Fed the homeless & the sinking of friend`s boat

Yesterday morning Bill ventured out in search of an ATM to obtain local currency of francs; they don`t accept Euros here in New Caledonia. The first ATM machine would not accept our debit card and Bill could not figure out whether the message on the little screen was saying that the machine was out of order or that our card would not work on their system. Since the next ATM machine was farther away and we had been advised that it was not the safest place to walk around, this time I accompanied him on this trip. We also wanted to look at the local market.

There is a fabulous seafood market right next to the marina and I wanted some of the great looking fresh tuna, but we have too much food on the boat already so we passed on the fish. There is a separate produce market where those fabulous French pastries are also sold. This is a wonderful daily market; prices are a bit high but the quality cannot be beat.

We walked the few blocks to another ATM. A vagrant street person followed us half a block and stood a few feet from us as Bill did one ATM withdrawal and I could hear him submitting a second withdrawal. I stood with my back to Bill and faced the vagrant, making it obvious that I was watching him. He kept glancing at Bill and the ATM machine and started whistling and making hand motions to other vagrants down the block, motioning them to come to where we were standing. I told Bill that I thought we should hurry up and get away from there. Bill said he was finished and we walked away. The vagrant stayed at the ATM machine.

After we were half-block away Bill told me that only the first withdrawal had worked. The screen said something about "impossible" on the second withdrawal attempt. Remember that this is all in French, which we don`t speak or read. We walked around a few blocks and then returned to the ATM to try another withdrawal. The vagrant had moved on by this time. We put in our card and punched the button for another 8,000 francs and the little screen again said something was impossible. But for some reason I thought it was telling us that it would be impossible to print a receipt. Sure enough, we waited about 10 seconds and out came our money but no printed receipt. Uh-oh. That meant that the previous transaction probably had worked but that we hadn`t hung around long enough for the machine to dispense the money. No wonder the vagrant had hung around the machine after we walked away. Sure enough, once we got back to the boat and got internet access to check our bank account we learned that all 3 transactions had been processed.

Oh well, it could have been much worse. We had just given the vagrant about $90 to drink his day happy. We should expect mishaps to occur when we don`t understand the language. Sort of suprised that we haven`t screwed up before now. We decided to return to the boat before we got into more trouble. On the walk back we saw that the new Star Trek movie is playing just down the street from our marina. Of course it is in French. We are seriously considering going to see it anyway, just to see the special effects even if we can`t understand the dialog or plot.

Now that we had internet access it was time to update the websites and catch up on some of the news. We were very saddened to learn that a boat we know sank last Friday en route from New Zealand to Fiji.

We had met Wendy and Steve on S/V ELUSIVE in Tonga last October; didn`t get to know them well but did socialize with them several times. ELUSIVE was one of half-dozen boats sailing from Opua to Fiji, all scattered well away from one another. They were about 500 miles out of Opua when they received news of impending bad weather and diverted course, heading south again. At the same time John and Renee on S/V SCARLETT O`HARA had also diverted course and were heading west. These 2 boats were not too far from one another and heading in opposite directions, one headed south and one headed west and closing the distance between them. ELUSIVE began taking on water quickly. ELUSIVE is a fast J-44 and had extensive refitting work done in New Zealand. Steve could not find the leak, but did verify that water was not entering at the prop shaft or packing gland.

Wendy and their adult son got into their dinghy and Steve continued to try to find the source of the leak. SCARLETT arrived and John (who is a marine surveyer and very knowledgable about boats) went aboard the rapidly sinking ELUSIVE and attempted to help Steve find the source of the incoming seawater. Apparently the water was entering somewhere in the forward half of the boat. Unfortunately, the water was rapidly filling the boat and it soon became apparent that Steve and John must vacate the boat because to stay longer would endanger their lives. Wendy, Steve and their son were taken aboard S/V SCARLETT O`HARA and watched their home sink. The cause of the leak will now never be known because the boat is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. One thing that is for certain is that this sinking was not caused by bad weather or by collision; it was some malfunction on the boat. Our thoughts are with Wendy and Steve as they recover from this traumatic event.

