How it all unfolded.
What made us decide to throw caution to the wind, and put everything into a boat, and set off on what we hoped would be the adventure of a lifetime? It’s pretty hard to say really, there was no epiphany, nor were there years of dreaming and planning. We had seen a few blogs and you-tube videos of couples and families sailing around the world, I had grown up with yachts small and large, and we both love exploring, adventure and we wanted to share it with our young kids! It was time for a change.
I have always had a few yachts on my trade-me watchlist, along with waterfront properties in the backwaters of NZ. The yacht was the cheaper option, and it could take us further. Moon River was the first yacht we looked at, we checked out a few more, and always seemed to compare them back to her. We love her, she is beautiful, strong, reliable and a great family cruiser, also she was within budget!!
The loose plan was to live aboard, sail as often as we could, figure out whether it suited us, and save some money for an epic voyage. Once baby 4 arrived to fill the last spare berth we found that boat life was really suiting us, we had 2 amazing long summer holidays cruising the Great Barrier, the Bay of Islands, Whangaroa Harbour and the Winterless North - we were hooked. The following winter we put plans in motion to set sail for the Pacific Islands. There was a LOT to do, we needed to get Moon River and ourselves up to CAT1 (suitable for offshore sailing) standard. Moon River had spent most of her 40 years offshore, sailing the Pacific Islands, up to Indonesia and back again. So we just needed to make sure all the on-board systems were back up to scratch, throw in some modern electrics, replace the standing rigging, install satellite weather and communications and get all the required safety equipment.
To gain some much needed experience, Richie crewed on a number of different boats in Auckland Harbour during the winter race series, and helped Emmanuel along with his 12 year old son Max return Hotuko II, a beautiful Dufour back to New Caledonia (they are such beautiful people, lifelong friends, and Emmanuel is our sailing mentor - more on this family when we get to New Caledonia). Richie has a blog here about the passage.
We both completed an offshore medic first aid course, and a sea survival course. These are both required for CAT1 certification, but also completing them makes sense to help ensure you are as prepared as possible for whatever nature throws at you in the open ocean! Upon completion of these courses I felt pretty scared. I wondered if I could handle life at sea with 4 young boys and the responsibility that comes with it, I wasn’t sure if I could use a skin stapler to close one of their wounds, or set a broken bone, part of me was terrified about sailing out into the middle of the ocean, days from land. Other courses completed over the previous years included VHF Marine Operator, Coastal Skipper and Diesel mechanic.
As the months swept by the to-do list got bigger, we had to re-arrange our Auckland lives, figure out how to home-school, learn a lot about boat maintenance and preparation, research our destinations, and somehow figure out what supplies we needed for 6 months away from home. This included food, drinks, toiletries, household products, boat and engine supplies/spares, medication, first aid the list was quite overwhelming, a logistical nightmare. The plan was to be pretty much self sufficient and rely only on trading for fresh produce, and the occasional re-stock of basic items when necessary.
It was a surreal experience, planning for a voyage that never really felt like it would happen, the idea of sailing into the open ocean en-route to another country was something that only happened in movies, books, online and was very hard to mentally prepare for. We signed up to be part of a Rally, which was a group of 35 boats leaving Opua, NZ together headed to Tonga and the rest is history!!