Boat work and photos

Since we arrived on Sunday,we've been very busy. Maunie's in the very nice Opua Marina where the staff are really welcoming and helpful and the facilities superb. We've put all our clothes through the excellent launderette and even put the cushion covers from the pilot house through the washing machines to get rid of the accumulated salt and grime of a year's blue-water sailing. Meanwhile we've hoisted and fresh-water rinsed the sails before taking them off and the local sailmaker will collect them this morning for servicing. 

There is a huge chandlery here, the best we've seen since Las Palmas at the start of the ARC, so we've been buying boat spares and equipment for the various jobs that we have on our list. The team in the shop are real sailors: one crewed on Team Phillips, the ill-fated Pete Goss catamaran that dramatically broke up on a transatlantic record attempt a few years ago and he told us that they had no warning of the disaster which was all over in a minute or so - the crew spent 9 hours in the life raft. Bob, the sales manager, is an American who sailed here a few years ago and stayed and he's offered to help us with fitting a new seal to our propeller shaft - he's also offered us the use of his car today to go to the supermarket!

So, we haven't yet really had time to venture out of the environs of the marina yet but we'll do so over the next few days. The nearest town, Paihia, is a little seaside place with just a few shops and Whangerie is the nearest city, about an hour's drive from here so we're looking at renting some bikes to explore the stunningly beautiful countryside.

In the meantime, here is a selection of photos from the past couple of weeks:

 Above: Changing light, on the last evening to NZ

 Arriving in the Bay of Islands

Stormvogel motoring into Opua

Racing crew on Stormvogel

Farewell to the Trade Winds

Safely arrived in New Zealand!

We're delighted to report our safe arrival in Opua. As dawn broke we had the first view of the Bay of Islands and it's a really lovely place – ideal cruising grounds so we look forward to exploring the many anchorages here.

 

Last evening started well, with a lovely 3kg tuna landed (Stormvogel also caught one within about a minute of ours!) so that sorted out the 'what shall we have for supper?' dilemma. The wind continued to die during the night and then swung around onto our nose so we motored steadily into what for us were near-Antarctic temperatures; at 3.00am Graham even fired up the heating system and was delighted that it worked after 12 months' disuse.

 

This morning dawned sunny and bright so we really enjoyed the sail up river to Opua, especially as we were accompanied by dolphins for a while. The clearing-in process with Customs and Biosecurity was very painless and friendly and we didn't have to surrender many food items at all. We celebrated our arrival with Heidi and Peter and a couple of very nice bottles of wine, followed by tuna curry. We're about to move Maunie to her marina berth so will be able to step on to mainland NZ for the first time. We are so delighted to be here and can't wait to explore.

 

We'll add some photos in the next day or so but, in the meantime, are looking forward to some shore-based R&R. Meanwhile, back in the UK, Di's family are celebrating Freddie's christening; we'd have loved to have been there but will raise a glass or two to the young fella this evening.

Minerva to NZ, Day 5

Complete confidence in the temporary shroud – Stormvogel flies her spinnaker

 

Our position as at 07.30 (local) Saturday (18.30 UTC, 24th):

32 degrees 55 minutes south, 175 degrees 43 minutes east

Distance to go to Opua: 155 miles

 

Yesterday was a lovely bonus: as hoped, the wind shifted a little to allow us to fly our Parasailor from 11.00am till 8.00pm so we had a lovely sunny sail. As night fell, the wind (still from the north east) was becoming more fitful so we decided to drop the spinnaker whilst there was still light to see and start motoring again.

 

At just before 5.00am we met the forecasted weather front – a big wall of cloud and some very cold rain swept over us and the wind did a 180 degree shift to come back from the south east. Graham was on watch so go very wet sorting sails out but he hoisted the mainsail and, at the moment, we are sailing with full rig on a close reach making just over 5 knots towards Opua. Ideally we'd like to be a little faster as our GPS is predicting an ETA of 3.00pm on Sunday and we want to get in to clear-in with customs and immigration before they finish for  the day, otherwise we'll be moored on an offshore quarantine pontoon, unable to go ashore, looking longingly at the lights of a harbourside bar!  Some judicious tactical motor-sailing will be required we think! The lovely sunshine and blue sky is a thing of the past as we now have leaden grey skies and grey seas – just like sailing in the English Channel!

 

Today we'll be busy getting ready for our arrival. We'll sort through our food stocks and have a container full of food items we know will be seized by the customs and health team, tidy the boat and, most important of all, Dianne's going to trim Graham's hair which has gone wild.

 

All being well, tomorrow's blog will be written from New Zealand!

 

Minerva to NZ, Day 4

Last night's sunset

 

Our position as at 09.30 (local) Friday (20.30 UTC, 24th):

 

31 degrees 11 minutes south, 176 degrees 41 minutes east

 

We've had about 30 hours of motorsailing in a very light NE breeze which occasionally picked up enough to stop the engine for a couple of hours' blissful silence. Today, though, the wind has moved round to the NE and we are sailing again at a stately 5 knots; we're hoping it might go a bit more behind us so that we can fly the Parasailor but otherwise we're very happy. The sea is calm and the sky clear blue and we have 270 miles to go; we hope to make it into Opua on Sunday afternoon.

