01/11/2009, Tasman Sea
At last we are romping along getting closer to New Zealand. We know we're getting closer because it's getting colder and colder, particularly at night. We are within 50 miles of the mainland and will pass the North Cape around midnight tonight to arrive in Opua on Tuesday afternoon. The most Northern islands are about 30 miles away.
The journey has been significantly longer this year in time and mileage. It took us 77 hours from Norfolk Island last year. This year we estimate the journey will be more like 90 hours. The reason is that until last night we were heading pretty much due South close hauled and so made slow progress. We turned to a starboard tack last night and have gradually curved round towards New Zealand, as the wind directions became more and more favourable. The wind speed has been up and down, as we have passed showery clouds, but generally we are getting a decent wind and making a good speed. The sea state is a lot better than it has been.
We are now getting ready for landfall, customs etc which will be tomorrow's tasks.
Well!!!
One hour later after I wrote this we were romping along alright when bang!!!
The pole that supports our wind generator snapped at the weld. It looked very sad. What to do? Well first we switched it off. Naturally the wind had got up to about 25 knots at this point around a cloud. The boat was doing 8.5 knots.
So then we reefed the sails to slow ourselves down a bit. We were not going to be able to get at the broken pole off the stern of the boat at that speed. The movement is magnified off the stern.
So next problem, as the mainsail was lowered the second reefing line caught on the wind generator's fins, because the wind generator decided that was the moment to fall forward What a mess? The only good thing was that the wind generator couldn't fall and damage the bimini or the dinghy because it was firmly held in the reefing line. It took us an hour to get the tangled reefing line off the wind generator, and then get the sails back in order - all this in a rough patch of sea.
The generator is OK though, we tied it down and secured it in the dinghy. We are back on course. While this was all happening we were in sight of land as well. The Kings islands - our first sight of New Zealand looked at us balefuly and added to the swell as we sorted things out.
So after some fine team work we have awarded ourselves a beer, and on we go. However, we're keeping the sails reefed in hope of a quiet night.
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31/10/2009, Tasman Sea
We're on the final leg of the journey to New Zealand. Although it seems to be only, only??? 800 miles, the journey is longer because of tacking. We have to head South for a long time and then pick up Westerlies to push us into New Zealand. Or at least that is the general idea.
The tacking South means that even if we are doing 6 knots we only get 3.5 knots closer to our destination. Tomorrow all being well we should be able to make a straight course into the North Cape, which is much better for morale.
One benefit of stopping at Norfolk Island is the wood fired bakery. We purchased some bread there as well as pizzas and pies. The pizzas and pies we brought with us to stave off the cold of the south. Apparently it was only 8^C this morning in Opua. Hot water bottles, blankets and thermals are rapidly being deployed.
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29/10/2009, Norfolk Island
We have just left Norfolk Island, and are now just leaving its Western shore. There were quite a few boats in Cascade Bay taking a breather before the next stage of the journey to New Zealand. Most of them are planning to head South in the next day or two as the winds become more favourable. The island is quite a gem. However, the anchorage is not. The locals considered the conditions there very calm. This means even in a catamaran, waking up at 2.am as the boat does a violent corkscrew and heave. Tide and wind conflict, swells roll in from all directions making what is a delightful setting a rather difficult spot for a night's sleep. Still, we kept saying it wasn't as bad as last year.
The forecast looks reasonable we have a day or two of slogging south into wind before the winds drop and finally move to the West. Once they do we can set a course straight for the North Cape. At present we are heading South South West, but still generally in the right direction. We really didn't feel like another day in the anchorage and decided the time had come to move on.
The island is a delight. For many years it was a penal colony bequeathing some fine Georgian buildings. The administrative buildings are pure Georgian and you can walk in the remains of the Georgian prison, notorious for its cruelty. After the penal colony closed the British allowed descendants of the mutineers on the Bounty to come from the tiny Pitcairn Island to settle in Norfolk Island. So many of the local people have surnames like Christian, after Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutineers.
There is a tremendously friendly atmosphere. An islander left a car on the wharf with the keys in, saying anyone on the boats could use it to see the island. Other islanders left boxes of oranges on the wharf as free gifts, and many islanders drove down to the wharf to see the spectacle of around ten boats anchored in the bay. The local museum has horrendous photos of the swell breaking over the wharf here.
