WESail - Living the Dream in the South Pacific

There can’t be too many sailors originating from landlocked Colorado (not really famed as one of the great maritime states) but that’s where Warren and Erica hail from. Some seven years ago now, they quit the rat race and left the mountains in their wake, bound for Martinique where they bought Evolias, a Lipari 41, their first catamaran. The adventure was only just beginning…

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Published 03/04/2026

By Mary Nicholas

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Issue: 207

Published: june / july 2026

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Who: Warren and Erica
Where: Fiji, South Pacific
Multihull: Helia 44
YouTube: @WESail

After a couple of seasons cruising the Caribbean, the next stage was set to be a Pacific crossing. But they transited the Panama Canal just before Covid hit, and along with everyone else, their plans ended up on hold. They sat things out in the Sea of Cortez for a couple of years, but their time there brought them to their new boat, a Helia 44 named VA. And ever since then, they’ve been working their way through the Pacific, having taken in French Polynesia, Niue, Tonga, American Samoa and then down to New Zealand for the 2025 cyclone season. There, they hauled out at one of the marinas in Whangārei, the country’s northernmost city. This is a popular choice for many circumnavigators, who enjoy the opportunity to undertake a refit, but also to do some shore-based exploration during the months-long wait before the new sailing season begins. And that’s exactly what Warren and Erica did, buying a second-hand RV and touring the country from one end to the other. On getting back to the boat from their road trip, a ton of projects got underway: fiberglass work, including fabricating a new freezer and a coolbox, adding a new windlass and chain, instrument consoles in carbon fiber, a remodeling of the galley… the list goes on. But eventually, their time on the hard came to an end and VA finally splashed again and made her way up to Fiji via Minerva Reef. This submerged atoll around 260 nautical miles south of the Tongatapu Group – the southernmost islands of the Kingdom of Tonga – is a useful stopover on the long passage between New Zealand and the tropical South Pacific Islands.
Leaving VA securely tied up in the marina at Vuda Point on the west side of Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island during the early part of this year’s cyclone season, the couple spent some time back in the States before ...

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