 

Highlights of yesterday included Dianne's baking session – delicious flapjack – and Graham's macaroni cheese. We're trying to use up our flour, oats, rice and pasta as they will get confiscated by the biosecurity people when we arrive in New Zealand. Also on the banned list are honey, fresh vegetables (we wish we had some!), eggs, cheese and fresh meat (also now sadly absent from our fridge).

 

Our weather route has given us a pretty much direct course to Opua rather than the normal dog-leg west to approach NZ from due north. This has saved us a few dozen miles and kept us out of the adverse current and has been made possible by a unusually stable high pressure south of us. This is slowly moving east, which is why the wind changed direction last night and we will hit a small front, probably tomorrow, which will bring a bit of rain and possibly some SW head winds for a short time. A boat that arrived yesterday reported on the SSB net that the temperature was down to 11 degrees C in the morning but otherwise they were very pleased to have arrived.

 

The newly-discovered 'New Zealand Triangle' which seems to destroy autopilots on yachts has claimed yet another victim. Anico. a German Halberg Rassy  which left Minerva with us and is now about 30 miles behind, reports that their electrical autopilot has failed so when there is no wind to make their Windpilot work, they have to take it in turns to hand-steer when motoring. Regina and Michael sounded pretty tired on the SSB net this morning so will be delighted that this breeze will enable the to hand over steering duties to the Windpilot. We think that the boatyards in NZ have clubbed together so install some Blofeldt-inspired device to create these problems so that they have lots to do when we arrive!

 

Counting the hours.....

 

 

Minerva to NZ, Day 3 - and another milestone

From there to here in 14 months:

Dianne uses our laser-guided, satellite GPS navigation device to show the route

 

Hello from 28 degrees 15 minutes south, 178 degrees 26 minutes EAST

 

As you'll see from our position, we passed another significant milestone this morning as we crossed the 180 degree line of longitude and passed from west to east. We are now, officially, at the other side of the world from home. It was unexpected but lovely that the Royal New Zealand Air Force should recognise this historic moment with a fly-past but this afternoon a huge four-engined reconnaissance Orion flew over us at about 100 feet and called us on the VHF to check our identity and to confirm our intended arrival port and ETA. For the arrangements of the official welcome reception and brass band, presumably.

 

We lost the wind yesterday evening at about 8.00pm after a nice 4-hour spinnaker run and have been motoring, on and off, since. The forecast still looks as though we have a day of light winds ahead but may get something more on Friday. The wind comes and goes, though, and as I write we have a lovely force 4 so are sailing well on a close reach. Stormvogel are a mile behind us, making good speed with only their foresails, and confirm that the rig seems fine, though it makes a few slightly alarming noises if the boat rolls when just under engine.

 

We are really noticing huge and quick changes to our environment as we head south. In contrast to our arrival in the tropics, where we were heading mostly west with a little bit of south so changes were slow, our relatively fast exit southwards now means that we are noticing changes every day. For a start, we have about 3 hours more daylight than we had; having become accustomed to darkness falling with a bang at about 6.00pm and daylight only returning at 6.30am, it great so have long evenings and earlier light. It only got dark at about 8.30pm this evening and first light is now well before 6.00am. The other main change is the temperature, of both air and sea. The water from the watermaker (which takes in sea water) is now cool rather than tepid and it's now possible to drink a glass of water from the main tank without having to chill it in a bottle. Equally, the fridge, which cools its refrigerant in a hull-mounted heat-exchanger, is now trying to turn itself into a freezer so we have had to adjust its settings. On deck, it feels chilly enough to need long trousers and fleeces at night but it does mean that temperatures are a lot more comfortable below. Sorry, I know the first frosts have probably arrived in the UK so you probably don't want to know that we still haven't used the duvet on our bunk.

 

So, another 4 days to go, or thereabouts, so we look forward to more changes and the shock of seeing shipping as we approach NZ. The seas around here have been empty of other vessels (apart from fellow yachtsmen) so we'll have to start scanning the horizon for lights again.

 

 

 

 

Minerva to NZ, Day 2 - Maunie's turn for a problem

Stormvogel motors out of Minerva Reef

 

Position as at 17.30 GMT on 21st Oct:

 

25 degrees 26 mins south

179 degrees 43 west

 

We left Minerva reef at 11.00am yesterday (Monday) local time and set sail in perfect conditions – a gentle swell and a Force 5 NE wind. Stormvogel set their foresails and Peter reported that the mast was rock-steady and they were making good speed (over 6.5 knots) without the mainsail. We set a double-reefed main and one reef in the yankee to match their speed and had a really lovely afternoon's sailing, with the cockpit speakers blasting out some music. Supper was proper home-cooked chicken curry and rice followed by fresh pineapple.

