I’ve got some exciting news to share! On Monday this week I purchased a company called Island Cruising NZ. It is a business that has been around since the 1980’s and was formed to help encourage New Zealand sailors to head up to Tonga. Since then it has grown to run rallies all over the…
If you’ve ever spent any time on a boat in rough conditions then you’ll probably understand what feeling seasick is all about. First you might start feeling a bit hot and uncomfortable, you get a funny sensation in your mouth, that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach, you start turning green and clammy,…
Since starting this blog a few years ago now, the way I write my blog posts has changed significantly. Initially it was a place for me to store my Ocean Yachtmaster study notes, but as the number of people who follow the blog has grown, I find my writing has changed too. I have even…
As you may recall from my last post, we have entered in the Two Handed Round North Island Yacht Race in 2020, a race held once every three years. This race commenced in 1977, being put together by Sir Peter Blake. It is not for the faint hearted and is an epic challenge/adventure race…
If you are a follower on Facebook, you may have noticed a certain “VM2 Racing” suffix recently being added to the Astrolabe Sailing Facebook page. Well that is because my friend Victoria Murdoch has recently purchased a new yacht called High Voltage, and she has talked me in to doing the Round North Island two…
When the alarm went off at 4.30am, I realised that staying up partying on the boat until 1.30am means you don’t get enough sleep to feel refreshed and ready to go. Will we ever learn? Still it had been a fun impromptu evening which had started with a flight delay in Christchurch, meaning we’d had…
A wee trip down memory lane! An article I wrote for the Naval Point Club Lyttelton newsletter about the annual legendary Pigeon Bay Race way back in 2007… Ahhh what a lot of fun adventures we’ve had over the years.
Most people these days are very conscious of the huge volume of plastics floating around in our oceans and the impact this is having on the fish and mammals that live in the Ocean and the planet as a whole. Here in New Zealand we are undergoing an anti-plastic revolution. Things like straws and plastic…
Crossing the Auckland Harbour bridge in our taxi, seeing the ocean glittering below and the horizon pierced by hundreds of masts escaping the confines of their berths and heading out to sea for an Easter adventure. It is easy to see why Auckland has the nick-name “City of Sails”, and we were about to join them.…
Have you ever been at a function and you walk around having polite boring conversations with strangers about the weather, until you FINALLY find the one person in the room who has a boat? You breathe a sigh of relief, and spend the rest of the night chatting to them sharing stories of adventures on…
Astrolabe Sailing 