The six months we have explored New Zealand have been fantastic. Separate posts with photos and videos will be added to detail where we went and what we did. We have been so busy both traveling and then getting the boat ready to sail that I have not had time to work on the blog. But now that we are heading back to the tropics I hope to work on the blog at a leisurely pace.

We are going to miss all of the friends we have made in New Zealand and the cruisers we have met along the way that we may not see again. Many thanks to Dan on Vagabond and his daughter Lindsay for the many wonderful experiences we had together. And thanks to the members of the Southern Cross Blues Band, Chris from Family Circus on bass with wife Sayo on vocals, Frans from Wind Sang on rhythm guitar, blues harp, drums, and vocals, Karl from Sky Blue Eyes on keyboards, and Grant from Spill the Wine on drums and guitar. We had a blast playing at the Bon Voyage party put on by Jill, Clay, and Briley from Me Too. There was a large turn out from nations all around the world. Thanks to Tony from Mandalay for sharing his extensive sailing experiences. We have also had some great jam sessions with Karl and Julie from Sky Blue Eyes, Chris and Nancy from Spill the Wine, and Jeff and Katie from Mezzaluna. And thanks to Trevor and Kimi on Slow Flight for the great dinners and get-togethers.

But now we are on the high seas about 150 nm northeast of New Zealand and just turning onto the rhumb line for Vuda Point, Fiji. So far the winds have been light and from behind, so we have been mostly motoring on bumpy seas. We hope to find good wind and calmer seas soon. We have two 22 year old "hitchhikers" from France helping Phil and me crew. Cam is a French chef who prepared and froze all of our dinners before we left, and Agustin is a cabinet maker who has already built us two custom cabinets in the aft cabin since we have jettisoned the washer/dryer that we never used and got new lead-crystal house batteries which are much smaller that out previous lead-acid batteries. So we are hoping for a fun and relaxing cruise to Fiji.

More to come once we reach Vuda Point. See you then!