South Pacific Ocean
Day One
Day one of being homeless: we moved into a local Airbnb for a couple of days. The first thing to note was the extraordinarily large amount of space. Normally, we are always near each other on the boat. Today, we can sit across the room and be far enough away not to touch. The TV […]
Cream Puff is Sold
Wow… right! Big news. Cream Puff is officially sold. This means we’re officially homeless. Nope, we do not have a home anywhere. Challenge on. We’ve owned our Amel since 15th July 2011, some fifteen years ago. For the past twelve years, Cream Puff hasn’t just been our boat. She’s been our home. Selling her wasn’t […]
My Most Stressful Day On SV Cream Puff
I had this post written a while ago. Like, 9 years ago. It was put on the back burner behind more fun posts and forgotten. Recently, the question was again raised to us as we are celebrating 12 years of full-time cruising and 15 years owning SV Cream Puff. It reminded me of this unpublished […]
Back in New Caledonia – Round 3
We are back in the land of fresh croissants and baguettes. When we arrived, our agent, Clementine, asked about our stay in Australia. We told her how much we loved it there. As the conversation progressed, she told us how, in her earlier days, she lived there and worked for a year. A lot of […]
Adios, Ciao, Bye Bye
When Cindy and I first started on this wacky adventure, we both hoped that one day we’d pull into a port and think to ourselves, we should make this home. This happened after 11 years of sailing and landing in Australia. But alas, Australia has zero programs that provide a path to citizenship for retired […]
Back in New Caledonia
We are in the wonderful French territory known as New Caledonia. Like most of the islands in the South Pacific, New Caledonia was named in 1774 by Captain James Cook when he sailed past. The landscape reminded him of the Scottish Highlands, so he borrowed the name. Caledonia was the Latin name the Romans used […]
Loving New Caledonia
Unlike most islands we’ve visited so far in the South Pacific, New Caledonia has a large boating population. The marina we call home at the moment is massive and 99% of the boats here are owned by locals. And, this is just one of many marinas. What does this mean for us? The short answer […]
We’re in New Caledonia
After the last post, I think I need to make sure this one is slightly more upbeat. We happily put Fiji in the rearview mirror and made our way to New Caledonia. This is a French Island. Lately, there has been a lot of civil unrest here due to a minor group pushing for independence. More […]
Violated in Savusavu
As you read this, I will ask you to keep in mind that we are always very polite and accommodating to officials. We understand they have a job to do and we are respectful of their job. During our almost 10 years of full-time cruising and in our previous part-time sailing life, we have […]
Birthdays on the Ocean
I am happy to say we finally have Nawi Island in the rearview mirror. We wound up waiting for our part longer than expected. Fiji customs held up the windlass part for 9 days for no apparent reason. Cindy found a senior contact at DHL and asked them to investigate the delay. Fiji customs said […]
Frustrated in Fiji
I’m really starting to have a love/hate attitude toward Fiji. Ok, it really is tilting more toward the hate side. Our experience in Savusavu so far is definitely not up to snuff as we compare our experiences in Fiji last year at Denarau and the surrounding islands there. At this point, I can’t wait to […]
We’re Back in Fiji
We’re back in Fiji, the land of happy people (mostly). We were very pleasantly surprised to find a couple of friends who we hung out with during our last trip to Fiji and also in New Zealand. We knew they were in Fiji somewhere but to find them in the same port as us was […]
Two Cents from the Crew-New Zealand
When we first stared this adventure, I was surprised to learn that in the boater/cruising community it is common to call people by their boat name. We are no longer Mark and Cindy. We are collectively called “Cream Puff”. When we lived on land our friends knew our personalities were divergent. I find in the […]
Minerva Reef
We finally escaped the clutches of New Zealand weather. We staged the boat at Marsden Cove Marina just down the river from Whangarei, our home for the past few months. After waiting for 3 weeks, we finally had what appeared to be a decent window to head northward. Not a great window, but doable. At […]
Now What?
After our trip to the South Island, we hauled Cream Puff at a local boatyard for routine maintenance. Well, it was a little bit more than routine stuff. We decided to have all the old antifoul paint removed and start over with a fresh coat. In addition, we had a long list of other items […]
