Day nine - 99 miles to go to the finish line
Position: 33 57S 173 05E, 30nm NE of North Cape, the NW tip of New Zealand
Speed 6 knots, course 150T
Distance to go: 99 miles
It's 3.30am and I'm hoping this is my last night watch for a while. I have just put a big cross through the "100 miles" box on our whiteboard, which is a good visual reminder of how far we have come. The passage was 930 miles in a straight line, but we have sailed rather further. Some of the miles have been pretty easy, and some of them have been hard fought, especially those that we had to sail twice due to drifting backwards when we were hove-to for nine hours.. The past 24 hours have been a bit of an effort, as there was much less west than we had hoped for in the forecast southwesterly wind. It was pretty much a southerly. So we have been hard on the wind all day, which in 20+ knots and 2-3m waves, has been somewhat tippy and bumpy.
In the old days, Jack would have been in crawling mode on a day like today, but not any more. Our Ninja kids now leap around the boat as if it's not even moving, anticipating the motion and judging when and how to move accordingly. They zoom up and down, wielding cricket stumps and hedgehog block aeroplanes, leaving no hand free to hold on, and touch wood they seem to get away with it. Angus and I, meanwhile, still cling on for dear life as we walk around, pausing to lean against upright surfaces as we go, and strapping ourselves in to our stand-up nav station so we don't fall backwards into the galley when the boat lurches. Yesterday's happy half hour was a disco in the aft saloon, with diet coke and sweeties. George "got his funk on", Jack did his pole acrobatics, and Eloise donned a dancing skirt and did a New-Cal-style hip wiggle dance. When they asked us to get up and dance, it was all we could do to stay on our feet in the motion. I suppose the pull of gravity is not so strong on little people.
The ocean is getting busy as we close the coast of New Zealand. There are lots of ships, which is something we haven't had to worry much about for ages, but luckily none coming close to us yet. The rally fleet is converging and we have some of our very good friends sailing in the sea around us on our AIS tracker - Casteele, Moon River, Equinox and Amphitreete. I don't think any of us will make it for the 4pm customs cut-off for today, which means we won't be able to clear in to the country until tomorrow. The downside of that is that watching the rugby is going to be a challenge. But that aside, we're very excited about our arrival time, because it means that tonight we'll be on the quarantine dock.. and Opua Q-dock parties are infamous. The goal is to finish up all the contra-band we have on board before biosecurity visit tomorrow, otherwise they will take it away. That means meat, cheese, salami, any fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs etc, but also any alcohol which is over the permitted limit... The Q-dock is under very strict CCTV surveillance - we have been told it's fine to be on the pontoon together, but under no circumstances to board each other's boats. We're going to need full thermals, woolly hats and coats for the party, but at least our beers will stay cold.
The other thing that biosecurity are very hot on is what is growing on the bottom of the boat. Hopefully on Victoria, there's not much. Angus and I scraped every last barnacle off her in New Caledonia, and have underwater photos to show the results of our hard work, so that should suffice. If there are any concerns, they inspect the bottom with a camera on a stick, and if they don't like what they see, incoming boats have 24 hours to haul out and scrub off, or leave New Zealand. That would be a real blow, having worked so hard to get here!
It feels very significant to be sailing back in to New Zealand, having completed our 2019 Pacific Circuit of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. We have met so many wonderful people along the way, and we have come so far as a family crew, too. We have almost sailed 5,000 miles in Victoria since we bought her in March, and it feels like a big achievement to have done all the passages together. There's no doubt that we have made a much better job of this return passage than we did of the outward one, when we were like rabbits in the headlights with the new boat and the big waves and strong wind and vomiting children. (Stop press: no-one has even felt sick on this passage!)
Jack's best friend on the rally has always been Asha, who is five; they declared themselves boyfriend and girlfriend very soon after they met. They had to say goodbye before we left Noumea, as Asha was flying home and they live in Napier, so he won't see her when we get to Opua. They were both hugging each other, in floods of tears, and Jack couldn't even look or wave at the airport bus as it pulled away from the marina. He just lay on his bunk and was sad and quiet for most of that day. I think there'll be a lot more of that in the week ahead. Most of our New Zealand friends are going back to "normal life", at least until the next sailing season, but we are lucky to be continuing the adventure.
I'm going to send this to Rosie to post now, as I know it'll get busy once we reach Opua. Fingers crossed we manage the last part of our passage without incident. We are longing to pass North Cape as everyone says the sea flattens almost instantly, which will be very welcome.
Thanks for following us. Pics to follow on insta / FB when we dig out our NZ sim cards.
Lots of love from all of us.
