26:43:900S 157:32:235E
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Tue 10 Jun 2014 05:35
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Carrying on from where Don left
off...
The first few days flew by after having dolphins
and albatross following us up and over the top of NZ with the wind behind us we
made good progress, 197 miles the first day and 209 on the second.
 The third day started with Don waking me an hour
into my meagre three hour sleep with the statement "I need a hand we are taking
in water through the rudder stock" not what you want to be woken to...
After a bit of tinkering (Don tearing his cabin to peices) the leak was quickly
fixed with no further problems, Apart from the bilges full of
saltwater.
 The weather seriously took a turn for the worse
over the next 24 hours with repeated squalls battering us with torrential rain
and force 8 gusts as they approached. Luckily for me most of these happened
during Dons watches so I just watched with amusement from the warmth
of inside! Towards the evening of the 4th day the weather dramatically improved
to the point where we could comfortably cook a roast and sat outside in the
cockpit.
  In the early morning of that night I
spotted what appeared to be a marker bouy or cardinal marker. By this point our
chart plotter had run out of the NZ territory and not fully into the
australian waters where the charts became more detailed once again. Having been
rather lax and not plotting our position on the chart every three hours on watch
changes (This has been changed and is now completed religiously) we had a bit of
a panic and thought we were headed to a small island North of Elizibeth Reef in
the middle of the Tasman and as the radar was showing this object at a mear 2
miles a pretty swift tack was made. After having plotted our position on the
chart and realising that we were actually about 150 miles from this island. We
then had a look at this mysterious light through the binoculars, which turned
out to be the powerful decklights of a large fishing boat. After changing our
underwear we were once again on our way. Lesson Learnt.
We spent the next 24 hours motoring in flat seas
with no wind. Depressing, as even in these conditions I still hadn't caught
a fish. Eventually in the evening some relief as the spool went hissing off.
After a good old battle a 13kg bluefin tuna was on deck, A fairly respecatable
size and some good eating!
   The albatross followed our boat for a good 24 hours
after gutting that fish hoping for more. They are magnificent birds with a
wingspan of around 2-2.5m buzzing around the boat without once flapping their
giant wings skimming the wave crests and just dipping the tips of their feathers
as they go. A truely wonderful sight.
 Yesterday the wind was still light and
we were still motoring. During the night the winds had increased and we now
have a 20-23 knot tailwind boosting us along. with just 550nm to go we should be
arriving in Oz in a couple of days! Im looking forward to swapping out my
oilskins for board shorts and sandles. Bring on the heat!
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