Makemo! Part one anyway…

On Feb 3rd, 2015 Published By B.J.

And now it’s time for our first non-sequitur jump back to French Polynesia.  Makemo was the first stop in the Tuamotus, which we picked its downwind location relative to the other atolls we wanted to visit.  It was about a three day sail from Nuka Hiva, timed to arrive in daylight with good tide for the pass.

We spotted Makemo on the radar and the early morning horizon around the same time.  The low lying atolls are hard to see in the dark and require approaching with caution.  Arriving a little too early to catch the optimal tide into the pass we decided to stand off the island hove-to for a couple hours to let the sunlight fill and currents shift.  Just as a were getting ready to head in for the final approach we spotted our friends on Anthem on the AIS but couldn’t reach them on the radio.  We ended up missing them by about an hour which was unfortunate as we wouldn’t catch up with them again until we reached New Zealand.

All of the atolls in the Tuamotus have very small populations – Makemo with its 800 people is one of the more populous, and one of the largest geographically.  600 of those people live in the single village of Pouheva.  The village has a school, several small stores, a couple of sort-of restaurants (we never caught them actually open), and a boulangerie (bakery).

The Quest for Bread

If you have read the posts on Nuka Hiva you are aware of the madness of French Polynesia bakers.  So THIS time we were prepared.  We’d read there was a bakery on the island to get bread and that you needed to be there “fairly early” to get bread before it sold it.  With your customer base being the 600 villagers the 2-3 cruising boats you may see at any time are just a rounding error in the baking quantities so it’s not surprising it they run out.

We arrived on a Saturday and I found the Boulangerie!   Victory is near at hand, thought it was already closed for the day.  With Sunday being  the day All Things Are Closed in these islands I knew that Monday AM I’d be there bright and early to score out baguettes.  Off the boat before 7:00, we walked to the boulangerie to arrive as the last local was buying the last of the baguettes.  He graciously gave us one of his, but that was it.

Not to be undone, the next morning I set an alarm and got up at 6:00 and went in figuring that I just needed to get there earlier.  Imagine my surprise to find the boulangerie completely shut up without a soul around to sell me any baguettes.  I stood around in front of the bakery like an idiot for a while before one of the locals stopped by to talk with me.  Apparently on Tuesdays the bakery opens at 9:00.  OK, back to the boat to wait for the opening.

When we finally got to the boulangerie with it open and the woman who ran it there to talk to I was able to get the hours from her which were posted…but inside the building where you couldn’t see it when closed.  Closed Sundays, but open around 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays and Mondays, and 9:00 the rest of the days.  This explains my ill luck, but from then on in we had a constant source of first rate baguettes secured.  Small village life, everyone just knew the bakery schedule so it didn’t need to be advertised so it takes a stranger a few days to sort it out.

The Heiva

Our first nights in Makemo we were greeted by drumming every evening.  We weren’t sure what was going on, on Saturday night it seemed relatively normal but on a Tuesday in a small village it seemed right unusual.  We went in once or twice to have a look and it seemed to be a small group of men in the village pavilion drumming together.  Interesting, but nothing that drew the eye.

IMG_7063

A couple of days before this was weathered wood and corrugated metal.

Over the coming days though we started to notice changes to the village.  Things were getting cleaned up, plants were being moved around and elaborate weavings of palm fronds and flowers started appearing on the shack like structures around the pavilion.  As it turns out, these little shacks were well decorated and opened up as restaurants or cafes for the evenings of the Heiva.

The Heiva is a traditional dance…event…throughout French Polynesia in the month of July.  There are festivities, celebrations, parties, and competitions among teams of dancers.  In the Tuamotus the teams were from the different atolls, with each atoll/village sponsoring a team.  For this year’s competition Makemo was the host for two other teams from neighboring atolls who arrived by boat and stayed several days for the festivities.

