An Update on The Journey

As we sail our way across the Pacific, we occasionally make small changes to our plans, deciding which countries and islands to visit as we go along. Lucky for us, we don't have to seek approval for these changes. We check the wind, the calendar, confer with each other and then go for it. But it also means I often forget to tell everyone what we have decided. I was looking at our blog the other day and realized that we still had New Zealand as our destination for this season.

To update everyone, some time back we decided to sail directly to Australia instead of stopping in New Zealand. A couple of things drove this decision. Firstly, the passage to New Zealand is typically made from the southern Tongan group of islands which means we would miss visiting Fiji and New Caledonia. It can also be a difficult passage to New Zealand as the weather windows between storms is usually shorter than the time it takes to make the passage. So you are either heading out on the tail end of a storm, or arriving at the beginning of some bad weather. Secondly, the Tasman sea, which we would have to cross to reach Australia, is also known to be difficult and it is recommended that you don't leave New Zealand until May. That meant we would have spent 7 months in New Zealand. And lastly, to fly home from New Zealand we would be flying via Sydney anyway. That convinced us to sail SEGWUN to Australia and then fly across to New Zealand and do our touring by car/camper van early next year.

Our new plan has us visiting Fiji and New Caledonia on our way to Brisbane this season. We expect to get to Brisbane by the beginning of November. Then it's time to take a break from the boat, head home to Denmark and then Canada for Christmas and New Year. We'll be back to Australia and New Zealand in January for a few months of land travel before moving on once again.

You can see by the map below how far we have traveled. It has been a fantastic voyage so far. We have visited many places that we never thought we would be so fortunate to get to as well as a few places we didn't even know existed.