Creating and sharing ocean sailing stories and adventures

Listen to the podcast

The Ocean Sailing Podcast is designed for people who love to cruise, race or explore the worlds oceans. Its also for those yet to experience the joy of sailing and those no longer able to cast off their dock lines and head for the open sea. Join now and listen free to the Ocean Sailing Podcast episodes.

Come ocean sailing with us

Step up and join David Hows onboard the Beneteau 45 foot yacht 'Ocean Gem' for the ocean sailing adventure of a lifetime. Whether its a 600nm ocean passage down Australia's East Coast, a 200 yacht regatta around the Whitsunday Islands, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, a Tasman Sea crossing or circumnavigating Tasmania, why not join us as a paying crew member in one of the limited spots available for each adventure. Find out more about offshore sailing onboard Ocean Gem. Check out our crew testimonials to see what others have to say about their adventures onboard Ocean Gem with us.

Episode 63: Josh Scarrow - Scientist and sailor, from Antarctica to Port Vila

A fascinating interview with New Zealand scientist and sailor; Josh Scarrow, who has spent time on the ice in Antartica on three different occasions, taking him to 85 degrees south, 2,800 metres high and temperatures below -20 degrees C. Josh is with the Antarctica NZ organisation and shares his sailing experience from Hobart to Antarctica on the 95m icebreaker Aurora Australis and his flying adventures both to and across Antartica. Josh is also a sailor at heart and his Pacific adventures have taken him from Auckland to Port Vila on a 60 foot catamaran.

Josh shares his perspective on the melting ice caps and what it would take to raise the sea levels as much as 60 metres globally.

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Upcoming sailing adventures

Whether your next step is an ocean race or offshore passage, we have a growing calendar of exciting events;

Southport to Auckland - Tasman Sea Passage: 8-22 Mar 19
Auckland to Norfolk Island to Southport: 1-15 Apr 19
Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race: 2-8 Aug 19
Hamilton Island Race Week: 16-25 Aug 19
Hamilton Island to Southport: 25-30 Aug 19
Southport to Middleton & Elizabeth Reefs to Lord Howe Island: 1-7 Dec 19
Rolex Sydney Hobart Race: 25 Dec 2019 - 2 Jan 20
Tasmania Circumnavigation: 7 - 21 Jan 20
Hobart to Picton Tasman Sea Passage: 23 Jan - 5 Feb 20

Check the full sailing calendar for all adventures

Sailing Photo Gallery

Check out the photo gallery of our past adventures to get a taste of what ocean sailing is all about. From offshore coastal passages to ocean races, multi-day regattas and Tasman Sea crossings we have covered more than 25,000 nautical miles and competed in more than 400 races in the past 7 years.

View gallery

2018 Solo Tasman Yacht Race

Check out the highlights, lowlights and lessons learned in my 2018 Solo Tasman Yacht Race Challenge on my Beneteau 445 called Ocean Gem. The 1,502nm race took me 10 days and 55 minutes to complete.

Run every 4 years since 1970, the Solo Tasman Race is the second oldest solo race on the planet. It’s across a piece of water that can be nasty to cross on a bad week.

Ocean Gem’s Live Tracker

Follow Ocean Gem’s sailing adventures on the live Predict Wind GPS Tracker. With Predict Wind and Iridium Go its easy to put weather routing, departure planning and live location tracking into one technology package. I love it because I can use the Iridium Go App on my iPhone as for satellite phone calls, email and messaging and its all part of the same subscription package.

View Ocean Gem on the Live Tracker