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Searching for a boat to go to Australia, Indonesia or even South America


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Hi Captains,

we are a German couple (Jessica and Philipp) in their early 30s and would like to catch a boat going to Australia, cruising to Indonesia or even doing a passage to South America. We have 6 weeks of open water experience from North Carolina to all around the Bahamas and back. We can help out as deckhands and in the kitchen, doing night shifts on passages and just enjoy island hopping. We both have motor boat driving licenses. It doesn't matter much where to go, but mostly who you are with :-) We would love to gain some more experience and learn on a sail boat so that we are well prepared before getting our own.

In best case, we would catch the boat in Auckland around from end of June to end of July, but open to any suggestions. We have got plenty of time to spend onboard :-)

Any hints or feedback is appreciated.

Fair winds!

Jessica and Philipp

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Hi Philipp,

Typically most boats leave NZ around May / June for the Pacific islands, Fiji, Tonga etc and on to other parts. Currently there are no islands / countries that will allow entry to anyone, NZ included, so no boats are sailing. Anywhere. At all.

So in short, you will be very very lucky to find a boat actually sailing anywhere (offshore), let alone one going to where you would like to go, or with a skipper that you would be compatible with, or a boat you would be happy to sail on (I'm talking safety, set up here, not comfort or personal preference).

There was a guy in Wellington looking for crew to get back to Australia, but the major issue there is the crew needed to be Australian citizens or have automatic right of entry - so the boat did not get turned back, and would actually be able to enter Australia, again due to border restrictions caused by some pandemic or something.

There are a large number of cruisers parked up in bays around NZ that would normally be sailing to the islands right now. As far as I know, they are all spending their time installing heaters on their boats, mwahaha, and have no option but to at least a year for next years cruising season, in the hope that borders will open.

There is a boat in the Caribbean, Waves (look in the cruising section of this forum). He wants to get his boat home to NZ, and is asking for experienced crew who may be interested in flying to Panama and sailing to NZ. The catches are that you can only stop in Tahiti (not all the other really cool Pacific Islands), and you must have automatic right of entry to NZ, i.e. a citizen or permanent resident. Not sure on your immigration status, but Waves is probably the only boat even thinking about going somewhere right now, and he might haul out and leave his boat on the hard for a year in the Caribbean, because of all the border issues.

Hope that helps.

PS,  I wouldn't cross the Tasman in winter, especially if you haven't done a number of ocean crossings before. It is more Southern Ocean than Pacific trade winds.

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Hi Phillip,

I am sailing a 14m Cutter at the end of April or beginning of May to Raja Ampat (via Norfolk Islands, New Caledonia, Soloman Islands) then on to Borneo and Singapore with final destination being either Langkawi or Port Klang, Malaysia for this year. We are planning for a layover of between 3 and 5 days at Raja Ampat and or Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. Possible 1 to 2 day lay over in Singapore. Vessel is Cat 1 equipped.

https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=Raja+Ampat

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/malaysia/articles/the-top-10-things-to-see-and-do-in-kota-kinabalu-malaysia/

The journey is expected to cover over 6500NM and span approx 45 days.

Cheers

Simon

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