Position: 34 degrees, 19 minutes south; 176 degrees, 12 degrees east

We’re solidly in day two. We did 112 miles yesterday using only the jib. We’re taking it easy getting into the rhythm and have not even set the mainsail yet. No need since the wind is cooperating although we could have done an extra 20 miles or so if we had added the main, but with a lot more boat handling effort. It’s been blowing between 12 and 20 and we’ve been averaging 5 knots more or less. I’m guessing tomorrow will be mainsail set day. The wind is already clocking and we’ve gone from dead downwind to a reach (with the wind coming across the port side). Tomorrow looks to clock some more and lighten a bit, so we’ll need the main to keep course and speed. But in the meantime it’s been a pleasure to not do anything. We set the wind vane and jib when we left the coast and have pretty much not touched anything.

One distraction is the radio nets. They can be tedious but also fun. We’ve caught up with a few friends and yesterday did an interesting relay. Our friends on Astarte who went north to the Marshalls for the cyclone season are coming back south and heading for Vanuatu. On yesterday’s net they were 60 miles out from their destination and about 1200 miles or more from our location. The net control was in Hawaii. He couldn’t hear them but we could so we had a chance to chat with Astarte and do the relay between them at 1400 miles and Hawaii which is 3600 miles away. Shortwave radio is interesting stuff.

It’s been chilly – we’re wearing all our clothes, hats and gloves, but today was a nice sunny day. We’re hoping for stars tonight since the moon is about gone and without the stars there’s absolutely nothing to see.

Had a brief dolphin escort today around 1530 and an albatross sighting earlier in the day but other than that it’s been pretty basic. Rolling like crazy, bumps bruises, reading books, eating the last of the leftover first night stew, searching for those annoying noises that can keep you awake, but all in all it is nice to be back on a voyage. There’s something the just feels good about being out here just doing this. Maybe I’ll figure it out in the days to come and be able to tell you.

Position: 35 degrees, 26 minutes south; 175 degrees, 01 minutes east

We left Marsden Point at 1230 today just behind a little front that brought rain and a nice southerly wind to push us northbound on our 1200 mile journey back to Fiji.

We hate to leave New Zealand as it’s such a lovely place where we’ve made many new friends, but it’s easier knowing we’ll be back in November. In the mea time there’s so much to look forward to for the next five or so months back in the tropics.

As always, leaving the coast means dodging big ships and true to form we have just been passed by two very large cargo ships. One going north and one south. The southbound one was aiming right at us and I called them on the VHF and got an “English-challenged” mate. I was having a tough time communicating that we were at their 12 o’clock and did they see us, so finally turned on the engine – “just in case” and turned on our masthead strobe-light to aid in identification. I don’t think they saw us on radar, but they did see the strobe and passed a mile behind us which at sea when you’re talking about a large container ship, is very close.

It also means we’re back to living on a platform that’s rolling 30 degrees to each side over about three seconds. Hang on is all I can say. Some of them (the rolls) are easy and you can anticipate them, but others sneak up on you and if you’re not braced – look out!

Anyway, we’re doing about 5-6 knots with just the jib up in about 18 knots of wind and maybe five foot seas. It’s supposed to lighten tomorrow and we’ll probably put up the main but it’s nice to start a trip like this by easing back in and not having the main to worry about as the wind goes up and down is nice.

So that’s it for now, stay tuned for the next ten or so days and remember; your comments on the blog are our evening entertainment ; -) so keep ’em coming.

And dolphins and albatross and a leaky watermaker.

That’s our shakedown day from Urquarts Bay to Barrier Island. About 40 miles. We left at 0715 and arrived about 1400. The course goes south of “Hens and Chickens” Island group which is where we saw the penguins and the first pod of dolphins. Well, actually Ann heard penguins at “0-dark-thirty” as we were leaving and looked around to see some blue penguins cavorting in the channel.

Leaving Breem Head for Barrier Island at sunrise.

We made good time motor-sailing with jib and stays’l. Not much wind, but we made about 6.5 knots over ground against the current.

The albatross was amazing. The biggest I’ve ever seen. It was closer to a small airplane than a bird. I’m thinking it was a Great Albatross but we won’t know until we’re back since there’s no internets here to consult with Dr. Google. In any case, the wingspan was over six feet!

