After doing a lot of work on The Never Ending Story ( 39 ft RORC) we are about to be finally ready for the trip down the coast. I scored her in 2020, headed there at Christmas 2020 expecting a 7 day fit it mission and sail away however found that there was LOTS do be done, a global pandemic impacting travel and delay delay delay. Finally I think we may be ready.
Last time I wen up with the intention of sailing down, we fond that the engine was overheating, despite the new water pump, head, gaskets etc. After more troubleshooting we decided to have the heat exchanger reconditioned and have been assured by the engineers that yes, the exchanger would have been failing. It is now repaired so we are off to put it in, provision the boat, sail to Christchurch from Opua. Finally.
Luckily we have what looks like a good weather window.
The plan is to fly directly to Kerikeri. Taxi to grab some provisions, head up to Ethans mums and grab the tender, then load the boat up ready to go and fit the heat exchanger.
Fly Friday morning.
Be on board and running the engine and doing other jobs through the afternoon.
Depart Saturday morning 6 am heading 20 miles of shore down the coast south. I am keen for a bit of sea room in case things go wrong, it will allow that we have ample hours to fix anything before being in danger of beaching. 20 miles should give us amore stable weather and sea.
After testing all systems and seeing if she works we will decide after 24 hours whether or not we carry on or turn back to the mooring at Opua. We can decide to pause the trip at Auckland if required, Tokomaru bay, Gisborne, Wellington, Blehnhiem, but am certain we will be just fine.
Predict Wind tells me that it will take just under 6 days to do the trip all going well. Most of the trip will be downwind or reaching which is nice. around 3 days motoring in lower winds. Max gusts 20 knots, 70 percent of the time 8-20 knots. Im happy with that.
3-4 m waves for a wee bit, 2-3 m waves for 23 % of the time and 1-2 m waves the rest of the time. Rounding the cape is around just 10 knots of wind, we will be 30-35 miles off the cape to avoid the current. Tail wind around there and down past Wellington. Then wind dies to a very low 3 knots, very light wind sailing and motoring down the coast. Would have been nice to pop into Wellington but I am aiming to be home on time to run some bookings down at the shop as the Christmas booking sessions get underway! Knowing my luck I will end up bobbing around in 3 knots flat sea till a southerly comes three days later and blows me all the way back to Auckland.
It is the longest coastal I have done but the first of many planned coastals and further in the coming year. Need to graduate to a bigger boat, perhaps 60 foot.
The boat seems strong. Rigging tuned, running rigging replaced, rudder fixed, prop sorted, engine rebuilt, lots of tools on board and spare parts. 300 litres of deisel, 1000 litres of water, enough food for two months. VHF, spare VHF, flares, first aid kits, wet weather gear, life jackets and tethers and harnesses, internet for more weather updating. Chart plotter, spare chart plotter. I will get AIS and auto pilot for this boat later but will be all good this trip with rotating watch.
The trip will be done with Ethan. We have been sailing together around the Banks Peninsula and beyond over the last two years he has become very competent with boat handling and setting sails. We both completed the VHF operators course, looking at the advanced sea survival when we come back and ocean medic ready for more adventures. Despite not having had done the courses above yet, we feel pretty prepared to get on with the trip having completed a lot of research on course content and reading many many books !
It will be good fun testing out this Iridium and making video of the trip to edit when we return.
Keep a look out on the posts to see our more detailed planning and out " What Could go Wrong Plan"
Comments