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July 22, 2023
Out Chasing Stars – Page 3
Sailing Around the World – An Out Chasing Stars Presentation
You asked for it, and here it is! This is the presentation we gave at my Grandma's retirement community in Bellevue, WA on April 30, 2017, covering the first half of our sailing circumnavigation. We cover a lot of topics from how we got started and the b...
How We Set Up Our Catamaran to Sail Around The World
Over the past three years and 25,000nm, we've turned Starry Horizons, our Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 catamaran, into a true blue water sailing boat. We figured it might be helpful to do a walk-through and highlight what features are important and what optio...
62 – Hawaii: Land of Volcanoes, Beaches and Pearl Harbor
This video marks a (dare I say: triumphant?!) return to the chronicles of our world travels. After helping safely deliver s/v Julia across the Pacific, we were in no hurry to leave Hawaii, especially since neither of us had ever visited before! We spent ...
63 – Tongan Boat Yard Blues
After a long awaited return to Starry Horizons in Tonga, we immediately started re-commissioning her and discovered a serious problem. The anodes on our saildrives had completely disappeared and the saildrives had started corroding! This was something th...
64 – Adventure on Kenutu Island
With Starry Horizons back on the mend, we set out to explore a place of the Vava'u Group of Tonga we had never been before: Kenutu Island. This is one of those absolutely picturesque South Pacific Islands. It's surrounded by a reef, uninhabited with a go...
65 – Sailing to Ha’apai: A Humpback Heat Run
The time had come to explore a new part of Tonga: the Ha'apai Group. It's about a 60 mile sail to get there and along the way we got to encounter those magnificiant reason we came back to Tonga: humpback whales! We got to experience several 'heat runs' w...
66 – Nature is Freaking Lit
Our Tongan Haapai Group adventure continues as we sail to two new islands: Uoleva and Tatafa. We get to do a bit of racing, a bit of fishing and a bit of exploring. Pretty much everything you want to do in the South Pacific! Along the way we learn up cl...
67 – We Witnessed The First Breaths of a Humpback Calf!
We saved the best of Tonga's Ha'apai Group for last as we were the only humans around to witness a newborn humpback calf being helped to the surface by it's mother in order to take it's first breaths. This was an amazing instance of being in the right pla...
68 – Sailing to Fiji with No Mainsail
The time had come to finally say goodbye to Tonga (and all the humpback whales!) and set sail to Fiji. Just one problem... We couldn't use our mainsail! We've mentioned it in prior videos, but we lost the battens overboard during a storm in Neiafu after...
69 – How To Pull Off A Mid-Ocean Meet Up
What do you do when you're sailing east and your good friends are sailing past you going west? Meet up in the middle of the ocean of course! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang out with our good friends Lewis and Alyssa from s/v Quixotic as you n...
70 – We’re Officially A Sailboat Again! (Sailing To Fiji’s Lau Group)
With Starry Horizons finally all fixed up with battens in her mainsail again, we had been itching to go do a proper sail! This time it was on a passage to Vanua Balavu in the Lau Group on the eastern side of Fiji. This passage must be timed just right so...
71 – Fiji’s Bay of Islands: The Most Beautiful Place on Earth
Okay, perhaps that's a bit of hyperbole, but Fiji's Bay of Islands in Vanua Balavu is my pick for the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We had our own private anchorages, were surrounded by unique mushroom rocks, swam in stunningly blue water and even ...
72 – Sailing Vanua Balavu’s Inner Lagoon
We weren't quite done yet sailing around Vanua Balavu's Inner Lagoon. After the Oyster Rally cleared out, we sailed over to a beautiful spot called Bavatu Harbour. We had it all to ourselves and found a nice hike up to a stunning lookout back over the Ba...
Let’s do a Q&A Video!
You've got questions, we've got answers (or at least some amusing ramblings). Want to know Amy's favorite color (it's blue just FYI), why we chose to sail around the world, or more details about something on Starry Horizons? Ask away! While we're out ...
All Your Sailing Questions Answered
You asked, we answered! And man were there a lot of questions! We got questions ranging from finances (not a surprise), to relationships and even what size shoe we'd wear on the moon. We did our best to answer them all, so hopefully there's something in...
73 – A Two Day Sail to Fiji’s Fulanga
Fulanga here we come! We're sailing through the incredibly remote Lau Group in Fiji and it's about a 140nm sail from Vanua Balavu down to Fulanga at the southern end. We could do that in an overnight sail, but instead we broke things up with a 70nm sail ...
74 – Our Fijian Cultural Immersion In Fulanga
For us, when we think of Fijian culture, we always go back to our time in Fulanga. Fulanga is one of the most remote inhabited islands we've ever been to. There's no airport. There's no cruise ships. The only tourists come via sailboat. And it is abso...
75 – Sailing Across Fiji… With Hitchhikers!
