New Zealand: we made it!   Saturday, 16/12/2023

Well, it’s a case of third time lucky. We arrived at Marsden Cove Marina, off Whangarei Harbour, just after 7pm yesterday evening. What a relief! It was a tough trip, sailing just off the wind and into the waves for seven of the ten days. Nothing particularly challenging – the strongest wind encountered was about 25 knots – but it gets exhausting when the bow is regularly slamming into the waves, making the whole boat judder, and you’re permanently heeled over to one side. I slept little and must admit that at times I felt thoroughly fed up. 

But we made it – and that’s all that counts. The final repair to the autopilot, which involved a brand new motorbike chain, held up perfectly for 1,258 nautical miles. The voyage took 10 days, rather than my expected 9 days, largely due to the need to sail off the wind for much of the time. The straight distance would have been about 1,110 miles – so conditions added roughly 13% to the distance, in effect an extra day. The final 24 hours was spent motoring in – at this stage we were heading directly into a soft 10 knot wind; to tack against that would have taken two days. By that stage I just wanted to arrive.

We sustained some damage en route. The stainless steel arch at the stern has given way badly on the port side – the result of constant banging into waves and probably from a few rogue waves that hit us from the port side, breaking into the cockpit. One of the three solar panels has been murdered – a broken steel pole has gone right through it. But all of that can be fixed, and I don’t think it’s that unusual to have some damage on a lengthy and rough trip. 

Coming in I tied up at the Customs/Quarantine dock. No-one to help me, given that it’s sealed off from the main dock by a locked metal gate. But the wind was very light and I had no difficulty lassoing a cleat at the stern. With the engine slightly engaged forward, bringing the bow in, I strolled up to the bow and lassoed another cleat. Job done! This morning I was visited by a biosecurity man – something taken very seriously in New Zealand. No fresh produce or meat is permitted to be brought in, and numerous other items are forbidden. Knowing the rules, I had very little that was verboten. The man left with my refuse, recycling, the remains of a bottle of honey and a packet of chickpeas – all of which I think will be incinerated. One thing I was worried about was the state of the hull. You are required to have it professionally cleaned, with a certificate to prove this, less than 30 days before arrival in New Zealand. Because of my aborted departures from Fiji, it was more than 30 days since it was done on November 8th. I openly volunteered this fact, and luckily the guy just brushed it aside. Officially I should have been paying for a diver to inspect and, if necessary, further clean the hull. 

He was followed by the customs man, who acts as immigration officer too. I’d filed all my details online before setting out, which made the whole process easy: ten minutes and he was done.

The weather here is lovely: it was mainly sunny today, with a high of 23. A far cry from the 32 degrees it was when I left Fiji. (And the evenings are fairly long: sunset was at 20:35 – we are almost 36 degrees south). A more moderate temperature makes doing things a lot easier. I shopped in the smallish, but surprisingly good, supermarket here in the marina and have had dinner in the marina restaurant. It’s great to be on land again! Tomorrow it’s going to be sunny too, and I will wash the boat, hose all the salt off – everything is sticky, with salt crystals on every surface. I’ve partly cleaned inside but more effort needed – the stickiness and dampness gets to everything. A couple of hatches sprang leaks thanks to waves breaking over them repeatedly – the seals must be deteriorating after almost three years in the tropics. One more repair needed.

This being New Zealand, the atmosphere is very friendly. After a few brief chats with people, I had a long conversation early evening with my neighbour, Michael. He’s a man who must be 78 if he’s not 80 or more. An interesting chap: a Kiwi, but in his late 20s he went to Durban in South Africa, where he acquired and ran a motor car dealership, before (bizarrely) swapping it for a tobacco farm in what was then Rhodesia. These days he spends six months of the year here, living on his boat, which he has owned since 1982, and the other six months in Canada, thereby avoiding winters altogether. Before I left the restaurant I had a long chat with the manageress, an Aussie who’s lived here for 13 years and whose real occupation is running a horse trekking business along the coast. Dynamic and enthusiastic – a great woman!

I am finishing this piece off back on the boat. My rum having run out, I’m drinking a double cognac (a legacy of Martinique) with ginger ale – not quite a Dark and Stormy, but it’ll do (the French would probably be horrified).

I shall spend the next three weeks relaxing and wandering around. This being the southern summer, most marine businesses are now closed for Christmas and won’t be back at work until Monday 8th January. So any work will need to wait until then. Which is fine – I need a break! I’ve had a heavy seven months. Since leaving Panama on May 11th, we have sailed 9,390 nautical miles in the Pacific – that’s 10,800 land miles or 17,278 kilometres. One hell of a journey.