Tag Archives: catamaran

Baguette search day #4

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The hopes of a second kite run didn’t materialize, the winds were right at the edge of our comfort zone for cruising, racing on some one else’s dollar sure. Oh well, no worries. Still making decent progress with a chicken rig, wing on wing, waiting on the wind to go more east as the sunsets.

What was annoying is now routine. Watching gauges, checking weather, looking for chafe and of course the hunting for what’s broke and we haven’t found it yet.

After end of the sailbag came untied from the topping lift

Napping and munching on snacks are the other part of passages. Christine reads and keeps up on the endless WhatsApp groups all chatting about the conditions and future weather reports.

Second day of collecting samples for citizens of the sea, we drag a collection device and pull in 3 samples that will be analyzed for the health of the ocean. Christine does the actual work I just want to paint eyes on the drogue and use it as a fishing teaser. But alas can’t mix pleasure with science. No we are not fishing on this passage, at least not yet, but I do need to break the bait board in at some point.

Mongolian pork over rice for dinner, new receipt will definitely make the rotation more often.

About 450 nm miles to go. All well on board.

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

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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

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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,