Author Archives: Matt

NZ Bound #3: 210 till entering the world of pies

Pies are the like tacos of Texas or Mexico, pie competitions are fierce. The best filling to crispiest (but not too crispy that it makes a mess) and getting the just right savory to dough bite is serious business.

We are still knocking off the miles and that is good, still on track to beat the next cold front hitting New Zealand. We have 2 more sleeps at sea before clearing into the country

The bad news is that we are using a bunch of dinosaurs 🦕 🦖 juice to get it done. A dreaded blue hole materialized on the weather forecast, it was predicated and then not and then again, and yup it happened.

No big deal, we sailed with the engines on for a while. The wind started coming out of the north so we broke out a big kite to play with and let it pull the boat toward NZ. After getting it all set up and talking through the procedure, the wind nearly died. Not enough wind to blow out a candle. So on came the noise makers and we have been motoring nearly all day and will continue through the night.

One huge bonus, we rinsed off all the Deep Water Salt for the startup business, there were not enough people interested in Deep Water Salt Margaritas. Oh well. Also made water and filled the batteries. And.. it was warm enough to get a shower on the back of the boat

Penultimate sunset of this voyage came complete with a little green flash

Penultimate a cool word that doesn’t get worked into everyday conversations nearly enough. When was the last time you said one before last?

There may be a little bit of wind coming in tomorrow to finish the last day under sail, one can always hope.

All well onboard.

Quickie of the sunset

Cheers.

NZ Bound #3: 418 till speeding tickets showing up in the mail

Obviously I have a need for speed! Who knew NZ had so many speed cameras? I found out when tickets started to pile up in our mailbox that we never checked unless an essential boat part was being delivered, aka Temu. All I can say is it was good thing the car wasn’t registered in my name.

We are still speeding along on the ocean highway toward NZ, is it day 3 or twelve I can’t keep track. BUT we did keep track that we just covered 218 nm in just 24 hours toward our destination, and that’s “sweet as”.

To celebrate I grilled up some steaks at 10 knots, well we had to eat them before NZ confiscated them. If we had some champagne we could have enjoyed that too as most of the day has been fast and moderately comfortable considering it’s really an ocean out here.

Grilling at 10 knots

Weather news from the SSB and forecasts say we need to be arriving before the next weather system. Everything is looking good on our end to arrive the day before. As we continue to pass some of the boats that left the day before we did.

Left are boats from Fiji, right are boats coming from Tonga. The customs dock will be over crowded.

One bit of sad news today. I was re-enacting a recent episode where the wave splashed and completely soaked me. Arms flailing and knocked myself in my head. Don’t worry, my head is fine. The tragedy was very traumatic, the ball cap that kept my nose from the sun for the past 2 years and covered all my unkempt gray hair went to find Neptune. No one will recognize me without that well bleached piece of advertising on my head. So we dropped sails, put a full stop man overboard drill and …. Yeah Naw, not a chance and ruin our 24 hr average? Fresh one from the closet, back to black. Maybe the boat “#southernwinds” will find my hat as I rescued one of theirs floating by just before we left Fiji. 🇫🇯.

All well onboard,

NZ Bound #3: 541 miles till we get to where mullets are still a style

541 left to go is the half way mark. We have been knocking out the miles and it’s getting more and more like the Champagne sailing we were told about. However, if we would have had any Champagne on board we would have no doubt shaken all the bubbles out, so we will just having some vinegar. same thing right?

Sunrise at 1/2 way. Cheers hoping today is a Champagne type of day

Finally shook one of the reefs out of the main sail. The wind had remained under 20 knots for a bit. Still have one more gear if we get too slow.

During our normal 24 hr mile mark, every 24 hours since starting, we only managed 196 miles to the destination. So close to the magical 200 mile day! However at SSB time checkin, the 24 hour distance since previous SSB check in the distance between check-ins was 200! Yippie!

What do you do on passage?

Crew doing crew stuff at 11 knots.

All good onboard, probably another 30 something hours till the wind does the “yeah naw” thing and switches all about and we slow down while the wind regroups from the opposite direction.

Doing our best to finish foods before arriving NZ ..