Sailing Adventures of Mai Tai

It is already February and we had hoped to be in the Mediterranean by now!! That was the plan when we left Kenya last September, to be in Turkey for Christmas, safely tucked away in a marina, where we could weather out the freezing cold Mediterranean winter.  It seems there have been a lot of nasty storms this year, so

Merry Christmas from Sudan! When we left Kenya in the middle of September we were headed directly for Djibouti, then up the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, into the Med in plenty of time for Christmas. We even had a marina booked for November in Tunisia. However, our detour to Oman to repair our engine took up a month

Now, safely anchored in Djibouti, we take a look back at our month spent in the charming country of Oman. It was during our recent stay in Zanzibar and Kenya that I first learned a bit more about Oman. I began to read books about how Oman had been the centre of the world trading routes for thousands of years,

Before leaving Kenya, we were so busy preparing Mai Tai for this trip north, plus visiting more of the fascinating areas around Kilifi, that we did not manage to get a final post out of our adventures in this wonderful country. As soon as we arrived in Port Salalah, in Oman, we first wanted to get the blog posted of

After 2 weeks at sea, with no sight of land, nothing but ocean in every direction, we sail through a dense fog, and arrive at the giant commercial port of Salalah, in Oman. This is a massive container port that can handle 6 to 8 container ships at any one time, each around 200 to 300 metres in length, all

Before leaving Zanzibar, we wanted to spend time also visiting the northern part of Pemba Island, so we anchored off the small town of Wete to find a driver to show us around.  Here, we will complete our Immigration and Customs clearance to go to Kenya. We have received our visas for Kenya online, so the last thing we need

ZANZIBAR Trying to complete our circumnavigation during this Covid Global Pandemic has given us several major issues to contend with that we hadn’t planned on. Weather systems determine when we can move from place to place, especially when making ocean passages, but now with travel restrictions and border closures that can change daily, planning our onward journey becomes even more

After 14 months “stuck” in the beautiful Western Sumatra islands of Nias, Tello and the Mentawai’s, it is now time for us to say goodbye to some of the wonderful people we met there, and finally move on.  Our visas are due to expire in June and the SE trade winds, that we have been waiting for, are filling in

I have to open with a big “Bravo” to Team New Zealand winning the Americas Cup.  It seemed incredible to be able to watch live coverage of the racing from our remote anchorage here in the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra.  We could only imagine the vibes back in New Zealand, on the water, from all the vantage points over the

Since our last blog, when we were busy getting Mai Tai all fixed and ready to leave for the next part of our circumnavigation,  Christmas came and went.  Suddenly, I realise that we are already at the end of January. We are fortunate that we are allowed to travel within Indonesia, at least in this region of Indonesia.  Plus we