We finally got the go ahead for our passage to New Zealand from both weather routers. It's time to go. We weighed anchor around 9 AM along with our friends on Destiny. Soon afterwards several other boats left as well. Destiny chooses a slightly different course which took them more to the west and soon we were out of sight of each other. There are about 10 other vessels making the crossing with us and we check in twice a day with each other on the SSB radio. We all give our positions and weather and sea conditions. After the net any boats that want to talk to each other can do so. Our game plan is to get to New Zealand as quickly as possible so we plan on motoring when the winds are light. We don't carry enough fuel to motor the whole distance so we need to keep monitoring the time spent motoring and leave enough in reserve for our arrival. Our weather router told us there would be light winds for the first few days of our passage and he was right. He also told us that half way there is an area where the winds quit blowing from the east and start blowing from the west. In that transition area we would also have light winds and need to motor another full day. Our first night out we saw a lot of lightning, but most of it stayed in the clouds. It made for a very spectacular light show.
Around the second day of our passage, we receive another weather update and are told that an upper trough will be moving over our area producing some very strong winds within the next few days. Several boats head to Minerva Reef to wait out the bad weather. After much discussion and praying that we make the right decision, we decide to keep going. We were already 80 miles past Minerva and didn't want to go back. Our weather router also thought that with our boat speed we should be able to make it to the south side of the low and avoid the squash zone with the strongest winds. We were pretty nervous as the winds and seas kept building wondering just how bad it would really get. As the winds increased we kept furling more sail up until we had only a small sail out in the front called a staysail and a small piece of our mainsail out. The winds got up to the 30 knot range with 40 knot gusts. We saw seas in the 15 foot range and some were hitting us from the side causing the boat to roll. Morning Light did really great in those adverse wind and sea conditions. We were careful to keep hanging on to something as we didn't want to take a chance on one of us getting thrown across the boat and injured. We both took medication for seasickness just in case, but neither one of us got sick. Sleeping was out of the question. Destiny didn't fair so well as they were 60 miles behind us and got in the brunt of the squash zone. On our last communication that we had with them they were experiencing over 50 kt winds and were doing 8 kts of boat spead with no sails up at all. They seemed nervous but said that their boat was also doing great. After that we lost contact with them. They quit checking into the nets and everyone started to worry about their safety. After two days, the winds settled back down and we had a great sail the rest of the way to New Zealand. The further south we went, the colder it got. We arrived early Nov. 11th at the customs dock in Marsden Cove. After clearing in we relayed our concerns about Destiny to the customs officials and asked if anyone had heard from them. We were told they would check further and get back to us. It wasn't long before we received a message back that Destiny had called in on their satellite phone and all was well. The winds had knocked out their radio antennae so they couldn't transmit or receive. After clearing customs and immigration at Marsden Cove we were met by our friends on the boat "Fetching Light". It is another Hylas 46 like ours and we had met them a few years ago in Santa Barbara. They left for the South Pacific a year before we did. They invited us over for a wonderful dinner on their boat. The BBQ'd steaks and fresh salad tasted great after our week long passage. Then it was back to our boat for some much needed sleep.
The next morning we left to go up a river to our new home at Riverside Drive Marina in Whangarei. We had to leave during an incoming tide and plan on being at the marina at high tide. The river trip takes about 2 hours and there are several shallow spots to look out for especially as we get closer to the marina. At one point we saw only l foot of clearance under our keel. We made it and now are safely tied up to the dock.
We thank all our family and friends for their well wishes and prayers for our safe passage. We are so glad to be here even though it seems really cold to us after being in the tropics. Looking back at it all, our anxieties and worries about the passage were worse then the actual trip itself. During the worst two days of our of our passage, we were ready to quit this cruising dream, but then after we arrived and thought about it with rested minds, we decided that it really wasn't that bad. The effort was well worth the reward. We look forward to our trip home for the holidays and catching up with family and friends. See you soon.