SAILING AQUARIUS

Season 1 of Sailing Aquarius – We started on January 24th, 2017 in Caribbean islands when we picked up Aquarius in Martinique. We learned how to sail from Jemp and Lony, the previous owners. Meanwhile visited beautiful places on the islands of Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, St. Kitts & Nevis, St Barth, St. Martin, British and US Virgin Islands.   As the hurricane season approached, we raced South to Martinique, and from there we continued South at a slower pace visiting  St. Lucia, Grenadines, Grenada and finally reached Trinidad & Tobago.  We left Aquarius on the hard in Trinidad and took 3 months off the boat.

 

Season 2 began with some hard work, completing the upgrades to Aquarius started in Season 1.  Aquarius then sailed towards the Panama Canal with stops in Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Santa Ana Columbia.  We remained in Panama for a few months and visited the San Blas Archipelago on a Caribbean side and Las Perlas Archipelago on the Pacific side. We transited Panama canal on December 30-31 of 2017 arriving in the Pacific Ocean just in time to watch the fireworks show in Panama City.

After crossing the canal we sailed to Ecuador mainland (as Galapagos Islands were way too expensive and too much paperwork - about $2,000USD and at least 3 months of bureaucracy). After visiting Salinas and inland territories of Ecuador we started our Pacific Crossing on March 8th, 2018.  It took us 21 days to reach Hiva Oa in Marquesas, French Polynesia.  We continued exploring the rest of French Polynesia: Marquesas, Tuamotu and Society Islands.  We finished Season 2 visiting Maupiti, Mauphihaa, Palmerston, Beveridge Reef, Nuie, and Tonga.

 

Season 3 started with our crossing from Tonga to New Zealand.  Our first stop was Opua New Zealand.  There we purchased a Toyota Rav 4 which became our land vehicle, in which we would later circumnavigate the North and South Islands of New Zealand.  After sailing around the Bay of Islands, we cruised down to Port Whangarei Marine Center where we hauled out Aquarius for some much needed attention.  After about 9 months in New Zealand, part of which we visited our home in Las Vegas, and friends in San Diego, we went back to the sea.  We made landfall in Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and we ended Season 3 in Batam Indonesia just 25 miles South of Singapore.

 

Season 4  We started Season 4 when we left Batam Indonesia and sailed around Singapore to Malaysia.  We sailed North through the Malacca Straight, and exited Malaysia in Langkawi. We arrived to Thailand, had really good time with old and new friends. We stocked up and planned to catch the tail of the favorable season to cross Indian Ocean. And then COVID happened... We patiently spent the lockdown in Phuket, Thailand and hoped we will be able to continue... BUT... reality showed us differently and after couple months of back and fourth we decided to haul out Aquarius in Krabi Boat Lagoon, Thailand. 

 

Season 5 we resumed our travels in December 2021. Finished up all the upgrades on Aquarius  and splashed it to celebrate 2022 in Ao Nang beach, Thailand. We had couple of guests onboard - one of them is our Patreon! We cruised for almost two months, to make sure Aquarius is ready for Indian ocean crossing and even more if our skills are up to date :) And only then we finally crossed Indian Ocean landing in Uligamu, Maldives, then to the fabulous Seychelles and finished the season in Africa! We came into lovely Tanga Yachtclub in Tanzania.

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Season 6 we started in Tanga, Tanzania after our visit back home in US. After we got back to Tanga, where we did what we call a SUPER Safari, visited Pemba, Zanzibar and stopped in Dar es Salaam. There we reunited with our buddy boat Zatara and took off for our final Indian Ocean sailing. This time along Somalia's coast to horn of Africa to tiny Socotra, that belongs to Yemen. From Socotra we sailed to Djibouti, Soudi Arabia, and we will finish this season in Egypt. 

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