Additionally we were greeted by a flotilla of penguins, larger than little blues, as we approached Barrier Island. All just bobbing along, disappearing underwater every once in a while. Very entertaining.

So…we got here and were escorted into the bay by a pod of dolphins who cavorted around Charisma for a while before returning to their fishing expedition. They must have been successful if judged by the number of gannets circling and plunging ahead of us. It was magical sailing through thousands of gannets swirling overhead.

A dolphin escort. We saw more dolphins on this day trip than we've seen in the last year!

A major Gannet greeting to the island.

Landfall at Great Barrier Island.

We then proceeded to anchor about 30 yards off some rocks to do a little red snapper fishing. It was successful and sorta not. We hooked a couple of dinkers and then I hooked a monster. I think it might have grabbed the hook and ducked into a hole in the rocks ’cause it wasn’t budging. I pinged the line with my finger and it sounded like the high string on my ukulele. Unfortunately, I got impatient and pulled too hard and “bing” went the line. Broken. No snapper for dinner.

Oh well, we had a lovely sautéed chicken and mushroom dinner. Tough life. Another benefit of cruising…Ann makes English Muffins! Yay! I can smell them right now.

A lovely moonrise from our snug little anchorage in Nagle Bay.

So that’s today. Hope we can get this posted. We’ll add some pictures in a week or so when we’re back in Marsden (we hope to head back on Friday). That’s where we’re going to jump to Fiji from – hopefully on the next window.

Oh yeah, the watermaker. It’s the last thing we needed to test and couldn’t until we were in clear water. Once out, I turned it on. Oops – leaky teaky! I tightened a couple hose clamps but there is still one plastic plumbing fitting that is dripping. I took it apart and put on new pipe tape, but it’s still leaking – although not as much. I’m hoping it swells – we haven’t used it in six months – If it keeps dripping, I’ll try and find a new fitting. I think I have one, but it’s buried at the bottom of all our stuff. That’s always the case, the broken thing is always at the bottom.

In the meantime we’re looking forward to four days of fishing and hiking before heading back. It’s nice to be cruising again!!

Position: 34 degrees, 30 minutes south; 174 degrees, 24 minutes east 107 miles yesterday

The distance traveled above has no context to the amazing varied speeds we have been doing the last two days. From 11.7 knots to 3 knots, we’ve run the gamut over the last two days.

It’s still a bit rough, so I’ll try and keep this short as it’s hard to type, but here’s the gist: For the last 40 hours (prior to 1400 this afternoon) it’s been blowing 30-35 knots with 9-12 foot seas, despite what the gribs show. Gusts in the squalls have been into the 40’s. It’s been a bit of a tough couple days. I have slept in my foul weather gear for two days straight now. Haven’t even taken off my boots! Ann has been helping out on deck and has now joined the club of sailors who have slipped and almost slid off the deck at sea (she had her harness and tether). Everyone does it one time or another and you should have seen her eyes go wide 😉 Seriously though, she has become one hell of a sailor (beyond the already obvious fantastic and spectacular partner she is). Certainly she is not having the fun I’m having, but she’s holding her own despite these challenging conditions.

So…about the modest distance-our boat speed has varied from 11.7 knots last night (I hit it four times) while I was hand steering through a squall to 3 knots while we had the storm sails up. A couple days ago, we were set up pretty well and going fast, but once we hit this low pressure zone it became very squally and as I noted, the gusts were into the 40’s. I can set Charisma up to sail with 35 knots of wind, or 20, or 40, but not when the wind is going through all three of the above in a short period for two straight days. Basically after a particularly vicious squall came through yesterday, I took the main down in the middle of it. Even though we had the third reef in we were on the edge of going out of control (we were sailing downwind). We went pretty nicely with just the jib up, but then last night the high winds had me hand steering as the wind vane was beyond its capacity as we were careening down the steep waves in the high wind and the gusts in the squall were 30 degrees off the standard wind direction. After hitting 11 plus knots four times, I decided to throw in the towel and furl the jib and go bare poles. Even with no sails up at all, we were doing 6 knots. Just not in the right direction. That’s when we decided to just put up the storm sails and accept that we were going to go slow, but more or less in the right direction. So…with the trysail and storm jib, we’ve been clunking along at 3 knots-still in the high winds but more under control and heading toward Opua instead of Antarctica.

