For Want of a Windlass!
Monday, May 9th – After several beautiful blue sky with puffy white cloud days, today is overcast. Our plans to leave the Bay of Islands to anchor below the villa [...]
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Flower Pots and Toadstools
Our world is a very noisy place! So used to its constant hum, that fact had never entered The First Mate’s consciousness until we moved to Telluride in 1999. For three mont [...]
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A Fine Introduction to the Lau Group
The Lau Archipelago is listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 12 Most Beautiful Places in the World, and that is where Avante is headed this morning. The islands are pr [...]
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The Gift of Selective Memory
Saturday, April 23 – The Captain returns from the Copra Shed Marina office fuming. He had gone there to pay our bill prior to departure and was asked, quite noncha [...]
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And They Say We’ll Have Some Fun When It Stops Raining
The lyrics of a song keep running through The First Mate’s mind. Hello Muddah: Hello Faddah: &nb [...]
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Initial Take on Tropical Cyclone Winston
On Saturday, February 20, 2016, Tropical Cyclone Winston roared over Fiji. By the time it made landfall, it was a killer Category 5 storm, the worst one to have ever hit Fiji [...]
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Passage to Fiji
It can truthfully be said that many blue water cruisers do not like ocean passages. The First Mate ranks with that crowd. In fact, she immensely does not lik [...]
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Hike to Cape Brett Lighthouse
Ever since we first anchored in Whangamumu Harbour below the old whaling station in 2010 and discovered that there was a trail leading out to the lighthouse on Cape Brett, we [...]
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A Night of Terror!
An oft repeated question we are asked is “what is the scariest thing that has happened to you on Avante?” We do not know why this is, but almost all of our most threaten [...]
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Pipis and Cockles, Alive, Alive-O!
We have a little more than 2 weeks of cruising left before our flight back to the States on March 1st. Four of those days will be given over to boat clean-up and s [...]