Our sailing home takes us, Scott and Kathy Erwin to travel the world one island at a time. Come along on this adventure to learn, or join Kathy’s Yoga, and explore and see the world.
Skipper Scott Erwin and First mate Kathy Erwin began this 2020 Vision and departed on our world adventure 8/2021. California Coast, Mexico, French Polynesia, Niue, Tonga, New Zealand, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. Come back soon to see more adventures.
The locals living in New Zealand are proudly known as Kiwis. It is a nickname spoken with warmth, confidence, and belonging. The name comes from nature, yay, my favorite topic. A Kiwi bird is a nocturnal, small, flightless bird found nowhere else on Earth. This is our second season here, trekking across many islands, and we have yet to see one.
The kiwi bird has lived here for millions of years, long before humans arrived. With no natural land predators, it evolved without the need to fly, and developed strong legs. When Māori arrived, they named the kiwi a taonga, this treasured creature was woven into stories, cloaks, and spiritual beliefs. Later, when Europeans settled in New Zealand, the bird became a symbol, since it was so unique. World War I New Zealand soldiers wore military badges featuring the kiwi bird. Over time, soldiers began referring to themselves as Kiwis. They do like using nicknames!
The word also seems to connect people across backgrounds, uniting Māori and non-Māori, which is so important. The kiwi explains a people known for traveling the world while never losing sight of where they come from. Funny, Scott and I will have lived here a year this May, can I call ourselves Kiwis?
Hanging out with a dozen Kiwis is always fun, spirited and full of much storytelling.
Merry Christmas to all! We had a quiet, fun Xmas on the boat with our besties, Jason and Candice. We later met some local Kiwi’s and invited them out for a sail in the bay. New experience for them.
And, Happy New Year to all! Since we had such a fun New Years last year downtown Auckland with numerous cruiser friends, we thought we could repeat it on Kalea. We threw a crazy loud and silly costume Disco party, with music, lights and all. Take a look at these silly videos.
What else have we been up to? Plenty of big city activities downtown Auckland, we even found a gym for the month! We just hop on a little pink scooter and zip around town. Plus our normal boat life, shopping, marine projects, hikes, exploring, bussing it, nightlife, sewing, friends, restaurants, and yoga. Life is good and very full, just the way we like it, for now.
What’s next? We will continue exploring this area till mid February, then haul out Kalea as she is due for a bottom paint called antifouling. We really are keen to explore Australia, so instead of sailing there, we will hop on the plane. Need to do a visa run anyway, as we only get a 3 months visit at a time. A flight will be much quicker than sailing there, plus Australia is so huge. We will spend 5 weeks exploring and visiting some cruising friends there. Transitioning from sailboat to a camper van should be pretty simple, NOT! Stay tuned for that story.
Ahhhh, New Zealand. Good people, good food, beautiful scenery and amazing sites. It’s good to be back and reconnect with friends we made last year. Although we won’t be in the states for the holidays, we will be spending Christmas and New Years with many of our cruising family members and a New Year’s party hosted on Kalea in the downtown Auckland (Viaduct Marina).
Today’s post is about the hike and anchorage across the bay from Auckland. It’s a rather large set of islands called Rangitoto and Motutapu. In the 1920s locals would sail and row themselves across the bay to these beautiful islands and build little holiday homes/structures that they called Baches. About 140 structures. This island was government owned but it didn’t deter people from carving out a piece of the island and calling at their own. The government gave the tenets leases and used the residents to build walkways and roads around the island. They were modest cabins by any stretch, but these people put a lot of time into getting materials across the bay and moved lots of lava stone to create foundations and boat ramps.
In 1937 conservationists convinced the government that the Baches were detrimental to the efforts to conserve the island and the courts agreed. The courts gave the residents 20 years to remove themselves and everything associated with their structures. A smart attorney continued to haunt the conservationists and finally in 1957 got the New Zealand Supreme Court to agree that the Baches were part of the environment that should be protected and kept preserved as long as the family has survivors. After the 20 years of required eviction, only 30 Baches were left and to this day many have been handed down in families and still are in use.
As we walked around, it was fun to see the ruins as well as some of the Baches still occupied by some of the original families.
As for us, we have decided not to sail to Australia, so will fly there for a few weeks. We want more time in the tropics before we move onto Indonesia. As always……plans are ever changing to adapt to our whimsical lives. 🙂
⛵️ Kalea, our sailing home 49’ Catamaran, left New Caledonia and headed back South to Opua New Zealand. We had to say goodby to the warm tropical waters and beautiful coral sealife, to seek safety from the upcoming cyclone season. Most cruising boats leave the region of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia by December and head south, to NZ or OZ, all hoping to return in May, when it’s safe again.
