The Pacific Crossing Completed
15 November 2016 | Opua, New Zealand
Rainy and cold
Our journey to cross the Pacific has finally been achieved and there is great relief on our faces, as we are comfortably inside a slip in the Opua Marina.
Our last day at sea started with choppy seas left over from the front, but by the afternoon the seas had calmed down and we had a fantastic sail into Opua. Neil said it was one of his best days, as we were going fast, but it was really comfortable. When we were about 50 nm from Opua our autopilot decided to stop working properly and kept going to standby. Neil tried using normal auto, wind course and track course but it kept switching back to standby and rounding up into the wind. This meant that we either had to hand steer or stay at the wheel and keep resetting the track button each time the autopilot malfunctioned. So, we took turns hour on/hour off that night to watch the autopilot. By 5am we were at the entrance to the bay of islands.
It was the most beautiful night, as the wind had died to nothing and the seas flat. It was also a full moon with no cloud cover and so it was very light and we could see the outline of all the islands as we entered the bay. It would have been perfect to see the islands in daylight, but we were just so pleased to have arrived and enjoyed the magical evening. It was only our second time to enter a bay at night, but with the moonlight it was so bright.
It took about an hour past some islands to get to the channel into Opua and a short distance down the channel was the quarantine dock where new boats have to tie up to. This dock has no access to land and is a floating dock. There was a little bit of current but no wind and so we docked the boat easily, tied up and went to sleep for a few hours. I woke up at 8:30am and thought I might get up and have a shower, as I didn't know what time customs and immigration might arrive. I had radioed in our expected time the night before and at the dock there was already about 6 boats waiting to be cleared. I had just had my shower when there was a knock on the hull and customs were there. I welcomed them and said Neil was asleep and they said to not disturb him and they would go to the other boats first.
By the time they left, Neil had heard the customs people and so he got up ready for when they would come back. All was good, they took my cooked frozen meals as they had meat in them, my salami, honey, black eyed peas and fresh fruit and veges. I got to keep my conch shells and coral, as I am Australian and not importing them into NZ. If Neil had done that they said he would have been in serious trouble bringing those items in. Once the immigration process was completed we then moved into our slip that we had booked at the marina. Neil quickly had breakfast and then went off to the sails seminar that he had wanted to go to and was organised for Monday and Tuesday this week. I went and checked in to the marina, did our registration check in for the rally starting tomorrow and went to organise internet for us. After that I went to the café to get a nice lunch and bumped into our good friends from Moonraker whom we haven't seen since Moorea. We knew we would see them in Tauranga as they are going to be at the same marina as us in December, but thought we would miss them here. They were leaving for Tauranga today and so it was fortunate we got to see them so soon.
I then went to see Jane and Russell on Ta-B and also caught up with Travis on Heaps Good. Neil and I had hoped to have a nice dinner at the yacht club, but they are closed on Monday nights. Travis gave us some of his Moroccan lamb dish, as he had made lots and said we had to have a decent meal to celebrate our arrival. That was so nice of him, as we had no fresh meat or vegetables on board as customs had taken them. The Moroccan dish was lovely and Neil and I had a nice bottle of wine to drink with it. We both had a good sleep last night as it was cosy. I had to get out our doona from the vacuum pack bag and some winter pjs as it was cold.
Today, well it was rainy, cold and miserable and so got out our warm weather clothes. Neil went to go to another sail repair seminar, while I caught the shuttle van into Piahia to get some money and some groceries. I also did two big loads of washing and washed our sheets, light quilt and our small blankets. I also bumped into our good friends David and Katherine from Canto and we were so happy to see each other. Then I was really surprised to see that Omweg had arrived and I was so happy that they didn't have to be out at sea too much longer than us. They made good time sailing yesterday. They had just pulled into their slip when Neil and I saw them. It was good to see them and they invited us on board to celebrate with a yummy hot chia chocolate drink laced with rum. Ilona gave me the present she had made and it was an empty bottle of Captain Morgan Rum with laminated credit card size photos of us attached and inside the bottle was a message for me. Ilona had written a lovely letter to me and it was beautiful. A really special gift.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly chatting with people and we had also arranged to meet up for dinner at the yacht club. In the end plans changed and Trish and Paul from the boat Babe invited us, our friends and some other boats to their boat for drinks. They have a beautiful 65 foot Oyster and it was pretty crowded with over 20 people on board. Trish and Heather from Crazy Daisy put on a magnificent amount of food for everyone. We stayed for ages and then, Canto, Omweg, Lufi and us left to head to the yacht club for dinner as we had pre-arranged it. However, after all of the food we had on Babe none of us was that hungry and so ended up just having dessert, which was fortunate as the kitchen had just closed by the time we got there. We sat and chatted for a while and then headed back to our boats.
Tomorrow afternoon, is the start of the All Points Rally and there are lots of good activities arranged. We are all in the mood for having a good time and so I think it will be lots of fun. First off though, we need to fix the leak where the freshwater water hose is connected onto the hot water system. Without fixing it, we cannot have a hot shower and here in this cold weather that would not be very pleasant. We can then turn our water back on and not have to worry about the water leaking into the bilge.
Another issue we need to fix soon, is the bilge pump as it is not working. So the water going into the bilge from the leaking hot water system is not draining out. The lights at the electrical panel and at the bilge pump are working, but the pump is not coming on. Not having a bilge pump working is not a good thing and something important we need to fix. I also went today to the electrical workshop here near the marina to see if I can get the small cable that connects the Iridium Go to our outside antenna fixed or replaced as it broke on Sunday. I can use the Iridium Go if I take it outside and sit it where it can have direct view of the sky for the satellites, but I get a better signal when it is connected to the main antenna and can then also use it inside the boat. Another thing we need to look at while here is our autopilot, but we are not sure if it is a battery issue. We also seem to be having our toilet pumps not working properly and so we need to look at those as well. They seem to be working slower and with less power. I think there may be more corrosion happening and so if we clean all the terminals it might fix many of our problems. It would be good if it was that simple and something we can fix ourselves.
Finally, I managed to buy a copy of November's issue of Boating New Zealand and we got to see Neil's article on his Cholera scare in Cuba. The article looks good and an interesting read.