Funnel out 35.04S 175.24E
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sat 26 Jul 2014 10:39
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So it is time again, after 9 months(!) in NZ (well
the boat has been there so long at least), now it is 22.00, dark and very very
cold.
Im wearing wool set, trousers, sweater,
seatrousers, sea jacket, gloves (2 pair), a wool cap, and with all that Im
freezing...
The winds chillfactor is brute.
And the wind is coming from aft right into the
cockpit.
I was thinking about what happens when you leave
the shores and it can be best describes like a funnel (Sv:
Tratt).
You start in the narrow end, it is cramped, you
have to watch every centimeter as you leave the dock, nowadays they make marinas
that take two times more boats per square meter....
You get out through a very narrow channel that is
dredged to 3 meters, you are careful, and then the funnel widens as you get out
on the big river, the tide is going out and so are we. BUT, you have to watch,
there is a big cargoship coming in and it takes almost the entire widths of the
water.
You come out of the river and the buoys get wider
apart, you can start to relax a bit, going around a small peninsula the watwer
deepens to 26 meters, feels good, we stretch out and roll out the sails. We cut
the engine and it is always a great seanse of relief when it gets quite. The
horizon is only interupted by some scattered islands. We can set course towards
northeast. You can relax even more, sit back and watch the wind speeding up the
boat. The autopilot is doing a great job. Some black clouds wont let you relax
yet, we have to watch them, and yes as they approach the wind picks up to gale
speed, we have to reef, there is another cargo ship interfering with our course.
We call them when they are 5 nM from us, and no, they havent seen us... They
alter course and 700 ft of ship loaded with containers to the chimney pass us
and we can relax again.
The funnel gets wider, the depth is now 500 meters,
nice, boats do not like shallow water...
Life starts to feel very free now, we make
"tunnbrödrulle", a tortilla filled with mashed potatoes and sausage (yes we
found some vegetarian kinds that taste really good, and I know it is SILLY with
vegetarians that eat vegetarian food that looks like meat, but if you love
mustard and ketchup, what do you do?).
The kids play with the iPads (it is Saturday
treat).
I go to bed even though I know I will not sleep,
not yet. We are not in the new living cycle with 4 hrs on and 4 hrs off
yet.
Now I better take a look around the horizon, even
though there is nothing to see but the stars. We are out of the funnel and
will hopefully stay out til we get to Tonga.
Water temperature here? 12 degrees...
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you for letting us know!
I also have to say we had a great farewell fiesta
with Vanessa and Mark. They actually welcomed us when we arrivwd and said
farewell when we left today. They brought a bunch of goodies and we are still
munching...
Vanessa is a friend from the days I worked in a
hotell in Santa Barbara (she was travelling and working away from NZ then)
while I was studying to become a filmmaker. No it is not long ago, only
1980.
Well suddenly another friend from Santa Barbara
that had connected on Facebook informed Vanessa about our arrival to NZ, thats
how it all happened.Small world when you sail around on it, but now it feels far
away from the tropics.
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