Tag Archives: trip

Ocean Days and Starry Nights: Passage NZ to New Cal

2 Replies

After patiently waiting (and occasionally refreshing weather models like it’s a full-time job), we are finally ready to start our passage from New Zealand to New Caledonia.

A good weather window has opened, and it’s time to go make use of it—heading out for 6–7 days of beautiful ocean sailing, starry nights, and the kind of quiet horizon that reminds you why you came to sea in the first place.

We’ve paused our scheduled blog posts for the duration of the passage.

Instead, Matt will be doing some “live blogging” along the way—real-time updates from the motion, the miles, and whatever the ocean decides to serve up.

Scheduled posts will resume on 16 June 2026, once we’re back in range of reliable internet (and slightly more stable footing).

In the meantime, you can follow our journey by heading to our website homepage, clicking “Current Location”, and then following the PredictWind link to track our progress across the blue.

Thank you for the continued support, messages, and encouragement—it means a lot to have you following along with our adventures aboard Sugar Shack.

Fair winds, and see you on the other side of the ocean.

A Passage to Vanuatu

Leave a reply

We leave New Zealand for the second time having accomplished a lot in the last 7 months.  This time our passage finds us heading North West to a small country called Vanuatu!

The passage should take 8-9 days if all goes well.  You can follow our progress on our blog by clicking on “Current Location.”

Our pre-scheduled blog posts will be suspended until we make landfall and should resume around 4 June.  But you can count on Matt posting a few blog posts along our passage.

We will have Starlink which gives us access to the world wide web so feel free to email us or comment on the blog posts.  It is always nice to hear from people when you are out in the middle of the sea for days on end.

What did we do for 6 months?

We hauled the boat out and continued to work on our beautiful boat.  We added Coppercoat, fixed some gelcoat work, replaced our rudders, added new vinyl stickers, varnished all of the exterior wood, added some more new canvas, updated our aft teak on the steps, repaired our water tank, replaced bathroom accessories and hatch frames.

We also sailed around the North island and explored so many amazing new islands, atolls, and motus.  We spent a lot of time at Great Barrier, Mercury, Wiaheke, Whangapoua, Coramandel, Kawau, Tiritiri Matangi, Limsetone Island.  We hung out with loads of friends and caused as much trouble as possible.

It was a fabulous, but short visit back to this amazing country.

The cover photo is a us at Marsden Cove Marina, Whangarei, Northland as we meet with the officials to clear out of the country.

Until we meet again Kiwis!  We loved our stay and hope to see you soon.

Voyage: New Zealand to Minerva Reef

Leave a reply

Island Cruising Pacific Rally provides very valuable resources to cruisers making the voyage across the pacific.  For those who join the annual rally you get access to dozens of discounts (from marinas, boat parts, food, and clothing).  In addition, you are provided all of the necessary documents and government contacts for arrival/departure from each country and you have access to a professional weather router, and the passage guardian.  So, someone has eyes on you at all times which is a huge relief when you are out at sea.

Viki Moore, the owner of Island Cruising, also arranged for dozens of activities at each country and a super handy guide on the Pacific.  It was really a no brainer for us to join – especially considering how apprehensive I get when crossing the pacific.

Weather Window

We were both anxious to leave New Zealand after being on the dock for over 8 months. But we had to wait for a safe weather window which took its sweet time to form.

We finally get a good opportunity to begin our voyage.  We untie off the Town Basin Marina docks and motor the 12nm down the river to the Marsden Cove Marina which is located 4.5nm from the mouth of the river.  This is where we load up with diesel and gasoline and clear out of the country with customs.

Everything went smoothly.  We were off the Marsden Cove Marina docks by 0930 and on our way to our next country.  Our voyage is approximately 814nm from New Zealand to Minerva Reef South.  Our friend, Rokas from Starlight took this photo as we departed.

Day 1: NZ to Minerva Reef

We left knowing the first day would be “sporty” with 18-20kts of wind but the seas were calm.  Keep in mind that we are flying our new sails and new lines on the boat (ropes).  So, we knew there would be a learning curve.  We opted for an extremely cautious sail plan by raising our main and the jib to only the second reef (which means less sail out).  We were so happy we did that as we made fast tracks in the high winds.

