NOT ALL THOSE THAT WANDER ARE LOST

J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Read all about it here! Travels, trials and tribulations are all documented here.

Feel free to peruse at your leisure.

  • South Island Road Trip. Exploring the beautiful scenery of New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
    It’s been far too long  since our last update, so here goes … Jo had her last chemotherapy session at the end of January and followed it up with a …
  • Diving From Double Trouble
    We have done a lot of different types of dives in our travels. We are very stringent about doing pre dive safety check, as we are typically diving so far …
  • Ocean Passage – Marshall Islands to Fiji.
    After a 17 day, 20 hour, 2100 nautical mile trip we arrived in Denarau, Fiji.  We left Majuro on the 25th of August in very light westerly conditions. Taking advantage …
  • Stuck all summer in the middle of the Pacific – Wall Street Journal Article
    This Article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on the 2nd of September 2020 as part of their ‘Life in Quarantine’ series. View full article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/travel-during-covid-a-bbq-ace-marinates-after-canceled-plans-11599058725 Edited by …
  • Repairing, Refuelling and Restocking after Ailuk Adventures.
    We have had a busy time in Majuro after getting back from Ailuk Atoll. Having been cruising for the last 14 months  so we have a few maintenance items that …
  • Exploring the Marshall Islands – Awesome Ailuk Lagoon.
    Ailuk is Awesome! We have spent our time meeting the villagers, hanging out in anchorages, snorkelling and diving. The lagoon is beautiful. There are 50 islands spread out from North …
  • Exploring Maloelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
    We are back in Majuro. It looks like the world has gone CoVid19 crazy while we have been away. Meanwhile we have been enjoying life ‘off the grid’ at Maloelap …
  • Our First Month In the Marshall Islands, Exploring Majuro.
    Well, another month just flew by! We have been thoroughly enjoying our time in Majuro. It’s been a busy time, with a good mix of work and play. We spent …
  • Farewell Kiribati, Hello Marshall Islands
    Well here we are in another new country. We are tied to a mooring ball in Majuro lagoon, Marshall islands. We arrived on Monday after a bouncy three day upwind …
  • Exploring Kiribati – Abaiang and Tarawa Anchorages
    We are back in Tarawa lagoon having spent three weeks at Abaiang Atoll. We spent some time exploring the main stretch of land on the east side. We were introduced …
  • Tuvalu to Kiribati (Tarawa)
    Wow! Two weeks since we left Tuvalu. Where does the time go? Our passage from Tuvalu to Kiribati took us 6 days and we sailed 727 nautical miles. We had …
  • Northern Hemisphere Cruising – Our first Equator Crossing.
    Notes on our crossing from Funafuti in Tuvalu to Tarawa in the Kiribati Islands. 26th November to the 2nd of December 2019 Our passage to Tarawa in Kiribati took us …
  • Tuvalu – A Tiny Country with a Big Heart
    After four weeks in the tiny country of Tuvalu, we are moving on. As ever, our journey is dictated by the weather and we have some easterly winds forecast for …
  • Sailing from Fiji to Tuvalu
    We had a busy final few days in Fiji.  We caught up with some friends who were heading south to NZ and kept a close eye out for suitable weather …
  • Exploring Fiji – Fabulous Fulaga! 
    Three weeks ago we left Susui in Vanua Balavu  and sailed overnight to Fulaga in the Southern Lau.  Fulaga is known as the ‘jewel of the Lau’ and certainly lives …
  • Exploring Fiji – Time flies in Vanua Balavu
    Time flies when you are having fun and we are loving Vanua Balavu .  The weather has been a mixed bag, with more rain that we would like and a …
  • Arriving in the Northern Lau group
    We are in Vanua Balavu, one of the northernmost islands of the Lau group. It took a few weeks for a suitable weather window to come up for us to …
  • Exploring Fiji – The Sevusevu Ceremony
    Significant and ancient in Fiji, the “sevusevu” also marks the time and place for visitors to seek acceptance into a Fijian village. A  bundle of Yaqona or Kava is  appropriate …
  • Exploring Viani Bay and Taveuni
    We have had another great week in Fiji!As you know, last week we dropped anchor in the beautiful Viani Bay. Whilst onshore enjoying a fabulous traditional Fijian Lovo (food cooked …
  • Bula from Fiji – Opua to Savusavu
    Bula from Fiji! We’ve been at the dock in Savusavu since Tuesday. All the post-passage jobs such as laundry and refuelling are done, so other than stocking up on fresh …
  • Tech Tips: Engine Checks
    Being a catamaran, we have two auxiliary engines on Double Trouble. These are a three cylinder, 30 Horsepower Volvo D1-30F this is connected to a sail drive which turns a …
  • Back in the water and our scariest anchoring issue so far
    Well, we are back in the water after 6 weeks on the hard stand. Hauling in was made challenging due to an overheat alarm on the STBD engine and 25 …
  • Barrier Gold Exploring New Zealands Great Barrier Island
    Great Barrier Island is stunning and we had always planned to revisit and explore further.  We dropped anchor in Smokehouse bay which is a favourite with the sailing community as …
  • Fiji sailing log – Taveuni to Denerau
    Bula! We have enjoyed some fabulous sailing over the last week.  16 September- We finally dragged ourselves away from Paradise Taveuni​ Resort and went west to Namena Island. The anchorage …
