Sailing the Farm

Dominica you beauty

Posted on June 1, 2016June 1, 2016 by kannchi

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So people talk about Dominica as the island that shows what the Caribbean used to be like. Its pretty rugged and people are generally pretty poor. The island its self is incredibly beautiful with high volcanos and lunch dense rainforest. I had been lucky enough to explore Dominica with my brother and mum and dad 6 years or so before so I had an idea of the kind of adventures we were in for.
We arrived and met our man ‘Bounty’ as we picked up our mooring buoy. Bounty had been recommended to us by a friend as a great boat boy and guide. He honestly helped us out with absolutely everything. Couldn’t recommend him enough if you ever find yourself on a boat in Dominica. We arranged with Bounty to do a tour the next morning and go from there.

We met Bounty early and headed off up a river into the jungle. This is the same area where some of the pirates of the caribean was filmed and there are still parts of the set there, so we went and had a look around. We also ended up at a bar in the middle of a lush productive farm where Jo and Nick sampled the local rum (8.30am). The guys there also hooked us up with bags full of fresh veggies and fruit. We came back with our bags stuffed full of things like passionfruit, cinnamon, lettuce, coconuts etc etc.

After another strange checking in experience (the officer was not fully dressed as he had just got out of the shower and his mum was there talking about what she was going to get at the supermarket) we decided to hire a car and get into exploring the island.

Over the next couple of days we generally headed south and found waterfall after waterfall. One we trecked to over an hour there and an hour back to, which was great – super steep and remote. Nearly at all of the waterfalls there was no one around. We also checked out the knarly surfing options and decided against it and got some lovely lunch instead and then later explored one of the exposed beaches.

Time to leave was coming closer and looking at the weather we needed to make the call about timings for Jo to be able to get her flight from Bonaire. As we had spent a bit longer in the Saints then planned (due to a public holiday there and not being able to check out and our desil issues) it ment that we were pretty tight for Jo to make it back in time to Bonaire. So to play it safe Jo got a ferry from Dominica and headed back to Guadelupe. Which left Nick and I to the 4/5 day crossing to Bonaire.

Oh Jo Jo Jo

Posted on May 31, 2016 by kannchi

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In the morning after our late arrival into Deshais in Guadalupe we headed off to go and track down Jo who had landed on the other side of the island the night before. We had to clear customs and arrange a car etc. so we did a good lot of faffing around before we were on our way. Customs turned out to be in a shop that sold t-shirts and hammocks so that threw us off a bit when we were looking for it. Luckily we had many French pastries to keep us going.
After some hairy driving we found Jo relaxing in a nice hotel, we whisked her away and went exploring around the island. We had a look around an old fort which had a strange art gallery inside it and we also went and had a look at one of the waterfalls in the national park (at that time saying how lovely it was – just wait until Dominica!!!).
On one of the outings in the dinghy we were just passing another dinghy when Jo started yelling at them from a good distance. Pretty convinced at this stage that Jo must have gone (more crazy) in the 4 years since we had seen each other, I just kept my head down feeling pretty embarrassed. Turns out they were a couple of guys that Jo had met in an airport on her way over to Guadelupe. Considering she had got about 5 flights to finally meet us this was quite the coincidence. We invited them round for drinks after JO and I did a bit of very excited shopping in a big French supermarket (for the record we should never be allowed in a supermarket hungry again together). Much cheese, wine and general treats later we were unpacking the shopping when the guys made it over. John (later re named ‘enthusiastic John’) Brandon and Amanda were out sailing with Brandon and Amanda’s parents on their catamaran ‘Sea quester’. We had a fantastic boozy night with these guys not sure we would be seeing them again anytime soon.
The next day was painful with hangovers, but we managed to get a few jobs done and plan our departure down the coast. Nick and I were readying the boat when we got a knock on the stern only to come up and realize that our anchor had dragged! We were on our way out to sea! Luckily there were no boats downwind of us and we were both on board. We quickly started the engine and re anchored.
A couple of hours later we headed down the coast to pigeon island (famous for diving and snorkeling). We had a bit of a falling out with a glass bottom boat who wanted us off their mooring bouy, then found another bouy (a bit close to the rocks) had a snorkel (Jo had a dive) and an explore on the island. We then found a nice quiet anchorage for the night.
After our morning swims we headed off down the coast again for Isle des Saints. These are a beautiful cluster of islands off the southern tip of Guadelupe. They are so picturesque and French and full of delicious French food. After catching a nice size big eye tuna we made our way into the bay. A couple of hours later – who should arrive but the guys on Sea Quester! Needless to say we had a few more boozy nights and some great laughs with those guys.
We had a great time in Isle des saints. Great to explore some forts and the beautiful little town. We got the paddleboard out and was great to feel like we were really relaxing for the first time. We did still have a few jobs to do, including changing over the headsail and cleaning up the dirty desil. But imbetween days of exploring and lots of delicious food we got ready to head for Dominica.

