Sailing Taurus NZ
Living aboard a yacht and cruising full time.
Category: Uncategorized
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Before leaving Amedee Island we had an opportunity to catch up with Rob and Kim from Sweet As, who we had last met at the Blue Lagoon Cave in the Ysawa islands in Fiji. Together with Karen and Dean from Run to Paradise, an Australian couple returning home after cruising in Japan and Alaska, we…
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New Caledonia has a land area of 18,575 km2 and a population of approximately 270,000. The indigenous ‘Kanak’ people make up about 41% of this total with the remainder made up of the Caldoche (Europeans born in New Caledonia), the Zoreille (those who have emigrated from metropolitan France), and non-Kanak Polynesians who make up about 10%. The Kanaks speak 28…
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Having sailed so far north to catch up with our friend Ralph on Jemellie, we needed to retrace our steps or face the difficult task of sailing due south to New Caledonia in an area of prevailing south easterly winds. Yachts of course can’t sail into the wind, or indeed roughly forty-five degrees either side…
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We left Upongkor at 5pm for the 80 nautical mile sail to Port Vila. A 15 knot sou’ easterly was predicted and we estimated the trip would take roughly 16 hours, meaning a 9am arrival. However, as the saying goes, “man proposes and God disposes.’ We motored away from the anchorage, raising the sails as…
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Having cleared Vanuatuan Customs we were free to explore. Vanuatu is a chain of 13 large and 70 smaller islands. Tanna, the island we had arrived at, is not quite the most southerly of these islands. The country has an interesting, if somewhat bleak history. Archaeologists believe the islands to have been inhabited since around…
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Sailing, and by extension cruising, is an activity self regulated, to some extent, by the wisdom and dire warnings of a legion of sayings, proverbs, and aphorisms. One of these maintains that ‘the most dangerous thing to have on a boat is a schedule.’ This alludes to the view that the safe sailor only sails…
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After a bit of a nervous sail from Vuda, waiting to see what the mast would tell us we had done poorly or forgotten to do, we anchored in a familiar spot off Denarau. We had returned so that we could catch up with our friend Eugeni, who we might not see again for some…
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With Christine, Cara’s mum, visiting, our cruising experienced a change of tempo. Wanting to take Christine out on Taurus we sailed to Mala Mala Island, an island resort which we could visit for $30 a head. The price was pretty reasonable as it meant that we could use the resort’s facilities. The snorkelling around the…
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We left Kia Island with a nice easterly breeze that allowed us to sail for most of the morning. Alas, later in the afternoon the breeze slowly died away and we ended up motoring in very hot and humid conditions. During this time we were joined by one of the largest pods of dolphins we…
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After three days anchored off Also Island, two of which we were confined to the boat because of the weather, we had a window to move on. Rather than try what seemed a fairly sketchy entrance through a shallow reef we backtracked and left via the same reef we had entered by. It was a…
Sailing Taurus NZ 