Being so far away from home, family and friends can be rough. Ken and I were saddened to learn a dear friend finally lost her battle with cancer. While the news didn’t come as a surprise, it was awful not to be with everyone at this time.
We departed Port Vila, Vanuatu on May 17th and started out sailing dead downwind, wing and wing with the pole out…
To start – Big News. Altair now has a Nespresso Machine! If you come to visit, please bring pods. Couldn’t find Nespresso pods anywhere in Vanuatu. Shocker.
After a successful hernia operation for Ken and a visit to see the Volvo boats in Auckland, we headed north to Opua in the Bay of Islands. Really nice sailing, plenty of reefing and sail trimming with our new First Mate, Harry Marchant.
On February 15th we flew from Christchurch NZ to Hobart, Tasmania. I’ve always had an image in my head of a remote, rugged, last frontier sort of place.
After tucking Altair in at Half Moon Bay Marina in Auckland NZ, with a long to do list for the Chris Smith of Boat Smith, we headed to the USA!
Our exploration of NZ’s North Island continued as we headed north toward the Bay of Islands and Opua. We rented a car and an Airbnb right on the harbor. Opua is where we will all gather to check out with customs when we leave NZ. The Marina seems great (laundry!), and the provisioning looks good, so it is a convenient place to depart from.
Altair made it to Auckland in about 8 days - tough conditions. Another fun ride for our friend Kem, who was also on the infamous Antigua Run. Suffice it to say that the trip was “sporty”.