The subtleties, well not even the subtleties, pretty much everything about the nature of the competition was pretty much lost on us though we did have a long chat with a local fellow who tried to do some explaining.  Most of the competition was conducted in Puamotuan of which I can recognize not a word, and some in French which I could follow a little.  There was a leader or chief of each team  who started out with a speech.  The speech seemed to have some swagger and boasting to it, without being able to understand it I was left with the feeling that the dance teams were there to represent the honor of the village with the competition instead of a fight as their ancestors might have.  Presumably there was a story being told as well, but we had no interpreter…

All of the costumes are made from natural grasses, fibers and weaving; most of them even stayed together the whole night!  Children participate as do men.  The mens dancing in particular is very physical, almost warlike and aggressive at times in its intensity and there is definitely nothing feminine about it.  Everyone out there shakes it hard and works up a sweat as they smile and have a lot of fun.  Makemo island also treated us with a performance from their children’s team which featured kids from about eight up through teenagers.  It was hard for us to picture American teenagers – especially boys – donning grass skirts and dancing it up like this.

Sadly much of the original dance and culture from this area was lost when this style of dancing was banned for many years when European missionaries prevailed over the “indecency”.  Oral tradition though seems to have held on to a lot, and their are many active dance schools and teams throughout French Polynesia.

We ended the evening with dinner in one of the beautifully decorated restaurants.  Just like in Nuka Hiva, one of the things that made this night particularly special was that it was a show by the locals for the locals; we were welcome guests but it wasn’t paid theater just to entertain us.  It was their culture on display and it was pretty spectacular for such a small community.

Unfortunately photography was a little challenging, being at night with a lot of quickly moving subjects.  I give you my best, but pardon the motion blur!

Motion blur on the legs…
The Makemo kids team

 

Posted in Makemo | Comments Off on Makemo! Part one anyway…

Look Ma, No Engine!

On Jan 21st, 2015 Published By B.J.
photo 1

The engine (green) already in the truck bed, here comes the generator on the crane to join it.

If you’ve followed this blog you will know that the generator – a Westerbeke 6.0 kw diesel – has been the bane of my existence almost since the day we left cruising.  If there was one “do-over” for this whole experience, it would have been to yank this stupid, leaky, deteriorating hunk of recalcitrant scrap iron and copper out and replace it with something new that just…worked right.

The Westerbeast does not live alone in the engine room- next to it is its larger cousin, the primary auxiliary power plant.  As an aside – it is called the ‘auxiliary’ power because Evenstar is a sailboat and it is not her primary means of propulsion.  This engine is a Volvo Penta TAMD41 H-A, which translates to a 145 H.P. six cylinder turbocharged diesel engine.  Its a fair bit bigger than the generator, which rates about 17 HP.

When Hallberg-Rassy builds a boat they do a very good thing.  They build the hull, attach the deck, then they put all the machinery in the boat through the holes in the deck.  This means that in theory at least everything inside the boat can come out without damaging any of the boat’s construction.  A cheaper and easier construction technique is to build the hull, put the machinery in, THEN seal the deck.  But that leaves you with needing a Sawzall to get your engine or generator out if it ever needs a serious overhaul or replacement.

Hallberg-Rassy made the excellent decision to make the floor of the cockpit the ceiling of the engine room and to make the floor easily removed.  Therefore the engine guys could get in there with a crane to lift out the two engines.

Engine Work

We made the decision that since we were opening the cockpit floor to replace the generator and hiring a crane, why not take the time to yank out the Auxiliary at the same time and give it a good once over.  It is quite impossible to do a complete inspection in situ in the engine room, one just can not get a good look underneath and around the back.  After 17 years it was high time to get a close look and to pre-emptively seek out and correct any more major problems before they surprise us when we are someplace where you can’t get help or parts.

Unlike the generator, the Auxiliary engine is not being replaced, it is just getting a careful going over.  It is being completely checked for rust, wear, leaks, damage, worn engine mounts and any worn hoses or connections.  It will be repainted and reinstalled looking almost like a new engine.  More importantly we will have confidence that this engine should run for some time without major problems after we’ve taken some preventative maintenance like this.

