Tag: Fiji to New Zealand Passage

Fiji, New Zealand, November 2019, South Pacific, The South Pacific

The Sky Isn’t Falling

The tales from the grim reaper aren’t that bad. Yes for the last nine days Dazzler and her crew have had patches of weather and a few daily fixes. But in the big picture her crew has learned many things to better understand the whole sailing thing. Everyone has their favorite point of sail and we have ours as well. Our least favorite is having your ear pinned down trying to go as close to weather and as fast as possible. There has to be a level of comfort or the human body gets fatigued. Let’s face it, with a crew of two comfort is a big factor. We generally hove to to make the hot evening meal and that feels as if we are at anchor. Nice break from all the motion of the ocean and subliminal core exercises that Dr. Oz never told us about.

Dazzler and her crew have enjoyed watching her stretch out her legs and lean into the wind. For the last few days we have experienced a good point of sail with 15-20 knots of wind from the east with our coarse of 185°-194° true. The apparent wind angle has been about 70° apparent. Not a bad point of sail but when we add the 1.5-2.5 meter swells running out of the southeast the sea pushes back a bit. Since yesterday afternoon the wind has been coming straight out of the east and Dazzler has hit her glory. We have experience winds from 120°-90° true and she seems to be very happy. For a small heavy vessel she doesn’t give way too easily to the constant bullying of the sea so she holds line very well.

One of the things that I’ve been working on for the last several years is learning to fine tune Dazzler’s sail plan and balance. Constantly adjusting the different sails and noticing how they affect the relationship with regards to how hard the autopilot is working. Currently her sail plan for the above mentioned wind and swell pattern is a double reefed main, fully deployed staysail and the jib let out to the shape of a high clew yankee (About an 80% sail). As she leans into the wind we have been enjoying 6.0-7.0 knots per hour. I must say it’s quite nice compared to those close hauled bone jarring wave crashing times at the helm. She runs smoothly at this wind angle and obtains great speed as we are starting to make up a little time on our passage.

As luck would have it, we are expecting a low pressure front to move across north island New Zealand on 9 November and our scheduled date of arrival is 8 November. So, making up as many miles along the way to ensure we arrive on the eighth of November is important. And who knows what challenging circumstances may rise up to our delight. By the way Neptune that wasn’t a challenge. LOL

The weather is decidedly colder here at 26° south than in Fiji. Granted Fiji had its share of cloudy cool days as well. But Fiji is coming into its cyclone season and summer months now. So is New Zealand for that matter. We were told how warm it was last season by the local Kiwis, but to us 69° and 72° was butt ass cold. Kiwis are walking around in shorts and barefoot and we are all bundled up like we’re going on an arctic adventure with Sir Edmund Hillary. I guess the term of winter or summer is all relative to the thickness or lack of thickness of your blood.

Dazzler is 32 years young and still has a great spirit for bluewater sailing. I try to stay on top of all the preventative maintenance, but issues such as a water lift muffler are something I’ve never experienced or even heard of before. Perhaps they have a service life. Perhaps there is a way to check their condition. Without internet, I can’t search that issue. Rest assured when we get to NZ we will look that up along with where to get a good quality replacement.

Yes that list of projects for New Zealand is growing every day. Six months of sipping drinks with little umbrellas has its price. It’s called Maintenance! Nothing is free in water world! Cruising anywhere and living your dream is not free. Not necessarily money, but your time and labor as well. You could do as some do and have the attitude of deferring maintenance or you can stay on top of it by fixing things when they present themselves. I myself like to even outsmart those pesky things and fix them before they become an issue. In some case those simple projects grow because you find other issues when you’re fixing the first one. For example changing Dazzler’s oil before we left Fiji and finding a nut from one of the shaft flange bolts under the engine. At least we dodged that bullet.

So you see, while I’m sitting here on the morning watch screaming in a southerly direction towards John’s Corner at 7 knots, I am enjoying the relationship we all share. You know the one between Dazzler, crew, the sea, the wind and paradise! You may not think 7 knots is that fast, but for those armchair sailers or those custom to the yacht club bar stool it’s faster than the 405 in West Los Angeles at rush hour but a hell of a lot more fun.

Until next time catch us if you can. Cheers!
Captain Dan

New Zealand

I Can’t Take It!

