We don’t get much fog around these parts, well only occasionally anyway. So you can imagine our surprise (and panic) when we woke up to thick fog on our recent delivery trip down the coast of the South Island. It is quite eerie not being able to see anything further than a boat length ahead…
So I was pootling along through Corsair Bay in my famous dinghy last night, minding my own business when suddenly I was attacked!
We love a good raft up! Kids clambering from boat to boat, adults congregating on one boat or another for pre-dinner drinks, and after dinner parties. For us a raft up reminds us of good times with great friends. On our recent holiday our record was eight boats one night all rafted up together, and after…
I have recently developed an allergy to marina’s… Wildwood normally lives on a mooring in lovely Corsair Bay. Aside from getting a bit shallow in very low tides, and not giving any shelter in a dreaded Southerly storm, Corsair Bay is a lovely place to keep your boat. However if you decide to head up…
We saw some crazy boating manoeuvres over our summer holidays in the Marlborough Sounds. It seems that many people really have no idea what they are doing when they get behind the wheel of their boat and set out for adventures on the water! However even if you cockily think you are an expert, accidents…
Christmas time is summertime here in New Zealand, and with the kids being on summer school holidays and the statutory holidays over Christmas & New Year, this time of the year means you can take a few weeks break without using up all your annual leave. As such, pretty much the whole country goes on…
We have just had a wonderful holiday on board Wildwood in the Marlborough Sounds. We had fantastic weather and lots of fun times with our great friends. However all good things come to an end, the holidays were almost over and we now have a year of work (interspersed with lots of adventures) ahead of…
Sailors are a superstitious bunch. In fact I think if you followed all the various different sailing superstitions, then it would be quite hard to actually sail anywhere any time! Perhaps it is easier for sailors to blame bad weather, breakages or losing a race on bad luck borne out of some superstitious behavior, than…
It seems that creating a more minimalistic lifestyle is all the rage these days. Even people who aren’t planning on living on a boat are seeing the benefits of downsizing, getting rid of the clutter in their lives, purchasing experiences instead of material things. Everywhere I look there are articles about how to spring clean…
This time last week we were somewhere off the Kaikoura Peninsula sailing from Lyttelton to Waikawa. I wrote about our Passage Plan last week. The weather was good, so us and some other boats – Natural Magic, Flying Machine and Jive Talkin were ready for our 180 nautical mile voyage north for the holidays. The…
Astrolabe Sailing 