One Week on
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sun 23 Nov 2008 07:51
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Hi Folks,
Well its been just over a week since we arrived in
the Bay of Islands, friends have been arriving daily so its been a round of
re-unions with the Panama club of 08 , Seabright with Joe,Dave and Beth were the
first in behind us, followed by Trenelly with Jason,Fiona( 7 & months gone
in her pregnancy) and Dillon ( 2 & 1/2 years old )
a few other boats who we know in passing like
Independent Freedom,Caminata,Siren,Tin Soldier,Stream Spirit, they are mostly
Canadian or American boats who have sailed from the Pacific sea board and who we
have met in various places along the way in the South Pacific.
Yesterday "Slipnier" the boat we had all
been worried about and who had sent us em's regarding there situation
, which for them on a small catamaran was pretty hairy, broken davits aft,
a breaking wave ripped off the davits on the port side so they had to
rescue there dingy mid ocean, trampoline damage fwd , and a damaged Genoa block,
there other problem was were as the larger boats who could not point up
enough to wind, and to save two or three days tacking to get here put the iron
headsail on, and motor sailed to the Bay , Wolfgang and Eva had to sail all
the way, there outboard engines do not have enough grip on the water in big seas
to drive them forward , were as the rest of us lazy buggers did, it took them 10
days from Minerva reef and with a real bad forecast and the wind piping up
yesterday we were all glad they made it in .
A good few pints were sunk last night on
there arrival , I had a mercy mission as there port engine wasn't working so
they were stuck on the quarantine berth , it was the same problem that they had
in Tonga but this time it was the other side, a combination of dirty fuel and a
rather long tube that basically went to the bottom of the fuel tank sucking up
all the debris into the carbs , half an hr saw it all cleaned out and with the
wind increasing we got the boat to it berth in the marina , both Wolfgang and
Eva had had enough and were in need of hot food,shower and a beer, and by eight
o/clock in the evening they were fed , showered and had had enough beer to put
them to sleep till 10/o/c am the next day .
Its been our experience that long passages
with two are very tiring, for a week its fine as there is an end in sight
but the long passages are a different kettle of fish and often lead to bad
decisions being made, leading to situations that you don't really want to get
yourself into, most of the single handeres we know , and there are several out
here, either suffer sail or steering damage because of this, with the
two persons crew to a lesser extent, even those of three or more have there
moments but the risk is minamalised and situations sorted rather quicker
than twin or single crews.
There are still a few boats out there on
passage, these waters between Tonga and here have really unsettled weather
patterns, the weather forecasting is not reliable, even the best of the, an
example is about to occur , six boats got the green light to go by the weather
router from Minerva reef two days age , they are now some 250 nm into there 850
nm passage to NZ , now the forecasters have done another about turn and told
them to go back or hove too as a low has moved up from the southern ocean
and with the prospects of 40 to 50 knt winds over the next three days from the
West going to North west it isn't going to be pleasant , at least they know its
coming I suppose, problem is two of the weakest crewed boats are out there
, Genoa, Wife, Hubby and two young kids, and Adventure , with two reluctant
teenage daughters who by all accounts would rather be back in the shopping
mall in the states, boy are they in for a surprise ! so our thoughts will
be on these guys as we all know them here , and hope that this blow doesn't gain
any more momentum .
A crew tucked up safe in harbour
..
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