Friday 16th September
Land Ahoy The sun rose lighting up The Three Kings, a set of Islands off the tip of New Zealand. We have made it! After a couple of more hours Tony shouted out “”land ahoy” as Cape Reinga came into view.
During the day we have made contact with Maritime NZ a couple of times to update our progress down the coast. A pod of dolphins came to greet us and guide the way.
We should be in Opua by daybreak and check in with Customs
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Thursday 15th September
During the night on Andrew’s shift there was a loud bang. The D shackle on the boom traveller pulley had given way. Andrew woke the others and lit up the deck. Tony and Andrew donned life jackets and headed out. Sue steered Imagine close to the wind to ease some pressure off the main while Tony held the boom relatively steady. Andrew grabbed a rope and tied the boom down.
Amazingly sitting on the deck next to the traveller was the D shackle and pin. It was a simple task of refitting the shackle and everything was back to normal. Five minutes later Andrew was back on the helm, back on course and the others back in bed.
Morning brought a nice 15kt breeze off the beam so we put up the head sail and we were off reaching a speed of 7kts. But as usual it didn’t last. A few hours later we were back to motor sailing with the staysail. The swell has been a constant 3 to 4m all day.
Evening has arrived bringing with it yet more squalls.
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Wednesday 14th September
Today was much of the same. The winds were good for a while then they started pushing us too far off course. We have been monitoring a storm coming up about four days behind us. We are reluctant to start tacking costing us a couple of days, so we have been motoring most of the day.
Andrew took the time to clean the dinghy bottom for the biosecurity check when we get to NZ.
For the past three hours we have had a squall following our track. It’s sitting about 5 miles behind us. Hopefully we can keep ahead of it and it disperses.
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Tuesday 13th September
We had a pleasant night with the full moon guiding the way. Today was light winds slowly building. The swell also built up. But we are still heading in the right direction. Tony got plenty of exercise out on deck reefing and unreefing the sails and putting on the preventer only to take it in three minutes later.
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Monday 12th September
Well, we have passed the half way point. During the night the swell slowly increased but the wind didn’t. We had another full moon to light up the way. By morning we were being pushed around by three to four metre waves.
We swung the main out as far as it would go and tied down the preventer, as the wind was almost behind us. Surfing down the waves stopped us using other sails as they would collapse with each wave.
Andrew on the helm had just remarked that he was going to have a shower when he finished his shift, when a breaking wave 4m high hit the side of Imagine. It was more like a bath than a shower as the water flooded into the cockpit. It only took seconds for the water to drain away and everything back to normal. Luckily Andrew was as normal wearing his customised wet weather gear, so a quick towel off and he was dry and no wet clothes.
By the afternoon we were back to motoring to keep us on the right track.
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Sunday 11th September
Last night’s squall flanked us for several hours as we headed south east to NZ, but the rest of the night was calm and uneventful. Morning brought another beautiful day. We sailed nicely until just before lunch, when the wind decided to point us south. We have motored ever since. We did try again in the afternoon but to get the wind off the back quarter the 2m waves were hitting us side on. This made the sails collapse going over every wave. We figure motoring in the right direction is better than adding a few days by sailing in the wrong direction.
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What a night. The squalls kept coming. One big one was heading our way and took the winds from 15 to 30kts in minutes and the squall was still 10 miles away. So Andrew went out on deck and lowered the already reefed mainsail. Tony was at the helm keeping Imagine pointed into the wind. Then a big wave and gust of wind and Tony couldn’t see Andrew any more. For Andrew everything had turned white. One of the lazyjacks had broken releasing the mainsail. It poured onto the deck knocking Andrew off his feet and burying him under the sail. Realising Tony could no longer see him, Andrew crawled from under the sail and into the light and gave Tony the thumbs up. By the time Andrew had lashed the sail down the squall was over.
Later on in the night the autopilot stopped working. It was too dark and rough seas to try and fix it before daylight. The wind died so we had to motor some more.
Daylight brought another beautiful day. The sea had calmed the wind was still low and we were heading in the right direction. With everyone being so tired we forgot to change over the fuel tanks, the motor ran out of fuel. Andrew changed over the fuel tanks and sliced his thumb. Tony was quick to step in as medic and clean and bandage the wound.
As the sea had calmed down Sue took the helm and surfed Imagine with the waves while Tony and Andrew repaired the lazyjacks, Andrew climbed the mast and reattached the lazyjack to the spreader. They then hoisted the main.
Back on course the next thing was to strip the autopilot and try to fix it. The gear engage mechanism was badly worn. We got it going again but it only lasted a couple of hours. So now it’s back to the old days and hand steer the rest of the way to NZ. At least we are quarter of the way.
Sorry this blog is late we have just spent an hour and a half trying to outrun three huge squalls. They were definitely after us, complete with light show and sound effects. They all joined forces and followed whichever way we went, so we ended up running back through the middle of the lightest one to get it over with quicker.
Yes we are all safe and getting back on track.
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Friday 9th September
We spent most of the night trying to dodge squalls. As we got past one another would appear. Tony discovered how disorienting it can be to hand steer at night as he did a 360. It wasn’t long into Sue’s shift when she did the same. We’ll just use the autopilot at night time, it keeps us on track. Daybreak brought blue sky and a calmer sea. But that didn’t last long after lunch it was back to dodging squall. With everything reefed right down some of the squalls were pushing us along at over 8 knots. Going into the evening it looks like we are going to have more of the same. We’ve already reached the 1/4 Mark.
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Thursday 8th September
Last night was a night of dodging cargo boats as we crossed shipping lanes. As usual the wind was taking us in the wrong direction most of the time.
Today was dotted with squalls. Each one took us off course and we then had to fight our way back on course with the help of the motor. The swell has been kind, only 1.5m.
We are getting use to 2 hours on the helm and 4 hours to eat and sleep. No whales or dolphins to be seen today.
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Wednesday 7th September
We were up early, had breakfast and hauled anchor. Cruised down the river and pulled into the fuel dock at Rivergate. That was expensive. We then moved to the next pier were we waited for customs to clear us. It took three of them to check our passports and give us two pieces of paper that said we can go (one of them was in training).
We are now departing Brisbane for the last time for a while. It’s taken most of the day to get out of the shipping channel and into open water. With light fading we have reefed the main for safety although the winds are light.
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