New to Cruising

Noonsite exists to make cruising abroad easy, specialising in publishing free entry and exit formalities specific to yacht clearance for all the countries in the world for over 20 years. We help long-distance cruisers understand the requirements to clear in and out of a foreign country, for both them and their boat. Over the next few months, we are writing a series of articles for the American Sailing Association as a step-by-step guide to venturing abroad in your boat and how best to deal with foreign formalities. Read the first introductory article here.

The excellent magazine “Good Old Boat” has ceased publishing, however, the website goodoldboat.com will continue thanks to Sailrite. This is an extensive free resource focusing predominantly on yacht repair and maintenance and boat reviews, however it also includes sailing stories and lots of other excellent content.

Connectivity on board is a hot topic right now, especially with the increasing popularity of Starlink amongst cruisers. Sailing Today have a very useful article covering everything you need to know about staying connected on board, and SY Totem, long term liveaboards and circumnavigators, give an excellent overview of how Starlink is currently utilised in the cruising community.

Don’t miss these free webinars from the National Hurricane Center this August: Hurricane Analysis and Prediction, plus Wind and Wave Prediction.

Pacific Ocean

Hurricanes: The 2024 central Pacific hurricane season outlook from NOAA forecasters is below average, with only 1–4 tropical cyclones across the central Pacific Hurricane region. A near-normal season has 4 or 5 tropical cyclones, which include tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes.

Sharks: With such incredible colours and life in the sea around the South Pacific, most cruisers spend a lot of time swimming, snorkeling and diving. Occasionally, however, things go wrong very quickly, as demonstrated by OCC member SV Kisadee’s account of an unprovoked shark attack in the remote Gambier.

French Polynesia: Yacht clearance is becoming faster and more efficient with the introduction of the pre-arrival online form, as reported by cruisers clearing into Nuka Hiva, Marquesas and Rikitea, Gambier. This has reduced arrival paperwork with no more bother having to send forms to Papeete.

Cook Islands Port Authority have confirmed that Avatiu (Rarotonga) and Arutanga (Aitutaki) are the only two ports of entry currently operational. From July 1st, 2024, there will be a 6% increase in port tarif fees for yachts visiting Avatiu. 

Samoa: Nearly 400 Dengue Fever cases have been reported in the last 6 months and 120 new cases in the first two weeks of May. Health authorities recommend comprehensive insurance - including the provision for medical evacuation by air.

Niue has been bustling with World ARC boats these last 2 weeks, however the fleet have now departed meaning moorings are readily available once again. Book your mooring in advance via the Niue Yacht Club website.

New Caledonia: South Pacific Rally boats departing from ports in NZ and Australia for New Caledonia, have had to divert to Vanuatu after violent protests broke out in Noumea mid-May. It is recommended to avoid the country for the forseeable future. Supplies including food and spare parts are hard to come and there are no commercial flights in and out of the country. Anyone concerned for cruising friends or relatives in New Caledonia should contact viki@islandcruising.nz or Noumea Yacht Services who are assisting cruisers where possible.

Vanuatu Border Control ask that all yachts coming from Noumea to Vanuatu report to Port Vila as their port of entry.

Papua New Guinea: Cruisers clearing out of Vanimo on the Main Island, report on the procedures.

New Zealand: A free Cruisers Guide to the Bay of Islands, in Northland, has been published by the Opua Business Association and Bay of Islands Marina.

Atlantic Ocean

Hurricanes: NOAA’s outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has been released with a predicted total of 17 to 25 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher).

USA: Entry clearance is still possible using the ROAM app, however, it currently can't be used for reporting while domestic cruising. Find out alternative methods at USA Formalities. Starting 1 August, dogs entering or returning must meet new specific requirements.

Scotland: John Neal of Mahina Expeditions, regularly spends the summers in NW Scotland and Islands running ocean expeditions. In his opinion Scotland is one of the finest venues in the world for this type of sail-training "because of the volatile weather conditions, lack of crowds, fabulous history and natural beauty.” Read his report on Scottish harbours and anchorages.

