MOONBEAM: Circumnavigation 2013 - 2015

MOONBEAM INFO

Who: Capt Ken and Lil Bardon
Port: Marco Island, FL, USA

Current Position

SAILING SCHEDULE 2015

FEB-MAR - Thailand, get boat ready for shipping to the Med

APR - boat in Marmaris, Turkey

MAY - sail from Turkey to Crete

JUNE - sail the Greek Isles, thru the Corinth Canal and up the Adriatic

JUL-OCT - Croatia, Italy, France, Monaco, Spain, Gibraltar

OCT-NOV - cross the Atlantic to BVI’s

NOV - Thanksgiving in the BVI’s

DEC - ?????
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SAILING SCHEDULE 2014

EARLY APRIL: depart New Zealand for Brisbane, Australia

MID APRIL - EARLY JULY cruise North towards Cairns along the Great Barrier Reef

JULY - OCTOBER cruise islands of Indonesia to Bali

MID OCTOBER - NOVEMBER sail from Bali to Thailand with a stop on Singapore

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SAILING 2013

JAN 13 - depart Marco Island for Panama

MAR 11 - Panama - Marquesas

LATE APR - Marquesas - Tahiti

MID MAY - Cruise Pacific Islands

MID JUN/JUL/AUG - Tahiti - Fiji via Cook, Samoa, Tonga Islands

MID AUG - Cruise Fiji Islands

MID SEPT - Fiji - New Zealand

OCT INTO 2014 - Moonbeam in New Zealand
29 December 2015 | MARCO ISLAND
13 December 2015 | MARCO ISLAND, FLORIDA
11 December 2015 | KEY WEST, FLORIDA. USA (YEAH)
11 December 2015 | KEYWEST, FL
10 December 2015 | APPROACHING KEY WEST
08 December 2015 | SAILING THE NORTH COAST OF CUBA
07 December 2015 | APPROACHING THE EAST END OF CUBA
05 December 2015 | LEAVING LUPERON, DR
03 December 2015 | APPROACHING PUERTO PLATA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
01 December 2015 | ROAD TOWN, BVI
30 November 2015 | ROAD TOWN, TORTOLA, BVI
27 November 2015 | LEVERICK BAY, VIRGIN GORDA
23 November 2015 | 18 30'N:64 23'W, VIRGIN GORDA. BVI'S
21 November 2015 | 18 36'N:62 59'W, 75 MILES TO VIRGIN GORDA
20 November 2015 | 18 34'N:60 23'W, 220 MILES TO VIRGIN GORDA
19 November 2015 | 18 28'N:57 35'W, APPROACHING THE ISLANDS
18 November 2015 | 18 32'N:54 43'W, APPROACHING THE ISLANDS
16 November 2015 | 18 44'N:49 54'W, APPROACHING THE ISLANDS
15 November 2015 | 18 24'N:47 06'W, APPROACHING THE ISLANDS
14 November 2015 | 18 15'N:44 26'W, SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

NO DEVIL IN THIS DEEP BLUE SEA

23 September 2014 | 08 36'S:119 31'E, BATU BOLONG, INDONESIA
LIL - PICTURE BY MICHEL OF MAUS KATI
We're finally back in a wi-fi zone, so you are getting 'BOGO'...buy one update, get one free.

One of the items on our 'what I want to do on our summer vacation' list is diving, but for many reasons it hasn't happened until now. As it turns out, while diving is BIG in Indonesia, the best diving is in the Komodo area..and, that's where we are...so dive we did! The company with whom we booked is Manta Rhei Divers, and, they are excellent: very professional, state of the art equipment, and very well organized. The dive boats (from all companies) are all a little shaky looking, but ours did the job just fine. Yes, we did have to move from side to side while in transit to balance it, but that was a minor point. One of the big assets of this company was the plethora (I always like that word) of boat boys, always there to lend a hand and be helpful, whether for helping us on with our equipment, getting us back on the boat after the dive, or just serving us food and drink. We were on the boat for a 3 dive day. The price included breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack, as well as rental of all equipment. The food was excellent: Benny, the owner of the company owned a restaurant in Belgium for 17 years. His beef stew was superb. (For a price, I'll reveal his secret ingredient.)

The reefs here are, unlike most that we've seen in other dive sights, pristine. No dead coral! Everywhere you look, left, right, up and down, there is an intense display of gorgeous colors, not to mention fish, fish, fish...(yep, a plethora). We saw huge turtles, a white-tipped shark, trevalley, moray eels, scorpion fish, lion fish, the usual reef fish (angel fish, wrasses, etc) and, our farewell surprise, a bandit sea snake which slithered right in front of us. Some dive sights boast their coral; some take pride in their fish. Komodo has both. The dive masters were superb. Our buddy, Don, had never dived before, but Benny, the owner took him under his wing, hung with him one-on-one, and now Don is getting certified this week, and will be outfitting himself in Bali, which reputedly has excellent (American) equipment which just happens to be made in Indonesia, at great prices. Who knew!

You probably would have preferred to see a pic of the coral or fish instead of us lovelies but...we don't have an underwater camera...and a friend gave us this photo. It was the best we could do. His other pictures were all videos.
Comments
Vessel Name: Moonbeam
Vessel Make/Model: Island Packet 485
Hailing Port: Marco Island, FL, USA
Crew: Capt Ken and Lil Bardon
Moonbeam's Photos - Main
April 2015
23 Photos
Created 26 April 2015
8 Photos
Created 2 December 2012

MOONBEAM INFO

Who: Capt Ken and Lil Bardon
Port: Marco Island, FL, USA

Current Position

SAILING SCHEDULE 2015

FEB-MAR - Thailand, get boat ready for shipping to the Med

APR - boat in Marmaris, Turkey

MAY - sail from Turkey to Crete

JUNE - sail the Greek Isles, thru the Corinth Canal and up the Adriatic

JUL-OCT - Croatia, Italy, France, Monaco, Spain, Gibraltar

OCT-NOV - cross the Atlantic to BVI’s

NOV - Thanksgiving in the BVI’s

DEC - ?????
___________________________________

SAILING SCHEDULE 2014

EARLY APRIL: depart New Zealand for Brisbane, Australia

MID APRIL - EARLY JULY cruise North towards Cairns along the Great Barrier Reef

JULY - OCTOBER cruise islands of Indonesia to Bali

MID OCTOBER - NOVEMBER sail from Bali to Thailand with a stop on Singapore

___________________________________

SAILING 2013

JAN 13 - depart Marco Island for Panama

MAR 11 - Panama - Marquesas

LATE APR - Marquesas - Tahiti

MID MAY - Cruise Pacific Islands

MID JUN/JUL/AUG - Tahiti - Fiji via Cook, Samoa, Tonga Islands

MID AUG - Cruise Fiji Islands

MID SEPT - Fiji - New Zealand

OCT INTO 2014 - Moonbeam in New Zealand