Brent grows vegetables and fruit at home in New Zealand. He knows a lot about them (says Peter). We’re glad he shares some of his knowledge about fruit from the Annona family, because we have a change of crew. After sailing from Fakarava toRaiatea, from Raiateato Samoa and from Samoa to Tonga, Brent is leaving Ya. So, here’s Brent’s farewell present to you, dear reader: enjoy!
The first taste here in the Annona family is the Rollina. Sweet, low acid, tropical taste with hints of apple, pear and banana. Next to taste in this family will be the saursop. Just waiting for it to ripen.
Other relatives is the American Pawpaw, Asimina triloba (not related to Papayas), it can be grown in areas with 20 degree frosts.
Annona Cherimoya grows in subtropical to warm temperate climates. I grow them in New Zealand. One of my favourites.
Most in this family are tropical.
Saursop
Saursop, Annona muricata, another in this family. Delicious sweet, tangy, fibrous white flesh with tropical fruit flavours. I especially enjoy them with banana, papaya and freshly grated coconut.
I have been looking for sugar apple, Annona squamosa, in the markets but haven’t found any yet. Often referred to custard apple. A loose name as others in this species is also called custard apple. These are sweet, no tang, and a richness, hence the name custard. I will keep looking.
Partir c’est mourir un peu – leaving is dying a little bit. Samoa, we hardly saw you, but we met only friendly and helpful people. Jonathan of Comptec with the computer problems, Sharon on the marina, even the taxi drivers were nice, without exception. But we have a good weather window now, or at least not a really bad one. So we go for it.
We go to the Vava’u islands, the Northern island group of the Kingdom of Tonga (yes, the only Kingdom in the whole Pacific Ocean).
Bye Samoa
Bumpy
Wed Sep 24 2025 07:35:00 GMT+0200
The day before yesterday, when we saw the weather window to go to Vava’u, it had one disadvantage. That is the weather we are in now. We are beating upwind against 20+ knots of wind and 3 meter waves. No fun. Just sit and don’t move, except when necessary. So that is what we do, except when you are on watch. Just making a pot of tea is a job. Keeping yourself up, keeping the water cooker up, getting a teabag from the cupboard, it needs a lot of attention to keep everything on its place on a shaking ship. We are small, the sea is big. Misunderstanding between us: Peter thought that Brent would have prepared a dinner, just to heat up. No, Brent had said he would prepare some meat to put in the freezer. So tonight we ate some sandwiches. The shaking and bumping will last till early next morning, so tomorrow a more positive story.
The weather forecast nowadays can make sail you fossil free
Thu Sep 25 2025 07:07:00 GMT+0200
20 years ago a weatherforecast could be something like: ”the next 24 hours: wind: West to Southwest, possible northwest later and with force 2 to 3 over land and 4 to 5 at sea, possibly 6 in showers.” Actually you knew nothing. Well it would not be stormy. Weather forecasts underwent a great development the last 20 years. Now it makes sailing easy. You can even plan your trips. It has democratized sailing. The original seaman/officer always knew a lot about Highs and Lows and fronts and depressions, but now you just read a beautiful designed graphic map. Predictwind is an expert here. Side effect is, that you don’t need a big motor with a lot of diesel to make good what you cannot do by sailing. Now, when your ship is sound and safe and the crew can sail, you can travel the world, even fossil free. A bit of energy in some batteries is enough to run an electric motor, just to get in and out of a harbor.
Oh, just as important: we ate stew of beef and veggies, well-garliced and well curried.
Nature
Fri Sep 26 2025 07:44:00 GMT+0200
A booby landed on the railing. It is a sea bird, the size in between a goose and a swan. The way it landed, was beautiful. It came flying to us, slowly turned head into the wind, slid to the railing, and hung in the air for a while, despite all the turbulence. Then lowered the last 5 centimeter and the claws were around the railing. What grace, what refined motions, actually there were hardly any motions. Like it was easy to land here. We can learn a lot from nature: we need a landing strip and a traffic tower to guide our planes in.
