Thursday, April 23rd 2026. Today was relatively uneventful. After retrieving and securing the anchor, I turned my attention to our course. The wind had backed from North East to North West. We were sailing on a broad reach with a wind angle of approximately 160°. Our course over ground was closer to 70°M. I decided to rig the spinnaker pole on the Port side to pole out the jib. It’s only a number three that doesn’t overlap the mast and sets flat as a board when poled out. I w

Wednesday, April 22nd 2026. Departure Day. We woke around 0630hrs after a good nights sleep. With the voyage expected to take well over seven days, I didn’t see any point in racing off at the crack of dawn. My new crew Kevin had arrived on the bus from Albany on Monday evening. He’s an experienced sailor and doctor with a wealth of knowledge about all things boating. He and his wife live aboard their 52ft steel ketch ‘Thomas Tinboy’ which is currently moored in Albany. Kevin

Stainless steel ball valve installed between the exhaust mixing elbow and the water lock muffler. I have received lots of questions on my recent post about repairing my engine after filling it with sea water. The most common question has been how will you stop this from happening again? I will attempt to explain as best can. The Problem Emigre’s exhaust system is very simple. This simplicity is part of the problem. The exhaust mixing elbow is bolted on the back of the exhaust

Albany to Tasmania - Day 3 The Esperance Arrival Saturday, April 11th 2026 Of the many ways you can sail into Esperance Bay, we possibly chose one of the worst. We spent the morning simply trying to get Emigre moving on a course vaguely in the same direction as Esperance. If we had a working engine, we would have motored for sure. When you’re drifting about at one or two knots, not making much headway, you begin to get frustrated. I call it playing ‘Bob’. We played a lot of B

After spending the morning in the bilge working on the engine in light winds and confused swell, I was again feeling green in the hills and spent some time in the cockpit watching the swells roll through. We had a quiet afternoon mostly catching up on sleep. The sky was full of heavy cloud and had been since we left Albany. This was not doing my small lithium battery bank any favours despite having upgrading my solar array from 100 to 350w. Who knew solar panels didn’t work w

Today is a day I have been thinking about for at least twelve months. This time last year I was aboard Keshi Mer at Middle Island, approximately 80 nautical miles South East of Esperance. I was working for a hydrographic survey company supporting their new unmanned survey vessel (USV) “Fremantle 01”. Spending time at Middle Island and surrounding Recherché Archipelago gave me an idea of the vastness of the waters south of Australia. Crossing the great Australian Bight in my o

Augusta to Albany - Leg Two A after a few beers, a pub meal, and a solid 12 hours of sleep, I was beginning to feel human again. Some say a crucial trait of any offshore sailor is a bad memory. If we really remembered how bad it was in the moment, none of us would go back to sea. I believe it’s called ‘type two fun’. Waking up to warm sunshine on the cabin, Ash and I enjoyed eggs for breakfast, accompanied by tea and coffee, having already washed the boat down and hung our sa

Many month of planing and preparation in the making, after many setbacks and delays, Ashlee dropped the mooring lines at Quindalup for the final time which marked the beginning of Emigre’s voyage towards Southern Tasmania. It was 19:50hrs on Thursday, January 15th. It’s been a dream of mine for some time now to sail Emigre to Tasmania and explore the D’Entrecasteaux channel, Port Arthur, Port Davey and Strahan.  I suppose you could say the two trips I’ve made by car over the

Albany Adventure Part 1 – From Day Sailor to Offshore Passage Maker By Morgan Flower When telling people at the Fremantle Sailing Club...

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The second project on the list for the winter refit was to renovate the forward cabin. This included installing a plywood floor in the...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, that’s not because I haven’t even up to much. Quite the opposite in fact. Throughout June and...

Emigre's current sailplan & aluminium mast. Sloop?, cutter?, ketch?, In mast furling?, in boom furling?, slab reefing?, two reefs?, three...

Solo Spinnaker Sailing aboard Emigre near Quindalup, Western Australia. One of my favourite pastimes, other than sailing, is reading...

Many believe that a sailboat is more than an inanimate object. Boats have a soul, they breathe and give feedback to those who crew them....

If you ask most yachties where Quindalup is, you’ll quickly realise that not everyone knows about WA cruising’s best kept secret. I have...

You're probably wondering what this is all about? Well so am I! Stick around to find out. The First Step “Its out at sea that you are...