An account of our month spent between Townsville and Cairns - on the Queensland Coast and Great Barrier Reef - and a discussion of anchoring issues.

An account of our month spent diving in the Whitsunday Islands; and a few emails answered.

Welcome to PodCastaway 2009. We're only 2 weeks into our 2009 cruising season and have progressed only about 200 miles up the coast of Queensland. But it was about time I made a podcast episode, and I'm sure you want to hear about our trips to New Zealand and Tasmania!

Recorded during our passage from Port Vila, Vanuatu, to Bundaberg,  Australia. We made stopovers at Huon Atoll and Chesterfield Reef.

This is the last Podcast of this cruise. Thanks for coming along.

We've spent six weeks in the northern Banks Islands of Vanuatu, an area less often visited than the rest. We attended the 2008 Vanualava Cultural Festival.

Before my son Nick left us after 3 months aboard, I interviewed him about his experiences.

I've finally uploaded the podcast recorded between leaving New Caledonia and arriving at Luganville in Vanuatu.

Our new cruising season has started with a 6 day passage from Bundaberg, Australia, to Koumac, New Caledonia. We arrived in New Caledonia on May 14th but only now, on a trip to Noumea, have I found the bandwidth to upload it.

Here, as promised, is the 11 minute video I made of our great whale snorkeling experience in Tonga. A 74MB download if you are interested.

The last podcast of the season, recorded during our 6 day passage from Noumea to Bundaberg. PodCastaway will be on hiatus now until we recommence cruising in April 2008.

Recorded during our passage from Fiji to New Caledonia. Includes:- lightning, 50 knot winds, an unscheduled stop in Vanuatu, the mutiny on the Bounty, and our personal backstory!

 

This is a short update recorded during two overnight hops within the Fiji group.

Recorded during our passage from Ha'apai, Tonga, to Savu Savu, Fiji.
Includes accounts of our traumatic departure from Tonga, and our awesome whale watching trip! I encoded this at 32kbps - it sounds OK (to me) and is half the size.

A short podcast recorded on our two overnight hops between Samoa and Vava'u ... and our two week sojourn in Niuatoputapu. I found bandwidth in Vava'u, so here it is.

Recorded during our passage from Bora Bora to Samoa. Part 2 of 2.

Recorded during our passage from Bora Bora to Samoa. I ramble on about Tigger the cat and our mail delivery challenges. I split this Podcast into two due to uploading difficulties in Samoa. Part 1 of 2.

This podcast runs from leaving the Marquesas May 22nd to arriving in Tahiti June 22nd. We visit Makemo, Fakarava and Toua Atolls in the Tuamotu Archipeligo and see lots o' sharks.

Recorded during our three week passage across 3,000 miles of Pacific Ocean from the Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas in French Polynesia.

I have since discovered that the island of UA-HUKA should be pronounced 'wa huka'. I appologise for mangling it in my ignorance.

This was recorded over four late night watches during our 8 day passage from Las Perlas, Panama, to the Galapagos Islands. I'm having to speak quietly so that I do not wake the off-watch crew!

We've passed through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and this show is a soundseeing tour of the Canal transit.

In preparation for our own Canal Transit tomorrow, I have been through the Canal twice with other vessels. When I was with Lady Jane III I took along my pocket camcorder to shoot some video that would help me explain to my linehandlers (none of whom will have been through before) what to expect.

The quality is awful -- most is shot at night, and the camcorder is picking up a lot of wind noise -- but it might be of some interest. I couldn't film everything because I sometimes had work to do. I think they got something from it, but I'll go through every stage with them before we set off.

Show 12. Recorded over a four day passage from Aruba to Panama's San Blas Islands. This is our last passage in the Caribbean. Soon we'll be going through the canal into the Pacific.

Show 10. Recorded at 2am a few miles short of Los Testigos, Venezuela. I thought we would be unable to stop at Los Testigos due to the conditions and the timing. I was wrong!

The mp3 was bad so I've re-uploaded it.

End of the cruising season and we get hauled out in Trinidad. Sorry about the poor voice-over quality but I left my decent microphone behind when I came to California.We'll be back on the boat in October.

http://www.peakeyachts.com/

I know I introduce it as Podcast 7, but it's really number 8!

1. Our visit to Montserrat.

2. A review of our underwater photography equipment.

1. We came back to Trinidad for the Carnival. This is what we found.

2. Diving in St Vincent and St Lucia

1. An Instant Guide to The Grenadines: An overview of the islands we have visited in the St Vincent and the Grenada Grenadines.

2. A Guide to Weather Sources: Where do we go for weather forecasts while we are cruising in the Caribbean?

Links to websites mentioned:

www.caribwx.com Chris Parker & the Caribbean Weather Center

www.sailmail.com Sailmail email service

www.saildocs.com Sailmail's email reflector

www.buoyweather.com Buoyweather

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/gulf.shtml NWS New Orleans Weather Fax Schedule

We made our first scuba dive of this cruising season at Ile de Ronde, just to the north of Grenada.

An update from the cockpit at 4 am part way between Trinidad and Grenada.

ANOTHER update from Trinidad! (We shall be out of here real soon.) Plus the Instant Guide to SSB Email. For more SSB Email information see: www.sailmail.com and www.winlink.org

In this episode: a boat update from Trinidad and "An Instant Guide to a VHF Cruiser Net".

This is my brief introduction to PodCastaway, produced during an idle evening sitting on the boat in marina in Trinidad.