Tuesday evening 27th October 2015 and after 10 years Savarna is in New Zealand waters. The weather gods played a cruel hand around 30 hours ago when after a frustrating 12 days of sailing with winds from every direction and generally not much pressure a SW frontal system came through. The last 24 hours since mid yesterday afternoon have seen us beating into 25 plus knot head winds coming from exactly the direction of Auckland. Quite heavy seas, lots of pounding and water across the boat and while Savarna took a bit of a pasting overnight she came through in good shape.

At daybreak we could see Great Barrier and spent most of the day tacking to get into the lee off Medlands Beach so we could effect a few repairs - engine not going, generator not going, main downhaul shredded so could not reef etc. Mostly got all the engineering sorted and the sailing systems repaired.

The low wind passage resulted in low diesel supplies so we negotiated with Customs and MPI to enable us to stop at Whangapara on the Barrier to stop for a diesel top up under the supervision of the local police sergeant. Currently motoring the last 45 miles to Auckland and will arrive at around 0500 hrs at the Customs dock at Captain Cook Wharf in downtown Auckland. After the clearances we will be moving to the Viaduct Lighter Basin berth 5. The Customs people have been great in organising fuel and the arrival and the guy even called me from his home tonight to see how we were going.

Will log a fuller report and photo's in the next few days.

Savarna is home at last - fantastic!! It has been a wonderful 10 years. We have received a number of emails today from friends around the world which have been most appreciated and we will reply to all soon.

Cheers
Keith & Pam