28th October 2008
Fliss
I got up this morning to good news, we were sailing and in the right direction! During the evening the wind had backed allowing us to steer towards Opua and not the north tip of New Zealand.
It was a beautiful morning but in the distance we could see a very dark bank of clouds luckily it looked like it was going to miss us. Pete was concerned at the dramatic wind change and decided to stay up for a few hours to monitor the situation as the wind was increasing.
I downloaded our emails and our friends Don & Barbi on Lutana II had emailed us to say that at 3am that morning they had been hit out of the blue by 47 knots of wind with no warning. Fortune has smiled on us and we were only
getting 20+ knots as we were on the perimeter of the front.
Significant Rise in Barometric Pressure over 24 hours!
GPS Tells us 100 Miles to Opua Waypoint. The computer is locked in its cubby hole with rags to stop it jumping across the room.
We still had two reefs in the main (we always do at night) and I suggested to Pete that maybe we should get more sail out as we only had just over hundred miles to go, Pete said no as the conditions weren’t stable, he was right! The wind continued to increase and eventually levelled off at 30+ knots but although it was windy and the seas rough it was on the beam and landfall looked possible for tomorrow.
The problem with long passages is that it gets very tempting to push the boat harder to get to your destination, especially on this crossing when the longer you are out the more your chances are of getting caught in nasty conditions. I must admit I was desperate to get the crossing over and done with as soon as possible as we had known boats to get stuck in gale force headwinds with only a hundred miles to go and not being able to make it in.
Well Reefed And a Load of Spray
Later on in the morning Pete eventually decided that even though there was a bit of a blow going on it was unlikely to increase anymore and retired to bed to get some well-earned rest.
It is lovely to watch the sea birds sweeping over the waves like fighter pilots and out of nowhere I saw an albatross! It flew right by Nadezhda and played with the other sea birds, it was a huge bird with extremely long wings and glided effortlessly just above the breaking waves, magical.
29th October 2007
Fliss…
Overnight the winds eased and we sailed gently towards our destination. At 06:30am as the sun rose I saw New Zealand in the distance, Land Ahoy! I was so excited as we had made it and it was highly unlikely that we wouldn’t make it in today, but I never said it out loud as I didn’t want to jinx us.
Pete……
It was a beautiful day as the wind came around aft of the beam at 15 knots and the sun shone on one of those glorious slightly nippy spring days. The entrance to the bay of islands could well be situated in the West Country as there are black rock cliffs topped by stands of trees and rolling grassland. Absolutely beautiful - you can't beat the UK for some of the best sailing and NZ promises to offer the same or better!
Fliss….
Pete isn’t an emotional person but he admitted to feeling choked when we sailed into the Bay of Islands I think it was the relief of getting the passage over & done with but also the scenery as it is very reminiscent of sailing in the UK.
Pete…………
The Police came out to check us and left us alone as we had send advance notification as well as checking in by VHF.
We cruised along beautifully will full sail and headsail poled out to windward and as we turned up the channel towards Opua, the wind funnelled around behind us so we did not have to drop the pole. We could not have had a finer or more pleasant entrance to anywhere.
We arrived at the Customs dock at 14:00 and had our lines taken by Don and Barbie on Lutana II who had beaten us in by a couple of hours. Then came the Immigration lady and her forms, followed by the MAF guy and his plastic sacks to take all our vegetables, and anything else that he fancied, and check out the inside of our tent. He was followed by the dog handler and her sniffer-dog who was followed by someone else who poked and squeezed into every nook and cranny and I am sure, with all this going on, there was someone else milling around inside as well but it was too crowded to tell.
Fliss….
Actually they shouldn’t have taken our lines as they had already been cleared, they really shouldn’t have been anywhere near Nadezhda.
Pete suffered from paranoia as we approached Opua, I was desperate to get on the VHF to call our mates up to say hello but Pete said “I would prefer it if you didn’t as Customs may think that it’s a coded message to drug runners” how funny! I can understand it a bit as “Hello, how are you” could be decoded as “We have the drugs and people in the bilges, bring loads of money”.
Pete…………
After a clean bill of health, we moved the 50 yards to a berth in the marina where we remain at the moment.
We splashed out on Monday night and went to a restaurant for supper and toasted our arrival with a bottle of bubbly before getting back to a full 12 hour sleep.
Fliss…..
We had a lovely night and also caught up with “Essence” they had been hit by the same conditions as Lutana II but they were hit carrying a full sails, apparently an experienced crew member was on watch when the winds hit. According to Stewart there was a lot of swearing and shouting to get the sails down.