Wendy and Steve are so fortunate that they were sailing this passage with so many other cruisers nearby. If they had been alone on this passage the outcome could have been far more tragic. And this rescue is even more interesting because John and Renee on SCARLETT O`HARA had also once been rescued at sea. Several years ago they departed from Mexico en route to French Polynesia. They were 750 miles out of Mexico when their rudder fell off. The rudder literally fell off the boat!!! They were very fortunate that the Mexican Navy came to their rescue and towed the boat back to Mexico, where they spent 2 years replacing the rudder and making other improvements.

The crew of SCARLETT O`HARA were rescued once and now they have paid forward by rescuing the crew of ELUSIVE.

Second half of passage from New Zealand to Vanuatu

Friday, May 8, was an excellent sailing day! It was a beam reach in WSW winds of 10 to 18 knots. Seas had a very large swell spaced well apart. Often it looked like a wall of water the height of a 2-story house coming straight at us. That swell would extend as far to the left and right as we could see. Then our boat would be quickly moved up the steeper forward side of the swell and when we reached the top it seemed like we could see to infinity. Then our boat would slide comfortably down the more sloped back side of the swell. It was all so peaceful and comfortable. What a difference it makes when there is ample time between the swells. There were no wind waves so this was just a perfect day of sailing.

Of course this did not last longer than one day. You shouldn't expect 2 perfect days in a row. By Saturday the seas had built some wind waves and the swell had decreased substantially. Seemed to have swell from the west and also from the southeast and this disturbance made for an uncomfortable day of sailing in very light winds. Perhaps if the winds had been greater than 5-10 knots we would have been able to sail faster and been more comfortable. This was the first day of our passage that we were not deliberately trying to slow down. For the past 5 days we had triple reefed the sails attempting to slow down the boat. But from Saturday until we arrived on Monday we continued to experience very light winds.

At one point Bill was watching the depth gauge and it suddenly swept up to only 30 meters depth! This was alarming because we were in 4487 meters depth. We checked both charts to verify that there was not an underwater mountain or something in that location. Nope; supposed to be 4487 meters deep. Then the gauge slowly moved to indicate only 20 meters depth! What the heck was going on? This had lasted almost 2 minutes and we didn't know if we were approaching an uncharted reef or what. The ocean surface didn't look any different; we couldn't see any reef. There had been an article in the news several months ago that geologists have determined that New Caledonia and New Zealand had at one time been connected by a series of mountains/volcanos; but that the mountains had sunk back into the sea eons ago. But you would think that all these old submarine mountains and volcanos have been charted by now. Our charts do indicate a line of these but they are all very deep; like the top of an underwater mountain might be 2500 meters deep. Deep is all relative out here in the very deep Pacific Ocean. Then just as suddenly as it changed to the shallow depth readings, the gauge needle swept back to peg straight down, which is what it does anytime we are in depths greater than 200 meters. The only thing we could figure is that a whale or a whale shark or giant squid or something quite large had been swimming directly beneath our boat for several minutes and had decided to veer away.

Saturday afternoon we looked at one another and said "why don't we just turn left and keep on going to Australia?" Each of us had the same idea. The sailing conditions were so nice that why not just go on over to Australia then. But we had not checked weather for a passage farther west so we obviously weren't prepared. Besides, we wanted to see at least one island of Vanuatu. This will be our only stop in Melanesia.

On Sunday we removed the cold-weather cockpit enclosure and put up the bimini extension and side shade panels. Bill had shifted into shorts and tee-shirts on Friday, but I didn't make the change until Sunday afternoon. No more jeans and long-sleeved shirts for a long time. Now we look at the blankets and wonder how we every stood to sleep under those things! This isn't really tropical weather by our Caribbean or Texas standards, but it is so nice to be back in sunny warm weather. Last Christmas our friends Donna and Bruce gave us a couple of snuggle blanket things that zipped up. They had seen the video of me huddled under everything I could find trying to keep warm during our passage from Tonga south to New Zealand last November. Those snuggle blankets really came in handy during this passage back north. We kept one in the cockpit for whoever was on watch and kept the other one in the passage bunk. Thanks again Donna and Bruce; we thought of you every day during this passage.

