. But a shopping bag filled with tea, coffee, a can of peaches, tomato puree and so on, makes them very happy. The mother of the island distributes the goods equally along the four houses on the island.
Suwarrow
Suwarrow is a National Park of the Cook Islands, an atoll with an entrance through the surrounding reefs and multiple islands. Normally you need to apply for a permit, which is declined in most cases. But we entered Suwarrow because the next storm was approaching quickly. Just waiting for a better window to sail westwards. The anchorage filled up with 10 yachts and most of us waited for 10 days.
So we did some snorkeling with Kirk and Crystal. Had a bon fire on the beach with about everybody. We re-anchored because of a shifting wind and a nearby bommie (an isolated pinnacle of reef that rises significantly from the bottom often to just under the surface).
Three days before we continue our journey a big supply freighter came in and brought two new rangers to the park. So no more scuba diving and yes the coconut crabs are a protected species.
A big, multiple day issue was the lost of an anchor by another boat in 20-25 meters of water. I loaned them my spare anchor, everybody contributed 10, 15 meters of chain from there secondary anchor, a lot of d-shackles. Although the lost chain had 3 buoys on it to keep it floating of the coral, it sunk into deep water. Then the young Danish sailors did a remarkably job of free diving it, and hoisting it into the dinghy. They dove 20+ meters deep to the bottom to untangle it from the coral. Bravo.
So with al our gear back onboard we set sail the next day to Samoa.
Samoa
We had to look it up because we had no knowledge of Samoa, other then the usual tv shot because its one of the first countries in a new year. As usual very friendly people but a lengthy early announced arrival form. The more towards AUS/NZ the more serious all countries about bio security. Again as long as you report things like your wine, liquor etc you are allowed to keep it. Not declaring it and then discovered is a bigger issue.
Apia Marina is a small marina but with water and power on the docks. A nearby Restaurant/Bar generates a lot of music, they liked Cecile Dion. We stayed about a week and start sailing toward Fiji. The weather was worse then expected so we aborted are first attempt. Auala Bay was a good shelter, anchorage without any facilities, for 3 more days.
Fiji – Nawi Island Marina
We are now in Fiji, waiting for some Yanmar parts, enjoying potable, fresh water on the dock, which results in longer showers with the tab fully open. 240V Power and unlimited StarLink.
Then we will cruise the area, again incredible anchorages, nice places and people. Therese was more then happy to buy me and herself some very colorful clothes. We eat Indian infused Polynesian dishes, drank far to much white wine and of course slept like a baby on this very calm marina dock. No bright lights, no noise after 21-22:00, no waves…
