Back in the Northern Hemisphere

We are enroute to Tarawaw Kiribati from Nanumea Tuvalu.
Crossed the equator at 19:00 UTC, 7:00 AM our time.
Very good sailing conditions, one of the more comfortable passages we have made.
We are enroute with five other boats scattered apart but we keep in contact with SSB radio.
Our plan is to spend Christmas in Kiribati with the other cruisers.

Enroute to Nanumea

We are half way (125 nm) to Nanumea.
NIce conditions, a bit lite for wind, we have sailed and motored(about 10 hrs motor last 24 hrs.)
Lauri was on watch last night and saw some kind of bio-luminescent jelly fish or something....she was impressed.
We are meeting up with a few other boats at this atoll and will wait for good wind to continue to Tarawa, Kiribati.

C

Samoa

September 28, 2015

We sailed up to Samoa(western) a four day sail, a bit wet and rough. We pulled into a marina in Apia.

The big event scheduled here, with Lauri's mom and friends Brad and Mary from Mexico flying in.

View of Apia, Samoa from our slip

Some Samoan entertainment

 

 

Weaving at the Samoan village.

 

Now off to see some of Samoa's amazing scenery!

So lucky to have my mom visit



Everyone taking photos of the waterfalls!
Thanks for coming to visit, Brad and Mary!!!



 

The big day! October 15, 2015

 Chuck and Lauri get hitched..................again....... third times the charm*

*legal

Samoan warrior announcing the wedding with Traditional blowing of the conch shell

 

Chuck in his traditional Lava Lava and local vines

 

The bride with local flowers and sarong from artist in Moorea

Traditional Samoan songs

 

We now pronounce you husband and wife.

Dinner with Mom, Brad and Mary, Sailboat's Sequoia; Jan & Karl, Erie II; Al, and Silhouette; Phil
Thanks everyone!!!

One year of cruising

We left Long Beach Oct 30, 2014

and celebrated our first year cruising in Apia Samoa

Celebrating our first year!

Tonga, impromptu wedding

August 26, 2015
We had an impromptu wedding on a 70ft Samoan sailing canoe that was visiting Neiafu Tonga.

Many of our sailing friends helped organize.

MacDuffie from s.v Kookaburra performed the ceremony.

Sandy the manager of the Mango Cafe gave away the bride.

This wedding was put together the night before, couldn't have been more wonderful.

The bridesmaids!!! 

Barefoot wedding!!!

Wonderful lunch after the ceremony

Tonga, swimming with Humpback whales

We took a commercial boat trip out to see the Humpback whales

Baby Humpback 

Momma and baby 

.

Tonga Cruisers Cricket

September 16, 2015
We had a cricket match on one of the outer islands.

A little muddy, but fun was had by all.

David from Anahata and Eve from Auntie

David, Ed and Chuck, Cricket Masters

Free Spirit anchored at an outer island.
met Dina and Malcolm from Good as Gold for lunch.

Kingdom of Tonga, Swallows Cave

A mile from the anchorage, Ray from Sea Note towed us in our kayaks

Entrance to Swallows Cave

Under the surface inside the cave, huge clusters of tiny silver fish!

Chuck swimming from the entrance

Swimming through the school of fish, so surreal!

Niue

The tiny island nation of Niue

Home to just over a thousand people.

Beautiful geology, nice people and whales in the anchorage.
We could hear the whales singing from inside our boat.

Whales in the anchorage

The cave on the way to the arch

The rugged Southern coast 

On our way to the amazing chasm and then the beautiful ocean.

Climbing into the chasm