Gone With The Wind ... on safari

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Time to Say Goodbye

29th June 2022

After the best part of three years the day finally came when it was time to bid farewell to Whangarei, the place we’d come to love and call home for such a long time. It was a very emotional time for us leaving behind the wonderful Kiwi friendships we’d made.

It was a drizzly Wednesday afternoon when we let go our dock lines to the sounds of hooters and hollers of goodbyes from the Town Basin Marina staff and friends on our dock. Slowly we made our way downstream towards the Hatea River opening bridge and the bridge operator raised the span for GWTW as she glided through for the final time.

Fourteen kilometers further downstream we pulled into Marsden Cove Marina where NZ Customs Officers were based for departing vessels only. Our initial plan was to complete our departure forms and check out of the country the following morning. The weather gods though had other ideas. So we stayed for another day and had a lovely farewell dinner with our fellow cruisers most of whom were heading to Fiji where as we would be heading to : Plan A Bundaberg in Queensland Australia direct, or Plan B New Caledonia Direct or Plan C New Caledonia via The Minerva Reefs, 800 miles NE of NZ. The later was our final decision.

Goodbye New Zealand

At 2pm on July 1st after topping up our fuel tanks with 437 litres of duty free diesel we dropped and lines, headed out onto the big blue highway and bid New Zealand goodbye.

With an ok weather forecast we set off with a sail configuration of full Jib and a double reefed Mainsail into a bitterly cold SW wind and a night as black as the inside of a cow. Our second day and night at sea were again bitterly cold and we were rugged up to the hilt. The sea state was starting to change and now there was a moderate chop as the wind began to back around to the SSE.

Sunrise day two

By day three the wind was coming at us from the ENE and our fleeting moment of taking out the second reef yesterday faded from our memory. Back we went to two reefs yet again and now only one quarter of a jib was pulling us along. The sea began raring it’s ugly head as we raced forward at boat speeds of 15kts. The motion of GWTW was now very uncomfortable to the point where we decided to make camp up in the saloon rather than take our off watch time in our comfy bed in the port hull. It seemed like a good idea but even so neither of us got any sleep as the waves battered GWTW’s hulls and she groaned and creaked in response.

Sleeping in comfort on the lounge

Day four was no better with the wind now picking up to sustained 25 kts and gusts even higher at 33kts. We didn’t sign up for mother nature to hurl this at us, we want to get off this roundabout!

Trying to stop the sea coming in through the port

As a result of the rough weather and big waves the port in our shower took a beating and came unlocked.

The ingress of the Pacific Ocean was coming in fast. Liam tried to shut the port but to no avail, so we duct taped it shut, a temporary fix at best.

A few hours later the tape completely failed and the port opening was swinging open with every wave.

Plan B, Liam managed to get one of the latches shut and we taped up a large Vacuum seal storage bag to the shower stall ceiling and onto the glass door of our shower and that seemed to do the trick. No more salt water flying over the shower door and landing on the bathroom floor.

During the changeover from day four to day five at zero dark hundred Genny our generator called it quits. She apparently had had enough of the rough ride too and her partner in crime, the starboard engine alternator did likewise.The sole responsibility of charging our batteries and keeping all our systems running now lay in the hands of our port side engine and alternator

Day five dawned with a beautiful red sunrise, even though the saying goes “Red sky in the morning, sailors warning” we didn’t care. With only 29 miles to run to South Minerva reef we could almost see the finish line. As we’d been motor sailing on the port engine for hours and hours our watermaker had been busy churning out gallons of fresh water all the previous night so that we could do washing and give our girl a well earned bath once we had the anchor down.