Spending another year in New Zealand was not a hardship. David’s two big projects, deck repair and mast refurb, were accomplished and with a new mainsail and yankee, we were looking for an extensive celebratory adventure. Our brief time on New Zealand’s South Island the previous year had only whet our imaginations and appetites for more. A circumnavigation of the whole country seemed like a great idea.
Read MoreThe Kingdom of Tonga is like no other place in the South Pacific. The “Friendly Islands” as Captain Cook called them, became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and is the only remaining monarchy in the Pacific. There is a strong sense of pride in heritage, family and culture. There are no McDonalds nor Burger Kings and they seem not to have suffered from this lack of world-renowned commercial fast foods. When we arrived from Niue and tied up to the Q-dock in Neiafu waiting for the officials to check us in, we could sense a palpable difference. This was authentic South Pacific.
Read MoreBelieve it or not, though crossing the South Pacific seems idyllic, it has its good days and its bad. The weather can be unpredictable with local squalls, big wind bursts and heavy downpours. Our ~600nm sail from Bora Bora to Penrhyn, the northernmost of the Cook Islands, was bumpy, but fast.
Read MoreHi there and welcome to Just A Little Further!
We are David and Marcie Lynn and we've lived aboard our Liberty 458 cutter-rigged sailboat since 2000.
What began as an urge to travel slowly and economically at our own pace ended up an adventure of a lifetime.
Well, here we are ... nearly 90,000 miles under the keel, 5 continents, 5 Great Southern Capes, 36 countries and almost two decades later, still taking one passage at a time and going just a little further.
