Still based at Riverside Drive Marina, Whangarei, NZ.

We have been enjoying this part of the world so much that we have concluded that an additional year would be the right choice. It gives us a chance to slow down and have much more time this year to enjoy Fiji and Vanuatu and also take in New Caledonia as we head south in October towards Australia for our escape from the annual cyclone season.

Before we started this adventure in 2005, we had planned it this way but over the past year or two we had decided to drop Australia from our itinerary.....good to have it back.....we have enjoyed OZ a lot in our time there before.

Next year, 2012, will be easier for us to reach Darwin in July to pick up the Sail Indonesia Rally; making it there this year for July was going to rush everything a lot.....and force us to do a long passage of some 2500 nm across the open ocean (almost the same distance as crossing the Atlantic) from Vanuatu to Darwin via the Torres Strait.  With the additional year, we will be able to cruise short hops northward along the Australian coast and enjoy the Coral Sea/Great Barrier Reef which would have been missed.

We expect to carry on with the plan as it has been once we reach Darwin; that takes us through Indonesia to Singapore to Malaysia and Thailand in late 2012. We would then spend a year exploring South-East/Asia by air, rail, bus, land, etc to see places where we have never been such as Vietnam, Cambodia, China, India, etc as the situation drives us.

Below you will see our revised sailing plan….providing our health and other factors continues to serve us well.

In the meantime, in between handling far too many boat projects, we continue to very much enjoy New Zealand and its most friendly people.

2011

May 1st                 Depart NZ bound for Fiji (1100 nm)

May 8th – July 15th     Cruise Fiji

July 16th – 21st        Passage to Vanuatu (604 nm)

July 22nd  – Sept 20th  Cruise Vanuatu

Sept 21st – Sept 24th   Passage to New Caledonia (400 nm)

Sept 26th – Oct 15th    Cruise New Caledonia

Oct 15th – Oct 22nd     Passage to Australia (Bundaberg or Brisbane)

Oct 22nd – Nov 15th     Sail Brisbane to Sydney (400 nm)

Nov 15th – Apr 30th     Winter base in Australia (Somewhere on East Coast between Bundaberg and Sydney) – explore OZ by land

2012

May 1st – July 15th     Cruise Sydney to Darwin (2500 nm:1750 Sydney>Torres Strait + 750 Torres>Darwin)

July 15th – July 22nd   Darwin (boat repair/prep and Visa, etc administrative aspects)

July 23rd –Oct 15th     Sail Indonesia Rally to Bintan (3000 nm Darwin to Phuket)

Oct 18th- Oct 25th      Singapore (500 nm Singapore to Phuket)

Oct 26th - ????         Cruise Malaysia and into Thailand

2013

Dec 2012 – Dec 2013     Base at Langkawi, Malaysia ….or….Phuket, Thailand

(exploring South-East Asia by land  -  Plane/Train/Bus Car)

2014

Jan 2014 – May 2014     Thailand to Mediterranean (4600 nm)

May 2014 – Nov 2014     Cruise Mediterranean to western Med for wintering there (2500 nm)

2015

Nov 2014 – April 2015   Wintering south-western med (??? Spain or Portugal or Morroco ??)

April 2015 – July 2015  Cruise North to Ipswich (1000 - 1500 nm)