Anyway, that’s a little view of the last two days. Now (as of 1800 Thursday NZ time) we are back to a reasonable 20-25 knots and 1.5 meter seas. We’re sailing 60 degrees to the wind with our regular sails-main double reefed and yankee jib, at 6.5 knots and have 37 miles into Opua. We expect to arrive at the Customs dock at about 0500 (bleah).

We are chilling the Champagne (thanks Chris and Kelly-this is our wedding Champagne you sent us that we’ve been saving for this day) and looking forward to seeing Opua again as well as all our good friends-some of whom are already in and many of whom will come in in the next week (and especially Orcinius John, who we haven’t seen in six month and is taking time out from re-commissioning Orcinius to come up from Whangarei to see us). Yay, yay and yay!

Position: 33 degrees, 23 minutes south; 173 degrees, 40 minutes east

We only did 99 miles the previous 24 hours because of a very slow night/early morning, but the wind has really come in. We took the sails completely down several times today. This evening with just the yankee jib up, I hit 11 knots four times before we finally furled the jib out of concern for blowing it out.

We’re running “bare poles” right now in over 10 foot occasionally breaking waves and doing 3-5 knots.

I’ll write more later as it’s too rough right now, but suffice to say this is some kind of ride.

Welcome back to New Zealand!

Position: 31 degrees, 24 minutes south; 172 degrees, 57 minutes east 130 mile day

Fortunately Ann sensed that we were about to get slammed by a squall and woke me out of a light sleep. I was off watch, but it was getting bumpier and the wind was starting to shriek, so more like a doze than a sleep.

So, I got up and we agreed we should shorten sail. We already had a double reefed main and were carrying the stays’l and jib, so I decided we would go to the triple reef. But, when I tried to do it, the sail got blown forward into the shrouds and wouldn’t come out. OK, we’ll drop the main-we’d been hitting 10 knots (which territory Charisma’s designers never dreamed Tayanas would go) so probably not a bad idea to slow down. Once down, it still kept getting windier, Wilson was working up a sweat steering and we were still going 7-9 knots. OK, down with the stays’l. Once on deck and tied down, now with just a little Yankee jib I checked course and speed. Still 6-8 knots, but at least Wilson had things under control. About this time the wind really started to shriek and the waves got very steep with some of the tops breaking and the white water being blown off. Mr Beaufort calls this condition a “Near Gale” characterized by 27-33 knot winds. Whatever it’s called, we called it windy. Oh and did I say it rained. Sheets and sheets came down. And the day had started so beautifully.

Here’s what I was planning to write today before getting blown away (it’s still windy, but more tolerable-we have a triple reef and the Yankee jib and are close reaching at around 5 knots in the residual bumpy conditions).

Starry night all around. The most prominent thing is that we’re heading directly toward the Southern Cross as we’re on course to New Zealand. I can imagine ancient civilizations setting forth with nothing but the knowledge to follow the Southern Cross until you get there. I think it would work.

Lots of shooting stars in all directions. Some very large with long, long tails glowing across the sky.

It’s nice to finally be “off” the wind. We have hit the slot that we were looking for and have a nice following breeze moving us through the night at 7 knots. Sweet!

An exuberant sunrise! Funny word to describe it, but that’s what it was. As I was waiting to see the sun, it just literally leapt out over some low clouds on the far horizon reaching up to grasp the day with its warm orange rays, in one brief moment snatching away the cold, gunmetal blue of the early morning dawn. This view in front is quite a contrast to the dark clouds forming behind us to the west. I’m guessing this is the frontal system of the low that’s lurking just to the south of us. (Boy, was I right!)

So there’s our day. At this point we’re about 240 miles from Opua, so are expecting to get in sometime Thursday the 7th-probably early evening.

Position: 29 degrees, 26 minutes south; 171 degrees, 40 minutes east

We only did 98 miles in the last 24 hours, but expect to speed up the next few days. Our current target arrival is probably sometime Wednesday evening, but we’ll update this in the next day or so as we get closer.

It’s getting cold now. We had a beautiful starry night last night. Light wind. Quiet. But cold.