Some speedy island hopping

Posted on May 19, 2016 by kannchi

So despite the excitement about getting underway we had realised that we needed to make some serious ground south and east to get to Guadalupe in time to meet Jo. We had decided that we didnt want to sail at night so planned to do a bit of rushed island hopping.
Unfortunatley the wind wasnt really playing ball and had swung around to the south which meant that we were doing a lot of upwind ‘lean-y over sailing’ (some technical sailing terms for my non sailing friends  ).
We had our first night in a rolly anchorage off Saint Eustasias – a strange oil/petrol storge island – nothing very exciting. The next night saw us getting into a nice calm bay on Nevis. I went ashore to find some wifi to contact Jo to explain our upwind struggles and therefore our delay. On my walk around I even stumbled across a troop of monkeys. I left Nick on the boat dealing with a dirty fuel issue that had arisen after beating into the wind and waves.
Another early start saw us heading ideally for Guadalupe, however conditions were against us again and with the fuel issues we decided to stop in and overnight on the island of Montserrat. Of all of the islands that I had previously visited in the Caribbean this one and Dominica had really stood out for being so interesting. Sure there are lots of nice white sandy beach isalnds but these two are adventure central.
Half of Montserrat was covered in a massive volcanic eruption in 1997. The whole of the old capital is still there abandoned and in parts burried in ash and lava mud flows. Now thats a place I would like to explore! However due to the constraints the best we could do was some spearfishing on a really nice reef near the boat.
Nick having previously lost 2 lures fishing off the back of the boat had vowed to ‘find the bastard’ and jumped in with his new (second hand $40) speargun in hand, only to loose his spear when we finally located and fired at the offending Spanish Mackrel. Nick 0 Mackrel 3.
We were sad to leave Monsterat after such a short stay but had promised to return on the ‘Rum Tour’ when we come back to the Caribbean and do it again properly.
After another hard upwind slog we tacked our way up into the north west of Guadelope. We arrived just before sunset and headed into town for a mind blowing ice cream and wifi to try and find Jo who had just landed.

