Leaving New Zealand

Leaving New Zealand

Russell, May 25, 2017

It seems that leaving New Zealand is never easy. It’s not just the great boating and fishing that hold us back; it’s not just the friendly Kiwis that tug at our friendship heartstrings; it’s the weather, always the weather, that bars us from moving straight north to Vanuatu.

Under leaden skies and another gale warning, JP finds the way to catch dinner.

A year ago, we left NZ in the first half of May to hang out at Minerva Reef for a week. This year, it's been much harder to find a window, even a short 4-day window.

Trying to dodge weather... not today!

The Kiwis say you should leave for the tropics before well into May, and it certainly is true this year.

In Whangarei, extra-tropical cyclone COOK brought us beautiful skies

For the last five weeks we’ve been waiting for a weather window. Leaving New Zealand at this time of year is tricky. The waters north of Fiji are still very warm (30c till last week) and are a caldron for spinning cyclones. In five weeks, we’ve seen extra-tropical cyclone COOK, then DONNA (cat. 4) and ELLA (cat. 2). These barrel down from the north and the space between NZ and the Tropics is no place to be.

Cyclone from the north, ridges and troughs and all sorts of nasty things.

As if the end-of-summer cyclones are not enough to deal with, a train of early winter storms roll in from the Tasman sea and Australia. The last two weeks have seen almost daily gale warnings for our area. Again, not a time to be at sea.

More nasty weather and gales

In addition to the cyclones from the North and gales from the West, systems also roll in from the East, as the trade winds try to establish themselves. Result? We are pinned down in the Bay of Islands. Last week, some 50 yachts were waiting to leave for Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, or New Caledonia. About half of them have left. Most have made it to their destinations, some in 40 knots of winds and 5-meter seas, really horrendous conditions. Some have had to return: one broken autopilot, one dismasted, yet another one with dirty fuel -hence no engine, no power. It’s been a horrendous beginning of season.

Cold in the morning (1.3 celsius = 34F) may be pretty but it's too cold for us!

The Bay of Islands has seen us switch anchorages almost every day, as the wind shifts from NE, to NW to SW...

so many sheltered spots, but few have cell phone reception, which means no Internet!

As much as we itch to move to warmer climate to avoid getting up with 1 to 10 celsius outside, we have been patient. We agreed with the Island Cruising Association (ICA) leader in waiting it out and not jumping into a “dirty” weather window. We have waited, sitting at anchor for a month.

Taking advantage of a sunny morning and low tide, JP and I go clamming.

Part of our passtime: looking at boats!

We managed to keep busy. Fishing and scavenging? Oysters, mussels, cockles, clams, scallops, red snappers and “kingfish” (yellowtail) have been part of our daily diet for the last few months.

M/Y "MARGUERITE"

Hiking? The bay of Islands has impressive scenic hikes with stunning views. The hills twitter with birds and the smell of Manuka bush in bloom permeates the air.

Manuka bloom

Koru, or the Kiwi fern.

Boat chores? Of course… always.

Our wonderful ventilation hatches: never use the A/C

JP has serviced just about every piece of equipment on the boat, including our five double-door ventilation hatches. That's 20 pressure locks, each made up of 17 parts. Kudos to JP!

Massive extensions for the RAYA anchor bow rollers

The major refit this year was an improvement in the anchoring system. Each anchor launch has been lowered and brought forward in an attempt to reduce the risk of scraping the chain against the bows when dropping the hook in high winds. So far, so good.

There is always a new quilt to work on

As for me, I took advantage of the quiet anchorages to quilt, quilt, quilt.

The lovely Bay of Islands, NE coast

Tonight, one more look at the GRIBs: we are good to go tomorrow, as soon as a small system blows through. Then, it’s 4 days of NO WIND! Good for us, but the sailboats aren’t too happy: motoring it is.

Of course, we’ll have weather under way. Our new IRIDIUM Go system is up, with PREDICT WIND offshore app for weather on the go.

HF: check - Genset: check

JP aslo fixed the HF radio so we can contact NORTHLAND RADIO (ZMH292) daily for our trip report. Peter Mott does a fantastic job of checking on the fleet. He currently monitors over 20 yachts underway and has another 17 on the back burner, ready to leave this weekend. Gotta love those HAM radio guys!