We are a couple of seniors trying to achieve a lifetime's ambition of circumnavigating in our 30 year old yacht, Songster.

Since 2002 we have sailed many thousands of miles been to over 60 countries and are currently more than half way to achieving this goal.

We originally set off with two wonderful Burmese cats but unfortunately we had to say goodbye to them both in Australia, first to Henry who just never recovered from surgery and then Lily who pined for him so badly for many months. Lily was a chronic asthmatic who would have been very difficult to rehome. After much discussion with the vets it was felt kinder to have put to sleep also. Both cats were cremated and later in the year when we crossed the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere we scattered their ashes into the sea.

In April 2009 we set off up the eastern coast of Australia stopping at Bundaberg once more in order to have our elderley autopilot replaced and then at Cairns to have some modifications done. On July 17th we set sail from Darwin to Saumlaki on the island of Yandema in the east of Indonesia making our way then westwards along the island chain before heading north to Malaysia where we are now.

With the current pirate situation in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and the hectic year we have just had we have decided to remain in SE Asia for at least on year before making a decision on our return to the Med.

Like all plans these could all change............

Follow our travels and enjoy our experiences.

Jackie and Brian

Latest Journal Entries

Paradise almost 28 January 2010 Kuah, Malaysia The month of January is nearly at an end and my New Year’s resolution to keep the blog and web page up to date has not been kept. We have now b...more

End of year report 2009 12 December 2009 Lumut, Malaysia Well all my good intentions of keeping the blog and web site up to date have gone to pot and several months have passed since I last managed to write ...more

Preparing to leave Australia 17 July 2009 Darwin, Australia With just one day to go before we leave Australia we are busily preparing Songster and filling her with masses of provisions to last us a few months.<...more

Scarborough to Cairns 31 May 2009 Cairns, Australia Scarborough to Cairns It was just over a week ago that we arrived in Cairns virtually 1000 miles from Scarborough. On Monday 27th April ...more

Goodbye to Henry 03 May 2009 Scarborough, Queensland, After a great deal of thought and much blubbing we made the decision that we could not longer watch Henry deteriorate and suffer so on Wednesday 15th ...more

Sydney and beyond 20 April 2009 Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park, Australia Surprisingly on our return from the UK we suffered severe jet lag. Something we had expected on arrival in the UK rather than back here in Australia...more

Our first UK winter for many years 06 March 2009 Malvern Wells, United Kingdom Who would expect us to return to the UK for a holiday in the middle of winter? With our busy schedule the only time we could manage to visit was J...more

Ouvea and Noumea 10 December 2008 Noumea, We are just one week away from departing from Noumea for our last long passage across the Pacific. Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia just ...more

Vanuatu and its festivals 09 December 2008 Port Vila, Soon after Independence day we set off for the Island of Epi for Lamen Bay where we were to attend the annual canoe racing festival. Too far to sail...more

Now in Vanuatu 31 July 2008 Port Vila, It is 30th July 2008, Independence Day in Vanuatu. The sky is overcast but it is very warm and we are moored in the main harbour of Port Vila, on t...more

New Zealand to Fiji 07 June 2008 Savusavu, Fiji It is 4 weeks since we set sail from Opua in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand saying goodbye to our many friends who had welcomed and included us in th...more

Preparing to leave New Zealand 28 April 2008 Paihia, New Zealand New Zealand April 2008 It is now months since I managed to update our web site and you must be wondering what we have been up to. The hi...more

China -Xian 28 September 2007 Xian Xian, China Firstly an apology for the wrong place on the map. There are many Xian's in China and the web site just will not find the one I need. The one I nee...more

China - Guilin 23 September 2007 Guilin, China Day five and we are back in Shanghai where we are met at the station by Vivaldi. He is so pleased to see us both and promptly gets us into the car f...more

Suzhou, China 06 September 2007 Suzhou, China We were now into our fourth day in China and Vivaldi was at our hotel very early to collect us and take us to the railway station. Vivaldi had to t...more

Shanghai, China 04 September 2007 Shanghai, China On Monday May 21st May 2007 we drove to our local airport at Kerikeri for a flight to Auckland. We actually drove to the cattery where we had droppe...more

Time to leave New Zealand 20 May 2007 Kerikeri, New Zealand Our 6 months is up on 22nd May 2007 and tomorrow Monday 21st May we fly from the local airport at Kerikeri to Auckland where we catch a plan to Shangh...more

The second part of our tour of South Island, New Zealand 02 May 2007 Christchurch, New Zealand On Wednesday 14th March we were up early to travel to the southern most point of New Zealand and were surprised to find on opening the curtains the mo...more

