I’ve been meaning to write a blog post for almost two weeks now but have been so busy that I haven’t had a chance. I figured I’d take advantage of a great night of sleep and get started at 5 a.m. while the family is still sleeping. I’m writing from my bed, anchored here safely again in Musket Cove. Pangas keep driving by, taking the staff of the various resorts to work, making a bit of a wake that I hope doesn’t wake the boys. They’ve been having so much fun they need the sleep.

The month since my last blog post has been one of the best months we’ve had since we left Toronto, let alone the best month since moving aboard this catamaran. We are, finally, back in the groove and it feels so good. There have been a number of reasons for this which I’ll try to summarize. I spent the last few minutes trying to come up with some sort of witty, alliterative phrase that would summarize the last five weeks, something like “sailing, socialization and…” I think I need my tea first.

The last blog post was rather dark and while I cringe to know I shared that with the world, I’m not going to apologize. It captured my dilemma and concerns and will serve as a good reminder of that time. I was feeling overwhelmed and all of us were having a hard time. Our confidence was low—which is understandable after the purchase experience we’ve had with this boat—it has put us on the back foot and we’ve been fighting to regain our stance and confidence ever since. The last month or so has helped us reset emotionally and reminded us that, yes, we DO want to keep doing this and we DO love this lifestyle.

I fear this may be a longer post so I’ll give you the TL:DR summary here: We have finally been moving again. Moving, while hard, is less hard than sitting around wondering what we should do. Inertia is thy enemy. We’ve seen some of the most beautiful places one can imagine…and more. We’ve had incredible family time. We’ve figured out our route for the next 2+ years, starting with if we’re going to NZ or OZ and we’ve had some unforgettable moments with some unforgettable friends.

Let’s get to the plan first, as that’s how this unfolded chronologically. We were stuck in the Savusavu area waiting for the trade winds to subside and allow us to get south to the Lau. My previous post received many helpful comments, phone calls, emails and video chats. Melissa and I spent many, many hours looking at routes, trying to figure out approximate costs, chatting with the kids about our goals and overlaying that with the seasonality of the winds. So here’s the plan: we will sail from Fiji to New Zealand in October (we might go to New Caledonia first but that seems to have moved down the ranking for some reason). We will then return to Canada and the USA to see family and friends for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We will return to New Zealand until April and then depart to Australia. We will spend time in OZ, sailing North and West before visiting Indonesia. We had discussed spending an entire year in/around Indonesia but decided we wanted to keep moving more aggressively as we don’t have unlimited funds, which means we don’t have unlimited time. You can look at an atlas to see our route, but ultimately we’ll be in Cape Town by November of ’23.

After our usual two month holiday break we’ll return to Cape Town in January of ’24 and make our way to Europe via St. Helena, Brazil and the Canaries. We’re not exactly sure of our route from Brazil and we’re unsure of when, exactly we want to be in the Med and we’d like to visit the UK and, possibly, Scandinavia and it would make sense to do that before the Med. Regardless, we’ve got some time to figure it out and we’re excited for the next few years. We’re going to see some really great stuff along the way and our trip to the Med was a non-negotiable. We’ve spent too much time reading world history and getting the boys fired up to miss that part of the world. So we’ve got some really big, long, tough passages ahead of us. We’ll need crew. If you’re interested, please reach out. I will mention here, just so we don’t have any hurt feelings, if you haven’t done offshore passages before, please don’t reach out. These passages won’t be fun in a traditional sense and we need experienced hands.

So with our plan sorted, we were able to dismiss a giant ball of stress and instead have something to look forward to. A giant weight was lifted off our shoulders and we were able to be a bit more present with the kids and also with our friends. It was only a few more days before the trade winds finally relented enough to allow us to depart for the Lau. (I will mention here that we spent almost two weeks in/around Savusavu and that was…definitely too much time. We were thrilled to leave.)

I can say that our departure for the Lau was thrilling for a number of reasons, primarily because we were super excited to see an area that looked really cool, but also because we were traveling with Noonsun once again. I always learn things when I’m with them and, while it can be tough on my ego at times (“Why didn’t I think of that? How do they synthesize so many things so quickly and arrive at the obvious decision that isn’t obvious to me?”) it is worth a few blows to one’s confidence in order to learn. Plus they’re just really fun to be with. AND we were now in the same type of boat as them and would be able to learn more about how to better sail our boat. They’ve done about 13,000 miles in the last 15 months so they have plenty of good advice to share.

