Sailing Adventures of Mai Tai

Exploring the Windward Isles

After our Atlantic crossing, what a fantastic welcome we got in Martinique, and now we can’t wait to go exploring more of these beautiful Islands, each one so different from the other. The geography, the history, the vegetation, the people make each island unique. We have a couple of weeks before the kids, Loic and Lauren arrive, so we will

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Crossing The Atlantic – Part 3

We finished our last blog in the Cape Verde Islands as we prepared to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. This one has been a long time coming, but we want to share our trans Atlantic adventures with you. Mai Tai was resting in a safe place at the anchorage of Mindelo, Cape Verde, while we waited for

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Crossing the Atlantic – Part 2

What an adventure this has been and so much more has happened since we posted our last blog at the end of March. We have crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in the Caribbean, already 7 weeks ago. When looking back at the photos, we realised how amazing this time has been.But let’s go back to where we left off

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Crossing the Atlantic – Part 1

We are now at our halfway point of our circumnavigation, and time to prepare Mai Tai for our next Ocean crossing and beyond, back to New Zealand. In this blog we give you a brief tour of our past 3 months. I have literally hundreds of photos, but I have selected only a handful for this blog to give some

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A Big Push West to Gibraltar

Finally Homeward Bound.Gibraltar marks the halfway point of our circumnavigation.We left NZ eight years ago in May 2018, our first stop being New Caledonia. Continuing west from there, we spent 2 fabulous years exploring Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo, then got “stuck” in Sumatra during Covid for another year. That turned out to be an incredible experience as well, by

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A Narrow Escape from Prison in Tunisia

It was lovely to arrive home to New Zealand after our week with the family in Melbourne. Special times indeed. What I love about coming home to New Zealand are the beautiful wild beaches, the bush walks, long hikes, the familiar native trees, the lovely birdsong, and hanging out with dear friends. Having reached the ripe old age of 75,

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Mai Tai Repair and Family Reunions

We are already in July 2025 and I realise we haven’t written any blogs since last November. Family reunions and major boat repairs have kept us incredibly busy. We hope this finds you all in good health and in as good spirits as we are, despite all our trials and tribulations. Our motto is to “keep smiling and keep positive

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Mai Tai Returns to North Africa

As much as we loved our time in Montenegro, we finally checked out to begin our sail south towards Malta and eventually on to Monastir, in Tunisia where we will stay for the winter. Checking out of Montenegro at Port Zelenika was remarkably quick and easy, so we were soon on our way to explore more of the Ionian Sea.

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Cruising Albania and Montenegro

What a busy couple of months we have had in this spectacular part of the world. We have had a lot of fun with old and new friends, exploring new places and immersing ourselves in different foods and cultures. We feel very blessed to be able to live this life, despite the occasional drama which we will explain later. The

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Sailing the Ionian Sea

May and June 2024It is now time to head for Greece, and this year we will sail from Malta to the Greek islands in the Ionian Sea. While studying the weather, the wind direction and strength, we decided that our best bet would be to head to the island of Kefallonia, 328 nms away to the northeast, probably a 3

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