Passage to New Zealand: Day 6 -7

03. Nov. 2015
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New Zealand, Passages
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3 Comments

Author: Pete

Location: 28°18.158S’ 173°27.441E’

Date: Nov 3 – 4, 2015

Day 6 and 7 at sea.

Yesterday brought glassy seas and not even a whisper of wind. Motoring in a sailboat feels sacrilegious to me, but an idyllic day made up for the fuel burned and the permeating rumble of the engines. With almost no clouds for depth perception the horizon seems to stretch away forever in all directions, blending with the sky at the offing and giving the impression of being in the middle of nowhere. Ah, impression-schmeshun! We really are in the middle of nowhere! Being becalmed leaves the sea a reflective surface, not a ripple to be seen. Long period rollers still lumber through, creating an endless plain of mirrored knolls. It’s a scene from Alice in Wonderland, hard to describe without making it seem like we’re hallucinating. Staring out at it for hours does indeed make one feel disconnected with reality.

Great bio-luminescence at night in the still water. Our wake is a ribbon of shimmering green behind us, like an afterburner trail out the tail pipe of a fighter jet. We’re not going quite that fast, but a guy can dream, right? Between the hulls where the bow wakes converge the glow is bright enough to eerily light up the underside of the boat. I sat out on the trampoline my entire watch in a stupor, fixated on the lights under us, the flashing squid passing by, and the millions of tiny, glittering eyes out in the water. It’s a little like aqueous northern lights or a sailor’s lava lamp.

Today we had more wind to sail and made good use of it. Looks like we’re in for some heavier weather in the next day or two. We made a few more meals to stash in the fridge, including a batch of brownies (thanks Glabs!), fueled the main tanks from our jerry cans, and took longer watches to get a real night’s sleep. I spent a little time working on Belinda, the starboard diesel engine, who is making some knocking sounds and is taking longer to fire up these days. Wendy, the port engine, is leaking a touch of sea water into the engine compartment from the raw water pump. It’s nothing the bilge pumps can’t handle. She used to be house broken but has had a little relapse lately. Don’t tell her you know; she’s embarrassed about it. Both are running just fine aside from their little quirks. Tayrona is ready for the fight, and I suppose we are too.

In this neck of the woods high and low pressure systems sweep over Australia towards New Zealand, bringing heavier weather between them. You’re almost guaranteed to hit an ugly patch on the trip unless you have a particularly speedy boat. Per the recommendation of the salty sailors who ply these waters, we plan to encounter the front at 30 degrees south where it’s weaker than if we ran into it closer to New Zealand. We’re having some trouble connecting with the radio to email I think due to the front between us and the closest relay station in Australia. We do have regular SSB contact with Gulf Harbor Radio out of New Zealand, so fear not if you don’t hear from us in the next couple of days while we wage war with Poseidon.

Passage to New Zealand: Day 4-5

02. Nov. 2015
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New Zealand, Passages
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2 Comments

Author: Pete

Location: 26°31.746S’ 173°34.450E’

Date: Nov 1 and 2, 2015

Day 4 and 5 at sea.

Variable winds yesterday sweeping southwest to southeast, ending almost directly where we’re trying to head. We keep changing tacks, fighting upwind, which is definitely not Tayrona’s strong suit. We can’t burn too much diesel now as there will be a portion of the trip that we have to motor heavily into headwinds farther south. Conditions were mild during the day, then kicked up in the evening, throwing a couple squalls which helpfully washed our decks of salt accumulation.

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Winds increased the next morning to over twenty knots almost on the nose with rollers literally big enough to hide a freighter. We’re tacking a good deal to get ourselves south, making for a slow, pounding day. Does that make us tacky? The wind died, then eventually built again, swinging farther east which allowed us to point straight at our waypoint, 500 miles north of New Zealand. Now it’s back to calm conditions and motoring, but I have a feeling that will change soon enough given the schizophrenic nature of the wind in these waters.

I’m always startled by how loud sailing can be. When the boat is really cooking along there is the constant snare percussion of light hull slaps accompanied by the bass thud of heavier waves striking the bridge deck. The complaining of the lines and creaking of the blocks and tackle under their loads are amplified when telegraphed through the fiberglass and into the cabin. The wind fills in any gaps in the cacophony with an airy hush through the rigging. Sounds like taking your vehicle through a drive-thru carwash with the wipers going full tilt and a couple of burly guys throwing sandbags at your quarter panels. Scree-chah-splish-BANG. Splish-sploosh-BANG-thump. Sometimes I pretend that I’m the conductor and it’s my own orchestra. It doesn’t seem to break Miranda’s sudoku concentration, but I suppose if the heaving boat doesn’t, nothing will.

Things are well aboard. Mir made home made English muffins for breakfast and I made fifteen-bean soup for dinner. That’ll put the wind in your sails!

Passage to New Zealand: Day 3

31. Oct. 2015
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New Zealand, Passages
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4 Comments

Author: Pete

Location: 21°35.573S’ 175°13.900E’

Date: 10.31.15

Day 3 at sea.

Happy Halloween! We’re celebrating All Hallow’s Eve aboard with a big bag of candy corn smuggled to us by Miranda’s buddy Teri. Surprisingly, we haven’t had many Trick-or-Treaters out tonight. Miranda doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I have a feeling that I’m going to be eating the whole bag myself. Jacked up blood sugar is a really great way to break up the monotony of cruising. TIME TO GO RIDE BIKES! TIME TO SWAB THE DECKS! WHO WANTS TO GO UP THE MAST?! Haven’t figured out a good costume yet. Possibly a sailor? A pirate? Or maybe a mermaid? Not much else in the costume department ’round these parts. I wanted to go as a ghost this year but Miranda said we need the sails intact. She doesn’t feel the need for a costume, saying, “I pretty much resemble a hobo right about now.” We’ll have to find her a stick and a handkerchief.

You’d think the open ocean would be a spooky place on Halloween, what with the web-footed sea monsters, shipwrecked souls lost to the deep, and devious merfolk all floating about. In actuality, it’s another beautiful moonlit night. The only scary thing out here is our hygiene and diet. We’re pushing canned meat since it will be confiscated in New Zealand. BLTs have been on the lunch menu with crispy Spam instead of bacon! We still have ghoul-green lettuce and blood-red tomatoes to go on the sandwiches. They’re horrifyingly good! No pumpkins floating about, and we’re out of coconuts, so we made a dozen zombie eggs for fun! It’s tough to draw on a round object on a bucking boat.