Well Paul and I have made it back from our 3 and a bit week sailing holiday. We had a great break from work and did not want to come back, but jobs are calling.
We had a go at sailing offshore sort of, We left Whangarei on Saturday 21st Feb and headed for Great Barrier (South Eastish of Whangarei) with a North West tail wind, a 1.5 metre swell from the NorthEast, and a building chop from the North west. With tail winds all the way to Great Barrier and then when we rounded the Island we had winds and seas on the nose all the way up the coast. Not the best sailing conditions to trial in.
We Pulled into Whangaruru at about Midnight on Monday the 23rd of February, after no sleep and me having not coped very well with the whole thing. It also happened to be my birthday, so Paul was being very kind.
Our holiday continued from there. In all over the 3 week period, we experienced 3 gales and one Storm. The first gale occured just before we left on the 21st. While we were anchored in Matawhi Bay near Russell, we experienced 55 knot winds( thank goodness we were anchored).
In all our holiday was not a roaring success, but then it always seems to be the way.