Ooooh Saint Martin

Posted on May 19, 2016 by kannchi

After a hard nights sail we arrived in Saint Martin. It was great to get near some land after feeling a bit sea sick all night. We had decided to stay in Simpson bay which is the hub of massive luxury yachts in the Caribbean and therefore a well supported yacht area with good services (this was espically good considering the long list of jobs we had ended up making over the crossing). To get into Simpson bay we needed to enter through a swing bridge, so we anchored up outside and waited for the bridge to open. Interestingly, although we had had the boat for nearly 2 months we actually hadnt anchored at all yet. So new experiences all round! We sucessfully anchored and waited. A yacht came in really close to us and I felt that we were getting too close to them as we were swinging on the anchor so we decided to up anchor and motored around for about 15min waiting for the bridge. As the que started forming (including a barge, super yachts, catamarans etc) we all shuffled for possition (taking care not to crash into each other). I decided to be polite and give the barge and expensive super yachts some space. Then as I moved into our slot in the que we edged forward and just as we got to the narrow passage before the bridge they closed it on us! I was gutted! After a long night of feeling pretty rubbish I was looking forward to it all being over. So we headed back out to the rolly anchorage to anchor up and try again in a few hours. I thought this would be a great time for a quick nap and headed down below.
I woke up to the others calling out for me and popped my head up to find 4 armed men and one woman in uniform sitting in the cockpit. They explained that they were from customs and needed to search the boat. Nick showed them around while I filled out the paperwork. Luckily so large stashes of drugs/guns were found and we were allowed on our way.
Second chance at the bridge approached so we got oursleves into possition vowing to be a lot less polite this time. We muscled our way in and managed to get through the bridge. Once inside it wasnt quite clear where a good place to go was, so I decided to follow a boat our sort of size and see where they headed. They promptly anchored up and I spotted one of the Volvo Ocean boats (Brunel) and knowing that they have massive keel I thought we would be fine anchoring right behind – then we ran aground. We scurried around trying to get off, sails went up, engine was revved, until 2 guys kindly came out in their dinghys and pushed us off the bank. Tensions were high as we then went to anchor again – the first time dragging and then finally good on the second try.
We ended up spending about a week in Simspson bay, this included many trips to various chandleries and hardware stores. Lots of work to do on the boat so days were long and busy. Nick and I managed to squeeze in an evening surfing with Tom (my French friend from NZ who I stayed with on my way through Saint Martin the first time). Tom and Coline had very kindly stored a whole lot of our gear for all the time we had been in the BVI’s so we were super grateful.
Once we were feeling a bit happier about our readiness on the boat we decided to head a bit closer to Tom and Coline and move around to Oyster Pond. This is a super sheltered anchorage on the east side of the island. On the sail over we found a few more ‘fun problems’ to fix which meant we wouldnt be able to leave Saint Martin quite as soon as we had hoped.
Around this time all four of us (Ann, Dean, Nick and I) made the decision that we shouldnt carry on with the trip together. As it goes with living with any good friends sometimes it works well but sometimes less well, but doesnt mean you cant still be good friends. So Ann and Dean left Nick and I and went to join an Aussie couple who we met in the yard in Virgin Gorda. Great that we left on such good terms with those guys and we left hoping that we might catch up with them again in Bonaire.
Nick and I stayed on in Oyster Pond finishing up jobs and we managed to fit in another great surf with Tom. A full 4 hours in the water at a really nice reef break with nice size waves and a right too- so perfect for me and the 2 goofy footed boys still had fun.
Our last night in Saint Martin was spent in Marigot bay. We headed down that way to go and potentially pick up a new dinghy but decided against it in the end (a last min paniced dinghy ride to immigration and a bit of a telling off there put me off dinghy shopping a bit…). After a big goodbye to Tom (who we will meet again in the Pacific) we went to bed hoping for a 4am start to get us on our way south to meet up with the amazing Jo Swanell (a windsurfing friend of mine from my time in Egypt) in time in Guadalupe.

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Finally on the water

Posted on April 26, 2016 by kannchi

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So we finally made it out of the yard!!! It was a great nerve wracking day to get the boat launched and back in the water! We decided to head over to Cooper Island where I had previously been with Mum and Dad for a night of relaxation before heading over to the main island for our follow up survey.
It was great to be on a mooring, swimming and jumping off the boat. Great to get a feel of thr crusing life again. Nick and I ventured to the bar where drinks were delicious and cheap and had a great night of laughs and rum chats with randoms!
The next day we left for Nanny cay where we had our follow up survey and got a few last jobs done before making the decision to head across to saint martin on our first overnight passage. Survey went well and Bill seemed happy with the work that we had done. So all we had to do was leave…which was a bit daunting……
We packed up in a bit of a rush and made the leap across to Saint Martin.
It was a bit of a test for us and the boat. It started well, we had to head straight into the waves and weather so decided to motor sail and then motor the rest of the way. It was pretty rough and there was a bit of seasickness it being our first crossing. Nick managed to catch a nice big eye Tuna on the way so we had some sashimi for dinner which was great. As night fell we started to notice some issues. Mainly taking on water from somewhere in the stern, as well as finding that our fix of the bow leak hadn’t solved the problem. This then coupled with our bilge pump breaking down (due to all the rust and dirt that was in the bilges following getting all the keel bolts out) made for a worrying time. Luckily Nick rigged up a back up to our back up bilge pump so we could relax a little. Nick and I took turn on watch and managed a few hours’ sleep even though we were both heavily on edge listening out for any new noises.
By the time morning rolled around we weren’t too far from Saint Martin, which involved some dramas of its own…… that’s for the next instalment…