 

I  (Graham) sat in the pilothouse as the sun set, marvelling at our fast and steady progress and that we were sailing a 'green' boat – the propulsion and steering were provided by the wind and the bright sunshine mean that Maunie's battery bank was fully charged, even with the water-maker running for three hours to make 90 litres of drinking water. Such a contrast to the first two days from Tonga so I was really relaxed and happy, looking forward to the rest of our last big voyage to Opua.

 

Things changed with a bang just before midnight. Maunie suddenly veered off course and gybed before I could get to the wheel. I got her back under control and then set about adjusting Winnie, our normally incredibly reliable Windpilot self-steering gear, to settle back on course but to no avail. It took me some moments to take in what had happened but, shining a torch over the back of the boat, I could see that Winnie's rudder was no longer there! There had been no noise of impact but it's broken off from its vertical shaft. Unbelievable, it's such a solid construction! We can't see where the break is until we stop the boat and inspect the Windpilot from the water so we are left puzzled and with a real sense of loss. Winnie is our vital, but silent, third crew member so to see her disabled is a real blow, quite upsetting.

 

At least we still have Constance, out electric autopilot, so she has stepped in admirably through the night. She just uses electrical power from the batteries (so we go from an average of 2.5 amps to an average of 6 amps current demand) which means we'll have to run the generator to augment the power produced by the solar panels.

 

Apart from this, all's well. For the first time ever we (Maunie and Stormvogel) are sharing the services of a professional weather router, Bob McDavitt from NZ. Bob was part of the NZ Americas Cup campaign a few years ago and enjoys god-like status amongst Kiwi sailors; he's semi retired now but offers a weather routing service to yachts in this part of the world. We've given him our sailing speed and he's given us a route which jinks left and right towards NZ to avoid counter currents and get the most favourable winds. It's a whole new thing for us and quite fascinating – his route tells us where we should be each 6 hours and what the wind and waves should be like. Obviously the forecast gets more sketchy toward the end of the 7 day passage so we send daily position updates to get new routing information as required. The weather is definitely tricky down here as we leave the area of fairly consistent SE – E trade winds and head south towards frontal systems can bring SW gales if you get your timing wrong. Bob's forecast suggest we'll have light winds ahead for a couple of days, so will probably have to motor-sail a bit, but hopefully we'll arrive at Opua (on Monday we hope)between two weather fronts that will cross North Island on Saturday and next Thursday. Hope he lives up to his reputation!

 

 

Day 4 - a pitstop at Minerva Reef after a traumatic night for Stormvogel

Graham. Hair by Wind & Sea, Eyes by Sleep Deprivation, Makeup by Total Exhaustion

 

This morning at first light we made our way through the pass into Minerva Reef to find, bliss, calm water and a good anchorage after a testing night. As reported yesterday, Stromvogel had managed to lash their Hydrovane unit after one of the main mounting bolts sheared but at 8.30pm we had a frightening call on the VHF – one of the shrouds (wires) supporting the mast had broken! Peter and Heidi had heard a loud 'bong' and the next minute the mast was wobbling around in a way that it certainly shouldn't.

 

Having dropped the sails, Peter called back for ideas and explained that the starboard lower shroud, which connects to the mast about one third up to keep the lower part of the pole from moving, had dropped to the deck; the 't' fitting that slots into the mast had fractured in two. He and Graham quickly discussed options to stabilise the mast, which was in real danger of collapsing, and then Peter did a brilliant job of using the two spinnaker halyards, winched tight, to get the thing back under control.

 

After that, Stormvogel motored in a horribly rolly sea (sailing yachts make terrible motorboats without the sails to steady them) whilst we stood by, under sail, hoping that the fix would hold. In the early hours of the morning we received another call, this time to say that the second bolt on the Hydrovane had sheared off and the whole thing was in imminent danger of being wrenched off the stern. Through a Herculean effort, Peter and Heidi managed to remove the final bolt and heave the whole thing onto the deck and lash it down safely.

 

So there were two very tired and relieved crews here in Minerva Reef this morning! After a couple of hours' sleep, Graham and Michael, the skipper of another German boat Anico which also arrived today, went over to Stormvogel and worked through a more permanent jury-rig to secure the mast for the 800 miles to New Zealand. Graham took with him a length of Dyneema rope (high-tech stuff that's as strong as steel and doesn't stretch under load) and climbed the mast to attach it around the lower spreaders whilst Peter and Michael set up a block and tackle at its lower end to enable us to tension it sufficiently to get the mast straight and stable. We  were very pleased with the result and it should enable Stormvogel to sail, with foresails only, on to Opua; needless to say we'll be standing by.

 

This has been another unlucky strike for Stormvogel (both the rigging and the Hydrovane were newly and professionally installed before they left, 18 months ago) but Peter and Heidi's resilience and determination in adversity continue to inspire, even though they must wonder why the dice keep rolling against them. The forecast looks good for heading south tomorrow, thankfully, so we aim to leave the sanctuary of the reef in the morning to make steady progress to NZ. Hopefully we'll all sleep better on passage!