Storming into Bequia in the Caribbean Grenadines on 21st Dec'99 with old sailing friends Jim & Liz aboard
In 1999 we made our way to the Caribbean via the Iberian peninsula, Gibraltar and the Atlantic Islands of the Madeiras and Canaries. During 2000 we explored the Caribbean Windward and Leeward Island chains before heading south to Venezuela for our first hurricane season. After refitting in Trinidad we swiftly headed north to Cuba via the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. After an amazing four months exploring Cuba, we returned to Trinidad again that August to refit, before setting sail along the Venezuelan coast via Colombia to the San Blas Islands of Panama and the Canal.
We transited the Panama Canal in Feb '02 calling at the Perlas Islands on the way to the Galapagos. From there it was a 3000nm crossing of the South Pacific to the French Polynesian island groups of Marquesas, Tuamotos and Societies, followed by the Cooks and Minerva Reef to New Zealand to escape the cyclones of the South Pacific. In 2003 we spent 6 months cruising Fiji, four of them in the magical eastern Lau Group before returning to New Zealand. The following year saw us off on a 4,148nm (7,682Km) arc starting in the south of the Tongan chain, up through to Samoa and back to NZ again via Wallis Island and Fiji.
Our third passage from New Zealand in 2005 took us via Fiji to Vanuatu and on to Australia where we spent two years touring by boat and car. In April of 2007 we left Brisbane for Darwin and in July crossed to Kupang in Indonesia where we spent three months transiting that huge archipelago, arriving at Singapore in October. Then we made our way up the west of the Malay Peninsula to the Thai border with Myanmar (Burma), returning in March '08 to Rebak Marina off Langkawi in Malaysia for the SW monsoon season. During this period we spent 2 months in England, 2 months in New Zealand and 8 weeks touring Indo-China.
We left our monsoon base in Rebak in Dec'08, spending a splendid festive season with lots of friends in Phuket before heading north again for the Similan Islands near Myanmar where the scuba diving in the National Marine Reserve is world class. For the best part of the following three years we waited for the pirate threat off Somalia at the entrance to the Red Sea to decline. It only deteriorated! There are worse places to be delayed, so with a warm climate, masses of tropical islands and Thai food to console us we spent a fascinating time exploring SE Asia and the wider continent beyond. By sea we ventured westward into Ocean as far as the Indian Andaman Islands. By land we toured Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Tibet, Nepal and India. It was an amazing cultural experience.
By the end of 2011 the security situation in virtually all the eastern Indian Ocean had deteriorated to the point where the patrolling coalition naval craft were turning yachtsmen back and advising them to ship their vessels through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. This we did in March 2012, rejoining Amoenitas in Marmaris, Turkey on 1st April.
We then spent three seasons exploring Turkey, Greece, Italy and the South of France. Pleasant though this was, with the plethora of history and ancient architecture, the sailing and cruising was pallid compared with the southern Pacific and SE Asia. The teeming humanity, overcrowded anchorages, preponderance of charter boats and poor sailing winds meant that the attraction of returning to our lovely home and garden in the New Forest, not to mention our families and grandchildren, became irresistible.
Press the buttons below to discover more about the amazing Amoenitas, her equipment, our route around the globe and selective highlights from our epic voyage. Use the links below to access the 36 updates we posted as we progressed, learn more about Amoenitas and the systems we relied upon, see images of some of the more interesting People we met, Bird & Insect life, Flowers, Mammals as well as an insight into the wonderfully rich range of Marine Life we encountered.
