Day 10 - Fiji to NZ
13 October 2016 | 35 18.8'S:174 07.3'E, Bay of Islands Q-Dock
FullCircle has "crash landed" on the Q-dock in Bay of Islands Marina. A lttle too much wind and current, no stbd motor, and no outside help made for a "Blue Duck" worthy docking - lets just say anyone watching from the Opua Cruising Club will have lots to laugh about over the next year. That said, Cindy and Brent did an outstanding job of adapting and overcoming when the original docking plan did not work out. As with most every day of this passage Day 10 was no different - we had great sailing winds for part of the day and motoring for the other part. The Low Pressure system that passed across NZ yesterday brough us a big winshift to the southwest and we found ourselves going upwind in 20-25kt winds (Brent was in retrospect happy we left the reef in overnight) for a good deal of time. The boat - and crew - handled the conditions really well. The sea state was relatively calm for these winds and so the sailing was fast and fun. It appeared that we would have a long mot or into Opua after the breeze died in the morning, but it filled back in from the NW giving us a great spinnaker ride - at times over 10kts - into the Bay of Islands. What a way to end a passaage!