Kawhia to South Island.

About to embark on another epic #sailing adventure. A year spent restoring the boat, then nearly 3 months getting to know it in side the harbour. Now is the time. I climbed the hill, viewed the bar, it looks good. The wind is somewhat favorable. Should be mostly a beam reach to the south island!

First plan is to sail to the south island in one go, dropping anchor in maybe able tasman, or d'urville island. but perhaps I'll stop in New Plymouth.
Expecting the trip to take 36 hours, but could be double that if I get belcalmed etc!

I'll post updates here, which you won't receive because I'll be at sea!

I made it over the bar. That was frigging terrorifing! (/exciting!)

you know the bit when you are surfing when you are paddling out, and you arrive at the wave just as it's about to break?... and you climb up the front and crash down the other side?

I just did that in a 31 foot boat! that is also my home!

waves are now much smoother and the wind is good!

Safe travels, @Dominic!

day 1

Surprisingly still have signal. sailing to windward, with tiller tied. the sun has just set. have caught two fish. you know how they say "fair winds and following seas"? well this is not that. fairly bumpy. going a bit more west than would be idea but I expecting the wind to turn a bit more east tonight. The way it's looking for tomorrow there is gonna be a calm bit then a strong south westerly. If I get caught in that I might put into port taranaki for Friday then head back out again on Saturday or something like that. I'm sort of deciding wether I feel queezy. I have some appetite too but I think I'll just wait a bit longer...

I spent the night sailing towards Archenar. The southern hemisphere lacks a bright start near the south pole, but it has several around it. The southern cross, the shaft of which points to Archenar, then off to the side opposite side of the cross from the pointers, is Canupus. The true south is about half way between the southern cross and Archenar. It's funny, because the southern cross is depicted on quite a few flags - NZ and Australia, and a couple pacific islands too.

But from NZ at least, you rarely see it directly upright. If you keep reasonable hours and are mainly outside at night during the summer (the other seasons less likely to have clear skys, anyway) then usually you see it on it's side with the pointers verticalish.

The stars are like a 24 hours clock. They slowly rotate through the night (and the day but you can't see that)... as an analogue clock, it would have 24/00 (midnight) at the "top" and 12 (midday) at the "bottom" at the summer solstice. The "top" would slowly rotate around through out the year - as the earth moves around the sun, and the night side, the side away from the sun, points at different stars. At the winter solstice the 12 would be the top, and the 24 at the bottom.

So I sailed towards Archenar, but as the night progressed, switched for Canupus. At 4:51 the southern cross was upside down and I was heading for the Large Magaliinic cloud

day 2.

09:44 currently bobbing around becalmed. Was expected a light SE around midnight, but it was too light to really make much progress. In calm water I might have been able to sail at 1-2 knots but with the swell still fairly high, it shakes the sails so they don't draw. As a swell wave passes, it pushes the air, and makes a momentary wind, or a gap in the wind. Still, on my previous boat this would be much more uncomfortable - rolling violently from side to side, but not going anywhere. On the new boat, the catamaran, well, it's up and down and still not going anywhere, but it's just not as bad.

@Dominic_phone managed to bail that water out? How things over there?

After the drama with the water in a place it shouldn't be, had been delayed somewhat, and it became clear that I wasn't gonna make port taranaki while still having daylight. So I turned around and headed back out to sea. The sea is a known factor. It might be bumpy and a bit splashy out here, but it's rocks that I'm really worried about and port taranaki is made of rocks

The forecast was to continue pummeling me with a SW tonight, and then easing and turning SE, then changing to W. If I can use the SE to get around Taranaki then that W will be a pleasant beam reach into some where around nelson.

I hope he’s ok. The last post doesn’t sound good at all.

Here is one of those cases where “eventually consistent” can get us a bit anxious 😅

Glad to hear everything is ok. You coming in to Wellington or just heading straight to the South Island?

I sorry about that overly dramatic post. you didn't need to call the authorities! if it had been really that life and death I wouldn't have been posting to SSB would I?

Anyway, several days without signal, 3 miles to go into Totatanui bay, in Able Tasman. A delightful anchorage that I spent some time in last trip...should be dropping anchor shortly after the sun rises