30th October 2007
Pete……
Yesterday, Don and Barbie hired a car and we went with them and Tricky (Richard) and Jane from "Lionheart" to Pahia where we did some touristy looking around, had lunch, went to the supermarket (to replace the stuff that MAF took) and visited the home of Des who runs Russell Radio SSB and VHF. Des is eighty years old and lives high up on a hill overlooking the bay of islands. His house has aerials galore strung above it and he spends 12 hours a day 365 days a year running an SSB Net and VHF service. The SSB net serves as a weather forecast and check-in and the VHF service allows approaching yachts to register their arrival. Des can also offer advice about what, where and how to do anything in the bay of islands and elsewhere in Northlands. He has SSB and VHF in his car and campervan as well so that he is never out of touch. His rig at home is good enough to reach 50 degrees North and he has spoken to people going to Alaska.
We will probably move off the marina tomorrow (Thursday) as we need to get all our land-based jobs completed today. This includes loads of washing and a visit to the chandlers so that I can get bits to start off refurbishment. Then we will head off to anchor somewhere - probably Russell to start off with and then the rest of the bay of Islands. We don't need to hurry here as we think that we will eventually base ourselves at Opua after a refit at Whangerai. Derek and Anthea on "Sukanuk" have met a local man who has a spare mooring across at Russell. He keeps his boat on one and is willing to rent the other for NZ$40 per month. We have asked Derek to snap up the offer for a six month period starting now so we don't miss the opportunity. The moorings are fully inspected each year and even if we only use it for one month whilst we are touring by car, it will have paid for itself many times over when compared to marina fees.
We hope to get ourselves set up with a mobile phone soon and the rates to England are not too pricey so will be able to contact. Also, Opua and other areas in Northland have an internet WIFI service that we have signed up for (NZ$30 per month) and so we should be much more contactable.
We will move down to Whangerai before the last week in November and haul out before December so that Naz is on the hard before Fliss flies back to England. We will try to get set up with a car there as well so that I can use it to take her to the airport. Apparently, cars here are very cheap, we expect to pay about the equivalent of £700 for a fairly decent one.
1st November 2007
We left Opua for Matuawhai Bay today once Nadezhda was settled we walked into Russell there we took a ferry to Pahia to get a SIM card for the phone. It actually works and we can now start organising lift-out and other services. Russell is the old capital of NZ and is a very picturesque painted clapboard town by the waterside. We visited the museum and learned a bit about the history although, as with much of NZ, there is not much history to tell.
Fliss
I got up this morning to good news, we were sailing and in the right direction! During the evening the wind had backed allowing us to steer towards Opua and not the north tip of New Zealand.
It was a beautiful morning but in the distance we could see a very dark bank of clouds luckily it looked like it was going to miss us. Pete was concerned at the dramatic wind change and decided to stay up for a few hours to monitor the situation as the wind was increasing.
I downloaded our emails and our friends Don & Barbi on Lutana II had emailed us to say that at 3am that morning they had been hit out of the blue by 47 knots of wind with no warning. Fortune has smiled on us and we were only
getting 20+ knots as we were on the perimeter of the front.Significant Rise in Barometric Pressure over 24 hours!
GPS Tells us 100 Miles to Opua Waypoint. The computer is locked in its cubby hole with rags to stop it jumping across the room.
We still had two reefs in the main (we always do at night) and I suggested to Pete that maybe we should get more sail out as we only had just over hundred miles to go, Pete said no as the conditions weren’t stable, he was right! The wind continued to increase and eventually levelled off at 30+ knots but although it was windy and the seas rough it was on the beam and landfall looked possible for tomorrow.
The problem with long passages is that it gets very tempting to push the boat harder to get to your destination, especially on this crossing when the longer you are out the more your chances are of getting caught in nasty conditions. I must admit I was desperate to get the crossing over and done with as soon as possible as we had known boats to get stuck in gale force headwinds with only a hundred miles to go and not being able to make it in.
Well Reefed And a Load of Spray
Later on in the morning Pete eventually decided that even though there was a bit of a blow going on it was unlikely to increase anymore and retired to bed to get some well-earned rest.
It is lovely to watch the sea birds sweeping over the waves like fighter pilots and out of nowhere I saw an albatross! It flew right by Nadezhda and played with the other sea birds, it was a huge bird with extremely long wings and glided effortlessly just above the breaking waves, magical.
29th October 2007
Fliss…
Overnight the winds eased and we sailed gently towards our destination. At 06:30am as the sun rose I saw New Zealand in the distance, Land Ahoy! I was so excited as we had made it and it was highly unlikely that we wouldn’t make it in today, but I never said it out loud as I didn’t want to jinx us.