About nature. Brent just finished a book about regenerative agriculture by Johan Kempf. Whilst the contemporary agriculture tries to reduce the soil, to some stuff the crop must grow on, Kempf explains that you can also let the soil be rich and take profit from that. Let the fungi and micro organisms develop and grow, and it is a stimulus for the photo synthesis, and that brings extra carbon into the plants (so bigger crops) and into the soil. Now chemicals like Round up have the effect that our soils decarbonise and that is a pity. The book shows a complete new approach of regenerative agriculture, with numerous elaborations. Yes, it needs skills, knowledge. But then you can harvest more crop easily. It is just as simple as that booby landing and it is our nature.
We ate a mutton curry with paksoi and bakabanana, this last is a banana tasting like a rich potato. It absorbed all the flavor of the curry. You would love it. The wind blows well and thanks to the weather forecast we have the good angle to get to Vava’u.
Arrived Neiafu, Vava’u Tonga, with compliments
Sat Sep 27 2025 03:18:00 GMT+0200
We spoke other yachts and they had ‘a rolly voyage’, and the funny thing is, we did not experience this, except for the first day. And our boat is -as always- one of the smallest. So compliments for the designer, Dick Koopmans. Or also complements to us? Because we give the Ya speed, and the others boats don’t, on the contrary. It gives the Ya the opportunity to handle the waves, while the others are more the objects of these waves, is our theory. Anyway, it was a nice ride these last days.
The clearing in often costs a day. Not in the Kingdom of Tonga. Customs, Health, Biosecurity, Immigration, they all came for a short visit and everything was done in one and a half hour. Our compliments to them, and to their boss, the King of Tonga. It felt like a royal welcome.
A trip of 13 days, with pretty hard winds, with the Parasailor, and two times drifting in a calm, , with great meals, with a fossil free awe, and more.
With sharing each hour together, from when you get up till you go to bed, and even hear the snoring of the other one in the night.
And still Peter and Brent talk to each other. Doesn’t that say enough?
Fossil free awe
Sat Sep 12 2025 18:08:00 GMT+1300
Again we are in a calm. We try to avoid it but each model -PredictWind can deliver us seven- shows different areas so we just took the most probable course to avoid it, but no success. Other boats start the diesel then and motor mny hours, but we are fossilfree and kept on sailing this afternoon with nearly no wind and we enjoyed it. for miles. During dinner the wind died out completely. We enjoy the silence.
Brent starts contemplating and says:. “It is quiet. It peaceful. It is simple: the sky, the clouds, the sea and the boat. What do we see: The clouds, the colors in the sky, the glassy water., a lonely white tropical bird flying into the orange sunset” Brent is in awe.
Parasailor up
Sun Sep 13 2025 17:11:00 GMT+1300
This morning the first wind. About 7 knots, for most sailors only enough to start the engine, but we hoisted the Parasailor.
Brent’s impressions: The setting takes time, but then you have a sail that is ((first impression) impressive. The sail behaves calm and also the course ot the Ya is straight. With 7 knots we make 3.5 knots and with 5 knots of wind we could still do 3 knots. Later we had more wind, about 12-14 knots and then we flew with 5-6 knots through the water. But still nice and gentle. So it is relatively fast. And, this downwind sail even points well upwind, till 70 degrees if you want. Then, after a day of such nice sailing, it feels a pity to lower the Parasailor for the night. But we have to, the wind is too much from the Southsouthwest so we have to sail closer to the wind to get to Samoa.
With such nice sailing it is actually a pity that we arrive there, already in about three days.
Suspense about arrival
Mon Sep 14 2025 16:43:00 GMT+1300
In stead of a nice 12 to 14 knots of wind as predicted, we got a mere 5 or 7 last night Man, went slow. We calculated we would enter Samoa perhaps on Tuesday night, or even Wednesday. This morning we got a next weather report and the results of the models differ a lot. One predicts that the calm we are in slowly makes place for a steady wind, but it will be increasing to 30 knots on Tuesday night,just when we will arrive. the other one says we first get a next calm, which costs us a day, and then it starts blowing 30 knots on Wednesday, also when we would arrive. So in in the calm we were in this morning, we were discussing what to do. Can we enter the harbor? Or shall we just enter the bay and go on anchor somewhere there? We were even discussing storm tactics. The suspense was there.
And then the wind picked up, no calm at all, and tonight we are still sailing in a nice 14 knots of wind. This way we will arrive before any storm will hit us.
