Tao's 2012 Cruising Plans

Cruise Track Overview:

Several people with whom we’ve spoken have asked how far it is to Australia and where we will be stopping between Hawaii and there. When we provide the names of the islands we hope to stop at we often meet blank stares. In an attempt to share our plans with everyone interested, we’ve made the above basic map outline of our planned cruise track, which will inevitably be reworked as we go. Our longest mileage passage will be right out of the gates (Hawaii really is all by itself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean) between Kona and Fanning Atoll of the Republic of Kiribati (pronounced kiribas). We hope to spend a couple weeks there catching some surf, meeting the community, and then watching for a weather window to head south to the Northern Cook Islands. If it is not too far up wind, we hope to make Pehnryn Atoll and then sail SW toward Suvarrov Atoll. Approximately 2 months after setting sail from Hawaii, we hope to reach the US Territory of American Samoa to re-provision. Shortly after, we will continue west in the archipelago to enjoy the independent nation of Western Samoa. From there, it will be on to Tonga, a Kingdom of 170 islands, followed to the west by Fiji, an independent republic consisting of 332 island and islets. Having heard stories of the multitude of beautiful protected anchorages only a day sail from each other, it is in Tonga and Fiji that we hope to do the bulk of this season’s cruising. Finally, around October we plan to make our way to New Calendonia and hopefully visit the Isle de Pines in time to await a safe weather window to make our final (and second longest) passage to Brisbane, Australia. In total, this proposed cruise track is nearly 4,500-nm of sailing over a 7-month period. We estimate that we will be sailing approximately 1/3 of this time and at anchor or exploring ashore for the remaining 2/3s.

Background to our decision:

Always attempting to keep open to whatever comes up, we’ve been steadily working toward several options since we landed in Hawaii last June. We have tossed around several ideas, including:

1. putting Tao on the hard in Hawaii and starting a yoga studio/land life on the Big Island,
2. sailing or shipping Tao back to the mainland and then Mexico where we could reasonably keep her on the hard while we transition back to a land life, and
3. selling Tao (which pains me to even write let alone think about seriously) in Hawaii, or California, or Mexico and move on to our next adventures.

What kept coming up is that neither of us is ready to let go of the sailing dream and lifestyle just yet. We've put so much into it and are so close to that lingering dream of the idyllic “gentle” South Pacific... There are many challenges that we face daily in this lifestyle that will not work for us in the long term (i.e., daily fear of survival, limited refrigeration, no showers, no income). But, it is easy enough for us to put up with those things for the opportunity to enjoy one more beautiful season of unparalleled cruising through otherwise inaccessible Oceania in our well-honed, perfect-for-us, Tao.

The next question is from there to where, New Zealand or Australia? Well, they are both amazing places that we want to see. NZ has been our “dream destination” since before we bought the boat. However, the reality is that even northern NZ is far enough south to greatly increase the possibiliy of encountering unfavorable heavy weather conditions. On the other hand, Brisbane is still far enough north to be located within the tradewind dominated region. Of course, the description of our planned cruise track never seems to be enough, as most people follow up with the question, “So, what then?” Well, we have realized that we are downwind, fair weather cruisers, and like to linger in areas once we get there. Therefore, we do not want to sail against winds or through typhoons to get Tao back around the Pacific to where we started. Nor do either of us want to continue to sail west through pirate infested waters or push through long passages rushing by exotic lands for a “quick” circumnavigation. In addition, we both have other hopes and dreams to pursue that require land based lives in the not-too-distant future. So, our current answer is that there is no better place for Tao to find her next adventure than Australia. The market is good and the sailors are adventurous. We have not quite come to terms with that eventuality yet; instead we are focusing on the borrowed season of cruising before us that having that end will allow. Or maybe we'll have her shipped back from Australia to Mexico. Though, we have always promised to do our best not to own a boat that just sits and grows old, unused…

Another difficult cruising reality is that traveling with pets, though completely worth it, is not easy. If you can imagine, it is even more difficult to get a pet into Australia or NZ than Hawaii- to the tune of 6-months required kitty jail time no matter how much preparatory paper work is done. The combination of the front end work and quarantine time on the back end are unacceptable to all of us. For a short while we discussed having Grizzly stay with a friend in Hawaii while we journey down to Australia, and then having her shipped directly (from rabies-free area to rabies-free area) with only a 30-day quarantine upon arrival in Australia. But, that didn't settle well with us. Although nearly ready to throw in the sailing towel if our feline crew couldn't come along, the idea of a finite limit to the trip made it nearly palatable, as we can chalk it up as merely “being away from Griz for a few months.” With her Gramum's offer of Shangrila-de-Judy care, Grizzly will likely be much more comfortable in a non-moving home.

These are the sacrifices we make to live this charmed lifestyle. All of that and more thought went into our current season's cruising plans. Hopefully, the above map will satiate some curiosity and give you all an idea of what we're thinking. As always, we have no date for throwing off the docklines (because that's the way we roll), but we hope to start our sail south sometime between April 15 and May 15, 2012. Before we can go, several looming projects must be completed, and we will fill you in on those as they happen.