  • Vava’u -Our first anchorage and we foul anchor
    Yesterday, we left our mooring in Neiafu after spending a couple of days re-provisioning. The market here was a joy compared to the slim picking s that were on offer …
  • Sailing Tonga Fabulous Foa, Pangai
    We are anchored at Foa island in a most beautiful lagoon. It also happens to be just opposite the bar at the Sandy Beach Resort. Very convenient for happy hour …
  • Vava’u -slow sailing with whales
    The  Ha’apai group is very low lying, with its east reef providing shelter from the predominant SE trades, but it leaves yachts open to weather from the west. There are …
  • Tonga – Fabulous Foa
    Today marks our 20th wedding anniversary. It also marks 20 days at anchor. In the same place. This is a record for us since we moved onboard. We have always …
  • Tonga – Oua , Wickham and Ha’afeva
    We had a great sail down to Oua island. The winds were light and behind the beam so it was a perfect opportunity to launch the Parasailor.  It was only …
  • Tonga – Uoleva , Pangai and official ‘check in ‘
    Yes -we are still in the Ha’apai islands. We moved to Uoleva where we had a fab catch up with our buddies from ‘Citation’ . They left the next morning …
  • Tonga – The Ha’apai group
    Accept our apologies. We have been super slack at posting updates. It’s hard to believe that we have been in Tonga for seven weeks already. Five of these have been …
  • Tonga – Arrival and exploring Nuku’alofa
    We arrived in Tonga after an 8 day,  1064 nautical mile sailing from Opua, NZ, and made our way to the harbour to clear customs.  We had the option to …
  • What do you do all day?
    We have been asked a few times what we do with our days. It is normally asked by people who think we must get bored as there is nothing to …
  • Exploring the Hauraki Gulf
    After our return from the Phillipines, we spent time re-provisioning the boat and doing final preparations, before exploring the islands and bays around Auckland. We have been having a jolly …
  • Rocking in Rocky Bay
    Well it’s been an interesting week in the Hauraki gulf. We left Waihaorangatahi Bay on Motuihe Island ( try saying that after a G and T) on Tuesday . There …
  • One year afloat
    The 10th of December 2017 marked the one year anniversary of us first setting foot onto DT.  In that time we have sailed 4300 nautical miles, including  Sydney to Brisbane, …
  • Farewell Australia
    Our First Bluewater crossing Blimey! It’s been a very busy and sociable 10 days at Paradise Point on Australias Gold Coast. Amongst the usual tasks of making sure DT is …
  • Training days
    Competent crew Since we took our competent crew course over three weekends and decided that this sailing lark was pretty cool, we have been aware that our skill and knowledge …
  • Southbound from Cairns
    Can’t believe we left Cairns over a month ago! We have been super shabby at posting updates here, so its time to try and play catch up…. Our NZ departure …
  • Cairns!
    We have had a great couple of weeks in Cairns, catching up with friends and doing a few boat jobs.Normally we swerve marinas. They tend to be expensive , stressful …
  • Sailing Australia – Exploring Magnetic Island
    We had a great day doing two gorgeous walks on Magnetic island. Beautiful weather and scenery.We walked from our anchorage in Horseshoe bay to the old Forts. We were lucky …
  • Yellowpatch Anchorage, Curtis Island
    The entrance to Yellow Patch is gained after Cape Capricorn on the northeastern side of Curtis Island. Yellowpatch is named after the dramatic ochre-coloured sand stretch. Clear blue water and …
  • Northbound from Brisbane
    It was with some trepidation that we set off from Manly Marina in Brisbane. At first light on Tuesday the 6th of June, with a calm day of 10-15 knot …
  • Training Week
    As you may have gathered, we are both pretty new to this sailing lark. We have already completed the RYA Competent Crew course, but it was during the Brisbane winter …
  • OAP’s in town
    Jo’s parents had decided that a visit to see us and to meet DT was long overdue. They were due to arrive on the Saturday lunchtime flight from New Zealand. …
  • Singapore and Phillipines
    Time for a diving holiday! Well, a city break to Singapore, followed by a trip to the Phillipines, with a few days muck diving around Anilao, before picking up the …
  • Preparing Double Trouble for cruising
    Having moved onto DT in February 2017, we had noticed that sitting in the marina was not helping the antifoul keep up with the barnacles on the hull. We also …
  • Liveaboards at last!
    Today was the day. We have been talking about this for a number of years. It may even be as many as ten. Planning to get to this day started …
  • Our first solo trip !
    Our first ‘solo’ trip out of Manly was over to Lucinda Bay. A couple of people had said that there was a nice place to anchor on the West of …
  • Sydney to Brisbane
    Well moving the boat proved to be quite an experience . We managed to manoeuvre out of the berth and then get ourselves alongside the fuel dock, whilst avoiding hitting …
  • Meeting Double Trouble
    After a very early start we grabbed an Uber to the  domestic terminal to catch our flight to Sydney. We had quite a bit of luggage with us as we …
  • Double Trouble is here!
    I’ll post a bit of a history around the decision to buy a boat and the purchase of ‘Double Trouble’ in a few days, but for now the most exciting …