We went on an island circuit in the borrowed car. A lot of the island has steep sided cliffs so there are some superb vistas. Probably the best one is from the Captain Cook monument, commemorating his landing nearby. From here you can see the strange shaped rocks the consequence of the soft volcanic rock being eroded by the power of the sea.
The island itself is very dependent on tourism. The tourists fly in, rather than sail, around 30,000 a year, and are greeted by flower bedecked pavements, friendly smiles, good quality restaurants and numerous duty free stores, offering prices well below that in Australia. Norfolk Island is an Australiian protectorate so you clear in and out of Australian customs here.
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27/10/2009, Norfolk Island
I once had a pink lady. It was made of plastic and shaped like the kind of paper aeroplanes you shot across classrooms when the teacher wasn't looking. I attached my pink lady to a white/ yellow squid type lure and just hauled in the mahi mahi.
Eventually I lost my pink lady to a large fish, and was never able to replace it. I looked up pink lady on google, and you might be unsurprised to know most of the items had little to do with fishing.
Anyway today 20 miles north of Norfolk Island we met another pink lady. We were heading South into the anchorage, in increasingly strong winds. Just before dawn they were 5- 10 knots, and then as a cold front approached they quickly increased with gusts into the mid 20s. All we could think of was get into shelter before it gets worse, when coming out of the West, like a bat out of hell, I saw a yacht under full sail. It passed a couple of miles ahead going East, foregoing all shelter.
How strange we thought. Then we heard a young female voice on the radio, the boat was called Pink Lady and she was calling us. Where are you bound she asked, "oh Norfolk Island then Opua, coming out of Noumea" I answered. "How about you". "Me, Oh I'm out of Brisbane doing a solo circumnavigation" the voice replied. By now she was almost on the horizon, as I realised that the solo sailor was the 16 year old girl we had heard about on the Australian News who was aiming to beat the record of going round the world the wrong way in the roaring 40s. Admittedly she was going down wind but her boat was racing along at enormous speed and by time I thought to take a picture she was a speck on the horizon.
Strange who you meet at sea.
At the other end of the spectrum we had an interesting conversation with the Indian skipper of a cargo ship bound for Lyttleton, New Zealand to pick up coal for China. Didn't even know there was coal there or that it was sold to China.
What of us. Well we're safely at anchor on the North shore of Norfolk Island. We arrived mid morning. The anchorage is a totally different experience from last year when it was so rolly you might as well have been at sea. It is still windy but at the moment - the swell is in the ocean not in the bay. We were even able to take a dinghy and tie it up to do customs. Last year, it was a quick jump onto the dock and the dinghy had to return to the boat.
It looks as if we will have to stay here until the weekend. Then we plan to sail the next leg to New Zealand. 415 miles to the North Cape and then a further 80 miles onto Opua to check into customs.
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The young lady you saw flying along was non other than the amazing Jessica Watson
Richard
26/10/2009, Tasman Sea
Sailng seems to involve a lot of changes of plan. Pretty inevitable since you depend on wind and weather to get to your destination. Our original plan was to sail quite far west and then come into NZ on a starboard tack avoiding the strongest winds from the South. However, our weather adviser, Kenn, temporary replacement for Bruce who is on holiday, advised us that the Southerly winds were strengthening and it would be better to put into Norfolk Island.
We expect to arrive at Norfolk Island tomorrow.
Norfolk makes a convenient half way house for the journey, and Cascade Bay, although it can be quite rolly provides good shelter from the Southerly winds.
Remains to be seen how long we rest there before the second half of the journey to NZ resumes
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24/10/2009, Tasman Sea
Heading for New Zealand is an interesting concept in that to get there you generally don't head for it. We are heading for New Zealand but at the moment are on course for Sydney. Reason - winds. The theory is that if we head fairly West of our destination we should be able to get a better angle towards New Zealand. The reason for this is that we are travelling from one weather system to another. A tropical system dominated by Easterlies to a temperate weather system dominated by Westerlies. The irony is that when we move into the Southern system it looks as if we will hit strong Southerlies. Still at present the strong winds that powered us out of New Caledonia have died down and we have light winds and have had to put an engine on. Tomorrow we will probably have to decide whether to stop at Norfolk Island or carry on towards, using that word advisedly, to New Zealand. Our preference is to carry on without stopping at Norfolk this time.
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