Monday, March 28, 2011
Back in Canada
Hello we are home for ten days and then back down to Auckland and start our sailing again up to Fiji. We had a great time with Larry and Elaine doing some sailing and some driving around the country. I will update the information when I have some time.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
March in New Zealand
Hello, We are still in Gulf Harbour and have been busy the last two weeks with all our boat projects. The list is getting shorter but there is always something more to do.
We needed some down time after the grandsons left the boat with there parents so had a few days of doing very little. Then we caught a cold somehow and are now recovering from that. On Tuesday the 08th of March we have Larry and Elaine arriving from Vancouver for a holiday so we will be doing some sailing as well as some land based travel to see the sights. We plan to go out to Great Barrier Island for a few days then maybe do some tours of the vineyards. Its is very nice for us when our friends arrive as we can really catch up which is something that never really happens when we go home as we are so busy.
This last week or so has reinforced our decision on our sail plan for the year. It will add a year to our overall plan but with the pirate attacks on yachts in the area between India and the Red Sea an extra year may help the world to get this problem under control. All the yachties are most concerned and are all reevaluating their travel plans. We have talked to a British crew and they are shipping their boat back to Europe via the Panama Canal. Another yacht here is sending all their female crew home and are hiring mercenaries fully armed to take the boat up through the area at great expense. A number of shipping companies are adding dates where one can have there boat shipped through the Red Sea and up to the Med. These are out of Puket, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Mombi so you have a choice as to how far you want to sail. Seeing as our plans now would be to transit this area in either 2013 or 2014 we will have to wait and see if anything changes. We are not holding our breath on this changing anytime soon. Sailing back the way we came would be against the trade winds and currents so not too good. We could go north either up through Hawaii or to Japan then up to Alaska. Not what we want to do though but we will keep all options open. Any way for now we will just keep enjoying New Zealand and look forward to moving up to the islands at the end of April.
We needed some down time after the grandsons left the boat with there parents so had a few days of doing very little. Then we caught a cold somehow and are now recovering from that. On Tuesday the 08th of March we have Larry and Elaine arriving from Vancouver for a holiday so we will be doing some sailing as well as some land based travel to see the sights. We plan to go out to Great Barrier Island for a few days then maybe do some tours of the vineyards. Its is very nice for us when our friends arrive as we can really catch up which is something that never really happens when we go home as we are so busy.
This last week or so has reinforced our decision on our sail plan for the year. It will add a year to our overall plan but with the pirate attacks on yachts in the area between India and the Red Sea an extra year may help the world to get this problem under control. All the yachties are most concerned and are all reevaluating their travel plans. We have talked to a British crew and they are shipping their boat back to Europe via the Panama Canal. Another yacht here is sending all their female crew home and are hiring mercenaries fully armed to take the boat up through the area at great expense. A number of shipping companies are adding dates where one can have there boat shipped through the Red Sea and up to the Med. These are out of Puket, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Mombi so you have a choice as to how far you want to sail. Seeing as our plans now would be to transit this area in either 2013 or 2014 we will have to wait and see if anything changes. We are not holding our breath on this changing anytime soon. Sailing back the way we came would be against the trade winds and currents so not too good. We could go north either up through Hawaii or to Japan then up to Alaska. Not what we want to do though but we will keep all options open. Any way for now we will just keep enjoying New Zealand and look forward to moving up to the islands at the end of April.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
