Lord Howe Island… a dream re-entry to Australia!

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:December 18, 2011
Post Category:Australia / Family / Fishing / Pacific / Sailing / Travel

In 1992, I met a girl at university from Lord Howe island – Monica’s stories and her then boyfriend’s stories of the island inspired me to make it a must visit spot. It took me 19 years to get to “THE ISLAND” as it’s affectionately called by the friendly locals. The island lived up to all of my expectations and some, it could not have been a more perfect stepping stone into Australia! - Great beaches, incredible scenery, fishing, diving, snorkeling, hiking, good food, a bowling club,…

New Caledonia… then home!

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:November 4, 2011
Post Category:Fishing / kiteboarding / New Caledonia / Pacific / Sailing / Travel

Two and a half years ago, I sailed past New Caledonia on the way to Vanuatu from Sydney. I was sailing aboard Moksha, a Hanse 540 and had just completed my first 1000 Nautical miles of cruising. All of my previous offshore experience had been on racing yachts… now, a short 30 months later, the cruising lifestyle is coming to an end right where it started. Sailing out of New Caledonia for Australia will mark the 25,000th Nautical mile of cruising – for those of you not…

Return to Blue Lagoon – the Fijian adventure continues.

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:October 13, 2011
Post Category:Fiji / Fishing / kiteboarding / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving / Travel

One of the countless things I have loved about this journey, is the rich array of crew that have made Squander home… The 25 or so Squanderers (defined as having spent at least 1 week sailing on Squander) have hailed from Australia, Russia, Spain, The Netherlands, Poland, England, America, France, Iran and Argentina. Whether they stayed 2 weeks or 14 months, each crew member has added an extra stitch or two to the complex fabric that we have weaved since starting our journey in early 2010.. Food…

Bula… Fiji turns it on!

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:September 30, 2011
Post Category:Fiji / Fishing / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving / Travel

As we approach the 1 month anniversary of our arrival in Fiji, I find myself seriously wondering if life is in fact fair? the fun times have not stopped, and despite a few reality checks here and there, we have been blessed with rewarding experiences at every turn…. so if life is fair, how will we be expected to repay all of this good fortune?…. for now we’ve put that question to the back of our minds, and are concentrating on enjoying Fiji – possibly the most…

A short stay in Vava’u, Northern Tonga

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:September 4, 2011
Post Category:Family / Fishing / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving / Travel

Writing this blog can be a real challenge sometimes… so much goes on, that it takes some serious effort to travel back in time and try and recall the multitude of experiences, emotions and events that took place in a different country, time zone and environment. One of the techniques I use, aside from the actual photos, is to look at emails that I sent to people when we’re at sea. The below excerpt of an email I sent to Rob summarizes our final 48 hours of…

Suwarrow Atoll – the underwater playground!

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:August 17, 2011
Post Category:cook islands / Family / Fishing / kiteboarding / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving

We sailed west from Bora Bora on a Wednesday morning. Our last night in French Polynesia was spent at the local Karaoke restaurant, listening to the local crowd busting out love song after love song – surprisingly entertaining!! Our initial plan was to sail to Maupihaa Atoll, followed by Palmerston island in the Central Cook islands. I looked at the weather and all signs were pointing at us changing plans and pointing Squander at the Northern Cook island of Suwarrow. It’s a destination that was 150 Nautical…

Surf’s up in the Society islands – From Tahiti to Bora Bora

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:July 20, 2011
Post Category:French Polynesia / kiteboarding / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving / Travel

Andy and I are sitting in a cafe in Bora Bora, listening to Polynesian Reggae music, catching up on emails and writing the latest installment of the blog – Elyse and Scott are pearl shopping, Squander is anchored out the front in a perfect blue lagoon, dancing around in the light trade winds - it will be difficult to say goodbye to French Polynesia after almost two months of cruising these idyllic waters. Approaching Northern Tahiti. Having left the Tuamotu archipelago we did an overnight sail from…

Tuamotu part 2 – Toau, Apataki & Secret spot

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:June 27, 2011
Post Category:Fishing / French Polynesia / kiteboarding / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving / Travel

The Tuamotu has been everything we could have imagined and more. I personally would love to spend 3-4 months exploring these amazing islands, with clear warm water, steady trade winds, an abundance of fish, seafood, deserted beaches, perfect waves, world class scuba diving, kite boarding, windsurfing, spear fishing and most of all friendly, welcoming people. Whilst still in Fakarava, our newest crew member, Moji went ashore and befriended Sophie, a French girl who had had enough of the rat race in Paris and moved to this Atoll…

Marquesas to the Tuamotu Archipelago.

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:June 9, 2011
Post Category:Fishing / French Polynesia / kiteboarding / Pacific / Sailing / scuba diving

The Marquesas are widely reported as being the most beautiful islands in the Pacific. For us they certainly represented a wonderful landfall after the long sail from the Galapagos islands, however in our hearts we knew the Tuamotu archipelago was a lot more our style. So we collectively made a decision to wrap things up in the Marquesas as fast as possible, do the necessary paperwork to clear into French Polynesia, buy as much fresh fruit and vegetables as we could and head south to the Tuamotu.…

Sailing to French Polynesia

Post Author:Gavin
Post published:May 25, 2011
Post Category:Fishing / Pacific / Sailing / Travel

We have 350 Nautical Miles to go as I begin to write this latest blog post on day 15 of our longest non stop crossing to date – 3000 Nautical miles (5,400 kms) of open ocean. By the time I finish writing and editing it, we are likely to have covered another 500 miles on what has become our trip home… back to Australia. It will also mean that we are more then half way across the Pacific. heading into town for last minute provisioning in the…