darkside

I've spoken to Orions twice, once i never saw them, but they still called us by name on 16. The classic was off Ashmore Reef when an Aussie helicopter circled us twice. The second time someone was giving us the thumbs up out the window. Clearly a catamaran fan.

It certainly can be cost neutral if you pick the right boat. We met several kiwis sailing back from both sides of the states and doing it effectively for free. All the way from the Med was less common then. One Aussie on an ex charter cat started advertising a bit soon. He ended up selling it in Fiji and having to fly home. His crew line handled for us in Panama as it happens.

"Captain what is your maximum tropical freshwater draft?" Not sure if you hear that asked on the VHF anywhere else. I hope you get a pleasant pilot, it makes all the difference on the transit.

The main anchorage is the north side of Atihau (or Trig) Is next to the Arch Rk. I've had a few calm nights in there but you would be pretty brave to anchor as far in as the RAYC suggests. In anything with N in it the south side of Burgess is OK but persistent swell is a problem. I have tucked into Maori Bay on the north side of Flax once and was pretty pleased with myself till the tide turned. Then we had to sit and roll until we could see well enough for it to be safe to leave.

Coming into Nelson from Brisbane in 2000 there was a downgrade of the GPS system and we lost the two main GPS's. The little handheld strapped to the EPIRB never missed a beat which was appreciated closing on Farewell Spit at some pace. I now have a USB GPS which I imagine would survive a lightning strike if not plugged in. We did lose a GPS aerial from a lightning hit once but the GPS was fine. I can't imagine you would ever lose a compass from lightning. I haven't pulled the sextant out for 20 years so not sure if I could use it in anger.

Some interesting decisions to make right now by those with masts. Looks like a big passing opportunity

It's a real shame that it is so dangerous to take your own boat now. Those are the places of a circumnavigation that you will probably never bother to go on a jet. Anyone else you know got a t-shirt from Eritrea? But most of all apart from some head winds on the Red Sea stretch a great area to cruise. The reefs are more or less untouched and a lot of history as already mentioned.

You could argue going as fleet either way. We did but it certainly isn't easy maintaining a similar speed in a diverse group of boats. I think back then it was a good idea as the pirates were opportunists, mostly people smugglers that "happened" across a yacht. If they saw a group they might stay away and wait for a solo yacht. Back then we had an advantage of speed. We got approached once, not sure if it was pirates, but didn't want to find out. With the screecher up and both engines maxed we were doing 11kn which was more than the displacement dhow following. Also that year a Cav

We did that run in 2003, there was a lot of concern, a few incidents but no harm done. It has certainly ramped up since then and no way would I do it now. Friends that we went through with in 2003 are doing it again this year in a big Catana. They departed Thailand this week for the Med like this. http://crew.org.nz/forum/index.php/gallery/image/463-cat/

Hit one on a Cav 32 coming back from Fiji. I was in the cockpit and felt nothing but the off watch crew did. The water was discoloured and the whale surfaced about 100m behind the boat. No damage inside or out.

Broken water pipe on shore? It would make an interesting insurance claim. "my boat sank because water sprayed on it"

I learnt my boating in a Carey launch. Still the prettiest launch in Auckland

What happened to the Spencer Sirius? Looks like she dragged the mooring maybe 30m into the Tamaki River channel in the last blow.

Yes and sadly the Alfa Romeo 5 cylinder diesel. Quite a good car engine probably but a pig when converted to marine use by FNM. I know as I owned a couple. Then a couple more when they blew up. Then the next owner of that vessel also bought a couple more I understand. The Yanmar 3 cylinder 3JH2E is a pretty good unit though.

The big advantage of a 6 over a 4 cylinder is the smoothness. For an engine mounted inside where you live that is a big consideration. 60 degrees between the cylinders firing is so much better than 90.

Interesting comments about this and the VOR in general in this mornings Herald. Volvo Ocean Race organisers reported very limited information about the incident, which killed one man, and reportedly excluded questions of the crash during their recent press conference. Ehman claims that not one crew member or representative from Vestas was present at the Hong Kong press conference, and the mainstream media were excluded to ask questions. "They had the press conference with no mention of Vestas, no Vestas representation and Andy Green, who was the moderator, was the only one asking

The trophy fish is less of an issue with crays. I see big crays fairly often but almost always miles out of reach, they are too smart. For the commercial guys the big crays are worth less per kg in the high end markets. So they tend to return them alive anyway rather than waste their quota.

The Gulf is a treasure no doubt at all. I haven't dived the inner Gulf for ages but dive the Barrier a lot. There is one rock there i have dived, most years, several times, for 38 years now. While nothing like the cray population or average size of the early 90's this year has been stellar, crays all over the rock. I know one hot year doesn't prove global warming but it does show that the populations can improve quickly. In Fiordland the effort per kg of crayfish has been going steadily down which is a great sign. Cra2 is a big area and I wouldn't like to see commercial guys out of

Yes targeted areas is good. Get the duct outlets with louvre ends you can close off heat to areas not being used. I have one ducting pipe that runs under the floor of the shower and loo that makes the floor nice and warm first thing.

Yep Ok so just be happy with what I have? I really only wanted to do txt and perhaps voice using wechat.

A little help if anyone has done this..... Playing around with a new to me Iridium Go. Got it going OK with txt, voice (quite a delay but clear) and email functions. However I can't get a server connection for the web stuff. I have the firefox (xweb) download they suggest. It goes through to that app but then no server connection. Perhaps I have to turn off all sorts of back ground stuff on the smart phone? It's a Samsung S8 if that makes any difference.

Thanks and yep we bought the Globalstar. It turned up this morning and works a treat. Even picks up inside the house. The only little trick was linking OpenCPN to the correct port.