Fromthehelm

Welcome to our May edition of Cruise News! I hope you love the new layout and format as much as I do! Our designer Tara has done a fantastic job!

I haven't quite been firing on all cylinders for the last few months At Christmas time I was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell non-Hodgkin Lymphoma - a type of blood cancer. It is very treatable, and I've had 5 sessions of chemo already My doctor is very happy with my progress and I should make a complete recovery soon I hope!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to personally attend all our Pacific Rally pre-departure events going on at present, however, Cecile and Gemma and all our wonderful rally business partners have lined up an incredible program of fun activities for everyone, and we’ve covered off all the important content in our online training webinars. I’ll be managing everything else going on remotely from the couch at home in Christchurch but sadly missing out on all the fun

Last weekend at the Boat Works on the Gold Coast. We had a fabulous program with wine tastings from Greenskin Wines, Sea Shanties - a singalong presented by Paul Browning one of the rally participants, Richard & Shona from PowerWincher came all the way from Tasmania to do a demonstration of their fabulous electric winch handle, The Yacht Sales Co hosted an incredible morning tea, Australian Border Force did a briefing of what happens during the clearance process, Henri Lloyd had a pop-up shop with some gorgeous sailing clothing, Dazmac talked about the importation & exporting process for Australian vessels, Fabien from Rocna did a talk on Anchoring techniques, Wendy from Marine Medical Solutions hosted a marine first aid session, Multihull Central hosted a fabulous BBQ lunch, Chris from Seaspray Marine talked about how to care for your boat while you’re in the tropics and Melissa from Deck Hardware gave a great talk on boat maintenance

This weekend the program continues at Marsden Cove in Whangārei and also at the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua. We’ve got parties, weather briefings, Sail Repairs at sea, a lesson on deep sea fishing, coffee catch ups, sessions with Customs, updates from Nawi & Vuda Marinas, the Boatyard in Vava’u, an Island Party, kids get-togethers, a BBQ with Seapower, lessons on Sail Repairs at Sea with North Sails, boat maintenance tips, a provisioning seminar, bus rides into town, a visit to Omata winery for pizza, a tour of the OC Tenders factory, a Henri Lloyd fashion show, lessons in trimming sails, Citizens of the Sea training for those participating in this awesome environmental project, tips on buying & selling boats, Maritime NZ will be around to help with issuing IVC certificates for the NZ vessels going offshore, dinners and music!

Rally participants also get to tap into some incredible discounts from our rally partners too - you can quickly recoup your rally entry fee by taking advantage of all these great deals!

When they arrive in the Islands, our local partners have got all kinds of welcome events and get togethers planned for them too.

Once they get underway we will also be launching our Sail South to New Zealand and Go West to Australia offerings for those who are already in the Pacific but would like to join in the fun along the way! More about that coming next month !

If you’re heading up to the Islands I hope you have a safe and enjoyable passage, I look forward to hopefully seeing you along the way!

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Choose from Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, New Zealand or Australia

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Yachts and Powerboats welcome

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