Voyage of the Pateke

After commenting to Zephyr the other day that I find most cruising blogs (the majority on sailblogs.com) to be a bit disappointing, I have found a few in the last few weeks that are quite enjoyable. My latest fav is the voyage of S/V Pateke.  Fenton and Hamlin and Jane Banfield-Hamlin (sounds like four people but it's actually a couple from NZ) built their boat and then set-off in 1999. Here is a bit about them in their own words and a lovely shot from the bowsprit:

....10 years in the building, Pateke was launched in 1999. She is a 30ft Lyle Hess design based on the traditional Bristol channel cutters. For Fenton, building this beautiful wooden yacht has been a labour of love, starting right from the initial felling of an old Kahikatea tree for the main timbers, chosen from those growing on his former Northland farm. Fenton and Pateke left New Zealand in January 2005, and voyaged via Tasmania, Fremantle, Cocos Keeling, Mauritius, and Rodrigues to Knysna in South Africa, arriving in December 2005. Jane and Fenton married in 2000, and spent many happy months together on Pateke and other yachts before separating in 2003. Happily they were reunited in 2006 and since May 2006, Pateke has been voyaging along the coasts of Mozambique, Madagascar, Mayotte, Zanzibar and Tanzania and is currently on the Kenyan coast.