Here is a collection of old articles and recent blog posts.
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Terrors and Magic of the Tasman Sea
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Appetizer As always we were checking the weather for days before setting off. Eventually the forecasted variable (light) winds looked OK and I was pleased when Neptune commented: “It is not going to be a fast passage”. He estimated 1200 miles in 12 days, April 1st for our arrival! With light to moderate winds, flattish…
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Kissing the Land in Nelson, NZ
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Dear Friends, I usually write every 6 months, but this cannot wait. Before setting off from Hobart I sent you this: We are both very much looking forward to our Tasman Sea crossing to Nelson, New Zealand. The sea with its infinite cleansing powers should wash away all that earth life brings. The simple, pure,…
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Amazing Scotland – Summer 2024
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Despite having the most wonderful time with so many friends in the UK and Croatia, there was something about land that is corrupt. “Boats and people rot in the harbours.” Being away from it all, escaping into an unknown blue universe was an elixir fix I needed the most. I said to Neptune: “Get me…
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Atlantic Crossing
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Linda decided to fly to Europe instead of sailing across the Atlantic as it was her perfect opportunity to spend some time with family and friends. Linda wasn’t happy about me sailing single handed across the Atlantic in Kokachin on my own, but I was. The answer seemed to be to find out if my…
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¥ € $ , ¥ € $, ¥ € $ – Florida
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It is nearly 6 months since my last update with many miles under Kokachin’s wake. Our 3 months sejour in Florida could not have been more different from Newfoundland wilderness, a kingdom of nature, where isolation and peace reigned. The only spot to anchor in Stuart was under the private jets flight path where a…
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New York! New York!
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Our last anchorage in Canada was a small desolate island (Cape Negro Island) at the very Southern tip of Nova Scotia, the big lighthouse offshore was shining its light on us. Not a soul in sight, just some scattered remnants of a dilapidated cottage buried under thorny bushes, traces of past life. With a deep…
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Towards Newfoundland
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To my mind a good cruise should have an objective, a destination, but much of the pleasure is in the journey towards it. My step daughter lives in Newfoundland so that was a good reason to go there, quite apart from it being an interesting cruising ground. There is no cruise without a boat and…
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Newfoundland Challenge
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It has been nearly four months since my last update from Lunenburg – our port of arrival in Canada, Nova Scotia late in May. My challenge now is how to summarise it well,and not to bore you with the details. There is a lot I wish to tell, and consequently, I did not manage to…
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Caribbean Intermezzo
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Thank you to many of you who responded to my vivid description of our episode across the Atlantic. Here is our next instalment. We arrived in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada just a few days ago. It is cold but magically beautiful and peaceful. If you wonder why North (and not South), our sailing route is…
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New Year’s Party on Deck – Boom, Batten, Boom !
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As always there is something to tell! We enjoyed Las Palmas, its busy port, accessible anchorage and an interesting old and new town. Despite its attractions we set off pretty soon. Nine hundred miles south lie the Cape Verde islands, which provided a refreshing difference with its African feel. Palmeira, on Sal, was fun. It’s…
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Big Blue at Last !
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I hope that your Summer / Winter has been good and you are looking forward to a new season. You might have been wondering where we were during this time of absence and how it is going with Kokachin. Here is our well overdue update. It was not easy to summarise 6 months of a…
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Delivering My New Baby
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Oryx was up for sale and my New Zealand visa was about to expire so I needed to find a new home. An internet search for junk-rigged boats for sale brought up Raggedy Edge, a Pearson 367 lying in Florida. She appeared to be in good condition, was a suitable size, had lots of equipment,…
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Roger’s First Ocean Passage
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By: Pete, Roger and Linda Skipper: Pete We left Neiafu (Tonga) on the 7th November with an ESE wind force 4 to 5, perfect weather with the sun shining. The first days run of 157 miles. This good weather continued to Minerva Reef where we anchored for one day. We left Minerva reef on the…
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Oryx’s Wild Horses
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When I joined Oryx, I did not realise that she would be such a head turner. Everywhere we go, we have numerous visitors who want to know about the boat and its unusual aero junk rig. Even Polynesian TV accosted us, wanting to know more and filming us as we were anchoring on our arrival…
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French Polynesia
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In the middle of June we left Whangarei in New Zealand and after clearing out from Marsden Cove, we set sail in a fresh SW F6. Once clear of the channel we bore away past Bream Head for French Polynesia. I say ‘we’ as Linda Crew-Gee, a Croatian Londoner and fellow junk enthusiast, had joined…
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Oryx Sails Further East
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South Africa, Mauritius, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand I left Durban at the end of July, single-handed again and very much alone. I had rather lost my sense of direction and was not sure where to go. I couldn’t face continuing on to Madagascar and it seemed wrong to retreat back to the Atlantic. In…
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A Short Passage to Uruguay
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Awarded the Founder’s Cup by RCC Our 180 days in Brazil were up so we cleared out of Angra dos Reis for Uruguay, 1000 miles to the south-west. Before leaving Brazil we sailed over to Enseada de Sito Forte, on Ilha Grande, where a beach bar kindly runs a hose of spring water out to…
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“Oryx Odyssey” – by Carly