Life in de yard

Posted on April 26, 2016 by kannchi

Ha – so there I was thinking that updating the blog would be easy and something I would always find time to do! Hopefully this gives you an idea then of all the hard work that we have been up to – WE HAVE BEEN SO BUSY – I can’t believe it – seriously pretty much nonstop for 2 months!! So I will bombard the blog with updates right now that I have a couple of hours and some internet and then I will endeavor to update and blog more.
So we bought the boat – you may have guessed that by now!

Pretty must the first step once we got the boat was finalizing all the paper work and then having a really good go through the whole boat – great to have Mum and Dads help with this. Amazing the things we found on the boat like a waffle maker and an underwater metal detector….

We had booked in to get a WHOLE LOAD of work done in a yard in Virgin Gorda so we had our first sail and our first overnight in a beautiful place. So nice to have a great night in a nice bay (Cooper Island) with my amazing Mum and Dad.

Then next day Nick arrived (Co-owner and long term friend) – so great to see him and awesome to be able to pick him up from the airport in the dinghy and out to the boat! He was straight into it with no hesitation. We had a few drinks all together that night which was great – until we found ourselves locked out of the boat – which was hilarious when we had finally figured out a way to get back in.

We then headed over to Virgin Gorda and a stressful haul out into ‘de yard’ which was to become our home for the next 5 weeks….. (A fact that we had no idea about at the time – I was hoping for about 2 weeks or so …. Ever the optimist).

So here is a quick rundown of life in de yard…..
7am wake up and start on jobs (nice to do it in the cool of the early morning)
9.30am Breakfast and smoothies
11 Coffee break (mandatory when Mum and Dad were with us)
1pm Lunch followed by swim
2-4pm siesta
Then back to work again till dinner time!

So this was pretty much our life for the full 5 weeks. We had some highlights and lowlights. Mum and Dad leaving us was pretty sad – I think we all had tears in our eyes as they left. Ann and Dean arrived shortly before Mum and Dad left and that was great to have all of us working hard together for a time. We also got up to a decent amount of mischief with those 2 cheeky Geordies…..

One highlight was my birthday which involved copious amounts of rum, a small Caribbean bar, lots of locals, Nick and I going digger driving exploring and some late night swimming.

Another big night for us happened totally by accident. We were working hard on the boat in the morning and had a break to go and watch the carnival at lunch time (with every intention to head back to the boat to carry on with the work). We were then viciously blindsided by the free margaritas and beers that were being handed out – which resulted in us all becoming heavily involved. We all got interviewed on the radio, I ended up on TV, Ann was singing along with one of the floats and I ended up dancing salsa on another. While the boys were getting drinks Ann ended up getting bitten by a dog – which was all really surreal by the sounds of it. I was happily dancing away on this truck and was oblivious to what had happened until (after a quick swim) found the guys at the boat and saw Ann’s bleeding foot! We rushed off to the medical center – where we spent the night with Nick sitting outside enjoying all the free beers and chatting to the security guard.

Poor Ann then had to deal with her foot for the duration of life in the yard. That coupled with getting a nasty bug in her stomach and toilets a ladder climb down from the boat and a decent walk away – it wasn’t much fun I’m sure.

We managed to get through the jobs eventually – finally booking ourselves in for a follow up survey and our lift back into the water. This helped to motivate the guys that we had booked to do work on the boat so that we could finally get on our way.

