Judith plots our positions on Google Earth from the radio reports - she's given me snapshots to put in the blog.
There's now a Google Translator button on the Home and Blog pages. Click to select your language or click on the Google Translator bar at the top of the page !
There's a new photo page OPUA with some interesting pics and some stories, one untold as yet.
An uneventful voyage...radio blogs below...... We left Noumea at 1130 this morning and headed for Phare Amadee and then through the Pass de Boulari at 1400. The wind is just a little north of east and about 18 knots. We're sailing with full genoa, main and mizzen and doing 8.5 knts on a course of 155 M. All is well, we are very comfortable with slight seas. At 4/11/2013 7:11 AM (utc) our position was 22°03.07'S 166°30.64'E Continuing on winds very fair but died about 0230 this am. Motor on since, seas slight. Doing 4 on 4 off watches, working well. Really nothing more to report !! At 5/11/2013 6:09 PM (utc) our position was 23°59.48'S 167°07.90'E Breeze came up from SW this morning, still light..motor off, sailing well..6.5 knots in 11 knots true, Course 140 M, last 24 hours 149 miles. At 5/11/2013 1:32 AM (utc) our position was 24°34.62'S 167°42.54'E Sailed well through the day and into the night. Breeze lightened off in the early am, heard Murf hoist the iron spinnaker and this morning we're motoring at 7 knots with a very light SW. Course 120M At 5/11/2013 7:15 PM (utc) our position was 25°24.44'S 169°21.09'E Back sailing again in a nice SW breeze, heading directly towards New Zealand...and its just started raining...reef for the oncoming wind...all over in 10 minutes and back to full sails. I've been having trouble connecting to the sailmail and receiving weatherfaxes, and I'm sure its got to do with the antenna...the antenna is the triatic stay with the feed from the tuner running all the way up the mizzen mast before it gets out. The main backstay looks a better bet, but is it earthed ?...get out the meter and check the continuity to ground and its megohms, so its not earthed..great...rig a wire from the tuner out the cockpit window and up to the backstay, fasten with a hose clip..and now for the big moment..it works ! email sent in a jiffy, weatherfax received clearly...solved! Might seem like a small thing but to us its not ! Radio is so finnicky, anything small can make a huge difference..like corroded connections...so now our HF radio mail is working well, and hopefully I'll be able to make contact with Far North Radio by voice this evening, which we haven't been able to do so far. We're close reaching at 6 knots course 162M...expecting the breeze to go a bit S and then maybe E ? Anyone with any better ideas, send 'em along ! At 6/11/2013 4:21 AM (utc) our position was 26°23.67'S 169°47.31'E Now we have the radio comms working properly we can get weather faxes and we see a low right over Auckland which will move eastwards, followed by a rather skinny high over the east coast of Australia, which may get fatter as it enters the Tasman Sea. In any event we're sailing nicely in about 10-12 knts of SW and that looks likely to continue..maybe a bit WSW for a while...over the next few days. Haven't seen any other yachts or ships and there's nothing out there on AIS or radar. So all well....very civilised, having showers and shaves every day ! At 6/11/2013 10:53 PM (utc) our position was 27°51.58'S 170°39.71'E Our course was 145M and our speed 7.3 knots Sailed steadily through the night...occasional bursts over 8 knots under dark bottomed clouds. Mornings are getting more cloudy and its getting colder as we proceed southwards. Breeze is still SW 12-15 knots All well. At 7/11/2013 8:33 PM (utc) our position was 30°19.14'S 171°26.35'E Our course was 142M and our speed 7.0 knots Breeze came up more during the day necessitating another reef. Midday run 175 miles. About 1500 the wind changed to SSW and headed us, so whereas before we were on a line to the BoIs, now we're heading SE. If it hangs in there's no point in tacking until we acn lay the NZ coastline. If it goes back to SW, that will be good. Its getting cold at night now ! All well. At 8/11/2013 7:16 AM (utc) our position was 31°17.28'S 172°09.64'E Our course was 115M and our speed 5.8 knots The breeze has stayed SSW which makes laying BoIS impossible...at 0330 the wind really died and the motor has been on ever since...we are headed directly for the BoIs and unless something dramatic happens, which is unlikely, we will maintain this track and be in Opua tomorrow evening. At 9/11/2013 4:02 AM (utc) our position was 32°56.02'S 173°06.27'E Our course was 143M and our speed 5.8 knots Nothing much has changed except that we are now 66 miles from the Ninepin, the entrance to the Bay of Islands...so everything in track. Sea very flat this am, wind almost nil, its a grey overcast morning that heralds our arrival in Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, or rather Grey cloud today. At 9/11/2013 4:02 AM (utc) our position was 34°09.59'S 173°35.82'E Our course was 140M and our speed 6.2 knots Well the sun came out and the day turned out to be beautifully cloudless and warm.
We tied up at the Opua Q-dock at 1645 Murf stubbed his toe and grazed his knee, o'wise no issues at all. So tomorrow am, quarantine, custioms and immigration arrive and we see what happens next. There are 5 yachts on the visitors dock...you can't stay there long term...so we'll see what the go is tomorrow morning. Cheers Alan n Murf At 9/11/2013 4:02 AM (utc) our position was 35°18.83'S 174°07.35'E 6.5 days 931 nm, 143 nm/day 44 hours motoring |
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August 2018
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