Tag Archives: cruising kids

S/V Shawnigan is for Sale with a broker in Whangarei, New Zealand (Sold!!!!)

Christian made it safely up to Marsden Cove Marina, where Shawnigan has been tidied up hauled out and placed in the hand of a broker to sell (link to come soon) to some lucky person/family.

The sail up the east coast was pretty much as to be expected around these parts of New Zealand, with gusts into the 50’s off of Castle point. 2-50 in 30 seconds kind of situation. The East Cape was slightly better, but not much. He thankfully had crew, Nick from Mana to Napier, and Jamie, from Napier to Whitianga (Coromandel). Of course… he did manage to surf both in Napier and in Whitanga. A very much deserved farewell gift for him. From Whitianga, he just had an over nighter to arrive with the right tide and current into the Whangarei heads.

After catching up on some much needed sleep, Christian spent almost the whole week straight cleaning up the boat, going for a sail to take drone photos, and sorting out a bit of last minute departure details for himself. He also managed to fit in a few social events with friends we know from up there.

A special shout out to the crew (Nick and Jamie) for pulling through, swapping their lives around and helping Christian and Shawnigan get up the east coast of New Zealand safely.

As for myself and the kids, we’ve been doing a little local sightseeing during the school holidays and then they have one more week of school and I have 6 more shifts of work before we fly out to California to reunite with Christian.

Suwarrow – Cook Islands

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From Maupiti we set sail for Suwarrow, not certain that we would actually stop there. 5 days and 700 miles later, we made landfall August 22nd, 2018.

Suwarrow is one of the most northern of the 15 Cook Islands, which are self governing, but in free association with New Zealand. Its a bit out of the way, but on the way to Tonga. We had the option of going the rhumb (straight) line from Maupiti to Tonga, take the more southern route to Palmerston, or take the more northern route to Suwarrow. Most of our cruising friends that left before us went to Suwarrow and raved about it. A few went to Palmerston, but history has it as a fair weather only stop, and the weather was not predicted to be so fair. And rather than doing a straight shot 1,200 miles to Tonga, we opted to aim toward Suwarrow, keep and eye on the weather and as long as it was looking good to stop, we would.

Sail by the wind Jellies that we caught

and released. Their real name is Velella Velella . Also known as sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella .

Our departure from Maupiti was seamless. We made it out the pass and turned west. The wind was great, perfect for the asymmetrical. We had her flying for a while, it was smooth sailing. Then the wind started to pick up and as I was saying to Christian that we should probably take down the A-sail, we heard a tearing sound. The sail completely tore down the center and across the top. We quickly got it down and unfurled the jib. The unfortunate part of this, besides loosing our A-sail, was that we had already took down our 150 genoa sail and exchanged it for the 120. The shape of our 120 is great and it made for a more comfortable sail, but our speed wasn’t what it could be if we had the 150 out. No matter though, the next day the wind picked up more and the 120 was more than enough. We made it to Suwarrow. The wind was strong as we came in. Bajka was already there, as well as La Cigale.

Good night sun and good bye asymmetrical 😦

The Island was beautiful! We had heard that it was watched over by two Rangers (caretakers), Harry and John. We got a very warm welcome from these two men, when they motored their skiff out to our boat to check us in to the country. After talking with them we learned that they get brought in on a supply ship with supplies from one of the southern islands called Rarotonga, the largest Cook Island, and stay for 6-7 months at a time without re-supply. These two rangers were so awesome. They had the best attitudes, and were so kind to share “their space” with us cruisers. Many nights they allowed us to have potlucks and bonfires on the beach and would join us for the fun. Most nights included musical jam sessions as well, so we heard…

We ended up staying for only one night. We arrived in the morning, checked in, stayed the night and then left the next afternoon. The weather window looked good to leave and we didn’t want to risk getting stuck there for 3 weeks with the limited provisions we had left, plus another 700 mile sail. As soon as we arrived, Bajka and LA Cigale came to pick up the kids to do the Geocaching activity that was started a month or so earlier by another sailing family on S/Y Moya.

So after a evening potluck with music, and a morning of checking out the island, learning a bit from the rangers about the local medicinal plants, checking out the local feeding frenzy of sharks, then checking out of the country, we set sail for Tonga.

Maupiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

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Maupiti: August 12th, 2018. Our last French Polynesian island… after Bora Bora .

We sailed off the mooring ball in Bora Bora, out the pass on the west side of the island, hoisted the asymmetrical, and aimed for Maupiti. Shortly afterwards, we had to douse the asymmetrical and go with the 120 due to wind direction. We weren’t entirely sure that we would make it into Maupiti. The passage is narrow, and with any sizeable south swell the entrance would not be passable. On that same note, we might be able to get in, but if the swell picks up while we are in there, we would be stuck. The weather forecast looked promising, so we were going for it. S/V Bajka was already on their way, as well as S/V La Cigale.

The sail over was a just a day sail, but again as with all of the passes and atolls in the South Pacific, you always want to have good day light to be able to see any under water obstetrical. S/V La Cigale made it in well before we did, so Xavier got out the drone and filmed us sailing in through the pass. The entry, even without a large south swell was exciting. There was not much room for error, and we were under sail power only. I stayed at the helm and Christian made sail adjustments and verbal instructions. We enjoy being able to sail on and off the hook (anchor or mooring in this instance) for the challenge and for the pleasure of not having to use fuel. We made it through the pass and up into the southern anchorage, and found a spot between our friends La Cigale and Bajka.

If you look at the screenshot of Maupiti, above, you will notice the narrow pass in which we sailed through.

We spent the next few days there in the southern anchorage and in the anchorage just east of the inner island. Our friends on S/V Bellini, who we met over in Raiatea, were also already here as well. The population of Maupiti is extremely small. Provisions are limited, but there are a few fresh fruit stands and a bakery. Since we weren’t sure we were going to stop here or not, we spent the last of our French Polynesian money in Bora Bora, so no fresh food for us.

While Christian went for a long SUP paddle, myself and other families went diving with the huge Manta Rays!

Josie with the Manta.

Nina

Taj

Christian had already SUP circumnavigated the whole inner island, but the mountian that stood so grand above was calling our name. We first attempted to do it with our friends on S/V Bellini, but it was a little too late in the afternoon. We made it about half-way by the time the sunset, so we turned around with plans to do it with the other kid boats another day.

Our next go at it, S/V Bajka and La Cigale went as well. What an amazing adventure!

Watch our quick video below:

After a few days in Maupiti, our weather window to sail the five days (700 miles) to Suwarrow, Cook Islands, was up. Again, we weren’t entirely sure that we would stop in Suwarrow. If the weather window was closing to head to Tonga, we were going to bypass Suwarrow, but if the weather was going to give us even just a few days there, we would take it. It would have been a bummer to sail right past the Cook Islands, but weather dictates.

Lucy off of La Cigale on her SUP for our last sunset in French Polynesia.