Even with a bad weather forecast and 25 to 35 knots of wind the whole time we were there, we absolutely loved Fulaga or as we dubed it "beautiful island".

This place is absolute paradise.

If we had to pick one place we would like to go back to it would be at the top of our list. Hopefully one day when the world has gotten back to normal, or a new normal, we can charter a boat and visit this place again. With better weather hopefully!

What makes Fulaga particularly amazing is that there are no Hotels, no airport and pretty much no access to this island. It is far from mainland Fiji and only gets a boat delivering supplies once a month (weather permitting). It feels like a priviledge to visit this place and it really is. Most of the lagoon is about 5-8m deep depending on the tide, which makes it a lovely place to snorkle around. We sadly didnt get a chance to do much of that due to the high wind but we still had a wonderful time.
We also met Humberto and his mom Tilly who were truly inspiring and realized that when you really want something nothing can stop you and you can always find a way. If you want to find out more about Humberto and Tilly here is a link to a blog post about them. https://www.sailingcalypso.com/never-too-old/

It has been almost two years since we sailed to Fiji and I am only now finally finishing the videos. Life has caught up with us and we are now "Landlubers" as they say. The kiddos are going to school, we are looking to buy a house and as you all know we have put SeaBean on the market.

Fiji was an amazing place to sail around even though none of our charts were acurate which made for some interesting "over land sailing" in some places.

This is also where we said goodbye to our friends on Neverland, Sempre Due and then Caramba as the first two were heading towards Australia while Caramba had to be in NZ before a certain date for insurance reason.

This is also where we found our favorite place on earth so far. We got stuck in Fulaga for a few weeks with non stop 25-30 knots of wind and still found it to be the most beautiful place. Maybe one day we will get to sail there again.

Ha'apai group or the "Happy Group" as we renamed it had some pretty terrible anchorages but all of that was totally forgotten once we got to swim with whales.

Nat, from Neverland, and I got beyond lucky when we got to hang around a mom and baby humpback whale not once but twice in a row. It is a moment I will never forget.
James, the kids and I also got to see a competitive pod which was really impressive. These guys were huge and making their own counter waves almost like a submarine coming to the surface and going against the waves. With our dinghy in full throttle we could barely keep up with them. They were splashing each other and almost jumping on one another, they were also really loud and somewhat scary in their aggressiveness. I wish we had the drone with us so we could have seen it from above because with the distance you are supposed to keep from the whales the camera/GoPro just doesn't work.

As always we had a lot of BBQ's on the beach and found loads of pretty shells. We also celebrated birthdays and enjoyed the last of Tonga before setting sails for Fiji.

Our sail down to Tonga turned out quite eventful, espesially the last 4 hours of it. We were sailing/bashing into the wind and waves before safely making it to Niafu before the storm.

The Vava’u group of Tonga turned out to be a beautiful place with the most transparent sea since Bonaire and beautiful beaches.

We also got to see whales, caves, friends and enjoy lots of fires on the beach.

Ever since opening a guide book of the South Pacific I had been dreaming of going to Samoa. Another reason for going is the fact that it seems most cruiser skip Samoa and we like to go where most people don't.

We certainly did not regret sailing to Samoa. We arrived in Apia and got sent to the Marina where for a few minutes we were worried we wouldn't find space for us or Caramba. The marina is very small with only one pontoon but after closer inspection there were two spots available.
We tied up, helped Caramba tie up and soon the kids were running around the dock with their friends on Neverland which we had finally cought up with again. Although we were meant to stay on our boat until custom and immigration arrived it seemed they didn't mind our kiddos being off, which was a relief because it is very very hard to explain to a 3 and 5 year old why they need to stay put while everyone else is running around.

After enjoying seeing everyone again we got organized and decided to rent a car the next morning and go exploring.
We only spent 4 days in Samoa as the weather was changing and it was either 4 days or possibly two weeks which would have been too long for us.
We managed to do a lot in 4 days and although it was beautiful and we would have loved to stay. American Samoa had taken a lot of the time we had planned to explore Samoa and we had to move on.

While checking out of French Polynesia we realized that Arthur's passport was expiring and we would not be able to check into the next places we would visit without getting a new one. Enter American Samoa.

We had not planed on going to American Samoa as you can't cruise around and Pago Pago harbour isn't a very nice place to stay. As soon as we had checked in we ran to the post offfice to start all the paper work to get a new passport and paid all the fees to expedite it as much as possible. The lady at the post office was the nicest person I had met. We didnt have an appointment but explained our problem and she took us in between appointments, how lovely is that.

