Safety in Numbers

[Captainklutz]

Hi All,
My wife and I have been dreaming for years of cruising the south pacific with our 3 daughters (10, 7, 5yo) , the dream is fast becoming a reality. We have secured our floating caravan and our current plan has us heading for Tonga around Easter 2015 from North island NZ. From there we plan on island hopping our way around the south pacific until we are all bored sick of salt, humidity and coconuts. My question is, is there any forum or group page where we can find others planning to sail in the same area around the same time? We would love to chat with fellow sailors to cross reference our planning with.
Regards,
Anthony

[Andy73]

Originally Posted by Captainklutz

Hi All,
My wife and I have been dreaming for years of cruising the south pacific with our 3 daughters (10, 7, 5yo) , the dream is fast becoming a reality. We have secured our floating caravan and our current plan has us heading for Tonga around Easter 2015 from North island NZ. From there we plan on island hopping our way around the south pacific until we are all bored sick of salt, humidity and coconuts. My question is, is there any forum or group page where we can find others planning to sail in the same area around the same time? We would love to chat with fellow sailors to cross reference our planning with.
Regards,
Anthony

Hi Anthony,
I recommend you take a look at S/V Totem - a family sailing the world

It is excellently written and covers much of what you are looking at. The lady who writes it seems very friendly should you consider emailing her.

[downunder]

Check out the Island Cruising Ass which regularly runs cources and rallys in that area. John and Lyn Martin.

I would highly recommend their seminars.

Yacht Cruising in the South Pacific - Island Cruising Association

The Pacific circuit Rally 2015 Pacific Circuit Rally - 2015 | Island Cruising Association

Exactly what you are looking for. Download the PDF

cheers

[Neptune's Gear]

Yep, Island Cruising Assn, and crew.org.nz - the online home of New Zealand sailing Plenty of people on crew.org (including myself) have done that trip before. Its an open discussion forum, a bit like this, but mostly for NZ sailors....

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Anthony.

[estarzinger]

There are usually several quite experienced ocean cruising club members doing that passage. Nina Kiff was the club organizer in NZ.

I will offer some caution about the "safety in numbers" concept. My personal observation is that groups of sailors often make worse decisions (about weather windows) than the individuals would. In part this is because what is a good window for one boat and skipper is not necessarily good for another, but there are also simply some odd group dynamics. And once at sea, you are pretty much on your own.

None of that is to minimize the value of talking and sharing with other experienced cruisers. That 'community" is one of the joys of the cruising life. But realize you must be absolutely self-reliant and strong enough to make the best decisions for your own individual situation and not 'follow the herd".

[Dhillen]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

There are usually several quite experienced ocean cruising club members doing that passage. Nina Kiff was the club organizer in NZ.

I will offer some caution about the "safety in numbers" concept. My personal observation is that groups of sailors often make worse decisions (about weather windows) than the individuals would. In part this is because what is a good window for one boat and skipper is not necessarily good for another, but there are also simply some odd group dynamics. And once at sea, you are pretty much on your own.

None of that is to minimize the value of talking and sharing with other experienced cruisers. That 'community" is one of the joys of the cruising life. But realize you must be absolutely self-reliant and strong enough to make the best decisions for your own individual situation and not 'follow the herd".

Good advice as always from Evans.

We avoid sailing in groups for those very reasons.

Cheers.

Dhillen

[Captainklutz]

Thanks for your replies guys. We are very comfortable sailing by ourselves, and not looking to join any organised flotilla's. Most of our sailing experience has been in coastal UK waters so looking to fill the grey areas specific to the south pacific, I've been enjoying reading the other cruisersforum threads and found much that is relevant. Thanks again.

[Teeto]

Google "Onora". Lovely couple Jeanie and Jim left from NZ. They have circumnavigated twice from there. What they don't know is not worth knowing.


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