Long Range Plans
This photo was taken on my birthday. We had a nice, relaxing day, spending part of it with some new friends who took the picture and gave me some seasickness pills as a present – what a wonderful and timely gift! (Stugeron is the best seasickness medicine out there, but is only available in the UK.) Hopefully our future sailing will all be smooth and I’ll never need them.
Savusavu has really emptied out in the few weeks we’ve been here. When we arrived all the moorings were full; now most of them are empty. It seems most of the fleet has already moved on. Many have gone to Vanuatu this year. From there boats will sail to New Zealand or Australia. Quite a few will be going up to the Marshall Islands from Fiji or Samoa. Hygelig and Skylark II are on the way up there now and will let us know of any hiccups with bureaucrats. Many countries are tightening up on entry rules and there are new regulations that came into effect from July this year. In fact, we hear Australia has gotten so difficult that some boats are bypassing it altogether. Boats can sail west from the Marshalls through Micronesia to Indonesia, which has become popular with many cruising boats. As the cruising grounds fill up, boats go further afield. Japan, Vietnam and the Philipines are all attracting yachts.
We’ve been talking to boaters who make our adventures pale by comparison. A German couple who just arrived sailed down around South America and Cape Horn. On the way up through the Pacific they stopped at Easter Island and Pitcairn. Another boater plans to sail east from New Zealand next year to Chile and then south to Patagonia and Cape Horn. It kind of gets you thinking about these great adventures. In fact, we’ve been thinking that we’d love to do the Galapagos and Marquesas again and we could follow Russ’s track and sail east from New Zealand to Chile, but then go north from there up to Ecuador and across the Pacific again. Don’t worry – this is a LONG range plan, and may never happen. But when you get out here you get caught up in the fever and anything seems possible. For now we’ll stay in the tropics. Karen
This photo was taken on my birthday. We had a nice, relaxing day, spending part of it with some new friends who took the picture and gave me some seasickness pills as a present – what a wonderful and timely gift! (Stugeron is the best seasickness medicine out there, but is only available in the UK.) Hopefully our future sailing will all be smooth and I’ll never need them.
Savusavu has really emptied out in the few weeks we’ve been here. When we arrived all the moorings were full; now most of them are empty. It seems most of the fleet has already moved on. Many have gone to Vanuatu this year. From there boats will sail to New Zealand or Australia. Quite a few will be going up to the Marshall Islands from Fiji or Samoa. Hygelig and Skylark II are on the way up there now and will let us know of any hiccups with bureaucrats. Many countries are tightening up on entry rules and there are new regulations that came into effect from July this year. In fact, we hear Australia has gotten so difficult that some boats are bypassing it altogether. Boats can sail west from the Marshalls through Micronesia to Indonesia, which has become popular with many cruising boats. As the cruising grounds fill up, boats go further afield. Japan, Vietnam and the Philipines are all attracting yachts.
We’ve been talking to boaters who make our adventures pale by comparison. A German couple who just arrived sailed down around South America and Cape Horn. On the way up through the Pacific they stopped at Easter Island and Pitcairn. Another boater plans to sail east from New Zealand next year to Chile and then south to Patagonia and Cape Horn. It kind of gets you thinking about these great adventures. In fact, we’ve been thinking that we’d love to do the Galapagos and Marquesas again and we could follow Russ’s track and sail east from New Zealand to Chile, but then go north from there up to Ecuador and across the Pacific again. Don’t worry – this is a LONG range plan, and may never happen. But when you get out here you get caught up in the fever and anything seems possible. For now we’ll stay in the tropics. Karen
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