Author: Bruce Jameson

I’m sure that’s how the song goes and just where I ended up!

Our new (refurbished) autopilot took just an amazing three days to go from London to Nuku’alofa the capitol of Tonga and there it sat waiting patiently to get uplifted (that’s airline talk for putting it onboard – don’t you just the hate the American influence!) to our waiting hands in Neiafu a short 45 minute flight. As easy as it sounds it turned out to be one hell of an effort to finally receive it. Continue reading “Down on my Knees, Begging you Please – Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga”

I guess if I were somewhat vain I might consider the dangerous middle my ever expanding stomach. It seems to me that cruising should be where we lose those additional pounds with all that hard work and sacrifice. However, it seems to be the opposite. Guess I’m not working hard enough or maybe I’m enjoying the lifestyle a little too much. No, my dangerous middle just keeps expanding to suit the moment – but, it’s not my dangerous middle I’m talking about here rather the dangerous middle section of the Pacific Ocean joining Bora Bora and the Kingdom of Tonga. Continue reading “The Dangerous Middle – passage to Tonga”

Leaving Las Perlas we were flying high, it was late afternoon and the sun was shining, the seas were flat and the breeze was nicely on the beam pushing us along around 7 knots. We were heading to Galapagos some nine hundred and fifty nautical miles away. A lot can happen during those miles and not always good! Continue reading “Flying High – passage to Galapagos”

I’m beginning to feel like a Beach Boys song of late having travelled to most of the locations listed in the song. We have now arrived in Aruba the last island in the Dutch Antilles and I guess it feels like we are about to finish our adventure in the Caribbean. Our next port of call will be the remote San Blas Islands located in the very west of the Caribbean sea but they just won’t have the feel of the Eastern Islands with all that Rasta charm. Continue reading “Aruba Jamaica ooh I wanna take ya!”

 

Rumnesia Noun: Definition; Memory loss caused by imbibing large quantities of Rum of the Caribbean type

Origin: 2015 Alcoholic liquor or spirit distilled from molasses or some other form of sugar cane product purchased from a Caribbean Rum Bar. Continue reading “Rumnesia”

Yes we are trying to keep the theme going with those catchy titles, but in this case it is rather poignant. When we purchased Toucan we were aware that there was some work to  be done to ensure her seaworthiness and as we have already spoken about we were really naïve as to how much we needed to repair replace or just remove to make our objective. So after some four months of hard labour we felt that we were as ready as we would ever be. The war cry from Di before and during this period was “I don’t want to have the sea trial on the way to the BVI’s” and my answer was “I absolutely agree with you!”  So, how did the 1500 nautical mile sea trial go? Let me tell you. Continue reading “Shake, Rattle & Roll”