Author Archives : Chris French

Day 1 of the Martell-Val Martello IBU Cup race


After a good night’s sleep I fueled up on the wonderful European breakfast at the hotel. I headed up to the biathlon course early as I didn’t know the layout. Parking was very limited so I turned around and found a side of the road spot about 600 meters down the hill. I had some slipping going up, so before…

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Travel day to Italy for the IBU Biathlon Cup


Well actually the travel started the day before with a 7:30am flight out of Steamboat for Denver and then on to Minneapolis. Of course the bag with all of my winter clothes somehow didn’t make the two hour connection. Ugh. But after a trip back to the airport at 6:30pm I had my bag and was ready for the real…

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Highlights of Fiji


A few season ending stats are always fun! Miles Traveled: 1024.1nm Days aboard: 60 Days paddleboarding 50+ Days snorkeling: 20+ Days wing foiling: 10+ Number of anchorages: 26 Number of 4:00am departures: 7 Number of nights on passage: 4 Number of marinas: 2 There are three gallery options: 1. 30 photos 2. 50 photos 3. Unabridged (scroll down) The unabridged…

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The final push to the finish line


We pulled up the anchor at headed for Vuda Point marina. The passage was longer than we thought but still an easy motor. Fueled up we headed for our slip for the night and got cracking on the boat work. It was super hot but that didn’t stop us from getting a lot done. The following morning we hauled out…

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A taste of resort life at Musket Cove


You might want to skip this one, not the most exciting day. Up at 5:00am and first thing I hauled Carl up the mast to remove the Windex (wind sensor). That completed without injury we moved on to removing the jib (it was too windy yesterday). Those projects complete we decided to move into the nearby anchorage by the resorts…

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Last passage of the season


Sadly the season is winding down and this would be out last significant passage, still only 25 nm but an interesting one. Dodging reefs this way, jogging that way between islands, and on the ready when an anchored fishing boat was close to our track. No drama and before 10:00am the hook was set on the sand spit in Musket…

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A school of sharks meet us in Navadra


The season is fast approaching the end and we needed to make some miles towards Vuda Point. Before coffee, we raised the anchor and found ourselves underway by 5:10am. Then came coffee. It was another day with nearly zero wind, so we would be motoring. On the plus side we could make water to be used in a few days…

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Checking out the Blue hole


What a peaceful night, wow! Just a touch of wind to keep berth comfortable and the perfect amount of movement on the boat, like rocking a baby to sleep. So in case you were wondering, yes I did sleep very well. We are coming up on a full moon so the tidal swings are more significate than typical and with…

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Waking to one hell of a mess


Going to bed last night we smelled a bit of smoke, but it isn’t that unusual in the Yasawa’s as they burn land before planting crops. This morning however, as the sun came up, it was shocking how much ash was covering the boat. And I mean covering. First order of business was washing the outside of the boat. What…

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