In January 2017 my husband Eric Sponberg and I departed St. Augustine, FL, on our 35-foot sailboat Corroboree with the goal of sailing around the world. I have no idea whether we will make it. As with any journey, the path is never as straight as you optimistically plan. But you go anyway, in hopes of a great adventure and because you can’t ignore the tug in your heart that beckons you on.
This blog will be the story of our voyage…and much more.
7 June 2019, 9:00 .a.m. At latitude 17 degrees south of the equator, Cairns, Australia is located well within the tropical belt. So it should be warm and sunny here as we await the arrival of Jacob Adoram in his 28’ ocean rowing boat after an 11-month, nonstop, singlehanded, 7,100-mile voyage from Seattle, WA. The […]
In early April, with the cyclone season over in the South Pacific, cruisers in New Zealand gather in Opua, the checkout point for passages north to Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia or, in our case, west to Australia. With Corroboree in excellent shape after her refit, we researched entry ports, plotted our course, secured our […]
It’s going to be hard to leave New Zealand. From the start of our voyage, New Zealand was the big goal on our horizon. In addition to Auckland being Corroboree’s birthplace, it would be the farthest Eric and I had ever sailed or traveled, and we planned to make it one of our longest stays. […]
It’s practically an existential crisis when a writer runs out of adjectives, and I just about did that on the month-long camping trip Eric and I took around the North and South Islands of New Zealand in February. “Oh, this is beautiful/gorgeous/spectacular/breathtaking!” I exclaimed, as one staggering vista after another appeared around each bend in […]
When we bought our van, Sage, in mid-November, our main concern was to find an inexpensive 6- or 7-seater vehicle that could transport us, our children and their spouses during their visit to New Zealand over the Christmas holiday. “By the way,” the friendly car dealer said as we signed the papers, “did you know […]
Shortly after our arrival in New Zealand last October, a friend in the US asked us about the present-day relationship between the Maori and the New Zealanders of European descent. “Is there apartheid?” she asked. This is not the type of question a short-term visitor should presume to answer without research and evidence, and our […]
…makes for surly sailors. Just ask, if you could, the residents of 19th-century Russell, New Zealand. Located on the beautiful Bay of Islands, Russell was the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand and a welcome port of call for the whaling ships and merchant vessels that dropped anchor in its turquoise waters, sometimes after […]
Just how beautiful is New Zealand? Let me count the ways. First, there’s the coastline. So far we have sailed past rocky cliffs and jutting peaks, shining bays dotted with islands and picturesque anchorages, pristine white-sand beaches, and swathes of forest right down to the shoreline. Long stretches are undeveloped, and those that are comprise […]
Eric often says that one year of cruising puts ten years of wear and tear on a boat, and though I hope we don’t look it, sometimes it feels that way for us, too. So one of the reasons we’ve been eagerly anticipating our six-month stay in New Zealand is that it gives us the […]
In fact, we arrived six days ago, and it’s finally sinking in. I can even say/write it without an exclamation point: We’re in New Zealand. See how calm I am? But then the delight and sheer relief of having made it overtake me again. We’re in New Zealand! We did it! And we didn’t die […]