Our plan had been to island hop down the Lau group to get to our southernmost goal, Fulaga. The weather didn’t really want to make that easy for us and despite departing with the intention of heading to Taveuni, we had the option to push further if it looked like the window was going to close and/or the conditions allowed a faster passage south. This is what happened and after about 27 hours we made a brief stop in Lakeba, anchored, had a brief clean up aboard Atlas, checked the weather and, after chatting with Noonsun, decided we needed to keep pushing east before the winds really turned on again. I failed to mentioned that we had been motoring almost the entire time and would now have to motor again. The winds were buildings and, with that, the waves as well. Motoring into wind and waves sucks. But we only expected to see about 12 knots max before the 15-20+++ trades filled back in and we wanted to get south. So off we went for another six hours of bashing upwind, but it was the right move. It got us further East which allowed for the next day’s seven-hour motor to Fulaga to have some sailing as well. If you’re interested, check out our track here and you can see how we made our way down: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Atlas/

Melissa has been working on a post about Fulaga for a while now, so I won’t spend too much time writing about it here. Plus, frankly, I have no idea how I can convey just how beautiful and special it was. It’s going to have to be a memory that’s mostly private, not because I don’t want to share it but simply because I don’t know how. It was STUNNING. Life changing beautiful. The people who lived there were so welcoming and delightful. I wish I had a drone because I think that would have been the only way to capture the beauty of Fulaga. We had a host family assigned to us, and they were terrific. We hosted them for dinner aboard Atlas, and Sokie brought us a massive bunch of bananas that weighed about 45 pounds (the dude carried these on his shoulder for over a mile to bring them to us) and they hosted us for a kava ceremony for my birthday and a post-church feast as well. The boys attended the local school for half a day as well. And this was all done with some of the best friends one could imagine, the Lawsons aboard Noonsun.

My birthday was a truly wonderful day. I spent the morning sailing, individually, with each son on the Tiwal dinghy. What an absolute delight. Elliott wanted to just sail and be listened to. Unsurprisingly he didn’t really care where we went, if it was fast or slow, he just wanted to have an adventure. It was all about discovery and imagination. He drove, he trimmed the sail, he fired torpedos, he was the engine (kicking in the water), he was the rudder, he was the captain, he was the crew. He was happy and I was bursting with joy. My time with Oliver was equally pleasing, but so very Oliver. He wanted adventure, and there was definitely imagination going on, but mostly he wanted to focus on skills, working on upwind steering, off the wind sail trim, and also sailing through some motus. It was truly awesome. I loved it. Noonsun then offered to watch both boys while Melissa and I went to shore to participate in our first and only kava ceremony. When the locals learned that my birthday was coming up they insisted we come for kava. They take the celebration of birthdays and anniversaries very seriously.

Sokie and Ba had invited a bunch of their friends and Mere, Elliott’s teacher from the previous day, even baked an absolutely delicious cake. While I wouldn’t call their kitchens primitive, they’re not exactly cooking with gas. The fact that a cake this delicious was baked for me was humbling and appreciated. The sharing of kava was really cool as well. It was an unforgettable experience and I’m so grateful I got to experience it and share it with Melissa. The day was concluded by sharing time with everyone aboard Noonsun. One of the best birthday’s imaginable.

Our time there also included two days of doing a stupendous drift snorkel through the pass, a hike up to a cave that had many human bones (and lots of old stories about why they were there), swimming, walking, sailing, sailing, and more sailing (all on the Tiwal) and plenty of shared conversations and playdates for the kids (and parents!). All of this was done in breathtaking beauty. On our final morning there, a few weeks before the five-year anniversary of my mom’s death, we spread some of her ashes. I know it sounds silly, but it’s been wonderful to have some of her along with us and to “share” the most memorable with her by spreading some of her ashes. I know how much she would have loved us doing this trip and I’m certain she would have joined us for long stretches of our trip. So while she’s not here physically, she’s certainly with us spiritually. I love and miss you, Mom.

We had the usual debate of when it was the right time to leave and where we we would go. It’s exhausting, but we’re getting better at this. Mostly it came down to our natural discomfort after being somewhere for more than five days (we stayed for eight IIRC) and the fact that Noonsun needed to get a friend of theirs to an airport and we all wanted to stick with them. So off we went to Vanua Balavu, a place that was very high on our list as, we wanted to see the Bay of Islands. This started what would begin an incredible streak of sails.

