Blog

China Moon is in a boatyard for its regular maintenance. The life of noise, dust and hard work was swapped with a life of opulence, luxury, sumptuousness, and also the awards. Was this really happening to us? We were there for another nice surprise.

Cruising Club of America https://cruisingclub.org/awards/blue-water-medal-pete-hill Pete Hill, of the United Kingdom, is the recipient of the 2025 Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America (CCA). This prestigious award, established to honor exceptional seamanship and adventure by amateur sailors, recognizes Hill for his more than 50 years of long-distance voyaging in the world’s oceans. […]

Over the years, Pete has received numerous sailing awards in recognition of his extraordinary seamanship and voyages. Awarding Club or Institutions 2025 – CCA Blue Water Medal The prestigious Blue Water Medal was inaugurated by the Cruising Club of America in 1923 to:reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of […]

Pete is the author of the following Cruising Guides published by the RCC Pilotage Foundation:  South Shetland Islandhttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/61/South-Shetland-Islands-and-Antarctic-Peninsula South Orkney Islandshttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/58/Cruising-Guide-to-South-Orkney South Georgiahttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/55/South-Georgia-1995 South Atlantic Islandshttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/43/South-Atlantic-Islands South West Africahttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/40/South-West-Africa Argentinahttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/49/Argentina Uruguayhttps://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/234/Uruguay-(PDF) Brazil NE Coast – Volume 1https://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/163/Cruising-Guide-to-the-Coast-of-Brazil-Part-1- Brazil North Coast – Volume 2https://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/164/Cruising-Guide-to-the-Coast-of-Brazil-Part-2 Brazil South Coast – Volume 3https://rccpf.org.uk/pilots/165/Cruising-Guide-to-the-Coast-of-Brazil-Part-3

Appetizer As always we were checking the weather for days before setting off. Eventually the forecasted variable (light) winds looked OK and I was pleased when Neptune commented: “It is not going to be a fast passage”. He estimated 1200 miles in 12 days, April 1st for our arrival! With light to moderate winds, flattish […]

Dear Friends, I usually write every 6 months, but this cannot wait. Before setting off from Hobart I sent you this: We are both very much looking forward to our Tasman Sea crossing to Nelson, New Zealand. The sea with its infinite cleansing powers should wash away all that earth life brings. The simple, pure, […]

I have been meaning to thank, individually, each one of you who wrote back to me. Thank you so much for all the encouragement. Alas, tiredness got the better of me and I am only now managing to, briefly, send something. We’ve been in Tasmania for just over five months. They were the toughest ones […]

Dear Friends First and foremost. I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings you joy! Happy 2025! What fools would buy a boat without receiving at least one picture of it? Then abandon the most beautiful boat they spent so much time working on, and pack up everything to […]

Despite having the most wonderful time with so many friends in the UK and Croatia, there was something about land that is corrupt. “Boats and people rot in the harbours.” Being away from it all, escaping into an unknown blue universe was an elixir fix I needed the most. I said to Neptune: “Get me […]

Linda decided to fly to Europe instead of sailing across the Atlantic as it was her perfect opportunity to spend some time with family and friends. Linda wasn’t happy about me sailing single handed across the Atlantic in Kokachin on my own, but I was. The answer seemed to be to find out if my […]

It is nearly 6 months since my last update with many miles under Kokachin’s wake. Our 3 months sejour in Florida could not have been more different from Newfoundland wilderness, a kingdom of nature, where isolation and peace reigned. The only spot to anchor in Stuart was under the private jets flight path where a […]

Our last anchorage in Canada was a small desolate island (Cape Negro Island) at the very Southern tip of Nova Scotia, the big lighthouse offshore was shining its light on us. Not a soul in sight, just some scattered remnants of a dilapidated cottage buried under thorny bushes, traces of past life. With a deep […]

To my mind a good cruise should have an objective, a destination, but much of the pleasure is in the journey towards it. My step daughter lives in Newfoundland so that was a good reason to go there, quite apart from it being an interesting cruising ground. There is no cruise without a boat and […]

It has been nearly four months since my last update from Lunenburg – our port of arrival in Canada, Nova Scotia late in May. My challenge now is how to summarise it well,and not to bore you with the details. There is a lot I wish to tell, and consequently, I did not manage to […]