Adventures in South Island New Zealand 03 April 2007 Picton, New Zealand Planning dates for our overland trip of New Zealand’s south island was helped with the meeting of Jackie’s aunt Marjorie, who is currently circumnavig...more

Three months in New Zealand 24 March 2007 Opua, New Zealand To follow...more

Passage to New Zealand 12 December 2006 Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, New Zealand Potentially the passage to New Zealand from Tonga is one of the worst in the world and many tragedies have occurred over the years due to severe weath...more

Tutuila American Samoa 09 December 2006 Pago Pago, American Samoa, United States It was hard to break away from Suvarov our remote desert island in the middle of nowhere but we had to do it and on Monday 25th September we finally l...more

Vava'u group of islands Tonga 09 December 2006 Neiafu, Tonga, Tonga The weather is a very important feature of sailing and finding the right weather with sufficiently good winds and seas for a passage is difficult to f...more

Suvarov Cook Islands 09 October 2006 Suwarrow, Cook Islands, Suvarov is so remote it is not listed on the index of our web masters. On Monday 11th September at noon we untied the ropes attaching us to the...more

Society Island, French Polynesia 08 October 2006 Bora Bora, As planned we left the shores of Tahiti on Sunday 3rd September 2006 but a little later than we had hoped. It was a shock to get out into the ope...more

Tahiti 03 September 2006 Papeete, French Polynesia It is now the beginning of September and we have been in French Polynesia since the beginning of June. However, we have not seen a great deal of it d...more

Pacific crossing 14 July 2006 Papeete Tahiti, French Polynesia Preparations for our Pacific crossing did not compare in any way with those of crossing the Atlantic with the ARC. In Las Palmas we worked and worked...more

The Galapagos Islands 05 July 2006 Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Ecuador Apologies for map. Unable to find th towns listed so a map of Ecuador has to be here. On 14th April 2006 as planned we left Balboa Yacht Club...more

We are ready for our next challenge 12 April 2006 , The time has come for us to up mooring and move on. We have now been in the country of Panama for 2 months. How time flies. The past t...more

Panama Canal Transit 10 April 2006 Balboa, Panama Panama Canal It was apparent from the number of commercial vessels anchored that we were nearing the port of Colon at the northern end of the P...more

San Blas Islands 29 March 2006 El Porvenir, Panama On 1st February we set sail from Curacao to the San Blas islands. We had never heard of the San Blas islands until we came to the Caribbean and wer...more

Curacao 01 February 2006 Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles It is now almost four weeks since we arrived in Spanish Waters, Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles. Our rigging has thankfully at last been compl...more

Mainland Venezuela to Bonaire 25 December 2005 Bonaire, It is Christmas Day 2005 the sun is doing its best to shine from behind the occasional black cloud and the temperature is 29C. It is now 4 week...more

Travel overland in Venezuela 09 November 2005 Merida, It is now 8th November 2005 and we are still firmly attached to the dock in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. The delivery of a new sail and a problem wi...more

Angel Falls, Venezuela 01 September 2005 Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, After a four week trip to the UK I returned to Venezuela ready to make preparations for trips overland. Brian had spent the 4 weeks varnishing ...more

Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela 29 August 2005 Puerto la Cruz Venezuela, It is now almost 2 months since we arrived in Puerto la Cruz in the state of Anzoάtegui, Venezuela. Barcelona is the capital of the state. <...more

Tobago 15 June 2005 Charlotteville, After a 51.5 hour passage from Baganara Resort, Guyana we arrived in the beautiful anchorage of Man of War Bay, Charlotteville on the north west coast...more

Trinidad April/May 2005 15 June 2005 Chagauramas, The passage between Tobago and Trinidad is usually a fast sail with wind and current helping but sadly there was not a breath of wind on Wednesday 27t...more

Los Testigos 15 June 2005 Los Testigos, Los Testigos 25th May – After a number of days running around finding spares etc and stocking up with Cheddar cheese we finally said our goodbyes t...more

Margarita May 2005 15 June 2005 Porlamar, On Saturday 28th May we were up early for the 48 mile passage to Margarita. Sadly there was no wind and we motored the whole way arriving in Porlama...more

Guyana 10 June 2005 Baganara Resort, Guyana, On 10th March 2005 after checking out and filling with fuel and water we finally left Trinidad after 7 months. There had been several meetings, some...more

We are on our way to Guyana 09 March 2005 Chaguaramas, Trinidad, The festivities of Christmas are long over and we worked like mad to prepare Songster for relaunching on Thursday 27th January 2005. She now sits p...more