Weather Helmed

an adventure in renewing the spirit and living the dream…on a sailboat

Weather Helmed

Entries Tagged as 'Fellow Cruisers'

Let’s say GRACE – over and over and over

November 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Australia, Cheers!!, Fellow Cruisers, Life on the Boat, Random Thoughts, Shore Excursions, Somebody likes us, The End

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!  We had a great turkey day the Aussie way, throwin’ some brats on the barbie with the only other US boat we knew in the area.  It was such an enjoyable time.  I felt really happy that we could still celebrate the holiday with a nice day with friends and throwing the […]

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A brief note about “Buddy Boating” because it’s Wednesday, and you know what that means… (written Nov. 10 en route to Oz)

November 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Cruising Must-Haves, Cruising with Friends, Famous Firsts, Fellow Cruisers, Funny, Passages, Somebody likes us, The End

Cruisers are generally known to be independent and self-sufficient, yet can often have a herd mentality.  But, there really is something to be said for traveling with other boats.  This passage, for the first time EVER, we sailed within sight and VHF contact of fellow cruisers, and it was fantastic.  Although we did have to […]

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Weather waffling and McDonald’s in Noumea

November 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments · Fellow Cruisers, Life on the Boat, New Caledonia, On Safety, Passages, Random Thoughts, shoe-cruising

Hello!! I don’t know if I ever updated where we currently are, but we are at the Port Moselle marina in Noumea, New Caledonia. New Cal is an island country that is about 800 miles east of Australia. I was very excited because our guidebook hailed Noumea as “the Paris of the Pacific.” hahahahahaha I […]

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A Seaworthy Vessel (written 10/21 en route to New Caledonia)

October 26th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Fellow Cruisers, First Mates, Life on the Boat, On Fear, On Safety, Our Route, Passages, Random Thoughts, This Could Have Been Us, Vanuatu

Our initial plan was to leave Fiji on Saturday Oct. 9.  We didn’t feel too concerned about weather since we hadn’t heard rumors of anything nasty coming up, but – as usual – it’s always a good idea to check.  The weather for the near future – 2 days out – looked perfect, but the […]

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Fiji Highlight: Hiking on Waya Island & a lesson in boat kid hygiene

October 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Beautiful, Cruising with Friends, Fellow Cruisers, Fiji, Shore Excursions

Our second week in Fiji, first week with our guests, we were finally able to reunite with our cruising friends on IO and Totem.  We hadn’t seen them in far too long, so we made plans to meet them at the southern anchorage on Waya Island, in Yalobi Bay.  Although we haven’t spent as much […]

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Time Flies…

October 5th, 2010 · No Comments · Cruising Must-Haves, Cruising with Friends, Fellow Cruisers, Fiji, Life on the Boat, Somebody likes us

Wow.  Our time in Fiji has gone by so fast.  I guess that’s what happens when you have good friends along for the ride.  In less than 2.5 weeks, we visited Beachcomber, Waya, Wayalailai, Navadra, Mana, and Manolailai islands and made a full circumnavigation of Naviti.  There were various reasons as to why we moved […]

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To Future Cruisers: Plan better than we have…

August 10th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Oh Crap., Our Route, Passages, Stupid Ideas, Tonga

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but we are going to be doing ANOTHER LONG PASSAGE.  What is the deal?!?!  Most people who do this cruising thing try to keep the long passages to the minimum.  But, not us! Oh no, we like to just GO.  We have barely been sailing for 6 months and […]

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Nightlife on Toau (Toau – northern anchorage/Anse Amyot June 22-30)

July 9th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Cheers!!, Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Funny, Our Route, Shore Excursions, Tuamotus

The moon shone round and bright in the evening sky and the water sparkled under the stars. We pulled our dinghy up to the short wooden dock, noting that we were the first crew to arrive for dinner.  “Are those lobsters?!?!”  I asked hopefully, pointing at a table on the porch stacked with spider-like objects.  […]

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Reunited with s/v IO (Toau -southern anchorage June 19-22)

July 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Life on the Boat, Our Route, Tuamotus

We showed up in Toau just ahead of a low pressure system that was moving through the area.  We set our anchor, letting out almost all 250 feet of our rode, but laughingly never getting more than 20 feet from our anchor as we successfully wrapped ourselves around a couple of coral heads.  Anyway, we […]

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A Visit to Hakatea (“Daniel’s Bay”) (May 13-16)

May 22nd, 2010 · 3 Comments · Cruising with Friends, Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Marquesas, Nuku Hiva, Our Route, shoe-cruising, Shore Excursions

Five miles west of Taiohae Bay, there’s Hakatea, nicknamed Daniel’s Bay because of some European who used to live there.  Although Mike and Hyo of IO had already explored the area, they readily accepted our invitation to ditch their boat in Taiohae and come with us back over to Daniel’s Bay for a weekend.  Daniel’s […]

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