Ready to go North
13 April 2012 | Auckland, new Zealand
Rod

“Your Rock and Roll Argos” are pleased to announce that after a few delays, we are once again out and about. On our last post, we reported that our charts had arrived and that we were off to the anchorage and further on. We had happily checked out of the marina at Marsden Cove, and just before we cast off the lines, I took one last look at the sky and thought, “No sir, I don’t like it.” I mentioned to Elisabeth that I wanted to reconsider the weather, fire up the computer and do some further digging into the forecast. This was a good move, as Cyclone Daphne had been hammering away at Fiji about 1100 miles to the north, she was moving and her outer edge was coming to visit New Zealand’s North Island (you know, where we are.) With a heavy heart, we trudged back to the marina office, told them that we were not leaving just quite yet. Karen, the marina manager, had seen that forecast and heartedly agreed with our thinking.
It was hard. The weather at the moment was beautiful, and we really wanted to get moving. Since we have had the rig off, we really needed to sea test it before we set off across a potentially rough passage to Fiji. Good we waited because it was about two days later that the winds picked up and blew with ferocity for nearly five days. It was intense enough that we added extra mooring lines, checked our chafe protection daily, and just hunkered down. We read a maximum 47 knots on our meter, but the amazing thing was that the wind was steady and consistent for so long. Eventually the wind subsided, and the forecast promised a few nice days before it got nasty again. So we dove for it.
We have had then a beautiful night at Urquhart’s Bay, followed by a nice, all day, and upwind sail in gentle conditions, down to Kawau Island where we had been with Jenny. All was perfect, and we really enjoyed the day. The anchorage at Kawau was amazing. It was still and quiet. We sat out that late afternoon and listened to the birds in the forest. One of our favorites is the Tui. Its voice is very special. It sounds kind of like a bell with two different tones going at the same time.
In the morning, we continued down to Auckland. At first the conditions were so light we had to motor. After a while, the wind filled in, this time from behind us and continued to build throughout the day. This was just the kind of testing we had been wanting, gibing back and forth in the building wind. All is good with the boat and we were eventually racing along. By the time we reached Auckland, the nice weather had well given way to the windy rainy stuff the forecast had promised. Soon after we were snug and tied in Westhaven marina, it opened up and blew and rained while the two of us smiled at each other reflecting on yet another great day together. Life is good.
Our reason for coming to Auckland is to check out our charging system and battery monitor. Proximity has a large battery bank that operates all of our electrical equipment. Our two solar panels and wind generator charge it. It is also charged by the engine’s alternator while the engine is running. We have an instrument that monitors this charging and tell us exactly how much current we are drawing and how much electricity is being fed back in to the batteries. It is all kind of like a fuel gauge for this critical system. We think all is ok, but again, before we set out on a long journey well away from sophisticated help, we want to have an expert electrician check her out well due to some funny readings we recently noted.
It is not all work though. Jan and Eli and still here in Jenny, so we spent a nice evening with them last night and may go sailing together this afternoon. On Saturday, we plan to leave and begin our travel back up to Whangarei where we will wait for a good weather window for leaving for Fiji. We may stop over at Great Barrier Island along the way. We haven’t decided yet. Much depends on the weather and time is counting down rapidly to the big voyage.
Late breaking news. (Later this same day) Electrician has been here, and Proximity’s systems are all A-OK. Now we look for that weather window for a north bound sail to Fiji!