To date we’ve turned up two problems – the oil pan under the engine is rusted and the cutlass bearing on the propeller shaft is once again worn out.  The engine guys found us a used stainless steel oil pan; replacing it with the engine out is easy.  If we waited until it finished rusting through in a couple more years we’d have to lift the engine again anyway to replace it, and who knows where we’d be?  The cutlass bearing is a lot easier to replace this than it was the last time we did it.  Since the engine is out the propeller shaft can just be pulled forward to access the bearing.  The rudder is happily left alone this time.

New Generator

This is a big one.  Changing a generator is a major investment in the boat and not to be taken lightly.  Back in the U.S. the yard that was trying to fix our generator tried to convince us to replace it.  In truth it was the right thing to do and we should have done it.  In practice though we were just starting out, we hadn’t sold out house, and we were a bit nervous to make this sort of call.  Additionally it turns out the yard in question quoted us the completely wrong generator – wrong size, wrong voltage and frequency, and the final project would have come in a fair amount higher than their already staggering estimates.  Given the dollar’s comparative strength today we’re spending roughly the same amount or a bit less and getting a better generator out of the deal.

Fast forward a couple of years and we’ve now flushed some good money on this bad generator, with new oil coolers, stators, and so on.  And it is still unreliable.  It is eating water pumps like there is no tomorrow (rebuild kit – around $200 U.S., using one every other month now) and leaking water and oil.  And the stator again seems to be winding down for another failure as it is laboring to produce full load.  So enough is enough.

The New Generator

So do we go with another Westerbeke?  Well, I owned one for years and I wasn’t impressed.  Parts are mad expensive (that $200 water pump rebuild kit?  Almost $500 in Tahiti if you don’t import it yourself).  The layout of the generator leaves a bit to be desired.  For example the water pump that we are continually rebuilding is installed on the far side of the generator, facing backwards.  So to change the impeller in the pump – a routine every 100 hours or so maintenance task – you must lay over the generator while hanging upside down and doing your best to work by feel.  Kathy can do this more easily than me since her arms are smaller and her hands and fingers much slimmer to work in this awkward space.

So we looked around and decide to go with a Northern Lights M773LW3, which is a 7.0 KW 220V/50Hz generator.  It is a bit more powerful than the old Westerbeke, but that’s not why we’re selecting it – we don’t need the power.  It is also more fuel efficient, not a whole lot larger, and much more intelligently designed than the comparably replaced competitor from Westerbeke.  It is slightly more expensive, partly because it is larger, but over the long-term we expect parts costs to be lower and the maintenance much easier.

Introducing the M773LW3!  The astute observer will note the water pump right there in the front of the engine where you can reach it.  What a concept.

So I am really, really looking forward to the day a few weeks from now when it is time to charge the batteries.  All I have to do is push the button and check the oil.  No water leaks, oil leaks, odd smoke, weird smells, weird noises or strange vibrations.  Just quiet, efficient power.

Posted in broken things, cutlass bearing, Engine, Generator, haulouts | 2 Comments

Camp Evenstar

On Jan 21st, 2015 Published By B.J.

Our home is out of the water and has been for a couple of weeks now.  We pulled Evenstar in Opua to get some much-needed work done.  The basic list is:

  • New standing rigging.  All the wires that hold the mast up are original to the boat and need replacing.  Off comes the mast again.
  • Bottom paint.  We last painted in the U.S. in April 2012 before we left.  That we arrived here two and a half years and almost 15,000 miles later without a bottom encrusted with its own ecosystem is a testament to both the quality and quantity of the paint we applied.
  • NEW GENERATOR!!  Ding-dong, the bane of my existence is being put down.
  • Engine Overhaul/Inspection – as long as we’re pulling the generator, might as well have the engine out too for a look at it.  The original is going back in after some sprucing up and deep inspections for wear.

Of course ancillary to these projects are all the little stupid things you find when you look at them too closely.  Rig replacement turns up the need to replace the rollers in the car on the outhaul, pulling the engine reveals that the cutlass bearing is shot again, and so on.