We arrived at Port Resolution on Tanna Island of Vanuatu at 1330 on Monday, May 11. Total passage was exactly 1000 nautical miles of "miles made good." We don't keep track of any extra sailing miles veering off course due to weather or whatever; we only record the miles traveled directly to our destination. So, 1000 NM sailed in 7 days 3 hours and 45 minutes; for an average boat speed of 5.82 knots. Temperature this afternoon in Vanuatu is 81F. It is a gorgeous sunny day and we are anchored in a small bay looking at volcanos, steaming vents in the jungle and black volcanic sand beaches. Loving it.

Hello from the Chief Engineer!

I do not post to this blog very often, so I guess it is about time. That, and the fact that we have been at sea for 5 days and I am getting bored as we sail at about 4 knots in 7knots of wind with large, rolling, and well-spaced swells. It is the conditions which prompt one to write or sleep and since I have already done the latter, I will bore you with the former.

Ah, you ask yourself, "Just what is a Chief Engineer?" Well it is not easy to simply write a job description. When I was inducted into this job, I was not handed a job description. So let me see if I can describe the job, its duties, and responsibilities in a way that will make you understand.

Mostly, I know what I need to do by listening to observations made by the Captain. You all know the Captain; she writes most of the stuff in this blog. As an example of an observation the Captain might say, "That seagull just did something on that stainless tubing you just polished." Or, the Captain might say, "The toilet does not seem to flush right." Yesterday the Captain said "We need to adjust that so that it will be easier to turn." Just a few minutes ago the Captain said, "I think the sail would fly much better without the pole you rigged earlier today."

As a Chief Engineer you also need to be self motivated and keep good records. You need to know when you last changed the oil and when you should change it again. Sometimes you will announce that you are going to change the oil, when you just want to relax for awhile…the Captain does not follow the Chief Engineer into the engine room.

The Chief Engineer is a mechanic, a painter, an electrician, a mechanical engineer, a rigger, a navigator and a plumber. Just the other day the Captain observed that the toilet was not flushing correctly. The Chief Engineer had to take apart the macerator pump on the base of the toilet and clean it. Do you know what a macerator pump does to stuff that is flushed through the toilet? I am going to get me a professional respirator and it will get used for more than just painting bottom-paint on the boat…know what I mean?

A few days ago, another example occurred of the required resourcefulness of a Chief Engineer. We were about 150 miles into a 1,000 mile 7-8 day ocean voyage from New Zealand to Tanna, Vanuatu when the autopilot went to alarm status and stopped working. More specifically, the electric linear drive stopped working. The drive is connected to a course computer and the course computer to a display and user interface at the helm. You set the course you want the boat to go on the user interface and the computer delivers commands to the drive unit which moves the rudder the necessary amount either right or left to maintain the course you wanted in the first place. So that you better understand this and how important this is, imagine driving your car non-stop, 24 hours a day for 8 days, on a road that curved every 100 feet or so. No, our course does not curve every 100 feet, but the swell, waves, wind and current are moving the boat at least every 100 feet, probably every few feet. This constant movement requires constant correction so that the boat maintains a relatively straight course. Get the picture; this failure is a BIG deal.

So it all started with an observation from the Captain which was, "Hey what is that alarm…don't you hear that alarm?" Actually I didn't hear it. It is at a frequency best heard by dogs and Captains, of course. Anyway, after hearing the observation, I frantically started looking where all of the previous alarms had occurred. Everything was fine…nothing found…then I noticed that the boat was turning dramatically and the Captain was still observing that there was an alarm. When I went to correct the course, I noticed that the autopilot interface at the helm had this message: "drive turned off." What to do; what to do?