Date line
Tue Sep 15-16 2025 18:09:00 GMT+1300
Most people travel the world like us: from the east to west. Good reason for that is that so now and then you get extra time. You travel against the rotation of the earth, and since we invented the clock related to the earth’s day and night scheme, it makes you get extra time. And we enjoy that, because we like life. In the meanwhile we have gathered already 12 hours of extra time. thank you for the extra life time, Mother Earth! Now, what happens today? We sail along American Samoa and see the next country Samoa, and in between there is an imaginary line, called the Date Line. They simply say that when you pass that line, you live one day later. This is not a joke. It is an invention of the governments. They did this on purpose. Many departments came together to decide this. This is clearly one big conspiracy, It is one mountain of rabbit holes! So what about setting up a Foundation to Erase the Date Line. Who joins?
Arrival at Apia, Samoa
Mon Sep 17 2025 16:43:00 GMT+1300
At 10 o’clock this morning we anchored before Apia, Samoa. It took us thirteen days, and just now we ran out of vegetables. There is a lot to tell, but let us be short:
It has been 13 days, sharing every hour together, from the meals till the snoring in the night, and Brent and Peter still talk to each other. Need we say more?
From 25 kts in > 3 m waves to dead calm in one week: everything is possible. Key is to accept what nature offers you. Be prepared and enjoy a week’s fossil free sailing experience on the Pacific, on board of Ya. In fossil-free awe!
Ya’s crew members prefer the papaya’s with some lemon:)
Prepared
Sun Sep 07 2025 06:32:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
Since we left one day later (check the blog ‘Bureaucracy’) we knew already that we would be in 25 knots of wind with 3.3 meter waves. Well, we’re in it now. That is the beauty of PredictWind. You know exactly what the weather will do. So we prepared everything. An extra line here a strong fix there, the second and even the third reef in the mainsail. Most important preparation: the food. We cooked for two days, so we only need to heat it up the next days, till Monday.
We go downwind now. The third reef in the main was not necessary, we lowered that sail. we prepared too much, just the 20 m2 staysail gives us enough speed when it is blowing. And it is! The wind generator has stopped and the thing is set to stop not before it runs in 35 knots of wind… No worries, we are well prepared.
Brent referred to a Japanese painting style where everything is so much balanced. He looks at the wave crests and when the sunlight gets through you see this vulnerable transparant green color. That balance e so special with the waves that can be black and blue, with the sky now having various types from white to grey, and patches of light blue. This is the balance of nature!
About the food, Peter is glad that he can heat up the prepared food. Makes him feel he balances a bit with Brent.
The battery bank is full. Not because of the solar panels, because there is not much sun. The autoprops charged it and now it is so fully charged, the Battery Management system asked to start the last stage, the so-called Balancing Stage.
It is that you hear the wind wistling throug the rigging, or you would not believe we are in 20-25 knots of wind. The Ya sails calm. Calm in motion, but the speed is still high. So the waves come slowly onto the stern. We sail a running course, close to dead down the wind, but just enough running to prevent the rolling motion. The working staysail does its work, the centerboard is lifted. Our faithful windvane steering needs to give only light corrections. Ya sails in perfect balance.
Before we left the fridge broke down. so just before we left we filled it with 10 kilo of ice and, yes it shrinks every day but so far so good the problem will pop up later.
The battery bank is full,we cannot charge more and the generators make us very energy positive. So how to solve this problem? Now we make ice cubes with our ice cube machine and fill the fridge with it.
Now last night one of us must have hit the switch to the fridge and we discovered it works again.
We have more solutions than problems. isn’t it cool?
Peters night watch was one with showers. The rain is not the problem, but the wind. Depending from where the shower comes from, the wind slows down to nearly nothing and then suddenly starts blowing a lot. Or vice versa, coming from the other side, you get the blow all at once. So the mainsail is reefed preventively but before every squall the outerjib has to be furled in. And out. Et cetera. Ok, it keeps Peter fresh.
Well, fresh? Peter asks himself., Do I smell myself or is it Brent?