There isn't much to be said about American Samoa as we never managed to rent a car and truly visit but there is one thing that surpised me, they are the loveliest people we have ever met. Every last one of them. In our 15 days we didn't meet a single person that wasn't lovely and helpfull.

We decided to stop in Suwarrow as it would cut the trip to American Samoa in two and we were not dispapointed. We could have stayed there for longer then 5 days.

The Rangers Motu is really lovely with a beautifull beach and swings and hammocks hanging from the trees. We didn't get to explore any other motu as the birds nest on most of them and a team of scientist and volunteer was eradicating the last of the rats on another Motu.
What we did get to do though was swim with Manta Rays and they have the coolest Manta ever here in Suwarrow as it is almost totaly black on both top and bottom. So of course we decided to name him the stealth manta!

Anyways we had an amazing time there and enjoyed talking to the rangers, scientists and volunteers. We are very happy to have been lucky enough to get to see this beautiful atoll.

Our last Island in the Societies!

When we came to Bora Bora with my mom we stayed on the western side of the island so this time we decided to go and check out the other side.
Since our boat has a deep draft we couldn't make it all the way down and had to anchor at the top. The anchorage wasn't very interesting but we were there to go and swim with Manta Rays so it didn't seem to matter.

Of the 5 times we went to check out the Manta Ray spot I am the only one that got to see one and only the one time, which was very disapointing.
Also since all the beaches on that side are private, it wasn't very fun for the kiddos as there wasn't anywhere to go and play.

After the Mantas we went back to the other side and spent some time at the one and only public beach on the south point of Bora Bora.
The water in the anchorage was clear and beautifuly inviting saddly the wind and slight current made it impossible to take the kids for a swim around the boat safely.

Before leaving Bora Bora we picked up a mooring at the yacht club and spend a few night there enjoying the pool and going back and forth to the supermarket for some last provisioning.

After leaving Huahine and chassing birds and fish the whole time we finaly make it back to our favorite Motu in Raiatea for Andrew's Birthday celebrations.

This time we also manage to make it up the river and visit the biggest Marae in French Polynesia before heading over to the boat yards to get both Caramba and SeaBean hauled out.

Last time we visited Huahine was over Christmas with my Mom. This time around was totaly different.

First off we got to hang out for a few days with Neverland, another boat with kids, who we hadn't seen in a while.

Also the little beach with the beach guardian was not pretty and the water was merky the first time we stopped there. This time around the beach and water was clear and we had a lovely time learning how to weave baskets and make coconut biscuits with the beach guardian.

I am glad we came back and got to see a different side of Huahine. It seems to be a lot nicer then during the off season!

We were so excited to once again come back to this lovely anchorage and get a chance to show it all off to our friends on Caramba.

Opunohu Bay is the perfect place. The view is breath taking and the water in the anchorage is cristal clear do to a current. There is also a lovely public beach with showers and bathrooms and a supermaket in the next bay.

Last but not least there are often daulphins in the pass and of course lets not forget the awesome grey rays that you can swim with and pet.

This time around I also got to go on an ammazing hike above the anchorage with Andrew on Caramba. The views up there were stunning and it really felt like you were on top of the world.

We will definitely miss Moorea.

There are a few wrecks in Tahiti that are worth checking out and we were excited to do just that. Finding where the Catalina aeroplane and the sunken boat where was more dificult then expected as no one could tell us where exactly it was.
By some luck (we sold one of our dive watches) I finally found someone (the person who bought our dive watch) that showed me exaclty where everything was as he had been diving around the Societies for a while.

We got to dive on both the Catalina and the sunken boat that are near the airport in Tahiti and also the famous Nordby in Raiatea. We didnt have the best conditions seeing the Norby as we only had one possible day to dive on it and it was grey and stormy. Not great visibility to say the least!

If I had to choose between the two I would definitly choose the Catalina and boat versus the Nordby. Both wrecks were just really fun to dive around and discover.

Nigel (James' Dad) visits us in Tahiti! He didn't manage to stay long enough for us to go sailing around but we managed to have a great week anyway.

It rained and rained and rained. Then it rained a bit more. It's not called rainy season without a reason!

Thankfully my Mum brought with her some wonderful company and a bag full of new things for us all to play with while hiding from the rain.

We didn't expect to visit Easter Island, it's not really on the way and it has no viable anchorages. Not great for a sailing boat... When we arrived in Tahiti we found out that there are fairly cheap flights! So that's what we did... Left SeaBean in Tahiti and flew back east to Rapa Nui for a week.