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Quick Fix: 36° 25.6 S / 174° 49.1 E
Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand
Conditions: Never Looked So Good!
Aloha Maui Jim!
It's official: we'd like to welcome aboard Maui Jim, our newest sponsor! Unofficially they've been with us from the very beginning, as we've been wearing Maui Jim sunglasses since we set sail from New York in 2007, when we clambered through Central American jungles, up active Guatemalan volcanoes, transited the Panama Canal, crossed the South Pacific, even whilst hiking over New Zealand's glaciers.
But it's not just where we are that's important, it's how we choose to look at the world that matters most, and with Maui Jim, we love what we see. Mahalo Maui Jim!
Click here to learn more about Maui Jim sunglasses > |
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Day 2,487 - New Zealand (36° 25S 174° 49E)
19:58hrs - March 22nd 2014
Second Wind |
Cyclone Lusi has passed, but left a trail of complaints in its wake from disgruntled New Zealanders annoyed with the forecast from the local weather bureau which, they felt, overstated the severity of the storm.
Lusi swept along New Zealand's western coast over the weekend delivering winds of up to sixty knots to many areas of the north island, including ours. And while sixty knots sounds like a lot of wind, well, it is a lot of wind, here in New Zealand, where they regularly receive gales from the Tasman Sea, sixty knots to some weather-beaten Kiwis is just a stiff breeze.
For two days our dock lines creaked and stretched, sloppy halyards from neighboring boats rang out across the marina, and our Ampair Pacific 100 wind generator whizzed and whirled, charging our batteries at a most satisfactory rate.
Since we left New York to sail around the world our Ampair has generated enough electricity to power a city, OK, perhaps a small village, but it has quietly and reliably done its job for over 26,000 nautical miles. We installed it back in 2003, four years before we started cruising and long before we ever really needed one. But motoring around the Long Island Sound over calm summer weekends, with a wind generator, somehow made us at least feel like we were cruising, and in a small way helped prepare us for this lifestyle.
But after seven years of traveling we've decided to upgrade to a brand new wind generator - an Eclectic Energy D400, a system that promises to deliver up to ten times more power. So while our old Ampair served us well, cyclone Lusi was it's final performance on Dream Time - a most dramatic ending to a unit that sailed with us half way around the world.
But our Ampair will be getting a second wind right here in New Zealand. Murry, a local Kiwi who works as the bridge operator in Auckland Harbour, will be installing it on his sailboat - a Moody thirty three. He's promised to take care of it for us, to check its bearing, clean its brushes and give it a fresh coat of paint. Heck, he even promised to send us emails and updates of its progress.
So it's good bye Ampair, thank you for your service, and fair winds! |
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Welcome Aboard!
Our newest sponsor,
Maui Jim, helps us see
the world at its very best.
Find out how >
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| Catherine on the Redwood Track, Kawau Island, hunting for wallabies |
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Quick Fix: 36° 25.1 S / 174° 49.1 E
March 12th 2014 (day 2,477)
Conditions: Wind: 10/NE Anchored
A Walk With Wallabies
We've spent the last week walking with wallabies through the pine and fern covered forests of Kawau Island. Sadly the little fellas, that were introduced here back in the olden wallaby days, are no longer welcome, so park rangers, for a time, were chasing them around the island, catching and deporting them to Australia, where we were told there's a wallaby shortage. But the rangers ran out of funding, or breath, and have resorted to less compassionate measures to reduce their bouncing population. For tramping cruisers like us, spotting a hopping wallaby has been a treat, but as tropical storm Lusi is scheduled to barrel into New Zealand this Saturday, it's time for us to leave. So goodbye wallabies, and good luck, we hope you're still here when we return. - NH |
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| Dream Time on the cover of Ocean Voyager's 2014 annual edition |
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Quick Fix: 36° 25.1 S / 174° 49.1 E
March 8th 2014 (day 2,473)
Conditions: Wind: 14/SE Anchored
2014 Ocean Voyager
Every year the monthly publication, Ocean Navigator, releases a special handbook that's helpful to sailors planning an offshore voyage of their own. This year's issue of Ocean Voyager has in-depth information on bluewater sailing gear, skills, safety tips and an ocean almanac. It's even got interviews with offshore voyagers who've shared their own experiences and techniques - including Dream Time's. So, pick up a copy to read what's worked (and what hasn't) from those already out here. And while we'll never claim to have all the correct answers, we have managed to come a long way. We even made the cover of the magazine, so I guess we must be doing something right! - NH
Read our interview > | Subscribe to Ocean Navigator > |
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Day 2,467 - New Zealand (36° 25S 174° 49E)
20:09hrs - March 2nd 2014
Where Now? |
We've made a big decision... we've decided to continue west, to explore new regions, and to get back on track to close the loop of our world circumnavigation.
For the last five years we've been carefree cruising, sailing freestyle - bobbing around the islands of the South Pacific with no agenda beyond the horizon, and it has been an epic experience. But now we're back in New Zealand we've decided that perhaps it's time to cross new oceans.
After we've completed our boat projects we'll be heading north to see the legendary vine jumpers of Vanuatu, to anchor off active volcanoes, to explore the rain forests of New Caledonia, and to make our way over to Australia where we'll welcome in the New Year anchored in Sydney Harbour, right next to the Opera House.
Southeast Asia awaits, too. The markets of Bali and Borneo. The Vietnamese coastline, Singapore and Thailand. The Indian Ocean will be next, Sri Lanka and the Maldives before we head up into the Mediterranean and prepare ourselves for our final crossing: the North Atlantic.
Of course all this will take us several years. If we 'rush' perhaps we could do it in just three, but as we're in no hurry six to seven years seems a more realistic timeline, especially when you consider how long it has taken us to come this far.
So we're in the early stages of preparation - finding new courtesy flags, unfolding pristine charts and researching cruising guide books. It's exciting - preparing to embark on the second half of our world circumnavigation.
Of course, we have been know to change our minds, after-all we're sending this entry from New Zealand, a country that, when we left America in 2007, we had absolutely no intention of visiting even once (this is our third stay here). So I guess that it's remotely possible that our plans could change again. But for now, at least, we've never been more certain. |
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