NZ small gulls
This journey started as a 20 knot bash, meaning close hauled, with not much swell, heading east at first. Rather uncomfortable and loud. As we tacked south, the wind shifted and we still were bashing. Still uncomfortable. Finally the 3rd day we were blessed with a speedy downwind blow but with 3 meter swell forward of the beam. A bit calmer feel, but you still need to keep a seat or hold on while moving about. Every angle of wind and swell is a different feel on a boat, especially on a catamaran. And as most of you know, bashing is never comfortable, in either boat.
Still sampling the sea water
Some friends asked about the most used sailing tools that we use. As you can imagine, paper charts are a thing of the past, since Starlink. Our most common tools are PredictWind, Open Cpn, Navionics and out boats Chartplotter program. Also handy are:
ZOLEO Marine TrafficNoforeignlandGoogle Earth
You wonder what we do for 5 days in a boat beside sail? Mainly sleep (or try to) eat (or try to) read (or try to) cook (or try to) and maybe watch a few downloaded movies. I have been successful at ocean water sampling for Citizens if the Sea, a fun side hobby so far. If you know me well, I did finish my puzzle the first day, played rummicub the second day, and I tried bananagrams, but it was a bit too lumpy that day. But overall, I am still enjoying the ocean, sunrises, sunsets, stars, my amazing captain, our passage crew friend from California, and our sailing home.
Then, it’s Land Ho! We Motor sailed the last few miles into Bay of Islands, aka Opua, New Zealand. All is well, nothing broken, just ready for some land time. Not much to report about for sealife, one squid on the bow and a few black seabirds, and no fish caught. Oh well, the lamb and meat pies are sounding great! 😋
A ton of boats returned to NZ, but we saw none out there on the passage south. PredictWind is an amazing tool. I finally got some great photos of the full moon last month
And last but not least, my favorite video this year, taken on my go pro 12 in New Caledonia. Most of the little islets, as the this French colony calls them, are homes to multiple endangered migratory seabirds and friendly Sea Turtles! We only got to stay a week waiting for the weather window to jump south. So we will be back in May!
Free mooring balls at all the islets of New Caledonia, this helps protect the corals.
An amazing adventure in an among various small and big islands in Efate and Malehuka in Vanuatu. The highlight for us for sure were the genuinely kind and happy local people.
3 of the 7 women of Awei VillageChief Serrano Awei
Sailing west from Fiji to Vanuatu on our beloved sailing home Kalea, we adventured through three island groups visiting numerous villages, meeting amazing people, and enjoyed some very special experiences. Lucky for us, Kathy’s brother Andrew joined us for 3 amazing weeks. We had some terrific snorkel days, saw some dugongs (like manatees) and had a great hike into the cocoa farms. Also lucky, that our good friends’, Jason and Candice (on SV Deguello) buddy boated with us the entire way. We are feeling blessed.
Headed into New Caledonia waters
Follow our tracks online below, as we soon head to New Caledonia, New Zealand, and next season back up to include Solomons, Papa New Guinea, and Indonesia.
Village children are the cutest! Fun game nights were had.
Bislama language of Vanuatu
Hello: Halo -Good bye: o revar
Thank you: Tangkyu
Yes: Yes
No: No
Good: Gud
Nice to meet you: Mi glad blong mitim yu
How are you?: Yu stap gud?
I don’t know: Mi no save
Thank you very much: Tangkyu tumas
Although there are more than 80 languages here in the Vanuatu islands, some English, we have been having fun with the common language of Bislama. It is creole like, so fairly easy to interpret. Bislama’s vocabulary is basically English, with influences from French and local languages. Bislama language is important for Vanuatu’s culture as it ties the far off island villages together, also providing communication for young dating couples. Read the signs aloud, you’ll surely chuckle!
Vanuatu!!!!!! Holy cow, what a place, so far. We thought we had seen dense jungle and witnessed some unusual culture but Vanuatu shows us that there is so much culture and Geography to see. Tanna is the island we first stopped at. Home to some Cargo Cult religions which I will share more about later (Google “John Frum) and the most active Volcano in the South Pacific. We spent countless hours in the back of a truck exploring the island (no busses or rental cars here) culminating in a walk up to the caldera of Mt. Yasur Volcano.
