Our departure to Whangarei was delayed for a few days as a fellow club member and good friend who with his partner had sailed within a few hundred miles of us all the way from the San BLas Islands was in some trouble.  Caught out in bad weather with sails that were somewhat tired they were given a hammering by the elements and some ten days after leaving Minerva Reef they were still forty miles short of Opua with no diesel left and only a single small staysail that was usable.  Their speed was less than two knots.  We had been in regular contact  with them for some days giving what moral support we could over the airwaves.  Christabel had to catch a bus to Auckland as the delay had made it impossible for her to do the final sail.  This was sad for her and us but she was off to Bangkok for her son's wedding so she had much to look forward to.  Annette stayed behind to see our crew of so many happy miles and experiences leave.  The wind was gusting up to thirty knots and the seas large as Troubadour with Stuart, Annabelle and myself on board left the shelter of the Bay of Islands.  After forty miles of just off windward sailing we found them.  With no main, the sail and the boom were broken, a flying remnant for a genoa and the small staysail set her motion was an awful sight to see.  We managed to transfer three cans of diesel so she could up her speed from two to five knots.  Just before midnight we were tied up back in Opua marina.  By 0230hrs so were our friends.  The three of us were tired and not warm after some eighty miles of close reaching in strong winds and wintery conditions so what the recipients of our diesel were feeling one can only guess at.  I have just finished  Hough's biography of Captain Cook.  Nearly all his problems were caused when his ship got tired.  His final voyage was marred from start to finish by troubles that emanated from a very poor refit to  Resolution by the Naval Dockyard.  The only refit that Cook had not personally overseen.  New Zealand is at the end of a long hard season for many yachts and their crews with little chance to do much maintenance en route.  Having watched this saga to a friend and fellow yachtsman unfold I will change my sails more often than perhaps my bank manager or I would otherwise wish. 

 

At 1100hrs on the 3rd November having just shouted to our friends who were isolated on the quarantine dock we motored out and through the lovely scenery that is the Bay of Islands.  The wind was blowing force four from the NNW and the skies grey with rain in sight.  As we finally left the bay  to follow the coast south the skies went from grey to black and the wind shot to over thirty knots.  The wind being offshore was erratic in strength but the seas calm.  After some hectic sail reductions we enjoyed a very fast sail down the coast.  With clearing skies and a calming wind we dropped the hook in the large cove that is called Tutukaka.  A peaceful evening with a good bottle of New Zealand wine and Annette's excellent cooking followed.  Next morning I made the last mistake of the sailing year!  I miscalculated the time of high tide at Port Whangarei  so we arrived off the entrance of the river rather early with the flood only just starting.  By now it was gusting up to thirty knots again and the final trip up to Whangarei itself was done under engine as with any amount of sail the following wind would have sped us along too fast.  The well marked river chart stops at port Whangarei after five miles.  The final three miles is done using common sense.  With inches under the keel we arrived off Riverside Marina in the heart of the town itself to be met by the ever cheerful face of Ray Roberts the owner.  Nordlys was quickly tied up.  10,540nm had been added to the log since she was launched just under a year ago in Trinidad.  Everything that mattered was working on board.   Over the last year she has witnessed all emotions from bliss to shear terror on the part of her crew but her keel has never touched the bottom except for the final push through the mud as she entered her 'winter' berth .  She has done us very well indeed and her passage speeds have been faster and with more general feeling of safety and comfort than even I her enthusiastic owner could have expected.

 

I write this after some days here.  New Zealand is proving to be quite delightful.  We have visited Auckland and seen the America's Cup village.  We dinned  with some fourteen others  in  the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at a mini RCC dinner organised by a local member.  This building and its decoration would stand comparison very favourably with any yacht club on this planet even though the 'auld mug' is no longer re.  We are finding the shops and boat businesses  to be helpful, knowledgeable and reasonably priced.  The general attitude of the people is one of relaxed helpfulness.  We are about to spend some days in the south of North Island then we fly home on the 24th November. 

 

The last year has been a very exciting one for us and for those of you who have read this diary we hope that our adventures have perhaps whetted your appetites.

 

Happy times to you all and we look forward to seeing many of our UK friends soon.

David and Annette

 

Christabel and Annette reaching south.

Temperature has dropped!

 

A happy man.