Here is where we are: Date: 10/18/2015 1:45 PM NZT Latitude: 27 12'S Longitude:158 32'E Course: 232T Speed: 7 Wind Speed: 18kts

Good afternoon all... We are doing great on Huck, and sailing right along nicely. Currently, we are less than 300nm off the coast of Australia and heading on a Southwesterly direction towards Newcastle. We are hoping to arrive in Newcastle on the afternoon of Oct 21st (Local time). Will have to see what the winds and currents bring, but it should be all good. No real news to report from our end, just more great food, fun, and sailing! ;-)

We'll try a blog post for the first time in a long, long time. Currently out to sea, on our way from Noumea, New Caledonia to Newcastle, Australia. We knew the weather would be up as we left New Cal, and it has been. It's been great for sailing speed, but a little rough. No biggie, as we are making great time to Australia so far. We have Brett and Jennifer on board with us, so it's been great splitting the duties and watch shifts. Heidi and Jenn have been cooking up a storm. As always, we're eating like kings on board SV Huck. Hopefully, this post will copy over to our FB page as well. If not, we'll post it there later on. Cheers everyone!

Huck arrived in Fiji just over a week ago, after a fairly uneventful passage from New Zealand. We checked in on May 26th in Lautoka Fiji. Super easy checkin process, as we had arrived late in the afternoon, and a few of the Officials were less than excited about coming out to the boat. We only had Bio Security come out, and they were super friendly. Quick and easy!

After checking in, we spent the night in Lautoka anchorage. No biggy! Next morning we hauled anchor and headed over to Denerau for a little reprovisioning, and a fresh water wash down. Much needed after 9 days at sea. We stayed two nights, then headed out to Musket Cove. One of our favorite places to while away the days. We have a mooring ball, and will use this as our home base for the time being. It's easy living here, and it's also easy to head to Denarau/Nadi for provisions, as well as up to the Yasawas.

Once we got settled at Musket Cove, and caught up with everyone (very social here), we took off and headed up to Navadra at the Southern end of the Yasawas. It can be a fantastic anchorage, but due to winds it was a bit rollie. The winds came up and were blowing pretty good, so we decided to relax and head back to our mooring ball.

We're now working on chilling out, and not being quite so on the move. After all, we've been in Fiji just over a week, and our tracks look a bit like spaghetti. It's a bit rainy today, so it's a nice quiet day.

We've been swimming a ton (and hiking some too) since our arrival. We've been in the water every single day since we first got to Musket Cove (you really don't want to swim anywhere over near the main island).

Anyway, having a great time and loving Fiji just as much as we did last year. We've got family and friends coming on an off for the next few months, so should be a fantastic season!

It is now time for Huck to head North to warmer climates. We've had an absolutely great time here in NZ, and are already missing our Kiwi mates, but alas, the time has come for our departure. Today, we head off for Fiji, roughly 1100 miles North of where we are now. Crystal clear water, beautiful beaches, and sand between the toes. Oh, and no need for shoes, or jackets. Just bathing suits for us for the next 6 months! :-)

We have also updated our Sailblogs page with a few links. They are under "Favorites" in the right hand column. There is one that will show a map of where we currently are, updated every hour. We've also added a link to our FaceBook page, if you need that.

Follow us, and send us messages. We love hearing from all of our friends!

Off we go....

Joe & Heidi (and Brett too!) SV Huck

Huck has arrived safe and sound in Opua, NZ. We tied up to the Quarantine dock at 07:00am local time, in calm seas, and no wind. Just wonderful. We still have roughly 45% of our fuel, which always makes us happy to have such a safety margin. Heidi and I are doing fantastic and really enjoyed the trip in to the Bay of Islands. Quite pretty, and makes us feel great after another long passage.

Thanks to all of you that keep tabs on us while we are "out there". Gives us a lot of comfort knowing all our friends are keeping an eye on us!

Lots of love!

Joe & Heidi SV Huck

We are motoring our way into Opua. We should arrive there in the middle of the night, and will park ourselves at the Q-Dock until we clear customs. Super excited to be arriving, and had the most wonderful greeting from a pod of Humpback Whales right around our first "Land Ho" sighting. Very special! We also hooked up on a Yellow Fin Tuna just a bit ago, but unfortunately it escaped before we got it on board. Next one is ours though!

Joe and Heidi SV Huck - NZ ;-)