Welcome to Sailing Navasana!
We are Chet & Jessy sailing around the world on a Nautitech 46 Open performance catamaran sharing the highlights and lowlights as well as some tips and tricks that hopefully someone might find helpful. Hoping not to be an insomnia cure 🙂
Running out of food we made a dash to the famous Hamilton island. It was pretty quaint, like a tiny little country with its own rules. Everyone uses golf carts to get around. We enjoyed some pool action and a date night! The marina left my wallet on life support so could only stay one night 🙂
We also visited Nara Inlet to check out some ancient aboriginal cave paintings. The cave is apparently the oldest Indigenous site on the whole of Australia’s East Coast. It was pretty cool to see.
Nov 4
Running out of food we made a dash to the famous Hamilton island. It was pretty quaint, like a tiny little country with its own rules. Everyone uses golf carts to get around. We enjoyed some pool action and a date night! The marina left my wallet on life support so could only stay one night 🙂
We also visited Nara Inlet to check out some ancient aboriginal cave paintings. The cave is apparently the oldest Indigenous site on the whole of Australia’s East Coast. It was pretty cool to see.
It was amazing to swim with a massive Māori wrasse with huge blue lips. Going to get that colour lipstick for Jessy 😉 Wait till the end of the reel to see why this place is called Manta Ray bay!
Nov 1
It was amazing to swim with a massive Māori wrasse with huge blue lips. Going to get that colour lipstick for Jessy 😉 Wait till the end of the reel to see why this place is called Manta Ray bay!
We have been on a good wicket with our first week in the Whitsundays 😉 Sunny weather everyday, beautiful beaches and lots of sealife! Only downside it is the stinger season and we have to cover ourselves from head to toe to protect us from deadly jellyfish. Everything is bigger in Australia including the fish! Lots of turtles, maori wrasses, stingrays and even a dugong. Even stumbled across a wallaby on Hayman island!
Oct 29
We have been on a good wicket with our first week in the Whitsundays 😉 Sunny weather everyday, beautiful beaches and lots of sealife! Only downside it is the stinger season and we have to cover ourselves from head to toe to protect us from deadly jellyfish. Everything is bigger in Australia including the fish! Lots of turtles, maori wrasses, stingrays and even a dugong. Even stumbled across a wallaby on Hayman island!
Mackay is apparently the Platypus capital of the world so we had to do go see them in the wild. They are very shy, had to wait almost 2 hours for a couple to finally appear. We saw several platypuses feeding, which they do by diving down, storing insects and invertebrates in their cheek pouches and then coming up for air and to chew. Jessy now wants one as a pet onboard Navasana, at least we will get rid of our insects 😉
Oct 22
Mackay is apparently the Platypus capital of the world so we had to do go see them in the wild. They are very shy, had to wait almost 2 hours for a couple to finally appear. We saw several platypuses feeding, which they do by diving down, storing insects and invertebrates in their cheek pouches and then coming up for air and to chew. Jessy now wants one as a pet onboard Navasana, at least we will get rid of our insects 😉
G’Day Oz! So glad to be finally here after sailing for 6 days and 1100nm. The beginning and the end of the passage had perfect reaching conditions but the middle not so much. We knew we were going to have enhanced trades of up to 24 knots in the middle but then we had a tropical low start forming above us bringing a lot of trade wind showers and squalls with winds up to 32 knots, lots of windshifts and 4 meters waves.
A couple of birds must have realized that we were a bit short handed with only two us on board doing watches and decided to join the crew. Couldn’t shoo them off for days and now the whole boat is covered in bird poop, including the sails, the mast, solar panels. Morale of the story is don’t take on crew that poop a lot 😉
Oct 17
G’Day Oz! So glad to be finally here after sailing for 6 days and 1100nm. The beginning and the end of the passage had perfect reaching conditions but the middle not so much. We knew we were going to have enhanced trades of up to 24 knots in the middle but then we had a tropical low start forming above us bringing a lot of trade wind showers and squalls with winds up to 32 knots, lots of windshifts and 4 meters waves.
