34:21S 174:43E

conditions – bloody awful!

 

Fellow sailors had warned us – “beware coastal New Zealand”.  Several Kiwis who have sailed all around the world encountered their worst conditions off New Zealand – and we always knew this passage could be messy but, like everyone, hoped for fair winds.  Well, we had them up until yesterday when the weather Gods deserted us and left us with some fairly unpleasant stuff.   After lovely sunny days pottering along on flat seas with the coloured sail up we’re now in the thick of a nasty, cold and wet southerly.   Welcome to New Zealand Bandit!

 

Modern day communications on boats means we can get up to date weather which is not always a good thing – especially in our situation yesterday when there was nowhere to run. With the southerly coming we just had to keep going and hope it wasn’t too bad. During the afternoon the barometer fell to 1004 so at dusk we dropped the coloured sail opting for a double reefed main  and partly furled genoa.  At midnight the predicted southerly arrived and we opted to roll away the genoa and put out the staysail.   Poor Alastair got the short straw – his midnight to 4am watch was plagued with torrential rain, those pesky 25-35knot winds (top gust 43knots) and a messy sea.  Bandit took a fair few greenies over the bow and it was pretty uncomfortable down below where I was trying to sleep (without success). 

 

David also had a lousy watch and when I got up at 7am I found him in full wet weather gear, gloves, hat and seaboots, sitting in the saloon enjoying a well deserved cup of tea!

 

The morning cleared and the winds dropped to 20 knots.  That’s the end of that we though – wrong!  Another system (which our morning SSB schedule warned us of) arrived with stronger winds and choppy seas.   Alastair, the wise old sea dog, was enjoying a spot of sunshine on his morning watch when we heard an almighty yell – he’d taken a big wet one.  Not such a wise old sea dog after all!!

 

As I write this Bandit is battling her way through 30 plus knots, lumpy seas and choppy seas towards Opua.  Our eta is about midnight – the strong southerly means we just haven’t been able to make the progress we had hoped for.  None of us had much sleep last night so we will certainly be sleeping well tonight.   Tomorrow we’ll tidy up the mess.....and there is a bit.  Our bimini ripped in a gust and the cockpit seems to be a maze of sheets.  Oh well – this is sailing in NZ!