Category Archives: Adventure

Finally, we can let the cat out of the bag…

I know the suspense is high in finding out exactly what we’re planning to do next, but to be honest, we weren’t quite certain therefore we decided to wait to tell all.

Are you ready for it?!?!?!?!

We bought a new boat!!!! Her name is Malihini and she’s a Shuttleworth 35 catamaran. Yep, you ready that right, we bought a CATAMARAN and its official as of the 9th of October, she’s all ours!!!

During the latest lockdown here in New Zealand, it became clear to us that our nomad desires to set sail to new oceans and new lands would be very difficult and different with COVID lurking about. Sure, there are some places we could go, but we would likely to get “stuck” there like we are here in New Zealand. When I say stuck, I’m not really complaining about being here at all, it’s more that we can’t go visit family and then come back. So long story short, after many years of not seeing family and friends and no signs of that being a possibility anytime soon, we decided we will go back to the States for a while! That lead us to looking for boats to buy there. S/V Malihini was there waiting for us to find her in Portland Oregon.

Christian boarded his flight on the 10th of October out of New Zealand to fly to LAX on the 10th of October (time travel) , to drive up California to pick a few items for Malihini up along the way, see his dad and friend Jonah. He stocked up at Costco (picture a kid in a candy store after being in New Zealand for 3 years. Actually, Christian hasn’t been back to the US in 4 years!) Today, he drove drove up to our new boat … our new home! She’s been floating in Oregon, at St. Helens Marina, along the Columbia River, which is closure to the ocean than Portland is. He will get her all prepped and set sail to arrive in San Francisco with the earliest weather window.

More pictures of Malihini!!!

I can’t really describe the feelings we are having. It’s overall really exciting and we’re are looking forward to seeing our friends and family again. With the uncertainty of where New Zealand was heading (All things Covid related) it feels good to have made this choice. There will be many things about New Zealand that we will miss, to name a few: the Māori culture, the slower life, the clean and crisp air with its bright and vibrant colours, the accents, the not so crowded surf breaks, the bird songs, the happy cows grazing along with a billion sheep and many red deer. The list goes on, which is great, I’ll just have to finish my post about our time in New Zealand to show more about that. We made a few life long friends here too and parting with them (for now) has been hard, but it truly feels like we will return at some point to the lovely Aotearoa (New Zealand).

One step at time…. Or one ocean at a time. But first, Oregon to San Francisco!

Shawnigan is FOR SALE!!! $140,000 NZD (~100k USD) SOLD!!!

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Yep you read that right, S/V Shawnigan , our lovely solid, world cruising ready, Sparkman and Stephens, Stevens 40 is up for sale! $140,000 NZD

Before I post all of her details I will reassure you that this DOESN’T mean we, Afamilyafloat , are done with sailing / boat life… we’re just switching things up and looking at a different boat. Exciting changes to come!

I know most people love video tours: so here’s a link to our “old” one (or see below). There are few improvements , additions and removals, since the video so we will list these below. Please feel free to message us here or call (NZ +64 2041790882) directly if you have any questions. Note : we are currently in New Zealand, so listing in NZD for the NZ and Australian market.

Vessel Name: “SHAWNIGAN” Model: 40’ STEVENS 40 center cockpit cutter Builder: STEVENS Yachts, Queen Long Yard, Taiwan, R.O.C. Designer: Sparkman & Stephens Year Built: 1982 LOA: 40’ 7” LWL: 31’ 4” Beam: 12’ 6” Draft: 6.75’ Displacement: 24,000 # Ballast: 8,000#, internal in fiberglass fin Power: VolvoPenta 40 Equipment: – Wheel steering, autopilot, Hydrovane with spare wind paddle- Complete set of sails including mainsail, harken roller furler with 120% and 150% , hank-on staysail – ICOM IC-M802 SSB and VHF radio, RAYTHEON RL70 radar, B & G depth sounder, GARMIN 176 GPS/plotter, Lawrence fish finder /depth sounder. Vesper Marine AIS receiver and transponder – Safety equipment: ground tackle electric windlass with 350′ hi-tensile G4 American made chain, 45# ROCNA . Standing rigging , turnbuckles and running rigging done in 2012 – custom hard dodger – 3x 150W solar panels, mounted on arch. Installed fridge/freezer in 2021 as a drop in model – Dickinson Diesel Heater . 2 Levac heads and a shower. Master bed in aft cabin. Two berths in v-berth with leecloths. Pull out settee with leecloth on starboard side of main cabin, and another leecloth for settee on port side. New awlgrip paint 2017.

