We purchased Matiti in St. Martin and sailed her down to Greneda. We met up with her 6 months later in Trinidad(1) and after 3 months of refit, started our journey on March 28, 2001.
Our first stop was Grenada, then on to Isle de Aves (Venezuala), Bonaire(2) and down to San Blas, Panama(3).
From San Blas(1) we made a quick stop in Portobelo before transiting the Panama Canal(2) and heading for the Galapagos Islands and crossing into the Southern Hemisphere.
We spent 1 month exploring Galapagos before our longest passage of our trip, 3,000 miles to French Polynesia
It took us 6 months to cross the Pacific Ocean, stopping in French Polynesia(1), the Society Islands(2), the Cook Islands(3), Nuie(4), Tonga(5), Fiji(6), New Caledonia(7) and arriving in Australia(8) on October 22, 2001.
After 18 days at sea from Galapagos, we landed at Fatu Hiva(1). From there we headed north to Nuka Hiva and to Rangiroa(2) in the Iles des Tuamotu. Tahiti(3) was our next stop before going to Raitae, Tahaa and Bora Bora(4). We entered the Cook Islands at Palmerston(5), our first non-French island in months! We made our next stop at a tiny atoll 300 miles from any other islands, Beveridge reef, not on most maps.
Nuie was our next stop, but only stayed for 2 days when we blown out by a westerly.
So it was of to Tonga and then to Fiji. It was here in Lautoka(1) that we first learned of 9/11.
The last stop in the Pacific was New Caledonia, yet another French country, before landing in Australia.
We kept the boat near Brisbane(1) where we stayed for 3 months. We bought a car and made road trips along the east coast from Sydney to Cairns. We left From Townsville(2) for the Louisiades(3), Papua New Guinea. After 1 month, we again headed back to Australia, making landfall at Thursday Island(4) in the Torres Strait. We skipped across the top to Gove(5) then on to Darwin(6).
We arrived in Roti, Indonesia(1) after a 4 day sail from Australia. From there we zig-zagged through the thousands of islands to Flores(2), Rinca, Sulawesi(3), back down to Lombok and Bali(4).
From Bali, we headed north to Kalimantan(1) and then toward Singapore(2) and up through the Malacca Strait to Port Klang(3) and Langkawi(4), our last Malaysian Port.
We spent an incredible 3 months in Thailand waters, one of our favorite stops.
We left Thailand(1) on January 3, 2003 on our way across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka(2), the Maldives(3) and up to Oman(4).
From Oman we formed a fleet of 12 to pass the Pirate ridden waters between Yemen and Somalia, to the south. With favorable winds behind us, a real treat for the Red Sea, we sailed 1,200 nautical miles non-stop through the "gates of sorrow" (Bab el Mandeb) to Eritrea.
Over the next Month we dodged in and out of marsas through Sudan as the war in Iraq broke out.
We got an incredible 3 day window and blew pass all of Egypts anchorages until we got to Port Suez at the southern end of the Suez Canal. The canal was closed for several days as we watched the Coalition Warships pass through.
Once out of the Red Sea, we were now in Mediterranean waters. We stopped in Cyprus(1) before spending a month in the snow capped mountains of Turkey(2).
We spent another month weaving in and out of over 20 different Greek Islands before crossing the Ionian Sea.
We hit the east coast of Sicily at Taoromina(1) and went through the Messina Strait to the top of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands(2). We waited out a gale and spent a few days in Sardinia(3), the last Italian port of call.
After visiting Sicily, we went to the Spanish Baelaric Islands of Menorca(1), Mallorca(2), and Ibiza(3). It was getting late in the season, one gale after another, so we made a dash along the southern coast, only stopping 2 times.
We tucked into the fog covered "Rock" of Gibralter before entering the Atlantic.
It was a very bouncy 4-day ride past Morocco down to the Canary Islands.
The people of sleepy Graciosa(1) treated us like family for the month we were there, unexpectedly. It was then to Tenerife(2) and Gomera(3) for Christmas. Gomera was the last port Columbus stopped at before his trip to the New World.
It took us 18 days to cross the Atlantic and make landfall back to where it all began, St. Martin in the Caribbean!
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