This is when you are really glad that you are a Chief Engineer on an Amel. I went to the A/B selector switch and changed the "active drive" from the failed linear unit to the rotary unit and everything was fine again. Amel includes 2 independent drive units connected to an A/B switch which is connected to the course computer on all sailboats manufactured by Amel today. I do not know of any other pleasure yacht that has this as standard equipment. Another fact is that the A/B switch is not offered as an option by Raymarine, the manufacturer of the autopilot…this is something that Amel sourced independently of Raymarine.

You see Henri Amel cruised on Amel sailboats and he raced them as well. I am sure there must be a story of when Henri was on an ocean crossing and a drive unit failed. It is just another of the hundreds of examples of ole' Henri "having your back." Or as we Chief Engineer's say, "Saving your butt."

As another example of my resourcefulness, I emailed our friend Bruce and described the situation to him. I assume that the clutch is worn out in the linear drive because the motor works, but the arm does not. Bruce is going to find out if it can be rebuilt or if we have to buy a new one. If we have to buy a new one, it will be one more thing for Zachary to bring in his checked luggage.

I have got to go, I hear an observation and as a good Chief Engineer, I have to react…or…maybe change the oil.

The Chief

Halfway between New Zealand and Vanuatu

It is Thursday noon as I write this. Hard to type while holding onto the monitor! We are past the half-way point and all is well on board.

Left the dock in Opua at 0945 Monday morning, May 4, in light SE winds. We motored for a few hours until winds increased enough to sail. There was a large swell rolling up from the SE but not too uncomfortable. Seas became more disturbed as it darkened into night. Around midnight we came upon a fishing boat lit up like a Christmas tree. He hailed us and said that his fishing lines were 8 miles long, so we had to deviate course to avoid becoming entangled. We deviated 5 miles east and then 3 miles due north before coming back and resuming our original course. No other boats have been seen on this passage.

I take the first night watch from 1800 to 0200; then Bill takes the second night watch 0200 to 0800. This enables each of us to sleep a long period and not become too tired on long passages. During Bill's watch on the first night I was awakened 3 times for a beeping alarm which he could not hear. He couldn't figure out what it was and I didn't want to get out of my bunk since the alarm stopped each time. Later on Tuesday morning during my first day watch, I discovered what this alarm was all about. The autopilot displayed "Drive Stopped" --- not something you want to learn on a long passage. I woke up Bill and told him about the problem. The linear drive on our Raymarine ST70001+ was overheating and stopping. So he switched to our chain drive and we were instantly back in business. Amel builds these boats so well. Just flip the A/B switch and keep on trucking. We wonder how many other pleasure yachts of this size are built so well. Bill thinks the clutch in the linear drive is probably worn out. We very rarely use the chain drive because it is noisier, so we shouldn't have to worry about the clutch wearing out on it before we reach Australia and can obtain repair parts.

Tuesday night gale conditions arose and lasted 14 hours until mid-afternoon Wednesday. Nothing serious; just uncomfortable. It was funny talking to friends in the Opua to Fiji passage and hear that they were in no winds and flat seas when we were in solid 35 knot winds and very disturbed seas. Amazing that weather conditions can be so different just a few hundred miles apart.

Wednesday night the winds began to die down. Finally late Thursday morning the seas began to display some semblance of order and rhythm. Unfortunately, that rhythm is a very large swell crossing our port stern. That large swell, along with light winds from the south, are creating quite a bit of roll. I did manage to make chicken nachos for lunch so you know it isn't too bad. But I do have to hold onto the monitor here at the nav station in order to type this log. So, enough for now. Our trip computer indicates we will arrive at Port Resolution on Tanna Island at 2000 Sunday night. Too early to worry about it now but looks like we will either need to speed up a bit or slow down a lot. We will let the weather decide that for us and not get serious about arrival time until Saturday afternoon; then decide what to do so that we can arrive during daylight.

