10/06/2009, Underway to NZ
Zen is currently motorsailing on a southwesterly course. The winds are dying and the waves are still big rollers, kicked up from the bucking bronco ride last night. And speaking of last night, I swear I heard the tell-tale whale fog horn song while we were flying at 9 knots. Our starboard daggerboard makes a humming vibration sound when it goes through the water at fast speeds. We could have been in a whale-traffic-lane. Were they hoping we were a female? Or were they beeping their horns for us crazy drivers?
Weather says winds will fill in from behind us in about 24-36 hours. That will send us zooming directly toward Whangarei, NZ. So...in the meantime, we wait, charge the batteries, huddle in the main salon (it's flippin' cold), and watch the puffy white clouds roll by. There's 6 other boats around us, all heading to NZ. Funny, we see them clearly during the day, but nighttime comes, and everyone puts on their cloaking device and disappear. This morning's radio net revealed that we are still about 10 miles ahead of Miss Molly. But, she rolled in her headsail when the winds came in our face, turned on the iron jenny (engine) and started blasting at 8 knots on the rhumbline to NZ. She'll eat us up today. Maybe when the winds come from the north, we'll have some fun catching up.
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10/05/2009, Zen is Halfway to NZ
The race is on, only 620 miles to go, and our younger crew members are slacking off. While passing (keyword: passing, we are still mourning that loss) the bright blue waters of Minerva Reef yesterday, s/v Miss Molly, a 66-foot Oyster sloop, challenged Zen to a friendly ocean race into NZ. It certainly makes the time go faster. Tom is half conscious and in need of sleep, but still looking aft, over our shoulder, wondering if we should put up more canvas! I just keep saying, "Go sleep for a few hours. OK?" Our motorsail started last night after dinner and is still happening right now at breakfast time. At 3:00am, our watch shift change, we jibed the code zero sail as the wind moved into the NW quadrant. The wind is still very light, but later today it will freshen and come in our face.
Tom's dad was an ole' salt and Navy man. He taught his son to be conservative, respect the ocean and when it comes to weather, safety at sea is a priority. He must be contacting Tommy spiritually, because although the winds are not predicted to rise above 25 to 30 knots, my husband is pulling out all the safety gear. It's not alarming in any way. If anything, it makes me feel even better that we are ready for anything. This morning I awoke to find him explaining to the lacky crew members what a drogue and storm jib are. The drogue is heavy duty webbing, constructed in the form of a conical net, that is deployed off the back of the boat with very long lines. It sits 2 waves behind us. As we rise on a wave, it rises on a wave. It slows Zen down if we are surfing too fast. A storm jib is a very small triangular sail that goes up in the front of the boat on our roller furling stay. It is made of very beefy material and catches just a small amount of wind. These two items allow for terrific control and steerage. Grandmas, don't freak out. We will never have to deploy either one of them. But, be happy they are not stuffed so far away that they are inaccessible. Tom's got that one covered. Isn't it funny to purchase "safety toys" for Zen, with the whole idea of never wanting to use them? Guess it is like insurance.
Other than every outside surface being encrusted in salt and the air becoming radically colder, all is perfectly fine onboard. Night watches consist of dressing in many layers and putting on the full set of foulies. I even have my rubber boots on! Meanwhile, the kids are warm and comfy in their heavy sleeping bags. Maybe too comfy! Miss Molly is only 10 miles behind us and closing fast.
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10/04/2009, Underway to New Zealand
New weather update came in this morning and showed a beautiful window direct to NZ without a stop in Minerva Reef. Tough decision to pass up such a unique locale, lying only 20 measly miles away, but everything says, "go, go, go!" All boats traveling with us concurred on the weather interpretation and made the same decision, altering course direct to NZ. Currently at 12 noon NZ time on Oct 5th (6pm EST 10/4) we have only 780 miles left to go. That's a 4 night journey at our normal speeds.
This lovely wind off our port beam will come behind us and then, die out sometime tonight or tomorrow. We'll motorsail for a while, eating up some of the extra diesel we have. After 24 hours of that, the wind will come up strong from the SE, forcing us to sail west of the rhumbline for about a day. Finally, it will go back into the NNE quarter and then move into the west, off our starboard beam, for our final 24 hour run into NZ. You don't need to be a pro to see how the pressure systems and winds fluctuate quickly in this area of the world.
Looks like we will pull into the customs dock in NZ on October 9th local time. All is well onboard, especially now that we know our team, the Patriots, are winning in the final quarter of their game! Thanks, J!!
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