This STEVENS 40 is a production fiberglass sailboat designed by the famed Sparkman & Stephens and built in Taiwan in the early eighties. Only 10 boats were built under this brand between 1982 and 1984 until the boatyard Queen Long Marine Shipbuilding became in 1984 the exclusive builder of the well-known HYLAS Yachts. The STEVENS 40 and 47 are very similar to the high end HYLAS on many levels: solidly built, sea-kindly hull designed for blue water cruising, center cockpit layout and high-quality teak interior.

Dodger with the sides rolled up, providing shade in hot sunny locations.

Dodger providing comfort in wet conditions.

Starboard side of main cabin looking aft.

looking toward port side and forward of main cabin

Double compression post bound with spectra (structural and cosmetic).

Main cabin view from Port looking aft and towards the chart table.

DCIM101GOPROGOPR2040. — right side of stove has been customized as a drop in fridge/freezer (see photo above of port side).

Galley: 2 ice boxes (we use for dry food, and pots and pans) and Force10 stove/oven) and a large double sink with fresh and saltwater pumps and new faucet for electric powered flow.

Aft head with Levac. Shower to the left of head (currently used for storage).

A new year…will Shawnigan ever leave the harbor again?!?!

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We haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been SLOWLY working on our second half of Tonga post (which will be over a year past the time that we were there.) For some reason, once I’ve uploaded photos to a hard drive, I find I have a hard time fishing them out to add to our posts. That’s neither here nor there… what this short post is about is how we’ve been in New Zealand over a year now, and as of today, January 1st, 2020 S/V Shawnigan has officially not budged an inch while at her new home in Mana Marina.

“What?!”, you say, “Shawnigan has not been out sailing for a whole year! A family that has done so much sailing, has not taken their boat out for a year?!” Yes, it’s true. Although we are still happily living aboard S/V Shawnigan, we have not taken her as much as a few inches here and there adjusting the dock lines. As the year comes to and end and to a new beginning, we hope to start taking her out more often, but who knows what this new year will bring.

When we left for “sailing the world”, we left with an open ended plan. Not really sure with what we’ll do, where we’ll go, where we’ll stay. As we made way towards New Zealand, thoughts of setting some shallow roots came to mind. Find jobs, put the kids in school, and see how it goes. Not long into our time here in the Wellington area, with my work as a nurse at the hospital and the kids’ involvement and enjoyment in the local schools, we decided to apply for residency. That whole process is still pending and we still don’t know where it is heading, but as it goes when we’re sailing, we go where the wind takes us. Well, I guess that’s not completely spot on for this situation, is it. Our time here and what we do next in this case is always being re-evaluated based on what we desire for the now and the future, financial status, and overall family happiness. Right now, we’ve come to the conclusion of staying put, waiting for our New Zealand residency, having fun and being productive at work and school, meeting new friends and building stronger relationships with them, and exploring New Zealand via our newly (not so) purchased camper van and hopefully by boat one of these days.

Honestly, after so much sailing, Captain Christian has quite enjoyed the break from moving place to place all if the time. I get that. Also, its been quite nice not o worry about dragging anchor, running aground, hurricane seasons etc. Don’t get me wrong, we love sailing and we’ll get back out there, but for now we are going with the flow here in New Zealand.

This is not a “year in review” post as one might think this post would be. My apologies if you were hoping for that. Knowing myself, if I was to go down that road, I’d never get the post out, because I’d be looking for all of the “right” pictures to post and things to say. For a glimpse of what we’ve been up to in New Zealand over the last year, its probably best to head over to our Instagram or Facebook page, where we are mostly up to date with pictures.

Here are a few pictures mostly in chronological order, just because..

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