Signing off from passage from the Good Ship Victoria. Xx
Speed 6 knots, course 150T
Distance to go: 99 miles
It's 3.30am and I'm hoping this is my last night watch for a while. I have just put a big cross through the "100 miles" box on our whiteboard, which is a good visual reminder of how far we have come. The passage was 930 miles in a straight line, but we have sailed rather further. Some of the miles have been pretty easy, and some of them have been hard fought, especially those that we had to sail twice due to drifting backwards when we were hove-to for nine hours.. The past 24 hours have been a bit of an effort, as there was much less west than we had hoped for in the forecast southwesterly wind. It was pretty much a southerly. So we have been hard on the wind all day, which in 20+ knots and 2-3m waves, has been somewhat tippy and bumpy.
In the old days, Jack would have been in crawling mode on a day like today, but not any more. Our Ninja kids now leap around the boat as if it's not even moving, anticipating the motion and judging when and how to move accordingly. They zoom up and down, wielding cricket stumps and hedgehog block aeroplanes, leaving no hand free to hold on, and touch wood they seem to get away with it. Angus and I, meanwhile, still cling on for dear life as we walk around, pausing to lean against upright surfaces as we go, and strapping ourselves in to our stand-up nav station so we don't fall backwards into the galley when the boat lurches. Yesterday's happy half hour was a disco in the aft saloon, with diet coke and sweeties. George "got his funk on", Jack did his pole acrobatics, and Eloise donned a dancing skirt and did a New-Cal-style hip wiggle dance. When they asked us to get up and dance, it was all we could do to stay on our feet in the motion. I suppose the pull of gravity is not so strong on little people.
The ocean is getting busy as we close the coast of New Zealand. There are lots of ships, which is something we haven't had to worry much about for ages, but luckily none coming close to us yet. The rally fleet is converging and we have some of our very good friends sailing in the sea around us on our AIS tracker - Casteele, Moon River, Equinox and Amphitreete. I don't think any of us will make it for the 4pm customs cut-off for today, which means we won't be able to clear in to the country until tomorrow. The downside of that is that watching the rugby is going to be a challenge. But that aside, we're very excited about our arrival time, because it means that tonight we'll be on the quarantine dock.. and Opua Q-dock parties are infamous. The goal is to finish up all the contra-band we have on board before biosecurity visit tomorrow, otherwise they will take it away. That means meat, cheese, salami, any fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs etc, but also any alcohol which is over the permitted limit... The Q-dock is under very strict CCTV surveillance - we have been told it's fine to be on the pontoon together, but under no circumstances to board each other's boats. We're going to need full thermals, woolly hats and coats for the party, but at least our beers will stay cold.
The other thing that biosecurity are very hot on is what is growing on the bottom of the boat. Hopefully on Victoria, there's not much. Angus and I scraped every last barnacle off her in New Caledonia, and have underwater photos to show the results of our hard work, so that should suffice. If there are any concerns, they inspect the bottom with a camera on a stick, and if they don't like what they see, incoming boats have 24 hours to haul out and scrub off, or leave New Zealand. That would be a real blow, having worked so hard to get here!
It feels very significant to be sailing back in to New Zealand, having completed our 2019 Pacific Circuit of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. We have met so many wonderful people along the way, and we have come so far as a family crew, too. We have almost sailed 5,000 miles in Victoria since we bought her in March, and it feels like a big achievement to have done all the passages together. There's no doubt that we have made a much better job of this return passage than we did of the outward one, when we were like rabbits in the headlights with the new boat and the big waves and strong wind and vomiting children. (Stop press: no-one has even felt sick on this passage!)
Jack's best friend on the rally has always been Asha, who is five; they declared themselves boyfriend and girlfriend very soon after they met. They had to say goodbye before we left Noumea, as Asha was flying home and they live in Napier, so he won't see her when we get to Opua. They were both hugging each other, in floods of tears, and Jack couldn't even look or wave at the airport bus as it pulled away from the marina. He just lay on his bunk and was sad and quiet for most of that day. I think there'll be a lot more of that in the week ahead. Most of our New Zealand friends are going back to "normal life", at least until the next sailing season, but we are lucky to be continuing the adventure.
I'm going to send this to Rosie to post now, as I know it'll get busy once we reach Opua. Fingers crossed we manage the last part of our passage without incident. We are longing to pass North Cape as everyone says the sea flattens almost instantly, which will be very welcome.
Thanks for following us. Pics to follow on insta / FB when we dig out our NZ sim cards.
Lots of love from all of us.
Signing off from passage from the Good Ship Victoria. Xx
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