Yesterday we sailed into a calm and PredictWind predicted we would sail till about 6 pm and the calm would leave us today at 6 PM. But, we could sail till midnight. Not because PredictWind was wrong, but Ya could continue sailing in these light winds. When the wind becomes light, most sailboats turn the nose away to the wrong course so one lowers the sails (and starts the engine nowadays). But the Ya has a mizzen on, is very aft ship, preventing the nose bearing away. In light weather we can sail on. At midnight there was no wind at all and only then we lowered the sails. This morning at 10 the first light breeze came and there we sail again. Still the breeze is light, and we can’t sail the downwind course we have to for Samoa, but we get close.
Generally, our course is as the wind direction, so we have to gybe so now and then. When, depends on the wind changes we expect always difficult.
However, we let our thoughts go when eating a piece of fruit. And we have pretty much, . We stille have apples, papayas, pomplemouses, mangos, bananas, oranges, and some more I forgot now. And every time you have to choose.
You understand, here on board the Ya are tough decisions to be made.
Fossil free awe
Sat Sep 13 2025 07:08:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
Again we are in a calm. We try to avoid it but each model -PredictWind can deliver us no less than seven- shows different areas, so we just took the most probable course to avoid it, but no success. Other boats start the diesel then and motor many hours, but we are fossilfree and kept on sailing this afternoon with nearly no wind and we enjoyed it. For miles. During dinner the wind died out completely. We enjoy the silence.
Brent starts contemplating and says: “It is quiet. It peaceful. It is simple: the sky, the clouds, the sea and the boat. What do we see: The clouds, the colors in the sky, the glassy water, a lonely white tropical bird flying into the orange sunset.” Brent is in awe.
Bureaucracy is a French word and we experienced this is well executed in French Polynesia. When one leaves the country with a ship, the captain must report that at the Customs. He fills in a form, another form and another, often with the same passport numbers and so on. Then after half an hour it is done. So in an hour you are ready, you get a stamp and you may leave the country. But French Polynesia computerized it. So now when you enter you fill out a 4 pager on the internet. With the very slow internet in Gambier, it took us three times 2 hours. (the third day the internet was a bit better.) To clear out, you go to the Gendarmerie (the police). Everything should be filled in. Piece of cake. No. Things should be filled in different, and then the form has to be evaluated. Not by that gendarmerie, but by a man in an office in Tahiti, some 100 miles away. That man/woman there has no affection with the clients. Now it is depersonalised. In stead of clients, they only have pile of forms in a big inbox. So, instead of an hour like in the early days, it can take one, two or even three days before the gendarme gets the approved form back from ’Tahiti’. We must consider ourselves lucky because this time it took only 1 1/2 day.
To consider: next to weather forecasts, there should also be a bureaucracy forecast.
In Brent’s watch this early morning the wind was that light, the speed was very low and the wind vane steering hardly worked. Brent had to correct the course nearly constantly. But, he likes sailing, the ocean, he did it with pleasure. The wind came back, little by little during the day. The Ya sails her easy way over the waves and we enjoyed it. In the afternoon we set a reef in the mainsail and the wind kept increasing. We sail with a nice speed, the motors are charging the battery bank well and we like it. Brent fried a beautiful Argentinian rib steak , with mashed potatoes and bok choy lightly fried with garlic. Wow. This is a great meal. Meanwhile the wind increases a bit and our Ya sails 7 knots, nearly the hull speed. Wow again.
Brent, Peter and Ya, we are all in a good mood.
Missing screws
Sat Sep 06 2025 05:41:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
So now and then we have discussions on climate change, single use plastics and other issues on how we can solve the world problems. During such a discussion Brent looked at the mainsail and pointed that the upper batten of the mainsail was loose. Just in time to discover this because tomorrow we get a lot of wind. We took the sail down immediately. On one plate connecting the batten to the mast rail, there were three screws missing. Peter (backup is his middle name) found new screws in the screw box. Brent put them on, now with a bit of glue. Job done, sail up, here we go again.
Now, about the world problems we still have to solve, some missing screws are: Regulation by the government, insight and skills, a bit of pain to make people change and a bit of hope to give the solutions a chance.
It’s only a 3 days sail, but anything can happen when sailing from Fakarava and Raiatea in the Tuamotus in French Polynesia!