Ann and I both doubled up on the fleece, wool caps and a wool blanket while on watch. Tomorrow the thermal underwear is coming out and sea boots with wool socks!

Perversely, light wind means a lot of extra work to keep the boat going. Wilson does an exemplary job steering down to about six knots of wind, but below that he can’t keep going. Also, changes in wind strength at the lower end of the spectrum-around 5-8 knots-require lots of sail trim adjustment whereas at higher wind strengths there is more tolerance. If the wind drops a couple knots and the sails are not eased a little, Charisma just “parks” herself. Kind of a tantrum. Sooo from my watch starting at 0300 all the way through this afternoon I had to hand steer and constantly adjust stuff. Ann has pitched in by doing all the other stuff including (YAY) cooking dinner tonight.

Fortunately around 1400 the easterly that we’ve been expecting filled in. This has allowed us to turn the corner toward New Zealand as well as ease sails a bit. We’re now reaching with the wind on our port beam instead of close hauled with the wind 45 degrees forward of the beam. The latter leaves no options, but now we can aim where we want to go.

We’re looking forward to a fine night of stars, and some sleep!

By Ann Position: 28 degrees, 03 minutes south; 171 degrees, 53 minutes east 130 mile day

I know that no one has been able to create a time capsule that works outside of Hollywood because if they had I would have invested in one. It would sure make long passages easier.

Bob enjoys the long passages. He gets to work his magic coaxing Charisma to sail at her optimal performance. It is pure magic. I love watching Bob come on watch, tweak this sail, play with the monitor, adjust a traveler, tweak another sail by just an inch (I am not kidding) and suddenly we are going a knot or two faster. (As I am writing this he stuck his head out of the companion way and tweaked a traveler on his way back to bed – and we are going a half knot faster.) As the guy announcing the regatta rally race in Va’vau last year kept saying, “And this next boat, Charisma is not only beautiful but boy is she well sailed!” Bob and Charisma have a zen relationship that is unmatched. Now that I am his wife I am no longer threatened! It is a thing of beauty.

But for me the passages are about marking progress. We start out knowing that this trip to New Zealand from Fiji is about 1100 nautical miles. That’s if we are able to stay on the rhumb line, which rarely is the case. In my head I start breaking the 1100 miles into days. We can easily do 120 miles a day. Okay, so we have ten days to get there and I can start counting it off on my fingers. It’s like the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Once I could count the weeks on my fingers I knew the end was in sight and I would make it.

I came up with a great idea to count hours this trip. Because 240 hours is less than 1100 miles, right? It is all a head game. But I found that the hours take a long time to pass. So I go into the Charisma Time Capsule. You thought I was unable to find one, right? It is not as fancy as the Hollywood type. In fact it is the quarterberth on Charisma. We take turns off watch sleeping here. So when I am off watch (especially as I come off the 9pm to 3am watch) I can put in my ear plugs and snuggle down into my pillow and switch on the time traveler button. When I wake up we will be about 30 miles closer to New Zealand! It is magical! And the miles go much faster when the time traveler is on.

Right now we are about 400 miles from New Zealand. A few more trips in my time capsule and we should be making landfall! I love time travel, I just wish it went faster! But then Bob wouldn’t get his zen time with Charisma. It’s all a compromise.

By the way, it has gotten colder as we have traveled south. Today was probably the last day in shorts and t-shirts. The night watches now include fleece jackets and sea boots. New Zealand calls.

From Bob: Last night was a bit squally. Clouds, rain and wind going from mid-teens to low twenties under the squall clouds. It’s never fun just huddled under the dodger waiting for the squall that blows 40. You never know which one, you just wait and deal.

Today, however, made up for it. Blue sky, blue water, you know the drill by now. It was interesting this morning literally sailing out of a cloud bank into the blue sky. I checked the barometer and sure enough, we have sailed into the high (1020). The wind hasn’t shifted yet, but it seems to be “thinking about it”. It’s trying to back into the east and give us a break. We get periods where we’re lifted 30 degrees to 150 degrees, but then it goes back to the old faithful; 180. The bearing from here to our waypoint where we hope to catch the downwind part of this trip is 163 degrees right now and 115 miles. Somewhere (in theory) between “here” and “there” the wind will lift and we’ll be able to just head straight for the waypoint. But for now, the wind holds us to our course due south. Boring.

