Passage to New Zealand day 6

Nickanddenisesailing
Fri 17 Nov 2017 04:10
33.20.27 S 175. 34.03 E

NZ time 1800

Speed 7.7knts, COG 185T, windspeed 15-20knts East, seas moderate,temperature - COLD!

Not. Long. Now.

We are giving it everything we got for this last bit of the passage, trying desperately to get ahead in front of the worst of the low that is forecast. We have had a good 24hrs in terms of distance covered and are currently making good speed. We are heading more south than east to make sure we dont get caught out by the SE as we get closer to the Bay of Islands entrance. We are all pretty stinky, tired and ready to be there I think. We had a pretty rubbish night - lots of squalls, heavy rain, strong winds then nothing. Literally 25knts - 6knts in a matter of min. Ben and I reckon we did over 12 sail changes in our 6hr shift. We both got soaked and it wasn't the best time to realise that my sailing waterproofs really need re water proofing. It was a cold night and by the end of our shift we were both cold and exhausted. Nick and Ryan didnt get it much easier, but thankfully with the sunrise the wind steadied and has been pretty consistent through the day.

We are starting to wonder if we are cursed on the last 48hours of longer passages.... our run into Galapagos was pretty bad - as was our Marquesas final few days. What made me really think about this was last night as we were sitting in 5knts with pelting cold rain we turned the engine on to motor through the worst of it. Not long later it was back up to 20+ so the engine went off - the next time it happened (about 20min later) we went to turn the engine on - and it wouldn't start. Our engine has started every time, first time the whole time that we have owned the boat. Our starter battery was flat. So commenced a number of long wet rainy waits imbetween squalls. Nick managed to fix the problem this morning and we have had the engine running for a few hours to make sure it doesn't happen again.

So we have had a productive day of cooking and preparing for some bad weather tomorrow, as well as making good head way. We should be at the dock in Opua tomorrow afternoon. We cannot wait!


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