But the budget busting boat work isn’t actually the point of the this post, its the change in living situation.  If you put Evenstar on the hard all of a sudden life is a lot less pleasant on board.  You lose refrigeration, toilets, and recharging capability for starters and every time you run a sink it dribbles out all over the parking lot.  That means you are climbing ladders at night to use the heads or dealing with a chamber pot situation, and struggling to wash dishes and cook.  No stored food is problematic.  Add in ripping up the cockpit sole, taping cardboard over half the interior to protect it, and distributing various and sundry disassembled boat bits all over the place and you really have an untenable living situation in short order.

This work is expected to take about a month to complete.

Living Large on the Hard

Our initial though was we’d live on the move.  Since coming to NZ we bought a cheap car so we knew we could move around (this is a common thing for cruisers to do).   We also acquired some camping gear, figuring we’d camp some places and stay in motels other nights as we explored away from the boat.  Checking out the rates for “Family Camping” at some of the various “Holiday Parks” we realized we’d be spending at least $60-$70/night to sleep on the ground, swat bugs, and have to get dressed to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.  Worse, trying to keep the kids moving forward with school would be a major challenge – try to picture doing school in a picnic table in broad daylight (computer screen anyone?), or worse, in the rain.

How ordinarily domestic!

The house with our car parked in front of it.

As it happened we lucked out.  The day before the haul-out we were resigned to parking in a $125/night hotel until we got ourselves oriented.  As I waited in the marina yard to talk to the launch manager I spotted a little card on the bulletin board “1-2 bedroom house, converted barn, near Opua,  weekly”.  I called, and eventually I got through – basically agreeing to take the place sight unseen after the owner described it and we agreed it was less than three nights in the hotel every week.

All to himself.

The Teenager Isolation Hut with view of the lake and paddock behind it.

What a find – there is a main converted barn building with two bedrooms and a kitchen and living area.  There is a detached building with another double bed and living space that Will has commandeered for his own.  The whole thing is off in the country side, overlooking a lake.  On the property there is a chicken, a cage of cockatiels, two miniature horses, a view of a lake loaded with black swans and other water fowl,  and many flowers and fruit trees.  It is not fancy lodging, but it is quiet with plenty of space and nearby enough to shopping to be convenient.  And the people that own it are just lovely.

Josie, one of the two miniature horses that is causing us to buy more carrots.

Josie, one of the two miniature horses that is causing us to buy more carrots.

As an added bonus the house has a “Chicken-matic” – a Showtime Rotisserie that Will became very enamored of during his internship with Bob Perry.  And an electric fry pan, which we can use to make slow cooked brisket – one of our favorite meals that go left behind when we moved onto a boat.  So we’ve got horses for Danielle (albeit small ones), his own space that is about 10x the size of his room on the boat for Will and some much missed dining for everyone.

Side Trips

While there is still much to be done with boat work and school this month off the boat has given us some time to take away from the boat to see a bit of New Zealand.  With the boat ripped apart and professionals crawling all over it or masking and taping and spraying it is actually better for us to stay clear.  So our days are now spent with school, and every now and again taking a trip to see something.

Unless you count the cold showers.

I didn’t say we were roughing it…

Camping

Our first trip was to the Puketi Forest, part of the New Zealand government’s national park system for some for-actual camping.  We spent three days at the park camp site, scoring one of the few sites with a permitted fireplace.  During the day we explored the forest on nature walks and visited the Kauri tree preserves.

I’m going to have to update this post with pictures of the Kauri trees that are on the kids cameras; if you are impatient there is always Google!  They are absolutely stunning, these HUGE majestic trees that tower over the subtropical rainforest.  Not many remain, with logging and the “Kauri Gum” industry (both banned for some time) and a disease that is affecting the Kauri only a few of the true giants are left.  In one section of the Kauri reserve the eight largest trees are named, though sadly three of those have fallen.

Getting our Geek On

This weekend we head to Aukland so Will can that the SAT2 Subject exams.  Fun, fun.  From there though we are getting our geek on for a little Lord of the Rings Tourism.

Yes, our boat is named Evenstar...from The Lord of the Rings.  Our last boat was named Shadowfax， named years before any of the movies came out.  We kick it old school with Tolkien, our kids were read the LOTR for the first time out loud from the Big Red Book, the leather bound copy of the LOTR that was given to me as a gift years by my wife for pretty much just that purpose.