But, boring is good in this part of the world where the ocean can become treacherous in a moment’s notice. We’ve had our share of excitement the last two times down and up, so boring is OK with me.

Tomorrow is the crux day. I hope to be able to report that we’ve moved onto the downwind part of the ride toward Opua. Cross fingers and check back then!

Position: 26 degrees, 11 minutes south; 172 degrees, 48 minutes east 108 miles in last 24 hours

Our daily distance doesn’t show it (we measure it from 3PM to 3PM), but today was a smoking fast day. Starting around sunrise, we unfurled the jib, eased off about 15 degrees and Charisma took off like a shot. We’ve been doing 8-9 knots all day long.

That’s the good news. The not as good news? We have been making somewhat more west than I’d like to see. The wind is from the SSE so we have no choice, but it puts us fairly far out west when we come to the point where we need to turn in to New Zealand. Hopefully, we hit the weather window right and get to our turn point at the same time as a low comes over the North Island on Tuesday. We’re crossing fingers and toes because if we hit this right, we’ll have a north wind driving us downwind the last 300 miles into Opua.

So cross fingers with us and watch. The next two days will tell the story. There’s a “slot” that we hope to hit that is at about 30 degrees south latitude and it goes from about 169 to 173 degrees east longitude (240 miles wide). There’s a high that’s passing over just below this spot and the top of a low filling in behind it. If we hit this spot to the northwest of New Zealand, we then turn about 60 degrees to port and start a downwind slide with pretty good winds in the 20 knot range, but coming from behind us so not near as difficult as the headwinds we’ve been encountering all the way thus far.

Other than that the last 24 hours has included the above mentioned smoking ride as well as a good six hours where we just sat with very little wind. There was just enough, maybe 3-4 knots to maintain steerage and 1-3 knots boatspeed. We probably only covered 6 miles in that 6 hours. We also dodged a bullet. Last night at about sunset we saw a squall line up ahead. The radar confirmed there were squalls (i.e. heavy rain) inside the line and it was about 12 miles away. Miraculously, we were positioned just west enough that we actually sailed around the west end of the line of squalls. Once past, we had glorious stars most of the night. Sometimes we get lucky

Stay tuned for the race to the finish.

Position:24 degrees, 44 minutes south; 174 degrees, 42 minutes east. 117 miles in the last 24 hours.

After three days of strong, blustery winds and bumpy seas yesterday lightened up and last night/early morning the wind came down significantly. That means everything about sails, trim and steering had to be adjusted.

First, the double reef on the main came out. One reef at 0300 and the second at 0400. Once that’s done, all three sails have to be re-trimmed. Once re-trimmed for light air there’s less force so you have to adjust Wilson the wind vane for less weather helm. Once this is done you go back to the sails and fine tune them for balance. Then you sit and watch for 5 minutes or so and see how the boat’s responding with all the changes. Trim a bit more and watch some more, then likely a final fine trim and off she goes happy to still be making five knots or so with the lower wind strength. Also the wind has gone aft of the beam a bit so we’re sailing flatter and the seas have come down by half. And the stars are out.

All in all, a pretty nice ride.

At 0430 while doing the final retrimming session, I went below to make some tea. Two minutes and the flame went out. Propane’s out. Good thing we filled the other one in Fiji. Turns out two 20 pound tanks have lasted us five months. So, I headed out to the cockpit tank locker with a wrench to change the tanks. Thank goodness it waited until today to run out. This would have been an ugly job yesterday with the wind and waves.

At this point we’re coming into the middle part of the voyage. This is the part where we’re going to see a lot of wind changes as the weather systems come across the Tasman Sea. Already today the wind shifted around to the north (it’s been south trending to east since leaving Fiji) and gone really light at about 7 knots. I jibed mid-day and we’re now on starboard tack and heading about 210 True making 2.5 to 3 knots. The weather forecast has the wind shifting into the south and increasing to 10-20 knots in the next 24 hours so we’ll again have a pretty major change. Our choices are going to get interesting as we try and position ourselves for the final push into New Zealand. Too far to the west and we waste time going too far out of our way. Too far east and we get headwinds the final days. It all depends what the final weather system looks like as we approach.