Bed Bugs
Insect infestations are the worst part of cruising. Cruising boats travel to entirely new climates where their crews are unexperienced with the native insects. And boats make better homes for all kinds of infestations than houses do. Between these two factors most cruisers battle some sort of infestation. We have two pieces of advice. First, […]
Close Encounters
We had a close encounter with a pod of bottlenose dolphins at Roberton Island, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
1,011 days off grid
Scream last plugged into grid power in El Salvador in May 2009. Since then we have lived on a tiny electricity budget and dealt with all kinds of adversity. We have a few insights to share. Scream has 390 watts of solar panels, which works out to 1 KWh per day as an annual average. […]
Tauranga
Scream spent eleven days in Tauranga. While in Tauranga we enjoyed ourselves. We visited Mount Manganui and watched SuperRugby in person. We also sailed on land in blokarts, which was fantastic. We stayed at the Tauranga Bridge Marina. The marina staff are great and their rates are very competitive. There is a nice cafe and restaurant. Unfortunately […]
Rounding Cape Colville
Thanks to some less than accurate assistance from Metservice, Scream encountered all sorts of annoyances rounding Cape Colville. Cape Colville poses a challenge that many cruising sailors will find novel. The tide runs at a couple knots between Cape Colville and Great Barrier Island. As every sailor from Alaska to Seattle knows well, this causes […]
Great Barrier Island
Scream spent two nervous weeks in the wonderful sheltered harbours of Great Barrier, or Aotea, Island. Port Fitzroy is a magnificent harbour. It has two narrow and protected enterances, leading to a large harbour. Port Fitzroy harbour is almost four miles north to south with an average width of almost half a mile. There are […]
Provisioning for Fiji
The adage goes: "People eat everywhere. So you can always find food in inhabited places." While this is true, people eat differently in different places because different things are available. In Fiji the following are readily available in large towns: Bread, flour Pasta, ramen Canned meat Fish in all forms The selection of fresh fruit […]
Pier 21
Scream spent a week tied up at Pier 21 marina in Auckland. We needed to pull into a dock to get mail and provisions, and we decided that we might as well come into Auckland and have a good time. Pier 21 is wonderful. It is the best located and best priced marina in Auckland […]
Tiritiri Matangi
Scream made a brief stop at Tiritiri Matangi, an island sanctuary in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf. The island itself is a delight. We landed on Hobb's beach and walked the Kawerau track, after making the mistake of walking up cable road first. (Kawerau track leaves the beach 5m north of the washroom, not alongside the […]
Propspeed
In 2010, we had a lot of trouble with barnacles growing on Scream's propeller. We cleaned Scream's bottom about once a month, and every time we spent fifteen minutes knocking barnacles off of the propeller with a chisel. So we decided the try propspeed. Propspeed goes on with a spray gun and hardens to a […]