Shobbitono if you think there is ANY chance where we will come to New Zealand, the home of Middle Earth here on regular earth, and not at least check out some of the places where the films were shot you’d have to be a little delusional.

Posted in bottom paint, broken things, cutlass bearing, Dinghy, Generator, haulouts, maintenance, New Zealand | Comments Off on Camp Evenstar

“Lacks Discipline, Motivation…”

On Jan 20th, 2015 Published By B.J.

That title may not be an actual direct quote from one of my high school teachers but it certainly could be a paraphrase from a lot of my progress reports over the years.

I admit it, I sometimes really, really stink at this internet blogging thing.  It requires a discipline that I often lack, especially when I am someplace having fun and have even the faintest excuse for not doing it.  I was never particularly good at staying focused on homework and tasks, and when it starts to feel like “work work” my best skill is rationalizing a way out of it – procrastination as Performance Art.  And sometimes, for a long time, sitting down and sorting and cleaning the pictures and trying to type up something interesting seems like “work work”.  And when you become really far behind starting it all becomes daunting, like trying to start your taxes when you have stack of unopened bills and a check book that hasn’t been balanced since LAST tax season.

And sometimes the mundane-ness of life intrudes.  For example we spent two weeks in Makemo, a delightful atoll in the Tuamotus.  During that two weeks we saw some cool stuff – native dancing, snorkeling, and lots of natural beauty.  We also spent a lot of days doing school work and catching up on boat projects.  So that fourteen days really doesn’t merit fourteen blog entries; you’ve got maybe three or four tops.

Get it OFF!! Get it OFF!!

Yeah, THESE things. Get up to about five feet long and hang out under the boat waiting for food to fall over and looking to hitch a ride with the unwary.

So when the mundane intrudes, well you don’t need to and probably don’t want to hear about me doing oil changes or scrubbing the bottom unless something particularly interesting happens.  Like scrubbing the bottom while keeping an eye out so the huge remoras in Rangiroa don’t sneak up and attach to my whale- like backside and scare the hell out of me while I am working.

I apologize for this, as we basically dropped off the map in French Polynesia and still haven’t really surfaced.

There is still a lot to share from French Polynesia and new material for here in New Zealand, and I promise to do it all eventually.  Bear with me.

In the mean time I’m going to pick up the narrative around where we are because the backlog is too intimidating.  From time to time I will back fill with some out of sequence posts from the past few months and eventually we’ll get there.

Posted in Housekeeping | 2 Comments

We’re in New Zealand!

On Nov 21st, 2014 Published By B.J.

Evenstar is safely tied to the Customs Quarantine Dock in Opua, New Zealand, arriving at 1800 local time on Friday 11/21/2014.

I’ll be back with more information, but thanks to all that sweated this one out with us!

Posted in New Zealand, passages | 2 Comments

Oh Goody, More Upwind Sailing

On Nov 20th, 2014 Published By B.J.

Wind Messing With Us Some More

For a while yesterday the wind disappeared and we powered up the engine and actually made progress directly the way we wanted to go ? one mile forward = one mile closer to our destination. How unusual.

But it wasn’t to last, around midnight ship’s time the wind started to pick up. Direction? Do I even need to tell you it was straight from the way we were headed?

When it reached the 20’s and the waves got larger we were no longer making good progress under power and had to sail. Back to heeling and banging, no one got a good night’s sleep.

The wind persisted all day, though as the day draws to a close it has faded to 8-10 knots. With all the chop from 18+ hours of wind trying to beat into that light air is not very productive, so we are now ?Motor Slogging? straight at the mark until either 1) it gets flat and the waves go away 2) the wind shifts to the Southeast as was predicted and we can sail again or 3) the wind picks back up and we’re back to pounding upwind some more

The downside is that our chances of arrival in Opua during daylight hours tomorrow have slimmed to near nothing. Yesterday we were on a pace for an arrival mid-day to early afternoon, but in 18 hours of upwind sailing today we only closed about 60-70 actual miles of distance for the 100 or so that we sailed.

