Chapter 182: We sailed 9,866 nautical miles in 2025, now what?!?!?

2025 was a BIG year for Sailing Meraviglia! When we started out the year in Panama, we knew we had some big adventures ahead and we were not sure whether or not we would like them.  SPOILER ALERT,  we LOVED them.  While the year had some tough moments, including the loss of one of our boat buddies, we both really enjoyed the places we visited, learned A TON, and gained confidence and experience.  

We sailed 9,866 miles in 2025.  A big part of that, over 4,000 miles, was our Pacific ocean crossing from Panama to French Polynesia.  We visited six countries (not including 2 visits to the US):  Panama, French Polynesia, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand.  We have now sailed over 12,000 miles total since we set off from Georgia in February of 2023! 

Some of the big highlights and lowlights of the year included:

January: We visited Panama City to replace Bob’s lost passport (definite lowlight) and to provision for crossing the Pacific. We attempted to leave on our Pacific crossing but had to return less than five hours into the journey with a broken whisker pole. 

February:  We successfully got the whisker pole fixed and once again prepped to leave for our ocean crossing.  We successfully left Panama with our dock neighbor and boat buddy, Hartwell on February 21st! We traveled together for a while until Hartwell veered off to head to the Gambier Islands while we headed for the Marquesas. We crossed the equator and officially went from Pollywogs to Shellbacks!

March:  We successfully completed our crossing after 33 days at sea and arrived in Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia! We explored Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, and then sailed to Nuka Hiva where we performed our first rescue at sea of two local fishermen!

April:  We explored Nuka Hiva and met up with a fellow TRU (Totem Raft Up) boat, Fortuna.  We buddy boated with Taras and Emily on Fortuna to the Tuamotus.  We did our first atoll entrance and visited 5 different places together:  Raroia, Makemo, Fakarava, Toau, and Rangiroa.  Bob learned to scuba dive with Taras’s excellent instruction!

May: We explored one more atoll, Tikehau, with the crew of Fortuna where we got to swim with manta rays- definite highlight!  We said goodbye to our boat buddies and headed to Tahiti.  We left Meraviglia in Tahiti to fly back to the US to celebrate the wedding of our nephew, Ben and his lovely bride Tatyana!

June:  We returned to Tahiti and got our awesome new mainsail from Zoom sails.  We did a little sightseeing in Tahiti before departing for Bora Bora.  We continued on to our last stop in French Polynesia, Maupiha’a to wait for a weather window to depart for Niue.  We enjoyed this lovely remote atoll and its little dog inhabitant, Meela.  

July:  We ended up waiting for a weather window for two weeks before we could finally depart for Niue! We spent three days in Niue enjoying one of the loveliest places we have visited with the kindest people. After a three day passage from Niue, we arrived in Tonga. On July 30th, we experienced our first tsunami scare after a large earthquake in Russia.  Fortunately the effects were minimal in Tonga but we learned a lot about tsunamis and sailing!

August:  We spent another week in Tonga and got to swim with a humpback whale – absolutely incredible! We departed for Fiji and arrived safely at Vuda Marina after a four day passage.  We got to reconnect with both of our former boat buddies, Emily and Taras from Fortuna and Hartwell from Ocean Rambler in Port Denarau. We explored a variety of anchorages in the Yasawas and Kadavu island groups, even swimming with a manta again!

September:  We started the month off with difficult news when we learned our boat buddy, Hartwell, was missing after his boat washed up on the Australian coastline without him aboard. The news was very sobering and we continue to pray for his loved ones back home. My sister, Michelle, arrived in Fiji for a visit on the 17th and we had an amazing week with her exploring the Yasawa and Mamanuca islands groups.  We visited a different anchorage every day and got to snorkel, kayak, hike, visit traditional villages and beach resorts which was awesome.

October:  October found us finishing up our time in Fiji and preparing for our passage to New Zealand. We did a lot of preparation as this would be our greatest sailing test yet! We left Fiji on October 15th and had a challenging but successful sail to New Zealand, arriving in Marsden Cove on the 22nd.  We stayed there for a day or two before sailing the final leg to Whangarei where Meraviglia will remain until spring of 2026.

November:  We took the month of November to prepare Meraviglia for our departure to the US in December as well as to take an EPIC campervan trip to explore the North Island of New Zealand.  We explored top to bottom and we love New Zealand! But maybe not large campervans!

December: We left New Zealand on December 4th after a lovely visit to Auckland.  We arrived back in Texas and then traveled to Atlanta to spend a lovely holiday with our children.  We came back to Texas and celebrated my birthday with our Seguin friends and then rang in the New Year with my sister in Austin.

So after an epic year like that, what is next??  Well, that’s a great question and we don’t really have an answer yet.  We are back in the states until April when we will return to Meraviglia in New Zealand.  We then will need to do some work to get her back and ready to sail.  The ideal departure window is late April to early May as this aligns with the end of the cyclone season in Fiji and avoids the intense lows of the New Zealand winter which begins in June. Once in Fiji, we will have to make some decisions about where to go next.  Some options include: staying in Fiji and then returning to New Zealand again for cyclone season to sail to the South island, staying in Fiji and then sailing to Australia for cyclone season,  or not going to either but instead head from Fiji to Indonesia to continue heading west.  With so many good options, we definitely will take the time to further explore during our time in the US. On a good note, we both already miss Meraviglia and sailing so that has helped to reassure us that our adventures onboard are not yet done.  We look forward to sharing more with you all in 2026 wherever we end up!  Thanks for reading and supporting us!