Passage to New Zealand in November 2008

Day 1 Monday, November 3, 2008

Weighed anchor at 0730 and departed Nuku'Alofa out the western Egregia Pass. ETA Opua, New Zealand, is for Tuesday morning, November 11.

Goodbye to Tonga. This has been the highlight of our South Pacific travels so far. Serene is the best word I can think of to describe Tongans. They are strongly Christian and have such a peaceful quietness about them. A person in Tonga can believe in any religion he wishes but by law only Christians are allowed to congregate together for worship. I love the way the Tongans continue to wear their traditional dress daily. Not like all the other places where if you see someone in traditional attire you know that they are wearing it just for the tourists for a specific function. In Tonga both men and women continue to wear their skirts covered by matting wrapped around their waists and hips. The matting is heavier and different when they are in mourning for a relative. That is their normal daily attire, not something affected for the tourists. If anyone wants to visit the South Pacific and can go to only one place, Tonga should be your destination.
Barometric Pressure: 1011.9
Temp inside boat: 80.2F
Sailed most of daylight and then motor-sailed from 4:00 p.m. all night.


Day 2 Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 22.38.85S
Longitude: 176.41.88W
Miles Made Good: 144.7
Course: 211T
Barometric Pressure: 1011.2
Temp inside boat: 80.0F
All well on board.
A large squall rushed down on us at 0600 this morning and lasted about an hour and a half. Winds were 30 knots sustained and gusts of 45 knots. This storm moved from south to north and traveled at 20-25 knots per hour. Lots of lightning but no close strikes. Bill took in the sails just before the squall reached us. He then turned the boat and ran with the storm until winds died down to 20 knots. Then we turned back to our course of 211 True. Motor-sailed all day and night because winds were extremely light. Many boats left Tonga on Monday and Tuesday. Several who left early Monday are ahead of us - we are not the fastest boat out here by any stretch of the imagination. We are not within visual or VHF radio contact range with any other boat. Most of us are checking in twice daily on the SSB to follow each others positions and verify everyone is okay. Some are sailing in various directions. We are sticking to the rhumb line and motor-sailing. We are only sailing without motor when the wind changes to the right direction for our desired course. We are not sailing to follow the wind which would add many miles to the trip. I would rather waste diesel and get this trip over with as quickly as possible before weather changes again.


Day 3 Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 24.23.08S
Longitude: 178.09.54W
Miles Made Good: 126.7
Course: 211T
Barometric Pressure: 1013.2
Temp inside boat: 76.8F
All well on board.
Guess we have a new president-elect today and someone from home will hopefully send us an email and tell us who won. I certainly hope this election had a clear winner and won't require dragging on in courts as has happened in the past.

Several boats were affected by the squall yesterday morning. The mainsail halyard on S/VNUKUALOFA separated and their mainsail came down. Luckily it landed on the deck instead of in the ocean. They are continuing on to NZ under foresail only. S/V DON PEDRO had a lightning bolt strike the ocean directly behind the boat. Their boat wildly vibrated and all electronics ceased functioning. They turned everything off; waited 30 minutes and turned everything back on; and all started working again. They are darn lucky about that. S/V TOKETIE was knocked down. For you landlubbers, that means the boat was laid down on its side in the ocean. The keel on a monohull will cause a knocked-down boat to right itself, which is exactly what happened. Sometimes the righting happens quickly and sometimes it takes hours; depends in large part on how much water is holding the sails down in the ocean. Water also normally gets into the interior of the boat through the companionway when a boat is knocked down. This extra weight will also affect how long it takes for the boat to right itself. I do not know how long TOKETIE was knocked down, but assume the boat righted itself fairly quickly. The boat turned back upright but the mainsail was damaged. They spent the day repairing the sail and are now back underway to NZ. Good thing TOKETIE is a monohull. A catamaran would have flipped right over and remained upside down and the occupants would have had the opportunity to use those escape hatches that are built into the bottoms of catamarans. None of the boats were anywhere close to one another, but this storm rushed on everyone quickly. Bill had seen it on radar and thought it would take about 1 ½ hours to reach us. It was on top of us in 20 minutes. Really glad he got the sails furled away before the squall engulfed us. Something to be said for furling electric sails. We can get our sails in faster than manually controlled boats with old-fashioned hoist-up sails.