As of this writing (about 7:15 pm local NZ time, I think) we are still 142 miles from the waypoint outside the Bay of Islands and some 152 miles from the Customs Dock in Opua. If the wind doesn’t mess with us again we can cover that in less than 24 hours which may or may not be early enough to get cleared into the country. Hopefully it will at least be light enough to get us to the customs dock where we can tie up and stop moving until the officials show up.

But we’ll see. It’s still light now, so it should be light twenty-four hours from now!

Albatrosses ? Finally!

If you read books like Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey series you get the impression that ships sailing far out in the ocean do so through clouds of Albatrosses. Perhaps a couple of hundred years ago there were that many, but we’ve been waiting for one for over two weeks.

We did see some Albatrosses in the Galapagos, but that was a local species that nests there and we didn’t see them flying.

Today we were finally treated to some. It wasn’t clear if it was one albatross that kept making huge circles or half a dozen but we finally got a good look at these magnificent birds.

I don’t think I saw a single wing flap. With their slim, high aspect wings that look to be about 6-8 feet in span they are fantastic gliders ? sweeping across the waves, wheeling around and gliding with nary a hint of effort.

We’d been hoping for one to follow us but that wasn’t to be, but they were a fine sight this morning and perked us up tremendously.

And Whales?

Oh yeah, and we saw a pod of what we believe to be Pilot whales.

We had stopped ? hove-to ? to recover a horseshoe buoy and bracket that had been swept loose by the waves. While Will was fetching this in we noticed a large group of black birds wheeling very close to us. We figured there must have been some fish there but we couldn’t see them breaking.

Unfortunately it wasn’t until we’d set sail again and were leaving the flock behind that we noticed the whale fins at the surface! We could still see them clearly but we were headed away and accelerating on the wind. Smallish black whales, I saw four surface at once.

If only we’d noticed them when we were stopped practically in the middle of them!

Posted in Albatross, New Zealand, passages, Whales | Comments Off on Oh Goody, More Upwind Sailing

Toto…I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore…Day 15 to NZ

On Nov 19th, 2014 Published By B.J.

We’re in a new hemisphere.

Last night around 3:30 in the morning we crossed the 180 degree longitude, and now our positions read

32° 49′ 28” South
178° 27′ 32” EAST

That last is the big one. For our whole lives the longitude of our Lat/Long Positions have been in degrees West of the Prime Meridian, now they are East. We are on the diagonally opposite corned of the globe from where we spend the bulk of our lives.

In some ways it is less momentous that crossing the Equator ? there are no ceremonies or names that I am aware of. But in some ways it is much, much more.

Crossing the Equator you can do in the Atlantic Ocean; in Trinidad we were only about 600 miles North of it. While it is far from our starting point in Rhode Island, people are still on the same day, only a time zone away anywhere in the Caribbean ? even the Galapagos wasn’t that far off in time. You can fly back in a single day, arriving the same day you left.

We crossed the equator some 2,500 miles as the crow flies from our starting point ? we are now three times that distance from our starting point. We’ve come a long way.

Here, it is tomorrow already. Plan to spend two full days getting to the U.S., and I haven’t the faintest idea what time it is ?back home?. Trying to follow a football game with a with a 7:00 a.m. kickoff in French Polynesia was odd ? now if I want to do it I need to get up earlier on a Monday!

Though on the other hand coming to New Zealand is in some ways closer to home that we’ve been for a long time. For example not been in an English speaking country in over a year. Reportedly the do speak English in New Zealand, although the accents and slang are supposed to take a little doing. But being an Anglophone nation, it will be much culturally closer to the U.S. in many way that we’ve experienced for a while.

But it will also be quite different, not the least of which will be repeatedly explaining that our Footballers aren’t ?girls? for hitting with pads. I also suspect my son will learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Currently we’re motoring along in next to no wind, with an expected arrival time of less than two days from now. The wind may be expected to fill in tomorrow, of course blowing straight from New Zealand. No biggie, we’ve been sailing upwind for days ? what is one more?