Writing about sailing for people who don’t sail is pointless. For those that do, know I’ve done a LOT of sailing in my life. However, I haven’t had the opportunity to do so in strong trade wind conditions, day after day, aboard a 50′ catamaran with a great sail plan. Sailing this boat has been amazing. It’s no daysailer. The rig is big, the gear is big, one doesn’t just throw up the sails for a toodle around the bay. But if you’re trying to do some big miles, my god, what a machine. Warm weather, 18-22 of consistent winds from aft of the beam, the surge forward once the sails are set, BOOM! It’s just the best! 80 miles between breakfast and dinner? No problem! We’ve learned the boat, learned the sail combos, and learned that catamaran sailing is SO MUCH more pleasant (and faster) than a monohull. At least in trade wind conditions and passage making. One arrives fresher and sooner. I won’t go on, but it’s amazing. And we sailed all the way from Fulanga back to Musket Cove. Hundreds and hundreds of miles all done comfortably and with great speed. What an absolute dream.

Three things stand out about our time in Vanua Balavu. #1 was the village of Susui. We would never consider ourselves experts regarding Fiji, let alone sociologists that can explain how the cultures of these villages are propagated but differ from one to another. Something about Susui though was different. What an incredibly fun, curious and delightful group of people. Wow! Our time there was far too short. I had a brief chat with a man named Andrew, who had been there for two weeks and didn’t intend to leave and he said “there’s just something about this village, they’re special, and I don’t want to leave.” I’m envious of his time there and agree with his sentiments. Our two days there saw Andrew taking villagers out for sails offshore aboard his Outremer 45. Our time was spent engaging in play, a furiously competitive soccer game and hosting a bunch of kids aboard Atlas for an impromptu “pool” and dance party. Thanks Susui, we’ll never forget you.

The second strong memory was an absolute debacle of an anchoring process. Honestly, I don’t really want to write about it as the scars haven’t healed. I haven’t even been able to joke about it yet, which is strange for me. It should have its own post in the Muppet Diaries. Maybe I’ll do that. This post is long already. Briefly, Noonsun and Atlas departed at the same time. Noonsun’s ethos is to sail as much as possible, even if it’s slower than motoring because a) it’s better and b) it saves fuel. Atlas’ ethos is to fucking hurry up. So once the wind went too far aft, I fired up the engine to make sure we arrived before the sun set. We did, we left Noonsun behind and got to the anchorage and began our recon. Two+ hours later, 9 or 10 anchor tries later, the windlass shouting “NO MAS” (the depth is 22 meters, so I’m laying down 80+ meters of chain each time, so pulling that up 9 or 10 times is brutal on the windlass), the sun having set an hour ago, Melissa on hold with three different divorce attorneys, Noonsun having already arrived an hour ago and nailed their anchoring on the first try (KAAAAAAHHHHHNNNNN!!!!!!), we finally got the anchor stuck in 24 meters of water. We’ve NEVER had this much trouble before. We still have no idea what was going wrong, but each successive failed attempt at anchoring made the next harder. Nerves were frayed, confidence shot. It was awful. #neveragain #neverforget

The 3rd and final memory was the beauty and having an anchorage to ourselves for one night. Our iPhone cameras, while great, aren’t able to capture the scale of how vertical these walls were. And the motus. And the bats! Oh the bats! The beauty! Wow! So different from Fulaga, but equally lovely. Vanau Balavu was more fjord-like, rather than a tropical paradise on steroids that was Fulaga. We’re so grateful we made it there.

It’s now 8:35 a.m. and I’m stunned how long I’ve been working on this and that I’m—maybe—half way done. Onwards!

There was, yet again, another debate about when we would/should leave and where we would go. Our two crates had arrived from the USA (finally!) and, of course, were now incurring storage costs. So we were keen to get take delivery of those. Melissa really, really wanted to see Taveuni and we had the usual wind speed/direction to contend with. We wanted to stay with Noonsun as well, but had resigned ourselves to going our separate ways for a few weeks. While we were inclined to stay another day or two in the Bay of Islands we couldn’t come up with a plan for what we would do there if we were to stay, and when we don’t have a plan for that, then we know it’s time to leave. We bid Noonsun’s friend, Ben, farewell as he was departing from his epic time with them (what a cool guy btw, we so enjoyed our limited time with him) and prepped for our departure the next day. Our plan was to head to Taveuni and Noonsun’s plan was to head… in that direction, but likely peeling off to Savusavu.

We had another AMAZING sail to Taveuni, with Melissa furiously working the internet/email when we had cellular coverage to arrange a really fun day of activities for our one full day in Taveuni. We shared our plan with Noonsun and they decided that Melissa’s plan sounded better than another day or two spent in Savusavu. So Atlas and Noonsun remained together for what turned out to be a really, really fun day in Taveuni. We anchored at Paradise Resort at the southern end of Taveuni, as they were reported to be “cruiser friendly” and this was the best located anchorage if you planned to continue heading west.