Day 4 Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 26.09.86S
Longitude: 178.32.53W
Miles Made Good: 134.5
Course: 200T / 270T / 220T
Barometric Pressure: 1010.4
Temp inside boat: 76.2F
All well on board.
Had good sailing during afternoon and most of the night. Winds shifted from E to N to W to SW during late afternoon and overnight. Change in wind direction forced us farther east than desired for this point of the trip. Encountered 35 knot winds and sheet lightning around 0500 this morning, ending with winds from SW. So we turned and sailed due west for 5 hours. This squall never appeared on radar because it contained no rain, just high winds and sheet lightning.

The weather forecast has changed again (what's new!!!). There now are 2 LOW pressure systems that are developing deeper and on collision course. One LOW is moving from NW to SE. A smaller but deeper LOW is moving from SW to NE. As these 2 systems converge or collide there will be a "squash zone" forced between the 2. It is supposed to be very bad to get caught in the squash zone. Boats now at Minerva Reef are running south in hopes of getting far enough south to be inside the more southerly LOW system before the 2 systems meet one another. We are already well south of Minerva Reef and will continue on our SSW course. We sent an email to Bob McDavitt the weather guru asking which direction we should head: south or west. Hope to hear back from McDavitt this morning.
P.S. Received an email from Bill's brother, John, this morning telling us that the US presidential election had a decisive victory this time. Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama. Only thing that worries us about Obama is his lack of experience. Hopefully, Joe Biden will be able to help him along, especially regarding national security issues.


Day 5 Friday, November 7, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 27.29.39S
Longitude: 178.51.12E *
Miles Made Good: 110.9
Course: 220T
Barometric Pressure: 1017.7
Temp inside boat: 71.2F
All well on board.
The 2 LOW systems are still predicted to collide Saturday or Sunday. Boats that were at Minerva Reef are running south as fast as possible. And boats enroute that are farther north than us are running to Minerva Reef as fast as possible. Seems people there want out and those people who are out want in. Bob McDavitt answered our email and said we should continue same course and speed, and that should put us south of the convergence point before it occurs. He said we should be prepared for gusts to 35 knots and seas 3 meters on Saturday and/or Sunday. Won't be pleasant but shouldn't be dangerous. We have been in worse conditions before. Here's hoping this forecast is accurate and doesn't change again for the worse.

* We crossed the meridian mid-afternoon yesterday. Notice our longitude is now east instead of west. Remember third grade geography. The equator encircles the planet east to west and separates north and south latitudes; the meridian encircles the planet from north to south and separates east and west longitudes. We are now in the eastern hemisphere, south of the equator, and will remain in the eastern hemisphere until we cross the prime meridian several hundreds of miles west of southern tip of Africa. The prime meridian crosses through Greenwich, England and is home to UTC or GMT or Zulu time. We will re-enter the western hemisphere when we cross the prime meridian in spring 2011. Also notice the temperature. It is getting colder each day as we get closer to NZ.


Day 6 Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 29.09.864S
Longitude: 177.33.617E
Miles Made Good: 120.1
Course: 210T
Barometric Pressure: 1017.0
Temp inside boat: 70.4
All well on board.
Forgot to mention earlier about the currents. We have experienced a head-current ranging ½ knot to 1 ½ knots for this entire passage. By the time we reached the half-way point on Thursday evening we were also experiencing a very strong westerly-setting current. Seems like it wants to push us over to Australia. We must make frequent course adjustments in order to remain on course. Other boats enroute behind us are reporting favorable currents, but we haven't found any yet.