Day 6 Fiji to New Zealand

Today starts out as a picture perfect sailing day. We had fantastic ESE winds running 12-18 knots. The swell was relatively kind to us with a longer frequency than we’ve seen in days. We had all three sails up and were cruising an average of 6.5 knots for the better part of the day. It wasn’t even that cold. I particularly enjoyed my afternoon watch and was pleased that Dan slept for a good three hours. Yes, things are looking up. Finally!

At 0300 Zulu Dan got on the radio and reported our position and other information to the Seafarers Net. I was sitting around the table smiling and enjoying the fact that we were having a truly wonderful day. After the net Dan went topside to put us into the hove to position so I could heat up the Beef Stroganoff we were having for dinner. This is the 7th time we have gone hove to this trip. Yep…working on a record.

I walked in the galley and realized we were out of paper towels so I headed to the coat locker hoping to find one last roll. I reach in and yes! There is a roll sitting near the bottom of the locker. I grab it and my heart sinks. It’s wet! No, not soaking wet but pretty damp to be sure. I immediately grab a headlamp to further investigate. As I move the coats to the side I see the entire outside wall is wet. “Oh for crying out loud! Seriously! This is getting freaking ridiculous now!”

I start pulling the coats and a few other items from the locker. Then I look in Dan’s locker because it’s right beside it in the bunk room. As soon as I open it I see there’s water in there too. I pull all of his clothes out. Some are really damp….others just feel like they’ve been sitting in a sauna for a while. I go to the companionway and wait for Dan to finish with the sails.

“We have a big problem” I tell him. “The coat locker and your locker have water in them.” Of course he comes down immediately. By this time I have clothes and stuff strewn all over the table, our bunk and the settee. I just move to the side and step into the galley. There’s nothing left for me to do but watch and oh yes, have my nervous breakdown. I’m standing in the galley in tears as Dan assesses the situation. Apparently in his mind it’s not nearly as bad as it is in my mind. He believes we may have a leak around a chain plate and considering the fact that we’ve been healed over to the starboard side for days, the amount of water is minimal. In other words, there’s really nothing we can do about it out here. The water will run down into the bildge and be pumped out. As he said, “It’s not going to sink us.” Well let’s just do a big ol’ happy dance on that now shall we? I’m being facetious of course.

It’s at times like this that I think of my dear friend Roger Sutton who, upon hearing that I was going to embark on this journey to sail the world, told me the first rule of sailing. Keep the boat in the water and the water out of the boat. Well, Roger, I love the sentiment but I guess sometimes you just have to deal with what God puts in front of you. Trust me, I don’t like it and it freaks me out a bit but we have no choice. We’ve still got six more days ahead of us and we’ve got to keep this ship sailing.

Dan, as wonderful and kind as he is, has reached his limit with my doom and gloom attitude. I understand. I know it’s not helping him and I’m usually very strong. We have an affectionate discussion as he’s trying to tell me to buck up and I’m telling him I’m over it all. I’m physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Now I know all the women out there will understand when I say that sometimes when all the shit has hit the fan, we just need to take a moment, have a breakdown and then have our man scoop us up in his strong arms and reassure us that all will be okay. We don’t need him to get all agitated and tell us to “suck it up buttercup.” No. That is not at all helpful! You men are surely rolling your eyes about now but it’s true. Acting tough and telling us to “buck up and get over it” only makes things worse. It would be most helpful if you all could stop being so darn practical and try thinking like a woman once in a while.

For the next half hour while Dan deals with his clothes I heat up dinner. It’s uncommonly quiet on board. He takes his dinner to the cockpit and I sit below at the table. After dinner I do the dishes and harvest ice while he continues to look at the water issue. Finally he comes over and hugs me. I apologize for being such a wreck and he calmly explains what he thinks is happening, where the water will go and why I shouldn’t be worried. Honestly, a hug and an “it will all be okay” would have sufficed but he’s an over achiever. Now think of how much easier it would have been if he’d have just done that in the first place. Just saying!

Before we start on our way again I tell him that I’m breaking the rules tonight and having a cocktail before bed. There’s no vodka on board so it will have to be a Tequila drink. My nerves are shot and this is going to be my medicine. I can see he’s not overly fond of the idea but he doesn’t say a word. I think he realizes that it’s probably the best thing for everyone on board.

Dan heads to the cockpit to get us moving again and I make a stiff cocktail and sit down at the table to relax before it’s time for bed. I also make a pact with myself that tomorrow I will begin searching for those hidden cameras.

Until next time…
Jilly & Dan