Pursuit

Well, the first small weather window is opening today, but maybe only for the day, and the rally boats are already starting to leave for Tonga. They are just chomping at the bit to get going. Chomp, chomp, chomp! Local Met Services are still calling for some iffy weather though. They just had a tornado in Auckland for God's sake, and they were calling for another one possibly today, but I don't know, if it were me I'd wait. Some of them are on a fixed schedule though, and they feel the urge to get going. It's understandable I guess. It's an "each to their own" type of thing. I'd rather wait for a nice window that gives lots of time to get well clear of New Zealand and their higher seas and wind, which are typical for their oncoming winter season. People still remember the Queen's B-Day Storm of '94. It was even in June, well outside of the cyclone season. It was a fluky thing they say though, but still, tell that to the people that were lost at sea during that storm. A lot of the boats in that storm were part of a race leaving New Zealand. I hope they don't get a "smack-down", as Chris at the stainless steel shop says. The first bunch left this afternoon, and the rest are leaving tomorrow morning. I was talking to John, who runs the rally, and he's just sitting on his boat today, checking out all cruisers as they leave. There are 28 in total, I think. Soon it will be Pursuit going, but not yet. Not with the tornado warnings and the bad luck, that is associated with leaving on a Friday to boot! It's supposedly bad luck to set sail on a Friday, but most don't believe in that old sailor superstition anyway, but then again, why take a chance when there is already some bad weather in the forecast? We figure that Monday we will start cruising around the Bay Of Islands for a week or two. Get the on board systems all running good. Start making some water again; make sure the engine and drive train are good and raise the sails a few times. Do all that good stuff and make sure, before leaving New Zealand, that everything on board is all working properly.

The rain is really starting here. The dodger and awning was really starting to leak. We got some scotch-guard from the chandlery and Tara put it-to-it. Last night it rained and not a drop got into the cockpit. That's good news, because it would have been a wet ride from here on in, with the way it had started to leak. It will be nice to get back in the dryer tropics again.

Tara wanted to know how much Pursuit heels over under sail and to be able to see it in a number form. They make a special gauge called a clinometer, and it displays, very much like a carpenters level, the heel of the boat in degrees. I mounted it on the mast down below and it looks pretty smart. So now, as Tara says, we'll known when we are "out-of-control".



I don't know, to me, it kind of reminds me of our sail into New Zealand.

There was a meteor shower last night, but it was too cloudy and rainy to see it though. Up to 35 shooting stars per hour. It's a "wish-maker's" dream-come true. It was the East Aquarius Meteor Shower, which is part of the tail of Halley's comet. The new weather station is great. It tells us all kinds of stuff, like when there are meteor showers. I guess it would have been more helpful to have blogged about it before it had actually happened, in case anyone would have wanted to watch it? Oops.

We put the staysail back on yesterday and ran the new halyards also. It was a calm and sunny day, so it was a good time to go up the mast. Now, we are totally ready to go. The rigging is done, sails on, engine good, all other stuff done and fixed up. Ship shape and Bristol fashion, as they say. Now we just have to check it all out, get that weather window, and then go!