Thank you to many of you who responded to my vivid description of our episode across the Atlantic. Here is our next instalment. We arrived in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada just a few days ago. It is cold but magically beautiful and peaceful. If you wonder why North (and not South), our sailing route is […]

As always there is something to tell! We enjoyed Las Palmas, its busy port, accessible anchorage and an interesting old and new town. Despite its attractions we set off pretty soon. Nine hundred miles south lie the Cape Verde islands, which provided a refreshing difference with its African feel. Palmeira, on Sal, was fun. It’s […]

I hope that your Summer / Winter has been good and you are looking forward to a new season. You might have been wondering where we were during this time of absence and how it is going with Kokachin. Here is our well overdue update. It was not easy to summarise 6 months of a […]

At anchor, in balmy evening sunshine, with calm seas and her sweet lulling, red sunset while dining – with nothing on our mind but to enjoy it. The sense of blissful existence was indescribable. The three years of (hard) toil seemed to be forgotten already and definitely worth it! In preparation for a little party […]

Your heartfelt messages that poured into my inbox from all over the world each minute were like fireworks, creating magic to which the universe responded to by regaling us with the most glorious day we could have hoped for. Kokachin was launched without a glitch in the scorching sunshine and a gentle breeze on Wednesday […]

Looks like we are going to make it, despite last month’s trials and tribulations with insurance, which caused a last minute delay. A story better not to be told, at least for now. Preparations are in earnest for the ship shape ship. We are excited and so should Kokachin be. She is ready, looking splendid, […]

Over optimistically, I thought we could finish Kokachin in about a year, it took us three years with the two of us working full time (weekends included).  Very soon, as we started working on her, we realised that Le Forestiere’s Jonque de Plaisance are complicated boats! Also if she was to meet our needs and […]
⚓ Kokachin — Boat Building

Kokachin, originally named Matahina, started her life on a farm in Bussieres, a little village 70km NE from Paris. Her hull and deck and some of the interior were built by Mr Jossete, a professional carpenter. He started building her in 2009 and spent two years building the hull alone plus many more on the […]
⚓ Kokachin — The Boat

We had the following requirements when looking for a boat: We were aware that not all of the requirements could be met as it is obvious that the ideal boat does not exist. We were looking for a live aboard home that could take us where we wanted to go. We wanted a shallow draught boat because it gives us wider access to […]

How did it all start? Raivavae (Austral Island – French Polynesia) Like in a dream, over the calm turquoise seas of the tropical lagoon, Pete effortlessly rowed us out of Raivavae harbour in Crake (7ft Bolger Nymph). It took us about ½ hour to get to one of the most beautiful tiny tropical motu I’ve […]

When I was going to become boatless (read ‘homeless’), Linda and I compiled a list of requirements that we were looking for in a future boat. The boat had to be suitable for short-handed ocean passages, large enough for two to live on board, but small enough for me to be able to handle on […]

Oryx was up for sale and my New Zealand visa was about to expire so I needed to find a new home. An internet search for junk-rigged boats for sale brought up Raggedy Edge, a Pearson 367 lying in Florida. She appeared to be in good condition, was a suitable size, had lots of equipment, […]

Stillwater to the BOI only, Sailed 126 miles – 6 days. Best daily run 38nms in 9 hours, average 4.2 knots Dear Friends, I have not written for a while, but you’ve been on my mind all along. Here is the next chapter, well overdue, which I feel I owe to Francis and you. Hope […]

By: Pete, Roger and Linda Skipper: Pete We left Neiafu (Tonga) on the 7th November with an ESE wind force 4 to 5, perfect weather with the sun shining. The first days run of 157 miles. This good weather continued to Minerva Reef where we anchored for one day. We left Minerva reef on the […]

When I joined Oryx, I did not realise that she would be such a head turner. Everywhere we go, we have numerous visitors who want to know about the boat and its unusual aero junk rig. Even Polynesian TV accosted us, wanting to know more and filming us as we were anchoring on our arrival […]

In the middle of June we left Whangarei in New Zealand and after clearing out from Marsden Cove, we set sail in a fresh SW F6. Once clear of the channel we bore away past Bream Head for French Polynesia. I say ‘we’ as Linda Crew-Gee, a Croatian Londoner and fellow junk enthusiast, had joined […]