Sun Aug 24 2025 06:53:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
Smoothly
We went anchor up and it went smoothly. Predictwind forecasted 20+ knots of wind, force 6 and we had to go through the North Pass of Fakarava, with currents up to 7 knots. We planned to pass on the slack, just when the current would alternate its direction. It went smoothly. On the ocean Brent served a great pasta with soufflaki and with a stew. Delicious, it went smoothly through our throats.
Noises and noises
Mon Aug 25 2025 06:42:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
The Ya sails smoothly through the waves, although they are 3 meter high. You hear the waterflow along the hull and some splashing here and there. The 20-ish knots of wind creates sounds through the rig and there is also a funny sound made by the luff in the new mainsail. Brent is new in board and all these sounds are new to him. But there are noises and noises. Peter distinguished a squeeze that was not familiar to him. He discoveted a damaged rudder bracket. Directly we secured it with a line. But we are glad we discovered it before the rudder gets loose or so. Safe for now.
The housing of the rudder bearing ripped. In this picture we are in the harbor and we already removed the rudder bladedetail of the rudder bearing
We will have a repair in Raiatea.
Moussaka
Tue Aug 26 2025 06:10:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
We found a beautiful piece of veal meat from the flank and Brent fries it with some onions and a bit of oregano. Then he sliced some potatoes. Then an aubergine. These slices, he salted them first, to get the bitterness out. You scrape off the salt later. Then you put the slices in a pot, layer by layer: potatoe, meat, aubergines, and a roux sauce. Grated cheese on top and in the oven. Serve it there where nobody would expect it, like on the Southern Pacific between Fakarava and Raiatea.
It is delicious!
Autoprops
Wed Aug 27 2025 08:06:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)
Normally we live energy neutral. But yesterday we charged an extra 3.2 kWh. It is our record of the last 10 years. It is just caused by the two Autoprops, the propellers we use. These are so efficiënt because they automatically adapt their blades depending on the speed and the use.no electrics or so, just by using nature. Peter loves them. Today we got another 2.4 kWh out of them. Peter loves them even more. Brent is enthousiast about them.
We arrived safely in Raiatea, where we will have to fix the rudder. We keep you posted!
Hello, my name is Brent Burge. I have come to join Peter in Fakarava (FP) and to then help sail to New Zealand.
I am a retired engineer. Taking this trip is an old ambition of mine. I m looking forward to the fun, adventure and great company.
In New Zealand I would say I am a Kiwi. But I have learned people here think I am saying I am a Kiwi Fruit.
The Kiwi is flightless and nocturnal
The Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand. It is flightless and nocturnal. The female takes 30 days to grow an egg. The egg weighs up to 25% of the mother’s weight. It then takes 80 days for the male to incubate it. Over a 100 years ago, the first modern commercial Kiwi Fruit variety was bred in New Zealand. It was then know as Chinese Gooseberry. For marketing reasons the name was changed to Kiwi Fruit.
Are you perhaps one of the 350 million people visiting reefs? (source).
If you want to do that sustainably, then this is something for you.
Travel off the beaten path
No habitat will change from the bit that you affect as an individual traveller. It changes by the impact of the mass. Then, habitats of birds, fishes and coral, will be damaged and disappear. The cause is called ‘overtourism’. Most people don’t consider overtourism, if they are aware of it anyway.
Often there are no airlines straight to the place off the beaten path. Yes it will cost you a certain quantity of extra time, but you get it back in quality. You can blend in. Perhaps you don’t blend in the place and the people, but they make you feel welcome and you can be part of it all. However, your environmental impact blends in the ecosystem.
And your visit there is a special visit, far more worth the money.
Sailors who want to get off the beaten path for sailors, simply take the remote places that are more difficult to navigate. On the left side we see the wide and deep entry of the island of Fakarava. On the right side the narrow and shallow entry of Manihi. Yes, we were careful to get in, but then we spend two beautiful weeks in Manihi. For 12 days the Ya was the only boat. In Fakarava there are so many yachts, a quick count says about 60 now. There is even a Yacht Service, a pier, a dock, everything. And the obvious poor habitats around it.The government is trying to defend the nature a bit by forbidding a lot. But that is fighting the symptoms. You better spread the yachts over the islands.