We are looking forward to it. Not just the end of a less that thrilling passage, but exploring yet another new place in the world. Learning what is the same, and what will be very, very different.

And maybe we’ll get a glimpse of a Hobbit?

Posted in Milestones, New Zealand, passages | Comments Off on Toto…I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore…Day 15 to NZ

Day 14 to NZ

On Nov 18th, 2014 Published By B.J.

At the risk of sounding respective, the last 24 hours were a lot like the 24 before except a little less tippy and faster.

That’s a hazard of being on a passage ? the days tend to blur together, especially when the weather doesn’t change dramatically. But we’re good without dramatic weather?

With a new weather projection downloaded last night we decided to make a course change and give up our hard push to go West before going South. Basically it looks like by the time we get to New Zealand the wind is going to be lousy and in our faces whether or not we are a few more degrees to the West. So we decided to head a little more off the wind, sail faster and be a bit more comfortable.

This afternoon we sailed through the Kermadec Islands. From a distance they look pretty desolate, though Raoul Island to the North apparently has a research station and some people the Southern islands we passed looked pretty empty.

This whole trip actually has been pretty empty. We’ve not seen another vessel by eye or instrument since leaving the Tahiti/Moorea area. One night we heard what we thought were dolphins, but we haven’t seen any during the day. Birds even had been few and far between. But that has changed in the Kermadecs, as we’ve had a lot of birds around us this last day.

The weather is clear and the wind is holding, thought the weather forecasts suggest that most of that will fade in the next twenty-four hours as a high pressure system moves in. We expect to arrive in about three more days ? hopefully by Friday in New Zealand time.

Posted in New Zealand, passages | 1 Comment

Day 13 to NZ

On Nov 17th, 2014 Published By B.J.

Baby Its Cold Outside

Its been eleven months since I wore long pants, back when we visited the U.S. during the holiday season. Same for socks. With the exception of the few weeks around the holidays last year we’ve been in the land of palm trees, coconuts and balmy weather for the last two years. We’re pretty acclimated.

Opua New Zealand is almost the exact latitude South that Hampton, Virginia is in degrees North. When we left the U.S. in November of 2012 for the Virgin Islands we were freezing our tails off wintery weather until we reached the Gulf Stream. Then the layers started coming off until we were wearing shorts and T-shirts, blasting the Jimmy Buffet and hauling in Mahi Mahi in the sun.

Yesterday I went and dug up some of those layers. Its hard to think it has been two years since that first long passage South, but now we’re doing it in reverse.

Its not as cold in NZ as it was that brisk November in Hampton two years ago, and it is their Spring, not a bitter late fall heading in to winter. But compared to the coolest days in French Polynesia it isn’t exactly warm ? not to us at least. Day isn’t as cool, but the nights ? which can be cool offshore much closer to the equator ? can be downright chilly. Night watch usually bundles up and sits under a blanket or towel.

Of course, this also means we’re getting closer!

The Ubiquitous Wind Update

The winds have been holding fair for us so fair. They’ve gotten lighter, but we’ve been able to make more West as we head towards the home stretch. MaxSea (our charting software) tells us we’ve got about 580 miles left to sail, so its the last quarter of the trip.

It also tells us it will take almost five days at this speed, however with more wind from a better direction we can do that distance in less than three. Here’s hoping.

Posted in New Zealand, passages | Comments Off on Day 13 to NZ

Day 12 to NZ – Wind Shift!

On Nov 16th, 2014 Published By B.J.

Not a huge wind shift, we’re still sailing upwind and heeled over on our ears, but since about midnight last night our projected course actually intersect New Zealand.

Unlike the last three days, when our course intersected either Fiji or Antarctica.

So for every mile sailed today we actually ended up a mile closer to New Zealand! Yee-haw!

Of course it is still from the Pain-in-the-Tuchas zone and we’re heeled over pounding into waves. But we’re getting there faster as we go slowly?

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Posted in New Zealand, passages | Comments Off on Day 12 to NZ – Wind Shift!