Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki

Spent the afternoon exploring the area around the famous Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki - with everything from exclusive boutiques to quirky souveniour stores. Loved the palm lined walkways, manicured gardens and sunny atmosphere. Everyone is so incredibly laid back and friendly, its contagious.

Pearl Harbour

A day exploring the historical aspects of Pearl Harbour - the submarines, battle ships and museums. Very interesting...

Memorial to all the vessels lost during the Pearl Habour attack.

U.S.S. Bowfin that we boarded.

Mark and Theo on the way up.



View of the topdeck.




Some photos from inside U.S.S. Bowfin:

Old school poster girl!

I like the reflections on the bottom of the bell.

View of Pearl Habour, with U.S.S. Missouri and large portable radar in the background.

Life's A Dream: Trinidad to Hawaii

A track of our travels through the Caribbean and Pacific, from Trinidad at the start of May all the way to Hawaii by July.

What an adventure!

Aloha from O'ahu!

We arrived in Honolulu late the night before after a rather rough passage for the previous 24 hours (feeling the remnants of Hurricane Cosme who had been following in our tracks for over a week).

Coming in to clear customs and immigrations this morning in Honolulu. Early morning as the sun was rising and surfers out on Waikiki beach already catching the waves.

View of the city as we left for Ko Olina Marina on the West Coast, with Diamond Head and surfers below the skyscrapers of Honolulu.

Parasailing in the strong winds.


View from the beach cafe where we had a late lunch this afternoon. Ko Olina lagoon and the sun worshippers, just down the road from where we are moored.


Perfect gardens, absolute paradise.

Sailing to Hawaii!!!

After an amazing (& eventful) time in the Galapagos, we were on our way to Hawaii. We had an incredible passage, covering over 4300 nautical miles in 23 days (many 200+ mile days!). With favourable winds and currents we flew along beautifully. There wasnt much out in the Pacific other than a few other vessels, some sea birds, a lot of flying fish and the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life.

Captain Mark and Theo, very happy to finally be under way.

The island of Baltra as we set sail to leave the Galapagos.

Our last glimpses of Santa Cruz, and land, for some time.

A sunset that painted the sky the most beautiful soft colours.

Flam bayed bananas!

Who said life at sea was tough?




The days were sometimes brilliantly blue and sunshining, and sometimes a cool grey that seemed to extend forever.


Another perfect sunset.


After three weeks of the same endless blue ocean (above), one starts to get more inventive on their four hour long midday watch (below)...

The last few days we had passing squalls which brought light rains and heavier winds.

Inside Life's A Dream

Home since May, this beautiful 47ft catamaran is almost as wide as she is long. Incredibly spacious, you have to shout to someone on the other side if you want them to hear you and you can sleep three comfortably in the saloon alone! Due to popular request, some photos from the interior of this gorgeous vessel. The photos show that she is definitely a lived in yacht!

The design plans to give you an idea of the layout inside...

View out from the cockpit as we were passing through the Doldrums on the way to Hawaii - very flat and grey!

View from Port helm.

The workshop and storage areas in the passage on Port Aft side.

Part of the workshop with emergency escape hatch.


Two single bunks, heads and a double cabin behind on Port Side.

Double cabin, Port Forward.

Great galley - really easy to work and cook from!

Fridge and freezer under surfaces on the right side.

My great cabin, Starboard forward.

View from my bunk, through my bathroom to the other double cabin Starboard Aft. All three double cabins have en-suite bathrooms with showers, toilet, basin etc.

Nav station on Starboard side, chart table on the other side of the instruments.

Captain's cabin, Starboard Aft.

Very spacious saloon.

LAD Newsletter IV - Going like a Boeing

Since our last update, we have covered over 2200 miles in just 11 days, flying along beautifully with favourable winds and (up until yesterday) favourable currents as well. We shook out the two reefs in the main on day two, and flew along with full main and jib for ten days, doing over 200 miles every day – unbelievable sailing!!! We are now heading on a rumb line (straight course) for Hawaii with 2000 more miles to go and the Doldrums still ahead of us. We had the spinnaker (big red balloon type sail in the front) up yesterday and were surfing along the swell at up to 13 knots for most of the day (that’s really fast).

The sunsets have been spectacular and Mark saw the elusive green flash one evening, Theo and I are still looking (we are not sure if Mark saw this before or after happy hour). We have been eating like absolute royalty and the guys have been showing off their culinary skills with delicious three course meals (courtesy of Theo) and flambéed bananas (Mark’s flair). I even made not half bad pizza the other evening!

The Pacific has been amazingly calm, skies mostly clear and the nights breathtakingly beautiful. We haven’t seen anything other than flying fish, a few sea birds and one other vessel (cargo vessel “Destino Dos” with whom we had a very cool conversation over VHF) since leaving Galapagos and the big blue Pacific seems to span endlessly in front of us. As far as fishing goes….nada, we are moving just too damn fast to catch anything at the moment. We are all loving the trip so far, no one has come near to being thrown overboard (yet) and I fear reality will come as a shock when we return home. Two naps a day, leisurely reading and unbelievable sailing, even the midnight watches, have become our norm and I have come to rather enjoy it all!

We had a little trouble with our email connection a few days ago but everything seems to be working again as we get closer to Hawaii. Thanks to everyone for your emails, we love receiving them. Hopefully the next update will be from under a palm tree in Hawaii, sipping pina coladas. Wish us luck on the next half of our sailing, we have some Doldrums to motor through but otherwise the winds look great and we seem set for an unbelievable passage the whole way. Much love from all of us to everyone.