Day 4

Hello from 28:05S/173.11E on Thursday at 13.30 ship's time (01.30 UTC)

 

Both Laura and Dianne had interesting night watches last night! Both experienced the arrival of rain squalls from behind us which accelerated the wind from 20 knots to nearer 30 knots; Graham was called from his bunk to help reef down the sails but, of course, shortly after the squalls gave us a brief power-wash, the wind dropped back again and  the reefs had to be shaken out. It all went smoothly, however, and the benefit of having three of us aboard to do 3 hours on and 6 hours off watches means that, even with such interruptions, we're all feeling fine.

 

We get a daily update from Bob McDavitt, our weather guru, as well as downloading our own GRIB weather files via the satellite phone so, apart from the micro-climate events such as the rain squalls, we know pretty much what to expect of the coming days' weather. It looks as though tonight will become a bit windier (20 knots with gusts up to 30 knots) but then in the early hours of the morning it'll drop to maybe only 5 knots for a few hours as an 'upper level trough' passes over us. At least the period of calm should also coincide with the swells flattening down a bit; last night the waves were over 3m and pretty confused so it was a bumpy ride and those kinds of sea conditions with no wind would be horribly rolly.

 

Aside from our daily email from Bob, we have no shortage of contact with the world outside Maunie. We listen to a daily weather briefing from Gulf Harbour Radio from 07.15 to 08.00 (David and Patricia are ex-cruisers who now provide an amazing service to sailors in this are of the pacific from their radio station just north of Auckland) then we have the Southern Cross Net on the SSB radio at 08.15 where we chat to, typically, 8 or 9 other yachts who are on passage or already enjoying the warm waters of the Tropics. At lunchtime we tune into Radio New Zealand's Pacific News and World News Bulletins to keep abreast of world news. Finally, in the afternoon we have another radio sched with Peter at Northland Radio at 18.10 where we log our position, course, speed and weather conditions and get to chat to a couple of boats on passage who are also using Peter's excellent service. Oh, and  of course, we are delighted to receive emails from friends and family, too.  Thanks to Simon for his message and a belated Happy Birthday to Tom and Jasmine – we can't believe they're 17 already!

 

So, do let us have any other news you may have to give us something else to talk about on board, aside from weather and waves!

 

 

Day 3

Hello from 30:05S/173:33E at 17.45 ship's time.

 

We are glad to report good sailing and that the Maunie crew is enjoying the passage, now that we've all managed to catch up on some sleep. This morning had us worried, though, as the weather files showed a patch of light winds on our tail and, sure enough, the breeze began to falter leaving us rolling in the swell. Happily that only lasted for an hour or so and since then we've had around 20 knots of wind and big (3m) seas. So we are making good progress in the right direction and getting used to the motion of the boat.

 

It looks as though these broad-reaching conditions will be with us for the next 24 hours so we have tweaked our sails for best speed (regularly reaching up to 7 knots with the odd touch of 8) and Winnie is coping very well. Laura talks to Winnie nearly as much as Rich Fetherston did on the Atlantic crossing, but the on-going motivational talks seem to be working!

 

We are still working through the stocks of meals in the freezer so food preparation is very easy (chicken curry tonight) but we'll throw the fishing line out in the next day or so to see if we can add something interesting – we'll have to remind Laura the Marine Biologist that it's for eating, not dissecting!

 

Cheers from the Maunies!

On passage, not entirely smoothly

Hello from 32:21S, 163:57E – you know, the place where that huge Albatross circles effortlessly over the waves. It's late afternoon on the second day of our passage and we are slowly settling in to our routines on board.

 

We left Opua yesterday at 10.30 in a cold shower of rain but the sky quickly cleared, the sun shone and we hoisted the Parasailor spinnaker in the Bay of Islands and flew it until dusk. By then the wind was building to about 20 knots and Maunie was beginning to feel over-pressed so decision to drop it and hoist white sails whilst we still had sunlight was definitely a good one. The early night watches were bathed in moonlight from a half-moon which rises into the sky at about 3.00pm in these parts, so the early morning watches (we do 3-hour stints) were rewarded with wonderful starscapes in an otherwise inky-black night.