Briefly, this whole “cruiser friendly” resort thing is new to us, but it means this: the resort welcomes cruisers to anchor out front and come to shore and visit the resort. There’s different grades of this, some require a day fee, some require other forms of payment, some are completely free and, obviously, vibes/attitudes vary. But, mostly, when you read that it’s “cruiser friendly” they really are. You can come ashore and use their pool, bar, restaurant or even use their help to arrange a visit to the emergency room to have x-rays done on a certain five-year-old’s mouth (thanks again, Volivoli Dive Resort!).

Paradise Taveuni is a resort that specializes in dives, as it’s located at the Rainbow Reef, some of the best diving in the world (we’re told). As we briefly trekked through their property on the way from our boats to the van out front, which we had hired to drive us around for the day, we noticed they had a bakery selling cinnamon rolls. After a fun and full day exploring Taveuni and a plan to depart at 5 a.m. to head for an island we weren’t excited to visit, I declared that I really didn’t want to rush off at 5 a.m. I was tired and I wasn’t excited to keep pushing. Melissa was on the same page and it seemed Noonsun was too. So we planned to have a slower start, meeting ashore at 7:15 a.m. for cinnamon rolls, before leaving at 8 a.m.

We picked up Noonsun in our dinghy the next morning at 7 a.m. so they didn’t have to put their dinghy in, heading to shore for a brief breakfast, followed by that 8 a.m. departure. We posted up next to the lovely pool at Paradise Taveuni to eat our rolls and then… didn’t leave until 5 p.m. WHAT?!?!?! We were so tired, the kids so excited to spend the day at a pool, the previous day’s fun still percolating, and with the resort’s incredibly friendly and welcoming vibe, we just couldn’t tear ourselves away. But what about the schedule? What about getting our crates? What about Noonsun’s planned visit to the Yasawas? WHAT ABOUT THE SCHEDULE?!?!?!?!?!? We just didn’t care. Something made all of us just shrug our shoulders and stay right there. It was amazing. It was fun to watch a bunch of type A people who thrive on schedules slowly work through the anxiety of NOT following the planned schedule. It was like the nerds had decided to skip school for a day. We aren’t very good at this, we aren’t really sure how to do this, but, yes? Really? Are we going to do this? Yes!!!! The kids kept giving us side eye, “Is this ok? Are we really going to stay here? If we have too much fun, will they decide to leave? DON’T HAVE TOO MUCH FUN!!!! THEY SEEM TO BE THINKING ABOUT STAYING! PLAY IT COOL, FELLOW KIDS!!!! DON’T FUCK THIS UP!!!”

By the end of the day, we had opened up credit accounts at the resort, had lunch and dinner delivered to us poolside, hired a nanny for the next day and booked a two tank dive for the adults at Rainbow Reef. WHAT!?!??!!?!!! Hold on! We had just come to shore for a fucking cinnamon roll and now we had spent the entire day, spent money we needed to save, and booked a fucking scuba dive for the next day?! And hired a nanny?!?! Yes, yes we had. And it was amazing. The energy amongst our two families was so much fun. The parallel evolution of our attitudes, the relaxing, the going against the grain, the sheer joy of watching the kids watch us, watching them have fun, the whole thing was unforgettable. But what about the schedule?!?!?!?!

I’m smiling as I write this. It was such a fun time. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t follow the schedule by choice. To do this with another family, everyone just sorta looking at everyone else asking “Is this really happening? Are we really doing this?” it was just so much fun. Such a release. Such a guilty pleasure. The resort was so accommodating. So friendly. It was impossible not to have a good time. Impossible not to relax or feel welcome. The kids played and played and played. And the adults got to play too! Melissa and I hadn’t done a dive in 14 years!!!! So off we went, with great friends, no kids around, doing an absolute world-class dive. Expectations were met, much fun was had. Lifetime memories made. New schedules made.

We had in the back of our minds a desire to check out Musket Cove’s Fiji Regatta Week. It didn’t really excite us to be honest, mostly because we had already spent a month in Musket Cove and didn’t really want spend money on stuff that didn’t really appeal to us. But we knew that many kid boats would be there and we couldn’t pass that up. Our little “Skipping School” adventure in Taveuni, though, seemed like it would prevent us from participating in all but the last day or two. But I write this post from Musket Cove, having just participated in the most enjoyable five days of activities. We pushed hard to get here, made easier by this fantastic boat design and the trade winds. We had truly incredible sails here, we hit a new top speed of 16.2 knots in FLAT WATER (full main, code zero, 25 knots of true wind).

