J&H

Port Moselle Marina, Noumea After 700 nm sailed in 4 days 7 hours from Fiji, Dragonfly tied up in the marina in downtown Noumea, New Caledonia. The passage was a bit rough at times, peak winds of 30 knots giving us some beam seas of 3m causing Dragonfly to roll through 40 degrees in 6

Momi Bay, Viti Levu Island, Fiji The motor stops. We nod at one another. Leaning back, we drop below the surface and are immediately immersed in the underwater realm of Fiji reef life. As we snorkel along, dinghy in tow, we’re greeted by a school of drop-jaw mackerels who number in the hundreds. They swim

“Blue Lagoon”, Nanuya Island, Fiji For all those concerned, we have adjusted well to the rough rigors of life back in the tropics. Our reality for most of the last 20 years as cruising sailors, we are definitely enjoying being back. Our last time in Fiji was 12 years ago. Supposedly you can’t go home

Vuda Point, Viti Levu Isl, Fiji Edit gallery It’s hard to imagine a more welcoming arrival than the song and dance performance we received upon our arrival on the customs dock here at Vuda Point. Smiles and “Bulas!!” abounded. (“Bula” is Fijian for “welcome, hello, greetings”, etc, typically spoken as a whole body expression –

North Minerva Reef, 427 nm to Fiji For the past 11 days we have been anchored inside the lagoons of both South and North Minerva Reefs. These mid ocean atolls lie 20 miles apart and rise from the deep ocean, barely showing themselves at low tide. Not surprisingly they have wound up claiming their share

South Minerva Reef, 400 nm from the closest land in the South Pacific Reef Ho! 801 nm, 5 days and 1 hour after departing New Zealand, we put the hook down in the beautiful gin clear waters of the reef lagoon at S Minerva. A special corner of the South Pacific, together with North Minerva

Marsden Cove Marina, New Zealand We’ve checked out of the country, filled with diesel and thrown off the dock lines. Arriving back in Whangarei only a week ago , we were thrilled to get a weather window to sail to Fiji so soon. Not ones to take anything mother nature offers for granted, we made

Whangarei Town Basin Marina, New Zealand Turns out our last post was very prophetic, since one week later we were alerted to the news that a Category 3 hurricane would make landfall on the north island of New Zealand as an extra-tropical cyclone. So back we headed to Opunga Cove where we had ridden out

Otaio Bay, Urupukapuka Isl It is hard to believe that 23 years ago we were in the midst of preparing for our first offshore adventure on Manu Kai. Back then we devoured every book we could find that was written by those who had circumnavigated, those who had decades of experience sailing offshore, and those

McCall, Idaho Greetings and Happy New Year! The dust has settled from our typically hectic holiday times and we finally have a moment to reflect on our peripatetic wanderings of 2025. Per the wisdom of J.R.R. Tolkien, “All who wander are not lost”. Perhaps this is our life motto. Chapters of our lives are marked