Hi All,
We are here…safe and sound….tied up in our old slip from a year ago…..sort of loving life…..the sort of is it’s dark, cold, and rainy as compared to sunshine, tropical warmth and good friends. We do know/remember many of the marina people but there are no cruiser friends here so a bit lonely:((((
Well….what happened on the last half day and our arrival….well, nothing….yeah!!!! It was almost ideal, very calm waters and wind until the last hour or so. Well of course, Mystic was so salty, maybe the most she has ever been, that Kathy went out and washed her down…..yes, we had fresh water to spare being the water hogs that we are…..I swear our speed picked up a half a knot with all that salt off her!!!! But the salt gods do have a since of humor, as in the last hour, the winds picked up to 20 kts on the nose…..yes, that is right, NW all day as predicted but SW the last hour, go figure…..now we were close to shore so the fetch/waves were minimal….maybe 1-2′ chop, but just enough to spray water over Mystic again…..we both just started laughing and bowed down to the salt gods….we are not worthy….you get the pic!!!
Got in right at sunset….7:30 pm local time (6:30pm our time, Fiji time) yep, going west into a setting sun….yep, absolutely could see the channel….well, a Captain has to assure the Admiral all is well:))) But, luckily Mystic was on auto and headed to the barn and we made our way in and even docked on our own….you have to go to the Quarantine dock where it is securely locked so Kathy had to jump off to the dock to secure the lines…..hmmmm, we actually looked like we knew what we were doing for once!!!
Well, we got settled and out came the passage beer and tequila…..we would not check in to New Zealand until the am so party on!!! Well, the tequila tasted so good…..I’ll have another and then we ate a little snack and wham….yep, I’m out for the night….but I do remember waking up and going what’s that…..hmmmm, no motion and all is soooooo quiet….it was a bit creepy, really!!!!
So, the next day…..spent 2 hours doing online banking and rebuilding Quicken, b/u files would not load….whaaaa….so had to start from scratch, finally got it sorted and moved money to checking just in time…..Got checked in with officials….2 hours…..we did ok but one of the most thorough yet….more intense than last year, went though the whole boat opening everything…..even took our popcorn…that is just mean, tried to get Kabola running…..good news, it started, bad news the diesel valve was off and ran out of fuel….oops, dang operator error again:((((( initial attempts to bleed/get fuel were unsuccessful, ran crusieair for heat…..went and got fuel, tied up to our slip in 20 kt cross wind, got plugged in which means having to change out plugs as NZ is different than Fiji, went to restaurant for our traditional cheeseburger….they just ran out of hamburger meat, how about a steak burger sir, well, ok….turns out I could not bite through the meat, so used a knife and fork to eat the burger, yep, livin the dream…..went to store for stuff we couldn’t bring in, like ice cream and popcorn and fresh stuff, cleaned bilge from our hose break….that’s it….no mas~!!! Poured myself a stiff one around 6:30 and watched some Dexter….having withdrawals…haven’t watched for a few weeks, isn’t that just sick!!!! Slept like the dead….sweet!!!!
Today was another get stuff back running…..got the Kabola to run thanks to some emails to Jeff at Yacht Systems NW but still have a few circulations issues which will work on tomorrow…it circulates hot water in the Saloon/PH but not below in the staterooms….that is a new one and just plain weird. I then tackled the broken hose on the thru hull that leaked saltwater. Oh boy, was that a job, this is a 2″ wire reinforced black sanitation hose…..it was a pain to get it off and then to cut off about 2 inches to the chafe hole, then to stretch the hose another 2″ to reattach…..had to get Kathy to help from the stairway closet where the hose ran to a siphon…..took about all my strength and finally viola it was on……but, heard something pop in the left elbow and now only advil and scotch seems to cure the pain…..oweeeee!!!
Final thoughts on the passage: I call this one a 65%’r……we had trawler like weather 65% of the time and very rough weather 35% of the time. We have done 3 passages between New Zealand and the tropics. The first one was from Tonga to NZ, an 80%’r, then from NZ to Fiji, a 95%’r and maybe a 100%’r!!!. So we were a bit spoiled and expected something like #1 and 2. Well, that just didn’t happen and the rough weather was really rough…what comes after rough…..gnarly????? We only have one more passage in these waters to go….and that will be from NZ to either Fiji or Vanuatu (we are undecided our route next year, other than we will end up in Australia). As we were leaving the fuel dock yesterday, we went by the kiwi boat we met at check out in Lautoka, Just in Time, we yelled out congrats and how did you do in that front….oh, we did ok….got some 30 kt winds which is normal for this run….ok, so that is his definition of a normal run…..yikes!!!!
Final Stats:
Position: 35 50S 174 28E
Traveled: 1121 nm; 6 days, 9.5 hrs
Highest wind: 25-30G33 sustained for about 8 hours and on the nose
Highest Waves: 10-14′ short period with a 5-8′ wind chop…..somewhat 60 deg apart and on our nose….yuckx100
Speed: 7.3 avg for the passage; varied from 5.5-8.4; 1400-1800 rpm
Boat sightings: 1 total for the voyage
Fishing: nope….such a weenie:((((
Sail: down
Fuel burn: 1.26 nmpg for the trip…..should have been 1.3-1.4 nmpg, 909 gallons total
Plans from here: We leave for SF on 11/19 and come back to NZ on 1/23 (leave 1/21). So, we have 3 weeks to put Mystic to bed and to do 2 pages of boat projects…..we will certainly not get bored….pass the advil please!!!! When we come back we will rent a car and go tour NZ for 2 months…..oh, boy, ROAD TRIP:)))))
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!!
GO SF GIANTS GO!!
