Tag: catamaran

Tricky Sailing & Navigating Fiji Waters

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in adventure

Studying numerous charts, checking all our resources, discussing routes with other sailor friends and pulling anchor at 4am this morning, we are off!


From Nananu-i-Ra to Namena Island, (just) a 50 nm journey through unknown and difficult (to us) seas on our Kalea sailing adventure. Mega reefs, narrow passes, bommies, 100 foot tall pinnacles of coral, barely seen on our 3 charts, but we are ready for a big day of 110% attention to navigation.
Established just in 1997, Namena is the largest marine and bird reserve in Fiji. In the 80’s fishing this area was a booming business, but was diminishing the fish population. So, ten Fijian Chiefs from a nearby island gathered and established this area as a no-take preserve. Its 60 km encompasses a horseshoe-shaped barrier reef and a small uninhabited island. In 2016, Cyclone Winston passed directly over Namena destroying the one small diving resort in the strongest winds ever recorded in the southern hemisphere.
Why go? We are so excited to possibly see the red-footed booby birds that nest in the trees along the coast. Supposedly the adults rocket down at 60 mph to dive down 45 feet to catch their dinner. They have special airbags to protect their organs when they hit the water! Wouldn’t it be great fun to scuba dive to witness this wonder! Not to mention the thousands of fish and coral species, blue eel, seahorse, dolphin, manta and whale that visit this lagoon… and the nesting grounds of 4 marine turtles!!
Stay tuned for photos and videos!

Namena, Fiji

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Kalea/?useGoogle SV_Kalea

Maiden Offshore Passage on Kalea, Outremer 49! New Zealand to Fiji.

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in Sailing

Sailing to Fiji from Opua, New Zealand! I know, I know, it was supposed to be Tonga, but… oh well, life sucks, lol. Winds were not in our favor. We are blessed though, as always, we spent 6 weeks in Tonga last year. It will be a sporty, swift 6 day sail to Savusavu, Fiji. A country we barely explored last year due to selling Sea Bella. By the way she is there waiting her new family. We may just see her out there on the water somewhere. Bittersweet, but mainly thrilled with the new family moving aboard soon.

Scott, Dave, Mark, Kathy

There are about 6 boats headed out together in just about an hour or so. But by noon we may not even see them till Fiji. We decided to have 2 crew join us in our maiden passage on Kalea. Dave LaRue from CA and a local Kiwi sailor friend, Mike Clough. We are all leaving NZ right as a Low pressure system passes by will slingshot us northeast off the top of it. Lows are typically pushed out of the way by a following High pressure system. These High pressures or anticyclones are massive. They can stretch thousands of miles high and wide. Typically they have mostly settled weather with sun and little rain or squall activity. That will get us maybe 200 miles a day without pushing the boat too hard. You can watch our track live on the link below, even see the weather etc for us as well. I will post updates there as well as here. Thanks all for your support, interest, encouragement and likes. ❤️

Sail GP 2025, Foiling Catamarans preparing to race in Auckland New Zealand, Feb 2025

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in Sailing

Nice front row seats (from our dinghy) for the practice runs for the Sail GP races in Auckland New Zealand. We got to hang at the leeward gates to see these magnificent sailboats practice speedy maneuvers. Auckland was buzzing and helicopters wereflying. These people love their sailing.

Sail GP foiling race boats are so spectacular! What a privilege it is to be here this week. 12 countries practiced all week. Imagine the work in taking down and putting up their entire rig daily.

The next day, we went out for a dingy ride in Westhaven near Auckland and the small, colorful sailing dinghies were out racing around. Much slower than SailGP of course! turns out, the skippers were all people who were paraplegics with wheelchairs back at the dock.

KALEA video tour-Outremer 49, we love her so far!

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in Travel

Hi folks! This is the tour we promised everyone. We are sitting in an Auckland Marina, enjoying the lively city. We are busy fitting the boat for our needs. We had to learn to drive on the left side of the road, with our rental car, 😵‍💫. New Zealand is beautiful so far.

We have been doing a few boat jobs, have some bits of fun in the big city, and a ton of shopping. Kalea had some basics, but not the full Monty. Thank goodness Amazon Australia has most of what we need, they ship to NZ too.

So we were walking around Westhaven marina yesterday and dropped in a local Yacht Club for glass of wine. I looked up and said Holy Moley,
I looked around again searching for the name of the Club and it was the “Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron”. LOL


Right above our heads on the balcony was the Americas Cup!!!! Too fun and so random. The club walls were covered in hundreds of years of sailing history and trophies. The New Zealand folk take sailing very seriously and we were amazed how open the club was and how much the community is involved.
We had a very welcoming visit with a few of the members and one invited us back to see the Sail GP races here next month from the club restaurant.
Yup, gunna do that, after the holidays!

Outremer 49, our new home!

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in Sailing, Uncategorized

WE DID IT! 🤪😳😃😂. We are again boat owners!!!!
SV Kalea is officially ours! We had a few stops and starts but the deal finally went through today.
This boat we have drooled over for 4 months, 2011 Outremer 49.
A big thank you to Grant and Sam that are helping make the transition smooth. They are local New Zealanders, from South Africa. They sail from NZ to Fiji every sailing season to surf and live the life, in the fast lane!

Now to explore New Zealand in style…

Kalea means “happy” or “joy” in Hawaiian. Well, we sure are that! Keep pinching ourselves. We actually got lucky and found our great cruising friends who sailed all the way from Mexico with us on our last boat, Sea Bella. They were out here in Auckland for the day! They helped us celebrate our day and new life in NZ for the season.

From left, Kathy, Addicus, Adam, Scott, Jason, Candice, Ingrid.

Now, back to the new boat to finish off our contract, hand over the keys and discuss boat systems, processes, survey… all good! Better yet, all done and official.

Chaper Two; Adventure will Continue… on a Catamaran

by Scott and Kathy Erwin, Sail the World, posted in Sailing


There are so many differences in cruising catamarans. A few hours of surfing the net for boats for sale can hurt the brain.
As much as we have been “beach cat” sailors, mono hull cruisers and have been cruising with a multitude of great catamarans…..this is difficult. Above is Nirvana, a 50 foot voyage catamaran for sale in Fiji. Our friends let us cruise her for 6 weeks while they visited the states. Very comfy, slow cruiser with tons of space. Too much for us though. Our son Derek got to come to Fiji for a week and really enjoyed it.


But, everything is a sacrifice. What do we mean by that? Fast performance cats are typically not as comfortable as heavier slower boats like Nirvana. Not only are the super comfortable boats slow, but most of the time they don’t sail well. (Angle on the wind, slow, and can be noisy)

KALEA

Fast lightweight boats can sail really well but need expensive sails, don’t have as much room for big beds, couches, and water toys. One or our friends even ditched the water heater to keep the boat light. (Lol, you know who you are).
Fast comfortable boats are typically more expensive….(Think Gun, HH).
Finding a boat you want to live on and sail on is a balance of your priorities and $$$$s.
We don’t want slow. We really like our big couches and we have a good budget for the boat, but we still want to eat well.
And then there is alway “what does this boat need” and “where is it”. Sheesh….this might take some time.

This weeks boat (brand/designers) all are in consideration.
Not all of them are fast. Not all of them are comfortable.
But, they do prompt conversations…..and ultimately…..negotiations.