For anyone interested in the kind of work we did here is a quick list>
– Mast step totally replaced
– Rigging replaced
– New keel bolts in
– Windows taken out and re set
– Insulation in the engine re done
– Chain plates cleaned up and replaced
– New loo parts all fitted and replaced
– Holding tanks repaired etc etc – the list goes on!!

We were also lucky enough to meet some great people while we were in the yard.

Bill
Legend – he had put his boat up for sale and was helping us out with everything! A super interesting lovely guy who we were lucky to meet. In his 60’s maybe and full of interesting Chemistry stories. We are super grateful for all his kind help.

Geoff
This is the guy who we got a lot of the work done through. Total legend, originally from Zimbabwe he had decided in his early 20’s to build a boat and sail this boat across the Atlantic – having never even sailed before! Now 72 he was up and down our mast like a gibbon and taught us everything! I’m not sure where we would be without him! Definitely the best ‘Yard Father’ we have ever met.

The two rascals
These two little boys!! Previously mentioned in the last blog (the one with the dead lizard…)). They are identical twins who get up to more mischief then we do! 5 years old and hilarious – they were definitely our entertainment for the duration of life in the yard. A highlight was watching then steal some bins and climb inside and roll down the hill!

Nick is also putting together an album of all the amazing people that we meet on the way – so we may try and get that together when we finish the trip.

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Hope this finds you all well!

Two steps forward one step back.

Posted on February 18, 2016 by kannchi

The joys of travelling with boards…..

Expert surveyor at work, creepy Denise following 😉

BVIs beautiful place to have a yacht

Nanny Cay – where we are staying in the BVIs

Cat friend meow

Flying over

Saint Martin sunset

Sold the Farm getting hauled out for the survey

Views from Tortola in the BVIs

Evening on a luxury catamarn

Tom and Colines cute house

Just getting off the boat after surfing in Saint Martin

Surf in the BVIs

I think I left you guys as we were just about to leave fort Lauderdale and head to the Caribbean. So much has happened since then so its probably time for a full update…..

We flew to Saint Martin and met up with a really good friend of mine Tom and his girlfriend Coline. These two live on the French side of this crazy little Caribbean Island (half French and half Dutch) in a cute little house with an awesome cat. Tom works as a captain on catamarans and Coline works diving instructing, life guarding and hostessing on the yachts. They have been amazing and let me store some of my gear with them; we were slowing loosing our sense of humour about flying around with 1 paddleboard and 1 surf board + windsurfing and spearfishing gear (haha Dads face each time we were trying to check in was priceless ;)). Anyway, in the short time we were there we did some windsurfing, surfing and island exploring, even managed to fit in viewing a boat.

We had flights booked for the British Virgin Islands (BVI’s) as there were a good concentration of potential yachts that we wanted to look at, including a couple favourites. We were met early on by the broker that we had arranged to work with Todd Duff from BVI yacht sales who has been (and still is) absolutely fantastic. Such a nice guy and so interesting, he has been living on a yacht for the last 30 years and has spent heaps of time in the Pacific so we had a lot to talk about. We saw a whole lot of yachts with him in a short time and then made the decision to put an offer in on one (a Jeanneau 43 DS) called ‘Sold the Farm’. What a process this has been!

I wish I could tell you that buying a yacht is easy, but this has been a crazy insane rollercoaster of a week! I’ll try and give you a brief idea of the process….. So once the offer was on the table we then needed to negotiate about the price. We had offered a fair bit below the price so we then had to do some to and fro’ing. This all took a fair bit of time. Luckily in the mean time I made some new friends who work on luxury charter catamarans and got to hang out with them for a bit. This was great fun! We had drinks on board these insane yachts and even ended up aboard another luxury cat in the middle of the night which was taking on water and was sinking! Rescuing the yacht after a few wines and rums was interesting to say the least haha! I also managed to squeeze in a days surfing with these guys and caught some epic waves, so much fun. Including a right hander which just went on forever! Bottom turns and top turns galore (including a lot of big swishing noises from me as I went haha).
Then back to the yacht buying…… back and forth and back and forth we went and then finally came to an agreement subject to survey. But in this case due to the owner having planned a casual charter during this sale time we ended up having to agree that we would make a decision about buying the boat on the SAMEDAY as the survey (normally you would have 2 days to get the full results of the survey then have some time). We were keen to get on with it and the alternative left us waiting around and paying for the hotel for 10 days. So we accepted that it was likely to be a super stressful day and just go for it.