Yasur is a Strombolian type of Volcano that has been active for hundreds of years. It sits on top of a subduction plate and vents regularly, ejecting large lava bombs and ash. Strombolian volcanos are continuously active scoria cones with frequent, mild eruptions. Major eruptions happen but are very different than volcanos like Mount Saint Helen or the Hawaiian Volcanos. Mount Saint Helen is a highly explosive Plinian type volcano and Hawaii is an Effusive Shield type with large explose lava flows. (Your geology lesson for the day)
Anyway, we got to walk up to the rim of Mt. Yasur yesterday and witnessed a very active scene. Heat, sulfur gas, explosions, flying hot stones and sharp terrain were in our face. Freaking crazy. This wasn’t on our bucket list but definitely one of the highlights of this cruising season. Hot natural springs and vents are also around the island. Even our anchorage had vents and hot water emitting around the rocks. Swimming around these vents is at your own risk, as the difference between 85 degree water and 180 degrees maybe only a few feet away. 😳
This is the first of 3 of 4 more islands as we move up the chain of Vanuatu.
Notes on Tanna; -no Malaria on this island -no trading with the locals but “gifting” -cooler here but hotter as we move northward -the Kava is damn strong 🤪 -the tree fruits here would support this islands population x 3 -islands are more similar to the Marquesas. -the Chinese are here and working hard.🤔 -everyone is so darn happy and happy to see you (most appear to be more height/weight proportionate than other Pacific islanders)
🌏 As Scott and I travel and sail through the South Pacific Ocean, and enjoy all that the sea has to offer, we want to give back, scientifically speaking. We have found and paired up with an organization for testing these waters while on our passages. I am excited to say that our first sampling was just the other day on our sail west from Fiji to the small island country of Vanuatu.
🌎The Pacific has a vast expanse of marine ecosystems, and is a vital contributor to biodiversity and ecosystem health. From providing us oxygen through marine microbes to sustaining billions of people with seafood, we all know the ocean plays a crucial role in supporting life on Earth.
🌎“Citizens of the Sea” a Non profit from New Zealand, is on its second year spearheading efforts to bridge this knowledge gap. They have connected with us adventurous leisure sailors exploring island groups such as Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. There are 26 sailboats participating this year, and we are outfitted with special tools and apps for data collection. We gather environmental DNA by dragging this torpedo behind Kalea for a few minutes everyday while on offshore passages. Our mission is to help document the rich biodiversity of each region we sail through.
🌎 We, as sailor scientists are collecting this data to help the lab identify 1 billion DNA sequences from 600 samples across the Pacific Ocean. (Assisting this program provides data for only 10% of the cost of traditional ocean data acquisition.) We are proud to partake! 🌎
Today we say goodbye to our wonderful experience in Fiji, from 2024-2025. Scrolling through hundreds of photos and videos, it was tough to find our top picks. Bittersweet for sure but westward we sail to Vanuatu.
A very full week for sure! 😁 It’s so terrific hanging out with our adult kids back in our home County; San Luis Obispo in California. A lot of wedding planning and shopping was done with our daughter Montana. So excited about her big day on the beach: September 20! ❤️ An amazing Wedding for Montana and her new husband Eddy in Cayucos, California. We are so happy they are happy. ❤️ Mr & Mrs. Lutz.
A letter from mother, Sue Krevitt- “Oh YESSSSS! It was sweet and beautiful and full of love … many families joining together in loving support for this sweet couple’s desire to marry, do what’s right (per our society’s need for this) according to their highest sense of it. Good for you two, Montana and Eddy! We all love you very, very much! Thank you for the experience of being at your Wedding On The Beach! We all clearly loved it!! And the three including (Matthew, 9 yrs, is very clearly part of this wedding!)”
It was such fun to have Sue do all the beautiful flower arrangements for the wedding!
Hanging out with some California friends was also good for the soul. Dinner with kids and friends; Hope, Chase and Zander was fun and fulfilling. We were thrilled to meet Derek’s girlfriend Nikki, even though she was hobbling on crutches. Really a great week overall. We even fit in doctor appointments and travel vaccines, Ug.
While Scott visited his Dad in El Paso Texas, enjoying family, friends and great streak houses, Kathy had a great California family time up in Santa Cruz. She always has a good time staying with her Mom and this time her brother Andrew. We even made a trip up to Huntington Lake, with Derek and Nikki, however it was quite smokey due to the Garnett fire.
Wow, what an epic day. Fiji sharks are SO BIG! Two shark dives at Beqa Island/reef, and they knocked Scotts socks off. The majority of our diving is typically off of our own boat, but this kind of dive is very technical, so this time, Jason Deal and Scott chose to dive with a professional dive team. They know what they’re doing, or at least we all hope so. Kathy love all sea life but really wasn’t a fan of getting this close to these huge beasts of the sea.
Yes, the sharks really were this close and at some points Scott had 2-3 bull sharks inside his personal space bubble. The dive coordinater was VERY specific about his instructions, so they listened VERY carfully. Most of these sharks are Bull sharks, but there were multiple species present, nurse sharks and even a few Giant Grouper. Fascinating, But there were definitely a few “pucker up” moments.
Our World Adventure 