A couple of birds must have realized that we were a bit short handed with only two us on board doing watches and decided to join the crew. Couldn’t shoo them off for days and now the whole boat is covered in bird poop, including the sails, the mast, solar panels. Morale of the story is don’t take on crew that poop a lot 😉
It was fun sailing right through the Great Barrier Reef today. Most folks use the Hydrographic channel that big ships use but we took a different route using the Bramble Channel that was much more comfortable. With the Hydrographic channel you have the wind on the nose and you share the channel with the big ships, not so much fun. The currents can be vicious, we had nearly 5 knots with us when we arrived at 7am but had to make the 25nm to the end of the bramble channel before the tide turned at 9:51am. Not only that we had squall after squall, thank goodness for satellite charts because we couldn’t see the reefs in the rain. Needed a beer after that, and it was only 10am 😉
Oct 16
It was fun sailing right through the Great Barrier Reef today. Most folks use the Hydrographic channel that big ships use but we took a different route using the Bramble Channel that was much more comfortable. With the Hydrographic channel you have the wind on the nose and you share the channel with the big ships, not so much fun. The currents can be vicious, we had nearly 5 knots with us when we arrived at 7am but had to make the 25nm to the end of the bramble channel before the tide turned at 9:51am. Not only that we had squall after squall, thank goodness for satellite charts because we couldn’t see the reefs in the rain. Needed a beer after that, and it was only 10am 😉
Having to dodge 5 oil tankers and container ships in the middle of the ocean at 4am. Did these guys plan a meet up here or something? 😉 150 miles to enter the Great Barrier Reef!
Oct 14
Having to dodge 5 oil tankers and container ships in the middle of the ocean at 4am. Did these guys plan a meet up here or something? 😉 150 miles to enter the Great Barrier Reef!
We got up at the crack of dawn (thats why we have bags under our eyes) to sail to Australia! We are heading to Mackay to explore the Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef before sailing to Brisbane and the Gold Coast by Dec 1. Bye Bye Vanuatu, wish we could have stayed longer. Only 1100nm to go, wish us luck!
Oct 9
We got up at the crack of dawn (thats why we have bags under our eyes) to sail to Australia! We are heading to Mackay to explore the Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef before sailing to Brisbane and the Gold Coast by Dec 1. Bye Bye Vanuatu, wish we could have stayed longer. Only 1100nm to go, wish us luck!
Our final destination in Vanuatu before leaving was Peterson Bay, which has a very shallow entrance that can only be navigated at close to high tide while having a stiff drink 😉 We visited the Matevulu Blue hole, which was very blue! Apparently this blue hole provided all the water for the US Air base during World War II. Unfortunately the South Pacific convergence zone is coming down to Vanuatu bringing some English weather so time to get outta here!
Oct 9
Our final destination in Vanuatu before leaving was Peterson Bay, which has a very shallow entrance that can only be navigated at close to high tide while having a stiff drink 😉 We visited the Matevulu Blue hole, which was very blue! Apparently this blue hole provided all the water for the US Air base during World War II. Unfortunately the South Pacific convergence zone is coming down to Vanuatu bringing some English weather so time to get outta here!
Blog Posts
Setting up a Catamaran for blue water sailing
Yachting World Magazine asked me to write an article on how to setup a catamaran for blue water cruising with Nikki…
Backup Self Steering
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Atlantic Crossing Autopilot Survey
Good autopilot article from yachting world magazine based on survey of 250 boats that crossed the Atlantic last year including us….
How to get to Pink Beach in Rangiroa
The pink beach anchorage in the eastern most side of Rangiroa is one of the most beautiful anchorages we have been…
Excited to be profiled in the July issue of Latitude 38 Magazine!
We were happy to be profiled in Lat 38, I used it read it all the time when I was living…
Pacific Crossing #2 Recap
I was really excited to complete my second pacific crossing arriving in the Marquesas on the 27th of April from Panama….
Interviewed in PBO Magazine! How we selected our ideal cruising boat comparing monohulls and other cats.
In May’s edition Ali Wood, the editor asks what makes the perfect bluewater boat. We were lucky to be one of…
Featured in Practical Boat Owner Magazine! How we configured Navasana for bluewater.
Humbled to be the main feature in the April edition of Practical Boat Owner magazine! I have been reading the magazine…
Atlantic Crossing Recap, Photos & Videos!
Some quick stats from our Atlantic crossing from Las Palmas, Gran Canara to St Lucia with the ARC Days to cross:…
Downwind Reefing Setup
On Navasana we reef going downwind which is much safer and easier than bashing into big swells and waves especially in…
Safety & Emergency Preparations
Since we were planning to cross multiple oceans we wanted to make sure we were well prepared for any eventuality. We…
Quoted in Practical Boat Owner!
We got quoted in Practical Boat Owner! Love the story about Jessy getting locked in the bathroom, that didn’t quite happen…