SailBlog

Young Tom perched in the cross trees spotted land at 18.30É..wellÉ.he really did spot land but from the safety of the cockpit. Saw dolphins cruising by but alas they didnt stop. Talked to Kerikeri maritime radio earlier so we are in contact with the motherland. My cell phone pinged too but only briefly.
Passed very very close to the Seasmile, a big container ship drifting, presumably killing time while waiting for a berth in Auckland. ETA Opua is 0100-0200 Thursday morning so we will go in through the bay at night and tie up to the customs berth and have a sleep before concluding formalities in the morning. Again beautiful sailing today 7 ish knots on course 163 T, under full sail as the wind slowly drops. Frittata is on the menu tonight yum yum piggies bum!

We lost the wind in the early hours this morning for the first time and had to fire up the trusty Yanmar for the first time in 5 days. Amazingly we have been self sufficient all that time with 2 fridges, freezer and autopilot running constantly, solar and wind generator providing all our power and batteries full most of the timeÉvery satisfying.
Today we were buzzed by the friendly NZ airforce �"Orion' who called up on the vhf checking our details, arrival time etc. This afternoon passed by a big freighter ship taking logs to Korea, and I had a little chat with them on the radio, because we were puzzled as to their AIS info and their port of destination. All very interesting for the socially deprived team onboard! We've had the hatches open drying out and airing the inside of the boat but now were all closed up because the wind has quite a bite. We are sailing again now under main and genoa cruising along nicely at 5.5, on a calm and tranquil sea on course (169 T) for Opua, going a little slower than necessary so that we arrive early Thursday morning and not late Wednesday. We plan to leave Opua Friday afternoon and sail overnight to arrive at Waiheke Saturday arvo. See ya'll soon!

Apologies to the vast crowds who missed yesterdays blog. We ran out of Iridium minutes yesterday and are only back online because Nic F called us up to check in, he was able to arrange more airtime with my supplier even though it is a holiday today. Top shore based crew work!
We had a boistrous last 24 hrs, 3.5 m swells a confused sea and wind at 30 knots true, so we were back to smashing and crashing our way through, the foredeck often under water, and regular buckets of brine in the cockpit. The wild weather has now passed, and we are absolutely stonking along at 8 knots, on course under partial genoa and main and full stays'l. We've spotted a sail ahead, on AIS we can see is �"Paws time' a catamaran we last saw in Musket cove. On todays menu Kate served meat pies and vege stew, so tummies are full and all is well.