So next step the survey. To do the survey the yacht has to be taken out of the water and also taken on a sea trial. We also needed to have the Broker, the surveyor, the seller, the yacht, the lift and yard (for the boat), the marina, the transport to and from, a workshop on hand to give us quick quotes and the weather all organised for this exact day that had been agreed. Needless to say this was a nightmare! But we got there in the end and the day of the survey was looming and needless to say my stomach was in knots.

So survey day! The weather was not playing ball and because there was an issue with one of the lifts close by we had been forced to re arrange to have the boat lifted out on another island. This then lead to a white knuckle ride in a small speedboat going full speed for an hour and a bit in rough seas and 20knts + (Mum decided to let just me and Dad go haha). On arrival torrential rain starts and strong winds gust through just as we are trying to get the boat to the lift. This did not go well. But after some yelling by pretty much everyone we got the boat into the slings and she was hauled out. Bill Baily (our amazing surveyor) was fantastic and went through the boat with a fine comb and due to the circumstances I followed him around with my note book and wrote down everything (ending up squeezed in the shower with him looking at a leaking holding tank was not a highlight haha) . All of this took us to about 4pm with the ferry leaving at 5.30pm and us having to hear Bills shortened report and then make a decision and negotiate all before it left.

So we had our big important person discussions about the boat, with some really serious things coming out of it. For example, the mast step needs re doing as it is depressed – this would involve taking the mast and all the rigging off the boat – not a small job. And there were others. So I was mid way through internal freak out as these three 60+ year old men were talking about lots of things I was still trying to understand and I was trying to make a decision on the biggest financial commitment of my life when I look down and a small boy (perhaps 5 years old) had placed a mostly dead lizard on my arm and then asked me if I thought it was sleeping…………! After trying to explain that we are in the middle of something quite important he proceeds to walk around the railings of the restaurant while we continue our discussions hoping that he isn’t going to fall off.

Crunch time approached and Dad, the broker and the surveyor looked at me to name a price for this boat that if I am totally honest had let us down a bit. So I agreed on a much lower figure and it was presented to the seller. This was rejected and a counter offer was made…..the ferry at this point was also leaving…….then our last offer was made (or in Africa we would call it our ‘walk away, last last, student, rainy day price). And he agreed.

So now we are in the process of finalising on a good boat that will be a great boat when we are finished (with a lot of hard work)……. so not there yet but fingers crossed this process will all be over soon…………

The hunt is on.

Posted on January 24, 2016 by kannchi

I love my new job. Seriously, yacht hunting is so much fun! You get to meet lots of like minded friendly people, you get to be super nosey exploring people’s boats and I get to spend heaps of time learning so much from my super knowledgeable Mum and Dad.

We left New Zealand with all the gear, paddle board and surf board included. Had a bit of drama getting it all across to Miami but it was all part of the adventure.

So we have been based in Fort Lauderdale for the last week. It’s been a full time yacht quest. Over 100 yachts found, more than 10 viewed around this area and a whole load located in the Caribbean. The boats have ranged so much but each one has enabled us to make progress. We have learnt a lot about ‘yoghurt pots’ as Dad calls them (we are looking for lighter construction yachts which should be easier to sell in Aus).

From here we have decided to head to the Caribbean. We have found that the yachts here are mainly set up for cruising and not ocean sailing. We also think the Caribbean boats are a better deal and are set up on 240v which is a bonus for re sale. It’s also hopefully going to be warmer down there-Florida is pretty cold with ‘snowmagedon’ hitting the USA right now.

Nick is heading state-side soon and Ann and Dean are fitting in quick pre-holiday in Bali before their holiday year 😉 super excited about us all being together soon.

