Last week, Necker Belle was put to her toughest test yet and I’m not talking weather conditions.

Last week, three generations of Bransons came on board for a week’s holiday around the Galapagos Islands and she was an overwhelming success. Read More

The route from Australia to Necker Island is one against the prevailing weather conditions, which means that rather than sailing with the trade winds along the trade route, we’re headed in the opposite direction.

In real terms what this means is we’re beating into swells, rather than riding them.  We’re swimming upstream rather than going with the currents. Read More

Until you do an ocean crossing, it’s really hard to imagine just what it would be like.

I imagined it would be blissfully relaxing, lying on the trampoline getting some sun whilst watching the marine life swim by.  Surprisingly it’s anything from relaxing!  In fact the closest thing I can associate it with is what I imagine a new parent goes through. Read More

Our Christmas was a little late as we had gale force conditions against us, which meant the actual Christmas day was spent beating to weather in huge seas.  We pulled into port at 11pm on Christmas night, so Boxing Day was reserved for Christmas lunch. 

Thankfully Santa still found us and delivered gifts for all.  We had a great few hours on anchor which meant the crew could have Christmas lunch together at the one time (rather than some on deck!).  Read More

One of the interesting things about our crew is that the Captain, Jono competed for over ten years against our Engineer Goce in surfboats, which is a sport involving rowing through the surf and back in a boat.

Jono and Goce were both members of top Australian crews for many years, thus essentially rivals. Despite the competition, the boys had mutual respect for each other and Goce ultimately moved to Sydney to row in the same crew as Jono. Read More

At 1500, 24 November Necker Belle departed Australian shores.  Waved off by our families and good friends at Azzura Marine, we pulled out to sea amid low cloud and heavy rain.

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Necker Belle has set sail! She quietly cruised out of Sydney Harbour on Tuesday 24th November, bound for Necker Island (click here to view the video), where she’ll be available for charter in February.

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