Day 6 - Made it into port

Following on from the Day 5 post. we continued to sail under 3 reefed main until lunch time when I struck the main as the wind built to 25 knots and swung a little behind the beam. The seas built rapidly and Ladybug was being laid over by the odd big one with her rail in the water. We furled up the jib until only about 1/8 of it was out and were still making 6 knots on average.

Sleep was impossible but by tucking several pillows around the settee berth with the lee cloth we were able to take turns resting. This continued, with the wind building to around 30 knots with gusts slightly more until around 6 pm, when it became obvious we would have to alter course to run more downwind. The wind vane was unable to keep us on course when a big sea would lay us over twisting us beam on to the wind. The boat in this attitude was closer to the wind and would try to round up, tearing along with her rail half submerged. We made the decision to run more downwind towards Queen Charlotte Sound.

As we cleared the Stephens Island we were able to sneak into its lee and steer for the east side of D'Urville Island, but we paid the price for being this close to the island in the form of impressive point effect gusts (due to compression of the high winds around the edges of the island). At one point we were doing 8 knots through the water with 1/4 of a jib filled by 40 knots of wind - very exciting. 

It was now dark and we were both extremely fatigued having had little sleep in the last 36 hours, so we decided to seek a sheltered bay on the east side of the island. We navigated with extra caution as the moon had not yet risen, using radar, chart plotter, and a sharp bow lookout. After 3 failed attempts to find suitable harbours (all too steep to close to the shore) we bore off and finally dropped the anchor in Harris Bay adjacent to Pelorus Sound qt 00:50. God it felt good to stop!

We will do some cruising in this area before my final destination of Waikawa. Posn at anchor 40 55 S  174 01 E.

Day 5 - Back to the Bounce

We had a placid day yesterday, with a mix of motoring with no wind and close reaching in light airs. A line of rain squalls gave us a scare in the afternoon but turned out to have little wind and barely enough rain in them to wash off the salt on the decks. Around 1 am this morning I noticed an ominous sharp chop rolling in from the SW and sure enough at 3 am we were down to 3 reefs in the main and a partially furled jib. The winds were not strong - only 20 knots or so, but the seas were so rough that we had to slow down to protect the boat and crew from damage.

The wind is now down and we are being tossed around on short sharp swells. No sleep is possible so we are just dozing and as we are passing through an area of natural gas rigs off New Plymouth we need to stay alert! We should be into Port Hardy tomorrow morning with luck.

Our position at 0645 is 39 21 S 173 26 E and we are making about 4.5 knots in confused short 1+ meter seas.

Day 4

Yesterday we sailed for much of the morning and afternoon but the wind disappeared around mid afternoon and only made a brief and tenuous reappearance after supper. For the rest of the time we motored into an increasingly peaceful ocean, the earlier cross swells gradually smoothing out.

Brian cooked up a gourmet supper of chicken legs, chilled beets, rice, and pan fried cabbage and just at sunset a pod of dolphins leaping clear of the water appeared in the west, apparently chasing a large school of fish.

Around 3:30 this morning the wind filled back in and we are now close reaching at 5+ knots into a gentle SW swell. The moon is out, lighting up the clouds and a few stars are still visible. We are about 190 miles out from D'Urville Island and with brisk WSW winds forecast for tomorrow we may reach port by nightfall. The alternative would be to stop at the commercial harbour of New Plymouth on the north island to wait out these stronger winds and continue after a day or two.

Position at 0530 on Saturday is 37 39 S 171 50 E wind SW 6 knots.

Nature Sightings Update

Brian asked me to mention some of our nature sightings so far.

On the way up from Opua we found ourselves in a current with hundreds of blood red jelly fish - maybe 20 cms in diameter - on which small birds were feeding. We also frightened a sunfish who had to flip to the side to avoid us as we had no time to adjust course. These strange looking rounded fish float in the currents feeding on jelly fish.

Apart from the usual petrels and shearwaters we have seen dozens of baby blue penguins and yesterday Brian spotted a shark, which like the sunfish was surprised by Ladybug's sudden arrival in its little piece of ocean. Yesterday we also saw our first albatross gliding in graceful turns behind the boat. What a huge bird - and so graceful!

Day 3 Fair Winds and Milder Seas

Rani wrote this morning to say that she was sleeping only 3 hours at a time. I told her that Brian and I could handle the watch schedule out here and to try to get some unbroken sleep.

Yesterday was a pretty rough beat for much of the day but by supper time the wind had died out and we turned on the engine and motored through the night until about 1 am when I deemed we had enough wind to sail. For two hours while Brian tried to sleep I chased a very light and fitful easterly, finally giving up around 3 am when we put the engine back into service. Surprisingly, given the turbulent seas, no one has been sick. Brian skipped breakfast yesterday but was able to scarf down 4 sausages for lunch.

My present when I woke for my watch around 6 am today was a fair easterly wind and we soon had the sails pulling us along at 5 knots. Then a few minutes later the wind rose suddenly from 6 to 20 knots. Not a squall but just the edge of a new wind. I had to wake poor Brian who had just drifted off and we tucked two reefs in the main. We are now bowling along with a 15 knot beam wind doing between 6 and 7 knots.