Pete……
It was a beautiful day as the wind came around aft of the beam at 15 knots and the sun shone on one of those glorious slightly nippy spring days. The entrance to the bay of islands could well be situated in the West Country as there are black rock cliffs topped by stands of trees and rolling grassland. Absolutely beautiful - you can't beat the UK for some of the best sailing and NZ promises to offer the same or better!
Fliss….
Pete isn’t an emotional person but he admitted to feeling choked when we sailed into the Bay of Islands I think it was the relief of getting the passage over & done with but also the scenery as it is very reminiscent of sailing in the UK.
Pete…………
The Police came out to check us and left us alone as we had send advance notification as well as checking in by VHF.
We cruised along beautifully will full sail and headsail poled out to windward and as we turned up the channel towards Opua, the wind funnelled around behind us so we did not have to drop the pole. We could not have had a finer or more pleasant entrance to anywhere.
We arrived at the Customs dock at 14:00 and had our lines taken by Don and Barbie on Lutana II who had beaten us in by a couple of hours. Then came the Immigration lady and her forms, followed by the MAF guy and his plastic sacks to take all our vegetables, and anything else that he fancied, and check out the inside of our tent. He was followed by the dog handler and her sniffer-dog who was followed by someone else who poked and squeezed into every nook and cranny and I am sure, with all this going on, there was someone else milling around inside as well but it was too crowded to tell.
Fliss….
Actually they shouldn’t have taken our lines as they had already been cleared, they really shouldn’t have been anywhere near Nadezhda.
Pete suffered from paranoia as we approached Opua, I was desperate to get on the VHF to call our mates up to say hello but Pete said “I would prefer it if you didn’t as Customs may think that it’s a coded message to drug runners” how funny! I can understand it a bit as “Hello, how are you” could be decoded as “We have the drugs and people in the bilges, bring loads of money”.
Pete…………
After a clean bill of health, we moved the 50 yards to a berth in the marina where we remain at the moment.
We splashed out on Monday night and went to a restaurant for supper and toasted our arrival with a bottle of bubbly before getting back to a full 12 hour sleep.
Fliss…..
We had a lovely night and also caught up with “Essence” they had been hit by the same conditions as Lutana II but they were hit carrying a full sails, apparently an experienced crew member was on watch when the winds hit. According to Stewart there was a lot of swearing and shouting to get the sails down.
30th October 2007
Pete……
Yesterday, Don and Barbie hired a car and we went with them and Tricky (Richard) and Jane from "Lionheart" to Pahia where we did some touristy looking around, had lunch, went to the supermarket (to replace the stuff that MAF took) and visited the home of Des who runs Russell Radio SSB and VHF. Des is eighty years old and lives high up on a hill overlooking the bay of islands. His house has aerials galore strung above it and he spends 12 hours a day 365 days a year running an SSB Net and VHF service. The SSB net serves as a weather forecast and check-in and the VHF service allows approaching yachts to register their arrival. Des can also offer advice about what, where and how to do anything in the bay of islands and elsewhere in Northlands. He has SSB and VHF in his car and campervan as well so that he is never out of touch. His rig at home is good enough to reach 50 degrees North and he has spoken to people going to Alaska.
We will probably move off the marina tomorrow (Thursday) as we need to get all our land-based jobs completed today. This includes loads of washing and a visit to the chandlers so that I can get bits to start off refurbishment. Then we will head off to anchor somewhere - probably Russell to start off with and then the rest of the bay of Islands. We don't need to hurry here as we think that we will eventually base ourselves at Opua after a refit at Whangerai. Derek and Anthea on "Sukanuk" have met a local man who has a spare mooring across at Russell. He keeps his boat on one and is willing to rent the other for NZ$40 per month. We have asked Derek to snap up the offer for a six month period starting now so we don't miss the opportunity. The moorings are fully inspected each year and even if we only use it for one month whilst we are touring by car, it will have paid for itself many times over when compared to marina fees.
We hope to get ourselves set up with a mobile phone soon and the rates to England are not too pricey so will be able to contact. Also, Opua and other areas in Northland have an internet WIFI service that we have signed up for (NZ$30 per month) and so we should be much more contactable.
We will move down to Whangerai before the last week in November and haul out before December so that Naz is on the hard before Fliss flies back to England. We will try to get set up with a car there as well so that I can use it to take her to the airport. Apparently, cars here are very cheap, we expect to pay about the equivalent of £700 for a fairly decent one.
1st November 2007
We left Opua for Matuawhai Bay today once Nadezhda was settled we walked into Russell there we took a ferry to Pahia to get a SIM card for the phone. It actually works and we can now start organising lift-out and other services. Russell is the old capital of NZ and is a very picturesque painted clapboard town by the waterside. We visited the museum and learned a bit about the history although, as with much of NZ, there is not much history to tell.
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