Sailing to New Zealand: Pre-Departure & Arrival Guide for Foreign Yachts
This checklist is designed to help streamline the foreign yacht clearance process in New Zealand, based on our firsthand experience in September 2025.…
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Cruising Tonga: A Sailor’s Guide to Port Logistics, Provisioning, and Yacht Resources
This guide is designed to help sailors navigate the logistics of cruising in Tonga: from checking in and out, to provisioning, refueling, and more. It’s based on our firsthand experience visiting in 2025.…
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Sailing from Tonga to New Zealand— We did it!
It was a whirlwind of discomfort: enduring bone-chilling temperatures at the helm overnight, battling difficult and rapidly changing conditions, and wrestling with the constant underlying fear that we were making the wrong decision… (read more)…
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Responding to a Tsunami Warning at Anchor: Lessons from Tonga, July 2025
In this post, we detail the timeline and decision-making process we experienced aboard our sailboat in Tonga during the July 2025 tsunami warning… (read more)…
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One Step Closer…
Ray warned me that the boat could get jostled if the whale decided to nudge us, and “I just need you not to fall overboard, Holly.” 😂 What an incredible moment! The whale slowly swam around our bow, eventually disappearing into the darkness… (read more)…
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Life is Good in Vava’u
Although it was spectacular to witness, there can be negative environmental implications, like disrupting marine food chains and clogging intakes for cooling systems in… (read more)…
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Exploring Tonga: Niuatoputapu and Vava’u
The sea state began to calm down the following morning. As the wind died, we dropped the sails and started our engines. A pod of dolphins paid us a quick visit as we motored between the islands… (read more)…
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Day 10: We’ve Arrived in Tonga!
As the sun began to rise, I realized one of our lazy jacks had become disconnected and was dangling below the boom. If we needed to drop the sail or reef again in these conditions, we’d risk the mainsail… (read more)…
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Day 9: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
This evening's sunset was partially blocked by thick grey clouds, but it might be the last one of this passage. We have about 100 miles to go, so we should make landfall… (read more)…
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