At the end of November 2016, I packed my bags and cast off from my London houseboat where I’d lived for the past 30 years. Instead of having a leaving party, I sent an email to friends and business associates, despite the fact that for some, this might have been too personal. I hoped that […]

Rig Selection The most difficult part was designing the rig to fit the boat. There are some controversies around how much lead junk rig needs on a monohull. With a multihull it is easy as they don’t heel and therefore a Centre of Effort (CE) of the rig can be placed over the Centre of […]

South Africa, Mauritius, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand I left Durban at the end of July, single-handed again and very much alone. I had rather lost my sense of direction and was not sure where to go. I couldn’t face continuing on to Madagascar and it seemed wrong to retreat back to the Atlantic. In […]

Awarded the Founder’s Cup by RCC Our 180 days in Brazil were up so we cleared out of Angra dos Reis for Uruguay, 1000 miles to the south-west. Before leaving Brazil we sailed over to Enseada de Sito Forte, on Ilha Grande, where a beach bar kindly runs a hose of spring water out to […]

Pete and Carly sailed away on Oryx from the UK in 2012. Carly diligently captured their voyaging in her blog (see the links) until her tragic disappearance at sea in 2015. Words are not enough to express Pete’s profound pain for the loss of his much loved and infinitely missed wife. By saying: “I wished […]

Oryx is a modified KD860, designed by Bernd Kohler. The main alterations I made to the design were to lengthen her from 8.6 metres to 10.0 metres and, of course, to change the rig to a junk. There were many other modifications, so that the completed boat is very different from the standard design. Oryx’s dimensions […]

For someone who dislikes motoring it may seem a little perverse to attempt to go a long way up the rivers Paraná and Paraguay, but the prospect of being able to travel 1,000 miles into the centre of a continent without taking the masts down was irresistible. My only source of information was the Admiralty […]

By Pete Hill – 2006 Pete received the Inaugural Jester Medal, which is awarded by the Ocean Cruising Club, at theirdiscretion, for an outstanding contribution to the art of singlehanded sailing. Whilst browsing through a Classic Boat magazine in a supermarket in Bermuda, I came across an article about the Jester Challenge to be held […]

Written by Ewen Southby-Tailyour Ten entries in the inaugural Jester Challenge for single-handed yachts under 30 feet departed Plymouth at 1200 BST on 3 June 2006 and headed towards Newport, RI. The first to arrive, a Frenchman, did so after 31 days 15 hours 35 minutes and the second (and last), Pete Hill, crossed the […]

China Moon was designed and built as a seaworthy ocean cruising home for short handed sailing. The unusual double junk rig provides for safe and easy handling. Sails can be hoisted and reefed from inside the cuddy without getting wet. Hinged carbon fibre battens give the sail a good shape. As well as her superb […]

The Founder’s Cup by RCC was awarded for this cruise. After the previous year’s disaster at Staten Island, China Moon retreated to Brazil where I built stronger rudders and a cuddy at the forward end of the cockpit to give much needed shelter. In November I sailed singlehanded back down to Argentina and spent Christmas […]

This is the cruise for which the Juno’s Cup was awarded by RCC. We beat into Bahia Aguirre against 40 to 50 knot winds and when we left it was almost calm. We had to motor for nearly an hour before the breeze filled in from the southwest. These conditions are about par for the […]

I can’t honestly say that China Moon was in all respects ready for sea but, after three years building her in South Africa, it was time to leave, a view the lenient immigration authorities wholeheartedly agreed with. The idea for China Moon first germinated after reading about Dragon Wings, a 34ft catamaran with a junk […]

She is very easily driven and slipped along nicely with the articulating battens giving the sail a nice shape. The log was not calibrated but the estimated speed was about 3 knots to windward in a Force 3 and tacking through 100°. There was noticeable leeway, but not excessive. As soon as the wind picked […]

China Moon was designed to be a comfortable cruising Catamaran to be used for long voyages to remote cruising grounds. Fitting a junk rig on the boat was a major consideration. Having read about the successful junk rigged catamaran ‘Dragon Wings’, designed and built by Gary Lepak, I felt it feasible to design my own […]

