Day 3 at Sea - Watching the weather ahead of us
Position 26 54 S 166 46E, motoring at 5.5 knots, wind SSE 5 knots. course 175, swell 1.5m
Distance to Opua, NZ: 660nm
Hello from a very relaxed ship, ghosting its way south through a calm, kind, blue, gently rolling ocean. Today is day three at sea; we are already over 48 hours into our passage back to New Zealand. Things on board are great - the boat is pretty flat, the sun is shining, and the crew are all happy. OK, so there are still a few inter-child disagreements, but so far, it is unlike any other passage we have done; no-one has been sick, or peed in their bed, and we are neither heeled over nor being tossed about by waves. It won't be like this the whole way - the last few hundred miles may be a bit of a rollercoaster ride - but we're enjoying every single mile of these conditions. We've managed to sail quite a bit, despite the light winds, but have had to motor for most of today.
We've had two fishing lines out the back all day, but no strikes yet, and it's almost dark, so we'll pull them in soon and have another try tomorrow. The calm weather has meant that it's been very busy in the activities department for the last couple of days. Yesterday we made a huge papier mache hot air balloon; we used so much watery glue that it hasn't fully dried yet, so we can't get going on painting or attaching the basket yet. This morning Eloise set up a sugar crystal experiment, involving two open-topped jam jars filled with a green, gloopy, sugary mix, which are now tied to a strong point on the aft deck. Hopefully the contents will crystallise before we heel over more and create a really sticky mess. Jack and George have made some circus-themed puppets on lolly sticks; the human cannon performance is planned for tomorrow. The kids have listened to some David Walliams audiobooks, and made some wonderful lego creations, but the highlight of the day has been body painting, led by Angus. George and Jack, dressed only in their "box pants" (as Jack calls them), are both decorated from head to toe with pictures and patterns. They have black beards, rainbow hair, turtles on their tummies, and "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" inscribed on their backs. In the end, only Angus had the long-discussed late afternoon "bath", so I guess there will be bits of dried paint all over the boys' sheets and pillowcases by the morning.
We have spent a lot of time today downloading and poring over weather, to try and ensure we time our arrival between the worst of the low pressure systems that pass across the top of New Zealand, one after the other. Each one brings wind, waves and fronts of course, but if you wait too long for conditions to calm down after one low, the next one will be upon you. I think we're the only boat on the rally who don't have a satellite phone, so we rely on our SSB radio to send emails and receive weather. It's very clever, but because the connection is slow, we have to be very specific and choosy about the weather we request - sea area, wind, gusts, waves, different weather models, routing etc - up to a total of about 10KB. Getting a connection seems to be more of an art than a science, and involves a great deal of patience, as we tune in to possible frequencies and try to decide whether they are "busy" or not, before pressing connect. The sounds that come from the radio range from clucking chickens to passing motorbikes, and cause much hilarity. If we accidentally select an engaged frequency, the computer gives up entirely in protest and freezes, requiring a restart and then the process begins again... Some technical computer expertise and/or a satellite phone is on the list before we head offshore again - it would save us hours each day!
That's all our news for today - nothing scary. We will be passing Norfolk Island tomorrow afternoon / evening, where the rally fleet have permission from the Australian authorities to anchor for a while if we feel we need to pause before the final push to NZ. At the moment we don't think we will, but it's good to know the option is there.
Victoria crew signing off for today, and now moving to the Nav Station to wrestle with the SSB radio and the clucking chickens...
Distance to Opua, NZ: 660nm
Hello from a very relaxed ship, ghosting its way south through a calm, kind, blue, gently rolling ocean. Today is day three at sea; we are already over 48 hours into our passage back to New Zealand. Things on board are great - the boat is pretty flat, the sun is shining, and the crew are all happy. OK, so there are still a few inter-child disagreements, but so far, it is unlike any other passage we have done; no-one has been sick, or peed in their bed, and we are neither heeled over nor being tossed about by waves. It won't be like this the whole way - the last few hundred miles may be a bit of a rollercoaster ride - but we're enjoying every single mile of these conditions. We've managed to sail quite a bit, despite the light winds, but have had to motor for most of today.
We've had two fishing lines out the back all day, but no strikes yet, and it's almost dark, so we'll pull them in soon and have another try tomorrow. The calm weather has meant that it's been very busy in the activities department for the last couple of days. Yesterday we made a huge papier mache hot air balloon; we used so much watery glue that it hasn't fully dried yet, so we can't get going on painting or attaching the basket yet. This morning Eloise set up a sugar crystal experiment, involving two open-topped jam jars filled with a green, gloopy, sugary mix, which are now tied to a strong point on the aft deck. Hopefully the contents will crystallise before we heel over more and create a really sticky mess. Jack and George have made some circus-themed puppets on lolly sticks; the human cannon performance is planned for tomorrow. The kids have listened to some David Walliams audiobooks, and made some wonderful lego creations, but the highlight of the day has been body painting, led by Angus. George and Jack, dressed only in their "box pants" (as Jack calls them), are both decorated from head to toe with pictures and patterns. They have black beards, rainbow hair, turtles on their tummies, and "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" inscribed on their backs. In the end, only Angus had the long-discussed late afternoon "bath", so I guess there will be bits of dried paint all over the boys' sheets and pillowcases by the morning.
We have spent a lot of time today downloading and poring over weather, to try and ensure we time our arrival between the worst of the low pressure systems that pass across the top of New Zealand, one after the other. Each one brings wind, waves and fronts of course, but if you wait too long for conditions to calm down after one low, the next one will be upon you. I think we're the only boat on the rally who don't have a satellite phone, so we rely on our SSB radio to send emails and receive weather. It's very clever, but because the connection is slow, we have to be very specific and choosy about the weather we request - sea area, wind, gusts, waves, different weather models, routing etc - up to a total of about 10KB. Getting a connection seems to be more of an art than a science, and involves a great deal of patience, as we tune in to possible frequencies and try to decide whether they are "busy" or not, before pressing connect. The sounds that come from the radio range from clucking chickens to passing motorbikes, and cause much hilarity. If we accidentally select an engaged frequency, the computer gives up entirely in protest and freezes, requiring a restart and then the process begins again... Some technical computer expertise and/or a satellite phone is on the list before we head offshore again - it would save us hours each day!
That's all our news for today - nothing scary. We will be passing Norfolk Island tomorrow afternoon / evening, where the rally fleet have permission from the Australian authorities to anchor for a while if we feel we need to pause before the final push to NZ. At the moment we don't think we will, but it's good to know the option is there.
Victoria crew signing off for today, and now moving to the Nav Station to wrestle with the SSB radio and the clucking chickens...
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