Hope this finds you all well and 2016 has started positively for you. Once we get the yacht, watch this space for dates and locations for when you could potentially come and join the madness! 🙂

On a side note if you are interested in the kind of thing we are after have a look here:

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1989/Jeanneau-Sun-Magic-2626042/Chaguaramas/Trinidad-and-Tobago#.VqQfGp9f3IV

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2002/Jeanneau-43-Deck-Saloon-DS-Sun-Odyssey-2693883/Nanny-Cay/British-Virgin-Islands#.VqQfNp9f3IV

The best plans are often laid to waste…

Posted on January 12, 2016 by kannchi

Coromandel exploring

Beautiful NZ waterfall – watch out for the eels 🙂

Fossil hunting

West coast sunset

Cooling off

These two and these two. So much love xx

Sister Kirsten cave exploring

Brother Ewan dolphin spotting

Sandcastle fun

Mum and Dad

Its only a few days now before I head off to the USA and its been a crazy month with a whole lot of changes so I thought I better fill you in by updating the blog.

The first big change is that Tim and I decided to break up. I guess sometimes when you have something like this trip planned it can make you think quite hard about the big things and in this case we talked it over and decided to go our separate ways.

So Nick and I have decided to carry on as planned. We have had to make a few small changes and realign some of our yacht searching criteria etc. but in general we are still on track. One of the big exciting changes that has happened is that we have decided to add some full time crew. Ann Parkinson and Dean Carr will be joining us for the trip. These two fantastic weirdo’s will be a welcome addition. They are good fishy friends of Nick and I and will mean we are a full team of marine biologists on board. We are super excited about having some help and no doubt lots of good entertainment!

I will try and get a profile of each of us together for the next blog update so you can get a good idea about us all and how we decided that not growing up, leaving jobs/study and sailing across the Pacific was a good idea. Four hard out Peter Pans sailing off across an ocean together – what could go wrong!? haha 😉

Other than all the sailing changes I have been able to have a fantastic last month with my amazing family. I have been super lucky to have the whole family with me for some good quality time before we leave. We managed to get some good mini NZ adventures in; including waterfalls, caves, surfing, swimming, mini tramps, paddleboarding and lots of eating. The weather wasn’t amazing but great to have time with the mini Briggsy and Porter toddlers. Those two are hilarious and I will miss them a lot while I am away.

So its all coming together and things are feeling pretty real. I fly in 3 days with Mum and Dad (expert yachties) to LA and then onto Miami. We plan to do some good yacht searching around Florida and then hopefully buy the yacht a bit closer to Panama. Nick will be a few weeks behind us then closely followed by Ann and Dean.

Wish you all the best for 2016. I hear it’s the year for adventures….

Sh**s getting real!

Posted on December 13, 2015December 13, 2015 by kannchi

Love these awesome girls

Up the mount for sunset

Mount mini waves

Sunday racing

Fluro friends

So are we really doing this? What’s “this” you may ask. Well someone had this bright idea about us quitting our jobs and buying a yacht and sailing it across the Pacific (nice one Denise!). So Tim has finished work and is officially unemployed. I leave in a few days and Nick will join the unemployment gang in a few weeks. Flights are booked and somewhere out there is an unassuming yacht which we will call our home for the next year. Lets hope she isn’t too hard to find and goes easy on us 🙂

Lots of goodbyes this week leaving Mount Maunganui 😦 Feel so lucky to have been able to call home for the last 3 and a half years. Its been great to meet so many awesome people and have some amazing experiences……..but the ocean is calling! Adventures ahead! eeeekkk

	Lynne on Oh Jo Jo Jo
	Adam on The hunt is on.
	Alicia King on The hunt is on.
	Jo Logan on The best plans are often laid…
	Karin on The best plans are often laid…

	Lynne on Oh Jo Jo Jo
	Adam on The hunt is on.
	Alicia King on The hunt is on.
	Jo Logan on The best plans are often laid…
	Karin on The best plans are often laid…