Joan
10/30/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

The foam was sure flying around today. We are hove to waiting for seas to calm down a bit. We had about two hours of sustained 45knot winds. Our highest gust that I saw one the meter was 51.1. The seas were just plain huge with serious streaks and foam flying around. Definitely breathtaking, but not in quite the "I want to stay and take photos" way. I did try to get some photos after it started calming down. I got splashed and water poured down the companion way. I think I broke the camera. It is soaked. I expect the seas were well over the 15 foot range. Now the wind has calmed down to about 26-28 knots with gusts to 34. The wind is supposed to shift to the NE. Naturally, we haven't made much progress. We have about 480 miles to go. We should be on our way again by morning. Other than that, all is well on board. Believe it or not, nothing broke...that we know of. We are both very happy to be on Tender Spirit. She continues to prover herself to be a worthy blue-water vessel.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/29/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

About the time I think all is nice, and we are doing just fine, maybe feeling a bit of an ego because we've managed to keep the boat moving well, I saw a big ole splash from a wave come out of the black night and right in my face and then down the companionway. I was soaked, and uttered some old fashioned sailor spiced words not meant for "family hour". I guess King Neptune is keeping me humble. The good news is that very little water actually went down below, most, just down the inside of my foulies...I am feeling humble and chilly now!

The wind is slowing us down. We are deeply reefed and comfy. The wind is in the 25 knot range but gusting wildly and a bit unpredictable. We are expecting some lighter wind in the next 24 hours along with a wind shift.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/27/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

We are moving nicely along today. The wind has increased 20-25 out of the East. Seas are 3 meters. We are averaging 5.5 knots, and not wasting any time. We traveled 134 miles in the last 24 hours, and we now have 654 miles to go. All is well on board.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/26/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

We've had company for the last 24 hours. S/V This Side Up, whom we met in Suva, has been traveling with us. We got a visual on her yesterday and continue to have a visual on her now. I expect that by tomorrow she will slip off the horizon. We even have a second sailboat off our stern this afternoon. We don't know who they are. It's nice having company! We are continuing to have a fast passage. We covered 134 miles in the last 24 hours. We have 788 miles to go. The wind has dropped to ESE15 knots. We are presently traveling at 5.0 knots. The seas have laid down a bit, down to 1.5 meters.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/25/2011, Suva

We are cooking along very nicely. We just broke our all time speed over 24 hours. We traveled 145 miles...distance made good even! We were averaging 7 knots throughout most of the night. Wind is SE 15-20, seas 6 feet, out of the SE as well. We are well healed, but fairly comfy. We are hoping to get below 25 degrees before a squash zone arrives on the 28th. At this pace, we will be close. The wind is supposed to shift more ESE. That will help our angle a bit. All is well on board.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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10/22/2011, 18 07'S 178 25'E

That's right, I am being tortured by the cookie aroma. Every morning I wake up to the smell of freshly baked cookies. The lovely aroma lasts most of the day when we are downwind from a cookie factory. Funny, I am thinking about making a big batch of cookies for breakfast; Maybe cookies for lunch or dinner? I bet the Cookie Monster would love to find the exact location of the cookie factory!

We discovered that getting the last bit of paperwork signed and completed by the official and regular veterinarian has been challenging and frustrating. It doesn't help the fact that there are only Three veterinarians in the country; two starting on Monday. Hopefully the last signature will be acquired on Monday. I have been in person and on the phone every day excluding Sunday since we arrived in Suva, trying to make the proper arrangements and getting the official paperwork filled out correctly so that we can satisfy some rather simple requirements that New Zealand has for importing our dog. We decided to make Monday our final deadline because a weather window is opening up for our passage to New Zealand. We are under a deadline now with our arrival timing for quarantining the dog. It looks like a nice weather pattern will be available for us to leave on Tuesday.
I really wanted to spend some time on the West side of the country, but that just didn't happen this year. I guess we will have to save something to look forward to for another time.

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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10/18/2011

Check out this new article about the debris from the Japanese tsunami:
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2011/10/17/japan-tsunami-debris-on-course-to-hit-us/

This will definitely impact our plans concerning going back to the west coast through Hawaii or the Marshall Islands for the next couple of years.

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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Joan
10/13/2011, Suva

We just dropped the anchor in Suva Harbor. We had a great passage. The wind was perfect, the seas flat, and a full moon all night to travel by! We did the 121 mile passage in 24 hours!

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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