Position at 07:00 NZ time is 36 07 S 172 04 E. We are about 290 miles out from Port Hardy D'Urville Island and should be there Monday morning or even sometime on Sunday if the winds hold.

Day 2 - Rounded the Three Northern Capes

It is dawn on day 2 and we are are beating into a very short period swell, dropping into the shallow sharp wave troughs every few seconds. Not conducive to a relaxed breakfast! The weather forecast model predicted SE winds in our face at this time and the model was right. We are under 2 reefed main and partial jib sailing SSE on the west coast of the North Island. Cape Maria Van Diemen lies in sight behind us about 17 mils away. This may be the last land we will see for a few days.

Our position at 0630 NZ time is 34 36 S 172 23 E. Wind is about 12 knots SE and we are bouncing along at around 4.5 knots.

Off to the South Island

Brian, the new owner, and I departed Whangaroa this morning around 10, clearing the harbour under motor and hoisting all sail for a light air beat up the remainder of the North Island. We should round the North Cape around dusk and be on our way south down the west coast by tomorrow morning. We hope to reach D'Urville island at the northern end of the South Island in about 5 or 6 days. Stronger head winds are forecast for a few days out so we may take a rest at New Plymouth en route. Mike and Marni on Picara are also bound south so we plan to keep a radio schedule with them on this passage.

Current position at 13:15 local time is 34 51 N  173 35 E  Sunny skies and very light northerly winds with a gentle ground swell less than one meter. Very pleasant sailing.

En Route to the South Island

Brian, the new owner is on board and we are currently anchored in Whangaroa awaiting a suitable weather window for the voyage up around the North Cape and down the west coast of the North Island. This trip should take about 5 days if we have fair winds. The long range weather forecast shows Thursday as a good day to depart but weather models change so we may leave sooner or later than this.

A few last pictures from the Christmas/New Years cruise. The first two were taken in Whangaroa area on a bush whacking hike I took with Holger, while Roz sensibly did something else on the boat.

Road maintenance crew missing in action

Holger demonstrates how sheep get under electric fences.

The next few pictures were taken from the area near Marsden Cross the site of the first Christian missionary settlement and church service, which occurred here almost exactly 200 years ago. There is a new walking trail here with interpretive signs and stunning view points.

View towards Te Pahi Islands from near the Marsden Cross. 

Panorama looking over what I believe was the first white land grant in New Zealand. The Maori believed they were just letting the settlers use the land where the whites believed they now owned it!

Chapel built to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of 1814 Christmas service.

Ladybug at rest - framed by Pohutukawa flowers and leaves

Pohutukawa tree - known locally as Christmas trees, because they bloom at this time of year.

Ladybug's Third New Zealand Christmas Cruise

First let me wish you a very happy and prosperous new year in 2015!

It is hard to believe that this is the third Christmas season I have spent on board Ladybug in New Zealand. The only sad part is that Rani is in the UK again this year, so we were apart again for Christmas. I am lucky to have good friends to share the season with. Just over a week ago I left Whangarei. The last days prior to departure were jam packed with selling a few items that we can't carry home and looking over two larger steel boats for my friend Randall who is planning a back to back circumnavigation of the Americas and Antarctica (see his Figure 8 Voyage site).

On Saturday evening, I drifted down the river with the last light at the start of the ebb, dropping the anchor off One Tree Point near Marsden Cove. I was up early to catch the next ebb tide and ghosted down the channel past the big refinery and wood product docks. My departure was marred by a run-in with a tug that was assisting a container ship to enter the channel. The tug took a run at Ladybug, its operators gesturing and yelling, even though we had moved out of the channel to let the ship pass. I was surprised and shaken by this aggressive and very unprofessional action. The bow wave from the tug Takahiwai almost came into Ladybug's cockpit and I came damn close to striking a channel buoy that I was near when the incident occurred. I called the tug on VHF but she declined to respond so I have reported this to Maritime New Zealand. I have had to deal with heavy commercial traffic and tugs in several countries and never seen anything like this before!

Fortunately the day improved and the wind filled in for a nice run up to Tutukaka. I met Melody off the entrance to the harbour and we sailed in together, anchoring under sail near Annie Hill's Fantail. All three boats share supper on board Melody. Over drinks we agreed to sail north for Miniwhangata Bay.

Melody sailed into Tutukaka

The next morning around 6 am I woke up with a fuzzy head to the sound of Melody hoisted her anchor chain as Fantail ghosted past Ladybug.

Fantail ghosting out of Tutukaka

We sailed in company to Minwhangata, a delightful anchorage off a long striped sandy beach that displays mosaics of shells at low tide. We spent the afternoon walking along the beach and among the hills of the peninsula.

Melody en route to Miniwhangata

Fantail sails into the anchorage at Miniwhangata

Melody anchoring under sail.

We spent the evening on Annie's little junk rigged boat, sharing drinks and supper and talking about the usual things that cruisers and 'boaties' in general talk about - boats, and sailing, and how to live a good life. At one point, I recall that we had a lengthy and heated debate over the difference between contentment and happiness.

