Circumnavigation

Our passage to Australia (with a stopover in New Caledonia) and brief stay in Brisbane as we prepared for a visit home — September 19 through October 11, 2023 (subtitle: 8 months, 10,600 miles and endless memories — mostly good!)

Greetings from Australia! We made it! 8 months and approximately 9,200 nautical miles. For those curious, each nautical mile is about 1.15 miles so we covered a distance of about 10,600 miles and all at an average speed of approximately 6.5 knots (or 7.5 miles, about the speed of an Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to and cruise around Vanuatu — September 2 through Sep 18, 2023 (subtitle: a magical visit punctuated by a cultural immersion, an explosive volcano — up close and in person — and the great dinghy debacle.)

We departed for our 450 nautical mile sail From Musket Cove, Fiji to Port Resolution, Tana, Vanuatu at 11:00 AM on September 2 as planned. Consistent with the forecast, the winds were light, and right on our nose, at the start of our sail but we had just enough wind Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to and cruise around Fiji — August 2 through Sep 2, 2023 (subtitle: If, as the expression goes, “bad things happen in threes,” we think we are done now! or Diving among underwater psychedelic mushrooms, metaphorically speaking, definitely cures what ails you.)

After an amazing (albeit cold, soggy and windy) anniversary we woke up to more rain, wind and cold on August 2. Ready or not, it was time to move on to Fiji. The rally organizers had arranged a special clearance process for us between August 3 and 8 in the Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to and cruise around Tonga — July 6 through August 2, 2023 (subtitle: Circumnavigating on a sailboat is a little like that girl who had a curl in the middle of her forehead. When it is good it is very, very good and when it is bad it is horrid.)

Do you remember that nursery rhyme about the girl with the curl? It went like this: There was once a girl who had a curl in the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid. That pretty Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to and cruise around Niue — June 26 through July 6, 2023 (subtitle: Sometimes life on a boat is like a sitcom — you can’t make the crazy stuff up but it always comes together in the end.)

When we left off in our last blog entry we had just completed our tour around the Society Islands with our last stop in Bora Bora. There we enjoyed a 2 tank dive and some snorkeling but our visit was mostly about getting ready for our first significant passage in Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to and cruise around the Tuamotus — May 15, 2023 through June 2, 2023 (subtitle: A visit to a true diving and snorkeling paradise, just watch out for the tiger sharks! Just kidding, sort of.)

We sadly left the dramatic Marquesas Islands at 6:00 AM on May 15. Destination: Fakarava in the Tuamotus. As we mentioned in our last blog post, the Tuamotus are one of the five archipelagoes in French Polynesia. They are comprised of just under 80 islands and atolls and cover a Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our cruise around the Marquesas Islands — May 1, 2023 through May 15, 2023 (subtitle: Enjoying a plethora of lush volcanic islands — in between boat projects — in a remote part of the world)

We arrived in Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands on May 1, 2023. As we mentioned at the end of our last blog entry, Hiva Oa is the entry point to French Polynesia when traveling from East to West. French Polynesia is comprised of 130 islands in five archipelagoes: the Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our passage to the Marquesas Islands — April 12, 2023 through May 1, 2023 (subtitle: The “easy” downwind sailing may be hyperbole but we’ve decided we like these long passages — flying fish intruders, bruises and other mishaps, notwithstanding)

We just completed our 19 day, ~3,000 nautical mile, passage from the Galápagos Islands to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands. Our longest passage ever! (Hooray for us!) Rather than give you a day-to-day account of a nearly 3 week sail, at a high level we’d sum up the experience Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our cruise to the Galápagos Islands — March 22, 2023 through March 28, 2023 (subtitle: The things that don’t keep you up at night but apparently should!)

After an insanely busy 10 days getting ready for our Panama Canal transit, our visit to the Galápagos Islands and our ~3,000 nautical mile passage to the Marquesas, we were very excited to begin our next passage. The sail to the Galápagos Islands from the Las Perlas Islands is about Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Prepping for our Panama Canal transit and our visit to the Galápagos Islands, transiting the Canal and visiting the beautiful Las Perlas Islands — March 11, 2023 through March 22, 2023 (subtitle: So much to do and so little time!)

Greeting from the Pacific Ocean! We made it. When we published our last blog entry on March 11 we had just arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on the Colon side of the Canal. As you know, Colon is the East entry and exit point for transit through the Panama Canal. Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

Our cruise around the magnificent San Blas Islands and passage to Colon, Panama — March 3, 2023 through March 11, 2023 (subtitle: Oh can’t we staaaay just a little bit longer 🎶)

As you all know by now, we arrived in the San Blas Islands totally exhausted after a short, but really sporty, 2 day sail from Santa Marta, Columbia. The crew of Che Figata had very little sleep during those 2 days and the mood was less than festive even as Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago

A brief but awesome stay in Santa Marta, Columbia followed by a brief, but not so awesome, sail to the San Blas Islands — February 23, 2023 through March 3, 2023 (subtitle: we are loving the travel but the sailing, not so much)

When we published our last blog entry we had just arrived in Santa Marta, Columbia after a very sporty 5 day sail. (Well it is was about 3 hours shy of a full five days for those who followed our sail via our tracker). After cleaning Che Figata from stem Read more…

By Jillhummel, ago