Cape Verdes: A Turkey-flagged product tanker was boarded and robbed southwest of Nova Sintra, Cape Verde this month, in a significant escalation in terms of the way pirates treat seafarers off West Africa. While this was commercial shipping that were targeted, yachts should be aware when sailing in the vicinity.

Atlantic Rallies: The ARC Europe rally left Bermuda last week for the 1800NM voyage to Faial in the Azores. ARC Portugal will start from Plymouth (UK) in nine days time, taking rally boats across the Bay of Biscay and down the coast of Portugal.

Bluewater Open Days are run by WCC in association with Berthon International and are for sailors who are aiming at going offshore cruising and want to know what to look for when choosing a bluewater cruising boat. Pre-register for Stockholm on 15 June and Lymington, UK, on 22 June.

Flotsam and Jetsam: A discarded trawl net which wrapped around the propeller, rudder and keel of a cruising yacht off the southern coast of Ireland, was the “root cause” of the vessel’s grounding and subsequent loss, say Ireland’s Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB).

Mediterranean Sea

Planning: Heading to the Mediterranean? Our round up of articles and links might just be useful.

Schengen: The EES (Entry Exit System) and ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System) are two new automated IT systems for registering and controlling the personal data of nationals of non-EU countries crossing the Schengen Area's external borders. Good news for third country nationals cruising European waters this summer is that EES has been delayed until the Autumn and ETIAS won’t be introduced until Spring 2025. Find out more at our EU page.

Orca: A pod identified as "Gladis", has caused the loss of a sailing yacht in Moroccan waters in the southern Straits of Gibraltar. This is the first yacht to sink after an orca interaction this year, but the 5th yacht to date. All crew were rescued.

France: A new entry protocol for recreational yachts arriving from outside the EU will apply from 1 June 2024, granting a number of marinas the same rights as a port of entry. This gives the cruising sailor much more choice as to where they can land on French soil to enter (or depart from) the EU.

Greece: Formalities just got easier for non-EU flagged yachts that are EU VAT paid. After intensive lobbying by the CA, Greek maritime rules changed this month and vessels with this status can now get an unlimited Transit Log, plus no longer need to check in and out of each controlled port. For weather and sea state forecasting in Greece try the POSEIDON system.

Tunisia: Wade Alarie of SV Joana reports on a winter spent in Cap Monastir Marina. Read about other popular liveaboard wintering spots in the Med in our Wintering in the Med article and let us know where you spent last winter.

Book of the Month

A Tale of Two Yachts

By Barbara White

A joyous comparative study of two kindred voyages undertaken a lifetime apart.

Barbara White and her husband set out on their voyage of circumnavigation from Plymouth in the UK in 2015 on their yacht Zoonie. In this delightful seafaring tale, Barbara compares her voyage and the trials and tribulations she and Rob encountered with that of Norwegian couple Erling and Julie Tambs, who had sailed a similar westwards route 87 years before on their yacht Teddy.

Discover More

With all the changes that have happened to Noonsite over the past few years, there is understandably a little confusion over the availability of Noonsite’s info.

Noonsite has always been free and remains free to all.

However, maintaining and developing a website takes money, and in order to generate enough revenue to do this (which unfortunately advertising alone does not), we now have a subscription payment gateway. This does not prevent anyone reading all the information on the site, however, it does limit one area of the site – formalities. Most cruisers can cope perfectly well with these limitations and it still permits 3 countries to be viewed a month – that is 3 country formality sections. It’s possible to review the 3 you select as many times as you want during the month, but only 3 can be viewed.

Cruisers planning a longer voyage and therefore needing access to more than 3 countries in any one month, would need to take out our Basic Membership (at a cost of $2.99 a month), in order to view unlimited country formalities. We thought long and hard about implementing this cost, but felt that this small amount was not a big ask considering the amount of accurate, free information available plus the bonus features for members.

There will always be users who feel this is too much money, unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that and we sincerely hope that the majority feel that Noonsite is worth the cost of a cup of coffee a month. To this end, if you use Noonsite regularly and appreciate what we provide, please sign up for our basic membership and help to keep Noonsite on the web.

We have 30,000 plus registered users, yet less than 10% subscribe.