 

Today started well, with radio chats to other boats on passage and in Fiji but then fell apart into a series of frustrations. The wind swung to the SE so we began broad reaching rather than running so we decided to hoist the Irish Flag spinnaker; the hoist went well and we were making over 7 knot when the boat rolled heavily and the sail tied itself into a very neat 'wine glass' knot. We just couldn't get it untangled so stuffed it into its bag to sort in quieter conditions (on a level piece of grass in Vanuatu, most probably). After that we decided to go for the Parasailor again but, just at a crucial moment, the wind piped up from 14 knots to over 20 knots so the 20 minute process was aborted. We have decided that, since we aren't racing and we are making steady progress, we'll take things easy; we are all tired after the typically broken sleep of the first night on passage and we are sure that things will be easier tomorrow.

 

Otherwise all is well on board – oh apart from the expensive new autopilot that gave off a 'maximum compass deviation' alarm this afternoon and is now showing very inaccurate headings on its display! All our sea trials after it was fitted were done in fairly flat seas so we are wondering if the electronic compass is get affected by the 2-3 m waves out here. Very annoying, whatever the cause, so we are sending emails to Hans, the engineer who fitted it. The good news is that Winnie our windpilot self-steering gear is working very well, with out compass or electronics of any kind.

 

 

 

 

Monday's the day.

We are definitely, no really, yes, absolutely, going to leave New Zealand tomorrow morning. Honest.

Oh, well, the best laid plans..

Hey, ho, another couple of kinks in the weather systems....

This morning dawned calm and sunny, with a fog lifting off the water:

Unfortunately the little ride of high pressure that's moved here means that we'd have absolutely no wind for the next 20 hours and, with a 2m swell left over from the last few days' winds, it'd have meant a rolly ride under engine.

So we scrubbed today's departure and enjoyed the sunshine, getting Maunie properly aired after all the damp conditions, and instead planned to go tomorrow. However, the latest of the oft-changing forecasts now has a front heading our way to give 25 knot winds and rough seas! Aaargh! 

So it now looks as though Monday will be our day... Here's hoping.

Escaping to warmer climes

This was our first glimpse, yesterday evening, of any kind of clear sky in several days. The wind has been whistling through the rigging and the rain lashing us so it's a delight to be back in more gentle conditions.

The various weather models that we use to try to pick the best time to leave have been changing pretty dramatically over the past couple of days but we have decided to leave (along with lots of other boats) tomorrow morning. It won't be a perfect passage but good enough and, most importantly, safe. 

So we have a little flurry of activity ahead of us - final stowage of things so they won't fly around the boat, filling the water and fuel tanks and clearing out with NZ customs. The first day or so looks fairly gentle so that'll be good for us to get our sea legs before we get some stronger breezes on Monday.

We'll aim to update the blog each day (but don't worry if we miss a post) and will also update the chart with our position and conditions each morning - you can find it at https://www.yit.nz/yacht/maunieofardwall

It should take us about 7 days to reach Aneityum, the most southerly island of Vanuatu.

The Waiting Game

The pressure peaked at 1033hPa

The huge high pressure system over NZ brought us beautiful, settled and sunny conditions for a couple of days at anchor, whilst boats who'd decided to leave last Monday were experiencing some 'interesting' weather further north. We enjoyed the chance to give Maunie a good clean and polish (above and below the chilly waterline) and watched a magical sunset on Friday night.

Paraonui Bay anchorage

Post-polishing

Laura detail-cleaning the decks.... 

... with a toothbrush

We were back into Opua for a hugely-entertaining birthday party for Kerry (from Sel Citron) on Saturday and we're hoping that our waiting game is very nearly over. After a final NE gale tomorrow, it looks as though the end of the week should deliver a weather window for the escape to the warmth.