On the Move at Last - Heading for Opua
At high noon 01 June we finally slip the lines and depart Auckland to head north to our departure port, Opua in the Bay of Islands. Couriers following in our wake, with last minute spare parts orders. Sailed in perfect westerly winds up to Leigh then motorsail into head winds up to Whangarei Heads copping a few green ones over the bow and notice water ingress at the main forward deck hatch. This is fortuitous in the sense we would rather discover this now than off-shore. After an overnight stop at Tutukaka we sail next day up to the Bay of Islands and take a berth at the Opua Marina. First job is to get a shipwright to make teak waterbreaks for our three foredeck hatches to stop the aforementoned water ingress.
Opua is a neat little marine precinct much loved by the sailing fraternity with a great mix of services including rigger, sailmaker, shipwright, paintshop, electrical and chandlery. Surprise...we used all of them as we sorted out the remaining outstanding items on the worklist. You would think we were sailing away from humanity and all services. Had some great evenings at the local Opua Cruising Club meeting up with other cruisers who were either about to depart for points in the Pacific, were still prepping and had missed the season or yet others who had lost their way and based on their individual stories not likely to be going anywhere any time soon. We picked up on some great quality information from these contacts and felt enthused that for the first time we were getting into the networking the cruiser community is renowned for.
Tuesday 05 June
King Alfred comes to Farewell us
B's father Alf drives all the way up from Wellington to see us off, stayed 5 days and returned we regret, before we departed; dismayed the never ending list of 'to do's' was still increasing rather than decreasing. He secretly harboured the thought we were ever going to make it happen.
But B & P are unanimous you go when you are ready and not before
14 Jun 2007
Departure Day !!!
A tad under 4 months since we moved aboard we pointed Musketelle's bow for the open sea departing Opua Customs Wharf at 1748 hrs in fading dusk light and appropriately in light misty rain. Destination 'the friendly isles' Nukualofa, Tonga. It was a surreal feeling....we are off sailing around the world for 43,800 hours....or 1825 days or 5 years....just a blink in time. We pinched ourselves and then made phone calls to family before the cellphone coverage dropped out. The emotions were a bit high as the winds soon increased and increased as we cleared Cape Brett with visiblity dropping in the winter rain squalls. They were not exactly the dream departure conditions we had visualised over the years of preparation but it was finally a reality, just the two of us and our yacht. If the weather had been kinder P reflects he would have toasted the departure with a wee dram for the throat and one over the bow. Will do that when we complete the circumnavigation !!!. And we have a special bottle aboard for the job.
17 Jun 2007
North of Raoul Island 23.08s 179.35e
Good morning from SY Musketelle about 25 miles from crossing the International Dateline at longitude 180.00 degress to go back a day just north of Raoul Island in the Kermadec Group. NZ's most northerly islands inhabited by Conservation Dept weed pickers!!! P was last on Raoul in 1999 delivering said weeders for DOC on the big blue boat. Now into our 4th night at sea we have experienced a splattering of the best and worst including 2 days of huge seas. We have both been affected with nausea but B has really been flattened with seasickness as well. We are both really tired but slowly getting into a system of watches with the night hours obviously the hardest. We stowed some magic quality kiwi cuisine for the leg but its too hard to prep in a bouncing galley so we are rustling through the easy prep fodder in preference.
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| Dawn coming at Sea on a typical ocean swell Under Main and Staysail with Genoa furled |
This morning we were in SW winds with following seas making it very comfortable but the weather prognosis is for northerly head winds all the way to Tonga from Wednesday. These winds will be coming off the top of an approaching Low over the Tasman about to envelop Godzone. We are sourcing weather forecasts from a variety of providers via compessed data graphics by email using our Iridium satphone and via SSB radio communications with an amatuer marine radio station Russell Radio in the Bay of Islands at 0700 and 1900 daily. This station takes data from all yachts that are members and the benefit is we get to hear what other conditions yachts in our area are experiencing too. At the moment we have around 6 vessels in our general vacinity (200/300 mile range) all going in different directions (New Caledonia, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga). If we are starting to show signs of introspection in these blogs put it down to going troppo or similar....we will come out of it when we make landfall.
At Sea 25.35s 178.39e
In the middle of a big round circle of water (funny how the horizon is round when you are in the middle of it) with only the slightest of breeze directly from the north/north east ie on the nose. So we are motoring. B feeling 100% now, over seasickness finally (or at the moment).
P is currently asleep after a bit of an odd night last night. Firstly our genoa refused to furl so we had to do circles to drop it and stuff it into the forepeak with a view to fixing the problem in the morning. Then the battery charger went beserk with an error message and flashing lights where there shouldn't be. We were so concerned we would be battery-less that we hand steered most of the night. Not happy and very tired!!. P managed to identify the cause of the charger problem this morning so we are back and running in that regard. The genoa furling line was also "sorted" and the genoa rehoisted only to refuse to furl again this afternoon when the wind dropped. Finally got if furled through brute strength. Clearly something is wrapped at the top - a "miss" by the trusty riggers at Half Moon Bay. Will fix when we get to Tonga and will use the staysail instead (anyway no wind so doesn't matter). Now the refrigeration is on the blink and its only 2 months young. Not very happy as the freezer is stocked full of expensive fine cuts.
Forgot to mention the chap that runs Russell Radio is Des Renner ex Wellington yachting circles. Does a really great job every single day between 0600 and 2100hrs and he's in his 80's. Another of those unsung heroes that you come across doing largely unpaid work that they love.
Oh well signing off after another day at the floating office. B
25 June 2007
Tongatapu in Sight
Mid morning we sight Tongatapu the main island of Tonga. We aim for the capital Nukualofa arriving in the towns, Faua Harbour at 1545hrs. All well.
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| Q Flag up for arrival Tonga |
