After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we finally left New Zealand on our passage to New Caledonia.
This was the best weather window we had seen in 6 weeks and yet it was not “ideal”. Forecasts had high winds with gusts in the 30’s and 2-3 meter seas.
But here we go on this 6 day passage with smiles plastered on our faces.
The first 12-18 hours were terrible! We had “washing machine” seas that tossed us around like a leaf in a gale force wind. We were slamming against the sea and rolling all over the waves.
It was not a comfortable period for us or the boat.
Day 2 had more of the same so we went with a double reefed main and double reefed genoa. Despite having so little canvas up we were sailing at 7-8kts. On occasion we would surf down a wave at 10-13kts!
Day 3 had wind shifting more after and at reduced speeds. We actually were able to fly our spinnaker for about 6-7 hours. It was one of the highlights of the trip!
Norfolk Island is about half way. Not technically, but close enough. It is a super tiny island owned by Australia. Try to find it on the map!
If you look closely you can see two humps in the distance…that is Norfolk Island.
Night Terrors
Inevitably $hit happens at night! Storms and squalls always occur at night and breakages and traffic rear their ugly heads in the dark. We had not seen another boat for days and yet we had two different container ships were coming straight for us in the same night! Seriously?
One of them was so close to us that I had to hail them on the radio and ask them to divert!
Technically, we have right away as we were under sail and he was under engine. But he is way bigger than us so he could have forced us to divert. Luckily, both ships moved out of our way.
The Arrival
We tried to slow the boat down on our last night so that we could arrive at the pass at daybreak. Of course, the wind and the seas were not cooperating!
We de-powered the sails and yet we were still doing 8-9kts. We would fall off the wind and still doing 8-9kts. It was ridiculous.
Despite Mother Nature’s efforts to get us here faster, we managed to arrive right at dawn.
I love this shot of Matt and the moon. Top right is the Amadee lighthouse at the Passe du Bolari Nord which is where we entered.
We had 22-25kt ESE winds and 2m seas as we entered the pass (3 hours after slack tide). Not ideal conditions, but we wanted in!
We made it though with sails and engines pushing against a 2kt current.
The Amadee Lighthouse
The Lagoon
After this rough passage I just wanted and needed a fairly calm sail through the lagoon to the marina.
But that is not what we got!
We had barely any canvas up (see top left photo) and yet we were flying across the lagoon doing 9kts! As you can see we had a storm pushing us along.
Passage Report
- Miles to Destination: 880nm
- Miles Traveled: 1,040 (see note)
- Time at Sea (hook to hook): 5 days and 18 hours
- Average Speed: 7.5kt
- Max Speed: 14.2kt
- Hours with Engines: 2.5hrs
880nm the direct route from NZ to NC if we had followed the “rum line” However, we were trying to get out of the 2kt current and the crappy seas and ended up sailing an extra 160nm!
I can say that we have had worse passages but we have also had better ones.
Let’s just say I am extremely grateful to be on the dock at a marina in New Caledonia!
Fun Facts
This chart shows you our progress during each 24 hour period. You can see that we sailed a lot further by comparing our “sailed” to “Made Good”. The Made Good column shows you our progress toward our destination.
Here is another chart showing similar details with boat speed added.
And yet another chart showing VMG (Velocity Made Good) and our best rolling 24 hour stats.
Our blog posts runs 6-7 weeks behind actual live events.
We were on this passage from 6-12 June 2026.