Friday afternoon we transferred all the diesel jerry jugs to our main tank, except for one 5-gallon jug that we are saving as our emergency reserve. Figured we should take advantage of the totally flat calm seas and zero wind to do this fuel transfer since we are expecting rough weather Saturday night. I also moved the few remaining items from the freezer locker into the fridge since we are down to our final few days of this voyage. First time I know of that we have had both freezers turned off. Found brownies and a few other treat surprises in the freezer that I had baked in the past 3 weeks and forgotten about. We should arrive Opua on Tuesday morning with no excess of prepared meals on hand. We will be ready for the restaurants.



Day 7 Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 31.20.905S
Longitude: 176.26.615E
Miles Made Good: 143.3
Course: 206T
Barometric Pressure: 1016.8
Temp inside boat: 68.5F Burrrr!!
All well on board.
Bill did not sleep at all last night. He is on an adrenaline rush. The rough water didn't help any either. It was blustery, wet and cold. Winds were 25-33 knots all night; seas 3 meters and very rough; but really not too bad. When the water is rough like this, it sometimes sounds like logs are striking the hull very hard. This loud impact sound is actually caused by air pockets in the waves created by all the sea motion. We experienced lots of these impact sounds during this bad weather. The waves were stacked so closely upon one another that many times there was no trough between waves. There was so much motion that one needed both hands to hold on as one crab-walked around inside the boat. Same conditions will remain all day today. Weather should begin to lighten up a bit this evening. Supposedly we are in the small "squash zone" but it really is not all that bad. At least there is lots of wind so we can sail and not run the motor. We have spent all night shortening sail over and over again because the boat was going too fast. Finally found the perfect sail configuration for these weather conditions. We took in the mizzen sail altogether; mainsail is triple reefed; foresail has just a handkerchief-sized piece flying. We have 20 wraps on the foresail furler. Leaving it triple reefed was still too much sail and boat was still going in excess of 8-9 knots. By flying just a handkerchief-sized piece of the jib we have reduced boat speed to about 5 to 5.5 knots and it is much more comfortable. We both have numerous little bruises from being thrown about inside the boat. When in the cockpit we sit in the driest corner wrapped in blankets. Sixty-eight degrees might not seem cold to most people, but out on the sea with 30 knots of cold wind blowing on you, then that 68 degrees is darn cold!


Day 8 Monday, November 10, 2008 at 0730
Latitude: 33.29.42S
Longitude: 175.10.67E
Miles Made Good: 144
Course: 204T
Barometric Pressure: 1021.9
Temp inside boat: 66.1F
All well on board.
Only 109 miles to go. YIPPEEE!!!!
Winds moderated down to only 20 knots around midnight last night. Believe me, there is a huge difference between 20 knots and 30 knots of wind. The seas are still quite large and confused and rough, but we are sailing very smoothly this morning at 6 to 7 knots. This is marvelous sailing and very comfortable.

Added 8 p.m. Monday:
The morning dawned sunny and clear, but clouded up more and more as the day wore on. Never rained, thank goodness that is over; but looks dreary and gray. And we don't care a whit because we are almost there. As I type this on Monday night we are at 34.44.69S 174.25.208E which is about 37 miles from our destination of Opua. We notified Russell Radio on the SSB this evening that we should arrive at the Opua Quarantine Wharf about 0100 tonight. Hopefully there will be room for us to tie off at the Q dock; it is supposed to be large enough to dock at least 15 boats. We will tie off and wait for Customs to open in the morning so we can officially clear in.

For those who are following such things (see Bruce, I am thinking of you), the Customs and Quarantine Wharf is located at 35.18.82S 174.07.35E. It has been a great passage for us. The few squalls we encountered weren't severe and most of the passage was smooth sailing. Do wish we had not had to motor so many hours, but the light winds and motoring we experienced were far preferable to heavy winds and seas.

