Sailing Steel Away

11/30/2025

Here is a 1-min. time-lapse of our 7 day passage from Noumea, New Caledonia, to Opua, New Zealand. Our friend Ken Cooper sailed with us and he gets the credit for the clip. Thanks Ken!

No passage is without issues. Our main annoyance in this trip was constant headwinds and head current right on our nose. We motored 5 of the 7 days and our trip was a day longer than it should have been. But, the weather was nice and the swells were minimal, so we can’t complain too much. It was a big test for the engine though.

Shared with Dropbox

10/30/2025

THE SACRED ROCK - Isle of Pines

Wow, this is a special place! It’s obvious why it’s sacred to anyone who snorkels around it, or enjoys the amazing beach a stone’s throw away. In French, it’s called Rocher de Kaa Nue Mara. Brent proclaimed “This is the prettiest place we’ve EVER been!!!” and that’s really saying something if you know where we’ve been😊.

Amazing fish (and sea snakes), corals and scenery! The Isle of Pines is the highlight of New Caledonia so far.

07/17/2025

I know you probably think our sailing adventures are all fun and games, but here is an example of a serious problem we discovered yesterday. We dropped the hook in 35 ft of water and paid-out 120 ft of chain, then attached our snubber 10 ft down the chain which keeps us from bobbing up and down as much. When we anchored, it was windy and we have swung around (apparently several times) since then. Brent thought he’d just take a little look at the anchor with his snorkeling gear on, which is very common for him to do. What he saw was pretty horrifying! The anchor chain somehow wrapped around a big coral rock two complete turns!
He came up on the boat and we strategized about what to do. We decided he would go back in the water (with his camera so I could see) and I would drive the boat where he directed me to. I made a series of back and forth passes and sometimes fell back, or drove forward in an effort to untangle the mess. After about 20 mins. we had freed ourselves from the rock. It was excellent teamwork and pretty lucky!

07/07/2025

Up the mast to check halyards and rigging in Port Vila.

07/04/2025

We arrived in Port Resolution, on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu after 6 days, 17 hours. It was a fast passage for Steel Away. We averaged 6.2 kn and hit a max speed of 13 kn briefly. Our buddy boat Iron Jack, entered the bay right behind us.

A few hours after anchoring, we got a call on the radio from the customs officers that we should come ashore to check in. We found our way up a footpath that ended near the “yacht club”, which consists of a shade structure with a table underneath and a small bar structure that hadn’t been used in a while. The customs officers were friendly and efficient. The process was painless. Afterwards we walked into the village and had a look around. The villagers were friendly and welcoming. We had a stroll down a white beach and appreciated how nice it was to be in a warm, sunny place again.

Port Resolution is a very scenic cove. There is some geothermal activity, evident by some steam vents that pump steam out of the hills in a few places, as well as some outlets right on the shoreline. We checked them out from the water and had a swim near them. It was a bit warmer near the output, but not overly hot.

We are happily impressed with Vanuatu so far and are really looking forward to exploring much more!

07/04/2025

Our fiends on Kent and Michele on Iron Jack took these shots of us one day out from Tanna, Vanuatu. ⛵️🌊🌞