Stopping with single use plastic is easy in our Western culture. But once you are on the borders of our culture, in your vacation paradise, it is different. Their culture is often a bit like what we discovered in the seventies, with everything shiny and fast, the cars, the food, the sugarized drinks. And the single use plastics lubricate it all.
Stop using single use plastic – and talk the talk
As a traveller you are a special person in this culture. You are a combination of a tourist, a guest of the country who is smiling and enjoying, and a consumer who has money to spend. If they see you, there is something at stake. You are the one who can allow yourself the response: “Sorry, I don’t do single use plastic.”
Just don’t buy it. Actively ask for the alernatives. Be astonished or show your ‘je ne sais quoi’ look if they can’t answer you and turn your back to the shopkeeper and leave to go to the next one.
If your guesthouse or you B&B gives you a lunch or picknick basket with single use plastic, just give that back and ask for real forks and knives and cups. Show that you are serious, e.g. by saying you don’t mind an extra deposit for it.
Since the local people have just been affected with these materials and the short term happiness the bring, they feel happy. So they look away from the garbage floating in their waters. But you, with your smile, are allowed to ask questions. You are in the only group -the only stakeholder if you want- who can stop single use plastic in time, make the short cut for this people. This is what you can give back.
Pick it up
Once the local people are affected with the western-american habits and lifestyle, you find the impact floating in the water. It doesn not mean that you can do the same. Do the opposite and fish it out of the water and bring it all the way to a bin. The ecological impact is perhaps nothing, but it shows that you are respecting their nature as it is.
For example in Bocas Del Toro, Panama, the Wasteless World Foundation organises a two week clean up of the beach of a small island. Now that it is clean for some years, the islanders themselves change bit by bit and the cleanups are becoming less and less frequent.
Inge has always been a great plastic beachcomber. No bottle or cup is too much for her. But now, she agrees, this one she had to let go. ;-§
There are many travel agencies considering sustainability, but Original Travel is a travel agency taking care of what we do with Mother Earth in all aspects. Vacation? Yes! Damage to Mother Earth? No!
On the website of Original Travel we found “40 Facts and Statistics About Tourism and Sustainability”in a prominent chapter. Are they undermining their own business? No, on the contrairy, they prevent and fight all negative aspects piece by piece in their way of organizing travels.
Here we highlight some of the facts and figures Original Travel has brought forward. They are on economy and ecology. We, as tourists, become aware of our foot print, and we start knowing what to do against it.
An honest, open and courageous step of Original Travel. Follow it.
The economy of the blue tourism
Blue tourism is the main motivator to travel
50% of all tourism is motivated by blue tourism. People love to see and explore the coastal and marine areas and it is often the main motivator to choose their travels. For the American and European continent, it is even 80%.
The marine tourism is a rising market. In 2023 it is doing 70 billion, but in 2030 the market is projected to have risen to 113 billion.
The EU blue economy is fast growing and big
With a annual growth of 20-25 % , and a turnover of 1 trillion now, the blue economy is the future. Did you know that only the wind e nergy production has risen more 300% since 2015!
Coastal tourism is a money generator in Europe
It adds 50 billion Euros on value to the European economy. It creates nearly 2 million jobs across the continent.
The Atlantic and Pacific are the oceans wht the future economical growth
The most harm to the seas was found to be the fishing and aquaculture sector – although in this instance, up to 40% of companies operating in this sphere did at least understand and acknowledge the impact they were having.
In 2035 we may see more plastic than fish.
A small area can never ever cope ecologically with a high concentration of pollution
Next week we go to all solutions, especially how we can change our way of celebrate our vacations and travels.
And we saw something that looked liked coral, moving, in mesmerizing colors of black and blue.
First you see a black curly thing in the water, on a shell.
If you come closer, the camouflage of it is beautiful. check the film here under.
We showed the film to the Manihi people when we were eating in their ‘snack’. They immediately recognised it: Benitiers! It is some kind of clam, typical for the islands, and also, they were going to catch them for their special festive morning meal the next day.
So obviously, we ordered a plate.
We ate it for lunch. It was prepared with coconut and curry and some chives on top. The only thing one shouldn’t eat was the intriguing black lining. So, we didn’t. But the rest we ate with great curiosity and respect.
It was delicious. Something in between an oyster and a snail.
