Learning
The cruising community made me a better and happier person
Community is important for my happiness. There have been times in my life when I didn't know my neighbours and a helping hand was far away. I think that a lot of people who live in cities feel that way. Too many people get mixed up in cults and other nonsense in their search for […]
Why is Wellington not windy?
One of the challenges of being a cruiser is understanding that because places differ with time, your experience of them may not be representative. It is hard not to form a negative opinion of an anchorage if the weather was lousy for the only night that you were only there. You can understand that it […]
Tilley Hats
I have been wearing a Tilley hat since before we started cruising. I wore my hat many hundreds of times in lots of difficult circumstances, like our Gallapagos shipwreck. My hat repeatedly was soaked in salt water and worn in harsh UV light. Recently I was in Victoria and was able to collect on the […]
Cruising Budget 2011-2012
Many people dream of sailing away to the tropics. One of the things that stops many of them are concerns about the costs. We have been tracking our expenses during the four years since we sailed away from Canada in hopes of informing and enabling others. Scream is a 45 foot sail boat with a […]
Electrical Warrant of Fitness
Every thing that is connected to the electrical grid in New Zealand, be it a building or a yacht, needs an electrical warrant of fitness. On the face of it, this is a good idea. I'm all for safety first. Like many things, the grand idea was lost in the implementation. Electricity supply in New […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Passage from Fiji to New Zealand
Scream spent eleven days sailing from Savusavu in Fiji to Opua in New Zealand. We spent several weeks before we departed looking for favourable weather for the passage. We wanted to leave when the weather systems were weak, with little difference between the central pressures of the local highs and lows. We departed with a […]