Arrival in New Zealand
Moonshadow of London
Peter Mantle
Sun 23 Nov 2008 23:56
Much excitement in our last 24 hours!! The self steering arm broke at 4 am in a 45 knot storm and jammed the rudder. You can imagine the mayhem!! We managed to free by ripping up my bunk and accessing the rudder quadrant. Hand steering for the next 150 miles. We doubled up on the watches for 4 hours per pair and hand steered for an hour alternately. The task was made slightly more difficult as the wind direction instruments also went on the blink. The wind was so strong there was no doubt where it was coming from though! Some people do this all the time!! Tiring but fun! We had to put all our oil skins, hats, boots and goggles on as the seas were large and the weather cold as we approached new Zealand. We all vowed to hand steer more often (but not all the time!!).
We arrived at Upoa in the North of New Zealand at about 10 in the morning and had to go onto the customs dock and were not allowed to go ashore until the customs and immigration people had been on board and we had filled in copious forms. The customs guy inspected all our food and took all our fresh meat veg and fruit. We managed to eat the pineapple before they arrived!! They are paranoid about bugs coming in from other Pacific Islands. Once completed we were in!! Met up with Jim who had a car and confirmed that he had had his x ray and all was OK. Played several rounds of golf on excellent courses and relaxed after the riggers of our trip.
After 3 days we set sail for Auckland via Tutukaka and Kawau Island. Lively sails in 30 knots. Bright sun but cold. Auckland looks good from the sea with its Skylon and office towers. We had to dodge the bungy jumpers when sailing under the Auckland bridge! Then to West Park Marina about 5 miles from the centre with a regular ferry to downtown. A bit more golf and cleaning of the boat. Met up with Peter Lovelock who is looking Moonshadow and lives on a boat nearby in the marina. 5 people make very light work of the laying up and putting up the very awkward sun/wind cover.
Moonshadow is now nicely tucked up and in good hands ready for our next trip at the end of March.