Cruising seems to be feast or famine. After the non-stop conviviality of the splendid RCC Azores Meet, we now planned to spend nearly three months on our own, sailing down to Cape Town with only a short stop in Brazil to have a break and replenish our water and supplies of fresh food. On 3 […]

This cruise was awarded Juno’s Cup by RCC. Annie and I crossed the Atlantic to the West Indies for the winter in 1996 and sailed up to Nova Scotia from the Virgin Islands the following April. When we arrived in early May, we were a little surprised to find it frosty and that all the […]

This is the cruise for which the RCC Challenge Cup and the Goldsmith Exploration Award were presented. It was with some trepidation that we sailed from Stanley in the Falkland Islands, outward bound for the Antarctic. Our original plan had been to visit South Georgia and then sail on to Cape Town. In the winter, […]

We don’t usually take crew along on our cruises, but Steve Spring is an old friend and he expressed a desire to visit the Falkland Islands. He thought it unlikely that he would ever get there in his own boat and so the arrangements were made. Steve lives in Ohio and, after trying several travel […]

The cruise for which the RCC’s Romola Cup was awarded. Although we had intended to leave England directly after the Beaulieu Meet, it was not until 26 September that we managed to sail from Falmouth. A minor overhaul of Badger’s motor had turned into a major re-engine job, when the cost of repairs turned out […]

Pete and Annie Hill We have found Badger performs at her best to windwards with a F4-5 and wind over tide – e.g. beating up a river against the ebb, because in a chop the foremast starts to ‘pile drive’ and ruins her progress. We have tacked through 85°, but in the above conditions would […]

Pete & Annie Hill We spent some time in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there we’ve been working our way south. At present we are in St. Michaels. We stayed around a few days and then set off South. It was very cold and we had ice on the dinghy in the mornings. We decided to […]

It was either Greenland or Greece; we hadn’t decided just where to go for our summer cruise. Annie, who dislikes being cold, wet and frightened, felt that Greenland would give her too much of all three; I reminded her that ‘strenuousness is the path of immortality’. She wasn’t impressed. However, we had the good fortune […]

Pete and Annie Hill sailed Badger from the Solent to the Caribbean via the Algarve and the Azores, re-crossing the Atlantic to visit family in Scotland and thence to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The return journey to Warsash nonstop from Limfiord was marred by a F 9 gale in the German Bight during which Annie hurt her back. In eleven months they covered 13,634 miles. This article concentrates on the Cuban section of their marvellous cruise.[…]

Having laid up Badger while in Falmouth, we decided to find a pocket cruiser for weekend sailing, in order to explore the creeks in the area and to keep our sanity. The boat we found was a Westcoaster 20, designed by Cmdr. Rayner and built by the Beacon Boat Co. of cold moulded plywood, in […]

Annie and Pete Hill are now set for embarkation on their next sea-going adventure and far from being laid up and at work full time in Falmouth they have been clocking up the miles in their Westcoaster, Missee Lee. Since we came back to England in June 1987, we’ve managed to keep ourselves occupied. Based […] by Annie Hill

We left our winter berth in Skippool Creek, Fleetwood at the end of May. There was a gale force warning in force, but then, there usually is, and anyway, the tides would be falling soon, and we wanted to get off while we could. Twelve hours later, we were hove to off the Isle of Man in a steady force 8. [by Annie Hill]

In the Caicos and the Bahamas the water is crystal clear and most of one’s navigation is what the Americans describe as “Eyeball”. This was just as well because our echo sounder chose to pack in two days before our arrival in the Turks. Our first anchorage was in Cockburn Harbour, which we shared with […] by Annie Hill

We left the British Virgin Islands on 23 May 1984 and headed due North. In fact our course towards Shelburne, Nova Scotia, took us directly across Bermuda, so that we had to make a slight detour to avoid that particular hazard. [by Annie Hill]

The week before we left La Palma we had the most appalling weather there. Due to the way moorings were laid for local boats, we were all anchored so that we tended to lie across the wind. The anchorage was extremely crowded, as Sou’westerlies were still prevailing, with, as yet, no sign of the Trades. […] by Annie Hill

We want to add more about building Badger but that is still work in progress. It was a long time ago. Our next major undertaking was the removal of Badger’s keel and the fitting of a new one. The most difficult bit was getting the old one off, as we had glued it on with […]
📄 Building Badger — Full account by Pete Hill