The highlight of this fantastic regatta was the Round Island Classic. Once again it was an organic development, with Melissa and I not super eager to try to race our boat, a forecast of light winds, and a desire to just chill out. But the day of the race dawned with 10+ knots of wind that started building. While ashore with the family for some Hobie Cat racing, Noonsun texted us and asked if we were going to do the race on Atlas and, if so, offering to come aboard to help race the boat. With that offer and some gorgeous winds, Melissa and I decided that we should just say yes and we promptly entered the race.

Two hours later we had everyone aboard and charging towards the start line at 9.5 knots under full sail in 20+ knots of wind. Guys, I can’t tell you how THRILLING this was. It was an absolute rush!!!! I was scared shitless, Ted was on the bow(s) shouting at the other boats “THESE ARE OUR HOMES!!!!” as over 30 boats (fellow cruisers) converged at the line, testosterone in over supply, while skills were in short(er) supply. For those of you who race, it was like rounding the windward mark in a tight group and hoisting the spinnaker in big breeze, knowing things would be on the edge but if you nail it you’re going to have a great ride. And we nailed it. Fucking NAILED it! We hit the line at full speed, on time and without getting hit. WHAT A THRILL!

From there it was a screaming reach in 22+ knots of wind towards a narrow pass through a reef. The pucker factor was high! We needed to stretch out on the fleet in order to make the “rounding” easier and keep our wind clear. And we did! Our two families were absolutely crushing the boat handling. Melissa was on main, Amie and Lucy were on headsail and barber haul trim, Ted was reminding everyone that THESE ARE OUR HOMES, I was doing my breathing exercises, Scout and Oliver were on tactics and navigation, keeping us away from reefs and other boats, while Ben and Elliott were placidly playing lego. All of this was happening while we were barreling along at 10 knots of boat speed. WHAT A THRILL!

At the rounding, we furled up our genoa and unfurled our code zero. And we nailed that too! What a team!!!! It was incredible! The Lawsons and Hills, having never sailed together before, having never raced our St. Francis before, but having done lots of individual racing, were absolutely clicking as a team. What a thrill! We were stretching away from the fleet, having bid farewell to the handful of small carbon sport multihulls who planned away at 20+ knots in a froth of saltwater spray, and running with a 62′ Beneteau Oceanis and an extremely well sailed, lightweight 42′ “cruising” cat with big boards. The next move was to now jibe the code zero, in 22+ knots of wind, neck and neck with two other boats, with a big pack of others charging down behind us, ready to overtake on any mistake. Holy shit this is fun! Holy shit it’s windy! HOLY SHIT, WE’RE GOING FAST!

How did we do? We CRUSHED it! Melissa stayed on main, Ted was on furl, Amie on leeward trim, and Lucy, 13-year-old Lucy, on windward trim. Ted and Amie—Mom and Dad—would be handing off a huge code zero to their eldest daughter through the jibe. Brian “I Have To Pay The Bill If This Doesn’t Go Well” Hill, hoping things went well. I jibed the boat, Melissa nailed the jibe of the main, Amie kept the code zero full and pulling through the jibe as Ted adroitly furled the code zero enough to clear the headstay and BOOM, without any communication, Lucy was pulling the code zero back out before I even had the chance to say “go.” She nailed it!!! YES, LUCY, YES!!!!!!!!! We were just steaming along, jibed our house like a boss and PASSED the boat in front of us. We were all hooting and hollering like crazy people. Can it be more fun than this?!?!?!?!?

We ended up finishing the race in two hours, the 7th boat across the line (this includes the sport boats) and not losing to a single boat that we should have beat. In fact, we beat some boats that we shouldn’t have. The fact that we did this in our home, not having offloaded dinghies, sails, ground tackle, etc prior to the race was so satisfying. And then there was the friendship aboard. I continue to believe that no more fun can be had than racing with friends aboard. Our two families came together and achieved something that couldn’t have been done individually. We did it at a high level and had an absolute blast doing so. Our top speed was 10.3 knots, top wind seen was 26 knots, the windward hull was higher than the leeward hull, we were racing our Marine RV!!!! This will, forever and always, be one of my most cherished experiences. I can go down my list naming some of the most thrilling and fun moments of my life, and this will be one of them. What an experience, what an accomplishment, what wonderful, wonderful friends we have found in Noonsun. What a jibe, Lucy!!!!!!

So, yes, things have turned around for us. The highs are higher, the lows are lower, and we are currently in the groove. We’ve spent the last five days meeting new friends, seeing tons of kid boats, racing Hobie Cats with my boys and thanking our lucky stars for this incredible adventure we’re on. We have a plan, we know we’ll be in New Zealand in November and Cape Town in November of ’23. In between we’ll have time back home with family and friends, friends visiting us in New Zealand, the meeting of new friends along the way and a world to discover. Life is good.