  • Distance to Go:                 631nm
  • Distance Travelled:          183nm
  • Wind:                                    18-20kts from SE
  • Seas:                                     1m, slow and following
  • Speed:                                  Average: 7.4 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                The first green reefing line chafed through while we were using it.

Lucky for us we had our 2nd reefing line set which held the sail.  We tied the damaged line down and waited till daybreak to replace the line with a new one. The main sheet also hit our IridiumGo antennae, broke off the case and the wind ditched the separator.  Lucky for us we caught the case.  It still limps along but will have to be replaced.

A nice send off by a small pod of dolphins.  They did not stay with us too long, but it was a lovely sight to see.

Day 2

The winds were pretty shifty, but we maintained a beautiful sail today.  Our new sails are much quieter than our heavier dacron sails and certainly hold a much better shape!

  • Distance to Go:                 468nm
  • Distance Travelled:          163nm
  • Wind:                                    8-12kts from SE
  • Seas:                                     1m, slow and following
  • Speed:                                  Average: 7.4 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                Nothing – yeah!

Day 3

The wind shifted and died down a lot which gave us an opportunity to fly our largest sail, Big Bertha.

  • Distance to Go:                 349nm
  • Distance Travelled:          119nm
  • Wind:                                    8-10ts
  • Seas:                                     2m, slow and following
  • Speed:                                  Average: 6.4 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                The lighter winds slowed us down, but the beautiful sail was worth it.

Day 4

Where did all the wind go?  Bummer, we lost the wind and when it did make an appearance it was right on our nose.  Had to take the sails down and motor because we could not keep our sails full.

  • Distance to Go:                 226nm
  • Distance Travelled:          123nm
  • Wind:                                    2-8kts from NW
  • Seas:                                     2m, building and hitting us side to making for a bumpy ride
  • Speed:                                  Average: 6.4 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                Nothing

Day 5

The wind shifted again giving us a different point of sail.  We put our reefed main and jib back up.

  • Distance to Go:                 118nm
  • Distance Travelled:          108nm
  • Wind:                                    30kts from NW with gusts hitting 35-38kts
  • Seas:                                     3-4m
  • Speed:                                  Average: 6.1 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                Wow what a $hitty night.  A huge storm was in our way and it brought high winds and big seas.  We dropped all canvas, changed course, and hunkered down all night.  We made 2-3kts headway in the wrong direction, but we are all ok.

I know it looks pretty, but this is one of the rare moments where it was not raining or blowing like crazy.  But as you can see, we are very cold.

We crossed the international date line again.  This time I caught the switch over on our instruments and grabbed some photos for you.  Look at the lat/long changes from 179 99.999 East to 180 00.000 West.

We are pretty tired as we each get sleep intervals of 3 hours.  You grab it when you can.  Since I don’t do well down below, we keep everything that we wear in the salon which makes it a bit of a mess.

Day 6

Our big storm ruined our daily average speed and our chances of arriving at Minerva Reef during the day.  There was nothing we could do except slow the boat down even further.  So, after the big storm, we rolled out a little jib, turned off the engines, and enjoyed a very slow sail.

  • Distance to Go:                 0 nm
  • Distance Travelled:          840nm
  • Wind:                                    8-12kts from SW
  • Seas:                                     3m, still big seas preventing us from putting out too much canvas.
  • Speed:                                  Average: 6.4 and Max 16.1 (surfing down a wave)
  • Broken:                                We grab sleep whenever we can.  The salon is full of blankets to keep us warm.

Our voyage ends with our arrival at South Minerva at dawn.  Using tracks from a fellow cruiser, we went through the pass, dropped the hook, and took a deep breath – we arrived safely.

Matt gave the boat a fresh water rinse as she was covered in salt.  I used ospho to clean all of our stainless around the boat which was also draped in layers of salt.  Then a wee bit of cleaning, a late breakfast, and a nap.  All in all it was not a terrible voyage, but it certainly gave us a run for our money with the shifty winds and huge storm.

This image shows you where Minerva reef is in relation to New Zealand and Fiji, and Tonga.  A 6-7 day voyage in total.

Minerva in the middle of the Pacific

Minerva in the middle of the Pacific

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred in early July.  Did you read our last blog post on “Sweet as: New Zealand?”