Roz and Holger on board Fantail

Annie and Roz below on Fantail

We left Miniwhangata the next morning and sailed north toward Whangaroa. We broke our passage at the Cavalli islands where we anchored in Papatara Bay on the big island of Motukawanui. The wind was aft all day, so I sailed most of the way with winged out jib in order to keep all the sails filled and pulling.

Ladybug coasting north to Whangaroa, wing and wing.

Motukawanui island has stunning hiking trails and we had an early morning climb along the Ridge Trail to the highest point on the island. You can see an earlier post from my last visit here for panorama pictures from this point.

From the Cavalli Islands we cruised north again with 15 knot easterly tailwinds and a rolling swell. Again I used the pole and Ladybug really kicked up her heels and enjoyed spirited sailing in occasional rain showers, maintaining 6-7 knots for long stretches. We arrived through the narrow entrance into Whangaroa with tall standing waves kicked up by the out-coming tide against wind. The cliche of calling this a boiling cauldron would not be far off and it was very exciting to sail through these waves while negotiating the entrance running almost straight downwind.

Ladybug and Melody spent Christmas in Whangaroa, visiting different anchorages, eating too much and attempting to walk it all off before returning south to the Bay of Islands where I am preparing for the delivery trip south.

Ladybug at a nice angle of heel beating into harbour. Photo by Annie Hill.

Haul Out, Survey, and Sale

I returned to New Zealand late in November to prepare Ladybug for sale. She had swung around a mooring for 8 months under the watchful eyes of Rob and Jo - cruising friends off Blue Moon who have built a house in McLeod Bay. It took a few days to clean her up but on the whole she was in good shape and I motored up the river to Dockland 5 boat yard where she was hauled out at the end of November.

Apart from the usual bottom paint I planned to replace a ball valve on the head discharge and buff and wax the hull. A potential purchaser had hired a surveyor to take a look at her while hauled out and I was fortunate to be given the use of a locker to store gear and sails in to allow the surveyor easier access to the hull inside.

New reinforced nylon ball valve - made in New Zealand

On haul out I found a couple of blisters on the skeg beside the area  I had repaired last year. I must not have gone far enough in addressing the delamination I had found on the last haul out. I ground these, removing the unbonded laminate and filled with epoxy. Removing the old head discharge ball valve proved to be difficult and while freeing this up, I twisted the bronze through-hull, breaking its seal with the hull. So I ended up removing the through hull fitting as well and cleaning this up and rebedding it. Doing this showed me how thick the lay up is at this point in the hull - about 18 mm or more than 5/8 of an inch, I was also fortunate in being able to buy a locally made ball valve fabricated from fiberglass reinforced nylon. This should not corrode like the bronze one.

Through hull hole showing thickness.

Murray Reid, a surveyor from Keri Keri, arrived on Sunday morning and spent a good part of the day poking around the boat. He found a few things during this survey and a later one that I am glad he spotted, including corrosion issues in the propellor strut and its mounting bolts that required removal and rewelding of the strut and replacement with new bolts. Getting at the nuts on the other end of these bolts was interesting. At first I thought I might have to remove the fuel tank, but fortunately the builders of Ladybug had thought about this issue and provided access in the cockpit locker that required unscrewing a plywood sheet and moving an exhaust hose out of the way. A local welder ground out the old corroded weld and renewed this and I put it together casting in place an epoxy shim to re-align the strut with the propellor shaft. Bolting the strut back on and re-bedding it was a challenge as I was working on my own and had to use vice grips on one end of each bolt and run up and down the ladder a dozen times to tighten the nuts evenly.

Propellor strut removed so I can work on it.

Corrosion in weld - probably due to leaving welding detritus in between two welds (one per side) when the custom strut was fabricated

Corrosion in bolts - possibly due to galvanic corrosion from painting the bolts with copper bottom paint

This is what the bolts should look like.

Other things I dealt with during haul-out were to replace two additional through hull ball valves thaty Murray condemned and to re-zinc and grease up the Max-prop. Brian, the potential purchaser did the latter work and helped out during the launch day, having arrived the night before to look over the boat. Brian stayed on Ladybug for 4 nights going out for what may be a record test sail of three days duration.

Since the launch, I have re-aligned the engine, restitched the UV strip on the small jib (thanks to Roz and her Sailrite sewing machine!), stitched a dodger zipper back on, and rebedded a couple of ports. On Brian's last day on board, one of the galley sink drains fell off, so I have replaced the corroded metal parts with plastic (thanks to Rob for the parts for this job!).

Brian has decided to buy Ladybug and I have offered to help him deliver her to her new home on the South Island. Brian and I will sail as far as Picton together and I will then fly back here and on to Auckland and Canada shortly after.

Ladybug looking at her best with a waxed hull and new bottom paint

It is sad to be leaving Ladybug and finding a home for all the things we have on board will be my job for the next few weeks. I will carry home three suitcases as excess luggage so am quite limited in what I can take. We looked into shipping goods to Canada from NZ but the cost was $2000 for 8 modest boxes...