June 1999

Tiama spent the northern summer slowly making her way south. First through the Standing Mast Route on the inland water ways of the Netherlands, then down the southern coast of England, crossing the Bay of Biscay to spend most of the winter months on the east coast of Spain and Portugal.

  A 1-month charter to the sub Antarctic Antipode Islands south of New Zealand, filming the first sunrise of the new Millenium and broadcasting it with an Inmarsat B directly onto the Internet sending a message to 60.000 people as the first rays of the sun hit the decks.

The big day, after a 7 year building process, Tiama is Launched at Orama’s Marina in Auckland, about 150 well wishers were present, including my mother who spoke some nice words and broke a bottle of bubbly over the bow, may she sail safely and happily,  

Two week ocean trial to the remote NZ Kermadec Island group acting as a support vessel to collect geological samples for the Auckland Museum.

A big season behind us, another 11 voyages to the various NZ Sub Antarctic islands, mostly research support trips including a voyage to the Antipode and Bounty islands to do a penguin count and a Salvins albatross count on the Bounty islands, the latter are very remote and not visited much, they are also called…

Tiama sailed from Australia to participate in a peace flotilla against plutonium fuel shipments through the Pacific. Tiama was one of 8 sailing boats from New Zealand and Australia sailing out into the mid Tasman in February 2001 to form a symbolic chain of protest and to promote a nuclear free Tasman. This was followed by a months tour to key southern ports of Australia for Greenpeace.