First, to recap our passage to New Zealand: On the final day, Monday, we sailed 122.3 miles. That totals 1046.5 miles made good for the entire passage. Actually we sailed more miles than that but we only track MMG. Any miles sailed that do not bring us closer to our destination don’t count with us. I know that won’t make any sense to the landlubbers, but sailors understand that sometimes you must sail in the wrong direction in order to get to the right destination. Passage duration was 0730 Monday through 0130 Tuesday of the following week, for a total of 7 days and 18 hours (8 nights at sea). A 46-foot British boat left Tonga at exactly the same time we did and they arrived in Opua about 16 hours after us.

We arrived at the Quarantine Dock in Opua and were tied off at 0130 Tuesday morning. Of course there was no one around to help us with the dock lines but that was simple and we did not require assistance to dock. We followed a German boat in through the channel; then they drifted around because they couldn’t figure out where to go. It was misting rain and difficult to see in the pitch-black night. We nosed around until we found the Q Dock (it is back behind the old wharf and south of Opua Marina). After we were tied off then the German guys followed and tied up behind us. This Q Dock is quite long and could easily accommodate 20 to 30 boats. It is a long floating dock and is not attached to land. Bill and I ate a very late dinner of the final 2 bowls of chili; had a hot shower; and went to bed. We were up and dressed at daylight because had no idea when Customs and Quarantine officials would arrive to clear us in.

Two Quarantine officials arrived at 0800. After all the stories about how difficult Quarantine can be in New Zealand, I was greatly relieved with how very simple it really was. The men were very polite and helpful. One of the men carried a heavy-duty black plastic bag into which he placed our garbage bag and the few items that they removed from our boat. The second man wrote down each item that they removed. We had no fresh or frozen meat to dispose of, and they did not take one single can of any canned meat because ours did not contain bones. They did say that many canned chicken products are prohibited because things like canned chicken chili or turkey chili contains ground bones. Mayonnaise is often removed but I had Hellman’s and that brand is not a problem. Several other people later told me that Quarantine removed all their mayonnaise. The country of origin didn’t seem to be the deciding factor. The officials seemed more concerned about the brands. Guess they know what they are looking for. Since we have only microwave popcorn, they let us keep that. Regular loose popcorn kernels are prohibited, but microwave popcorn is okay. They approved all my spices because they are all in bottles and commercially prepared. I usually do not buy local spices and had none onboard. They did not take cheese, butter, canned milks or UHT boxed milk. Powdered milk is not allowed but UHT is okay.

The things removed from our boat were: 3 boiled eggs, 1 orange, tiny bit of leftover baked boneless chicken and 6 bags various dried beans. And it was convenient for us that they took away the garbage accumulated during the passage. So, moral of this story is to ignore those oft-told stories of difficulty of clearing into New Zealand Quarantine. It was a breeze. BTW, we arrived with about 1 case of beer. Bill did a pretty good job of drinking up or sharing those 25 cases we had aboard in mid-March in Panama.

Shortly after the Quarantine officials left then the Customs guy dropped by to deliver a gift bag to us. Now that is a first! Certainly never had an arrival gift from Customs anywhere else we have visited. This gift was a nicely decorated heavy straw bag containing all sorts of useful information about the Opua area and New Zealand. Even had some discount coupons for coffee shops and bakeries and the like.

Soon 2 Customs officials arrived and we did the paperwork dance. Turns out that we indeed should have that Multi-Entry Visa that we tried to obtain both in Niue and again in Nuku’Alofa and were told that we did not need. They said we will need this Visa when we clear back in at the airport in January because it proves that our later departure on a boat is guaranteed. We will try to take care of that before we fly home on December 10 but I am not very hopeful that this will be accomplished. The complete clearing in process with both Quarantine and Customs took less than half an hour. Then we moved the boat a very short distance to our slip at Opua Marina.

Other people arrived worn out from their passage but we felt well-rested and ready to start exploring New Zealand. Hard to believe that we have actually sailed all the way here..