Amy's family was coming to visit soon, which meant we had to say goodbye to the Lau Group and set sail across Fiji. Usually Amy and I do our passages with just the two of us, but this time, we had some hitchhikers! Alifereti and Koroi, two villagers from...
76 – Birthdays and Beachcombers in Fiji
Amy's family came to visit us in Fiji! Her mom, Lisa; step-dad, Bob; and uncle Phil joined us for a week of sailing around the Yasawa Group as part of Bob's 60th birthday celebration. We had an absolute blast with them, though I think we've been gone so ...
77 – A Fountaine Pajot Regatta to Vanuatu
The time had come to depart Fiji and this time we had a bit of company. Two other Fountaine Pajot catamarans joined us for the passage over to Port Resolution, Vanuatu. But before we could clear out of Fiji, we had to celebrate the Admiral's birthday! O...
78 – Kava and Lava in Vanuatu
After a rough passage from Fiji, we were looking forward to exploring a new country. We only ended up staying for 5 days, but Port Resolution in Vanuatu definitely didn't disappoint. The big reason for visiting was the chance to hike Mt. Yasur. Oh, and ...
79 – Cheese, Baguettes and Mexican Food??? Sailing New Caledonia
When you think of New Caledonia and other French territories, your mind immediately goes to cheese, baguettes, wine, pate and all the other French delicacies. So imagine our surprise to find a grocery store full of Mexican food! After redeeming ourselves...
80 – Sailing New Caledonia’s Southern Lagoon
Our friend Kyle visits for round 2 in the South Pacific, this time to go sailing in New Caledonia's Southern Lagoon. We'd made our way back to the main city of Noumea in order to pick him up and once he arrived, we immediately set sail out to the Amedee L...
Swapping From AGM to Lithium Batteries on a Sailboat
After 3 years of sailing on Starry Horizons, the time had come to replace our old AGM battery bank with something new. We were ready for Lithium. Doing the swap over required almost a complete re-work of our 12v electrical system in order to do things pr...
81 – Sailing to Australia: Our Fastest Passage EVER!
Turns out, sailing fast is rather fun! Who knew??? After our friend Kyle left from New Caledonia it was time to get south for cyclone season so we set sail on the passage to Coffs Harbour, Australia. And it was an absolute blast! The wind was perfect, ...
82 – Our Introduction to Australia: Exploring Coffs Harbour
This year, we chose to sail down to Australia in order to escape the South Pacific cyclone zone. And our first port of call was the beautiful Coffs Harbour. We'd arrived just before a big front rolled through that brought southerly winds, so we ended up ...
83 – Ridin’ the EAC to Sydney!
It's always nice to get a speed boost when on a passage and the East Australian Current is about as big as they get. Sailing down from Coffs Harbour to Sydney, we went out to the 100 meter depth line and started flying. The wind was from the north and we...
84 – New Years in Sydney Harbour Is Absolutely EPIC!
For the last year, we'd had one date circled on the calendar: New Year's Eve in Sydney Harbour. And we finally made it... David's family flew halfway around the world to join us for the holidays and we spent several weeks together exploring Australia. W...
85 – ‘Roo Hunting In Lake Macquarie
The next stop in our Australian Adventure takes us 40nm up the coast to Lake Macquarie. The sail was pretty easy but the entrance into the lake required us to complete our first bar crossing. These can be incredibly tricky but fortunately, Neptune decide...
86 – Motoring All the Way to the Gold Coast
It is always our preference to sail, but when faced with the choice of sailing in high southerly winds and huge swells (against the EAC) or motoring in light airs, Starry Horizons became a motor boat. We hoped that motoring would make this passage pretty ...
87 – Boat Work at The Boat Works
Starry Horizons needed a bit of TLC so we headed up to The Boat Works in Coomera for a spa day/weeks. Tops on the to-do list was a mini electrical refit to replace our AGM batteries with Lithium. This was a complicated project that was beyond our comfort...
88 – Road Trippin’ South Australia
There comes a time when you're just ready to get away from boats for a while. And after a years worth of sailing, capped off by several weeks of projects, we had reached that point. In order to recharge our batteries, we left Starry Horizons on the hard ...
89 – Driving the Great Ocean Road
Our road trip continues as we make it to the absolutely stunning Great Ocean Road. It may only be 151 miles (243km) long, but it quickly rose up the list to be one of the best drives we've ever done. Not only is it scenic, but it's got a great history to...
90 – Wet ‘n Wild in Tassie
After our (first) road trip in Australia was over, we spent a couple of days in Melbourne, enjoying big city life and hunting down the incredible artwork in the famous laneways. But in our hearts, we are boat people and we were ready to get back out on th...
91 – We’re Wilderness Explorers in the Australian Outback
Even Aussies will admit, there isn't a whole lot in the Australian Outback. But what is there, is well worth a visit. We hopped on a flight to Uluru and spent a couple memorable days being wilderness explorers. To start things off, you have to wake up r...