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Pete and Carly sailed away on Oryx from the UK in 2012. Carly diligently captured their voyaging in her blog (see the links) until her tragic disappearance at sea in 2015. Words are not enough to express Pete’s profound pain for the loss of his much loved and infinitely missed wife. By saying: “I wished…
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Rios Paraná and Paraguay
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For someone who dislikes motoring it may seem a little perverse to attempt to go a long way up the rivers Paraná and Paraguay, but the prospect of being able to travel 1,000 miles into the centre of a continent without taking the masts down was irresistible. My only source of information was the Admiralty…
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The Jester Challenge
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By Pete Hill – 2006 Pete received the Inaugural Jester Medal, which is awarded by the Ocean Cruising Club, at theirdiscretion, for an outstanding contribution to the art of singlehanded sailing. Whilst browsing through a Classic Boat magazine in a supermarket in Bermuda, I came across an article about the Jester Challenge to be held…
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Klingons on the Starboard Bow
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The Founder’s Cup by RCC was awarded for this cruise. After the previous year’s disaster at Staten Island, China Moon retreated to Brazil where I built stronger rudders and a cuddy at the forward end of the cockpit to give much needed shelter. In November I sailed singlehanded back down to Argentina and spent Christmas…
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Make Do and Mend
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This is the cruise for which the Juno’s Cup was awarded by RCC. We beat into Bahia Aguirre against 40 to 50 knot winds and when we left it was almost calm. We had to motor for nearly an hour before the breeze filled in from the southwest. These conditions are about par for the…
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China Moon – Maiden Voyage
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I can’t honestly say that China Moon was in all respects ready for sea but, after three years building her in South Africa, it was time to leave, a view the lenient immigration authorities wholeheartedly agreed with. The idea for China Moon first germinated after reading about Dragon Wings, a 34ft catamaran with a junk…
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A Passage South
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Cruising seems to be feast or famine. After the non-stop conviviality of the splendid RCC Azores Meet, we now planned to spend nearly three months on our own, sailing down to Cape Town with only a short stop in Brazil to have a break and replenish our water and supplies of fresh food. On 3…
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Meta Ursa Incognita
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This cruise was awarded Juno’s Cup by RCC. Annie and I crossed the Atlantic to the West Indies for the winter in 1996 and sailed up to Nova Scotia from the Virgin Islands the following April. When we arrived in early May, we were a little surprised to find it frosty and that all the…
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A Penguin on the Foredeck
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This is the cruise for which the RCC Challenge Cup and the Goldsmith Exploration Award were presented. It was with some trepidation that we sailed from Stanley in the Falkland Islands, outward bound for the Antarctic. Our original plan had been to visit South Georgia and then sail on to Cape Town. In the winter,…
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Badger to Beaver and Back
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We don’t usually take crew along on our cruises, but Steve Spring is an old friend and he expressed a desire to visit the Falkland Islands. He thought it unlikely that he would ever get there in his own boat and so the arrangements were made. Steve lives in Ohio and, after trying several travel…
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South to Stanley
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The cruise for which the RCC’s Romola Cup was awarded. Although we had intended to leave England directly after the Beaulieu Meet, it was not until 26 September that we managed to sail from Falmouth. A minor overhaul of Badger’s motor had turned into a major re-engine job, when the cost of repairs turned out…
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Inter Coastal Waterways – BVI
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Pete & Annie Hill We spent some time in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there we’ve been working our way south. At present we are in St. Michaels. We stayed around a few days and then set off South. It was very cold and we had ice on the dinghy in the mornings. We decided to…
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North to Uummannaq
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It was either Greenland or Greece; we hadn’t decided just where to go for our summer cruise. Annie, who dislikes being cold, wet and frightened, felt that Greenland would give her too much of all three; I reminded her that ‘strenuousness is the path of immortality’. She wasn’t impressed. However, we had the good fortune…
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Cuban Coffee
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Pete and Annie Hill sailed Badger from the Solent to the Caribbean via the Algarve and the Azores, re-crossing the Atlantic to visit family in Scotland and thence to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The return journey to Warsash nonstop from Limfiord was marred by a F 9 gale in the German Bight during which Annie…
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In and Out of Brittany
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Having laid up Badger while in Falmouth, we decided to find a pocket cruiser for weekend sailing, in order to explore the creeks in the area and to keep our sanity. The boat we found was a Westcoaster 20, designed by Cmdr. Rayner and built by the Beacon Boat Co. of cold moulded plywood, in…
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Missee Lee – Westcoaster
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Annie and Pete Hill are now set for embarkation on their next sea-going adventure and far from being laid up and at work full time in Falmouth they have been clocking up the miles in their Westcoaster, Missee Lee. Since we came back to England in June 1987, we’ve managed to keep ourselves occupied. Based…
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Badger – Shoal Water Cruising
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In the Caicos and the Bahamas the water is crystal clear and most of one’s navigation is what the Americans describe as “Eyeball”. This was just as well because our echo sounder chose to pack in two days before our arrival in the Turks. Our first anchorage was in Cockburn Harbour, which we shared with…
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Badger Scotland to Canaries
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The week before we left La Palma we had the most appalling weather there. Due to the way moorings were laid for local boats, we were all anchored so that we tended to lie across the wind. The anchorage was extremely crowded, as Sou’westerlies were still prevailing, with, as yet, no sign of the Trades.…