Our Tonga to New Zealand leg

November 2013

Sashimi for lunch with some chilled wine!!!

No passage through the Pacific seems to elicit as much debate, weather discussion, fear and trepidation, as the leg to New Zealand! There are good reasons for this, as it can be very nasty indeed.

Many tales of rough seas, high winds, deep lows, lost  masts add a definite fear factor to one’s preparation! Apart from having the boat in tip top condition for heavy weather sailing, the single most important piece of preparation involves developing an understanding of the way the weather systems evolve, and behave in this corner of the Pacific.

A blog is no place to try and explain things, other than to point out that we also took on Bob McDavitt as our routing guru, to confirm that the window we were seeing really had a chance of materializing!

Full moon passage! Sunrise at the same time as moonset above Scott-Free

 Our first prize was to do the 280nms to Minerva North Reef, in good weather, and then wait there for another good 5/6 day window to do the last 800nms.  We left Nuku'alofa fairly certain of good weather for the first leg, but could see the early signs of a low developing in the Tasman sea area, which could produce some nasty stuff around Opua in  about 8/9 days. We made the decision to bypass Minerva in the event that this trend was confirmed, and Bob agreed!

And so we sailed past Minerva reef, 6 miles to port, but were at least lucky enough to have boated a decent Tuna along the way!

Sheer Tenacity as seen from Scott-Free

Getting cooler every day

We then had another 4 good days sailing, during which time we crossed the date line, before the wind died out on us and we were forced to motor sail for the last day and a bit, to ensure our arrival ahead of the predicted front. We boated another Tuna during the second last day, this time an Albacore Tuna of about 12kg, which is called the “Chicken of the sea”, in parts of the Pacific, due to its lighter, whiter coloured flesh.

Albacore tuna

We arrived at the Q dock in Opua at 10.00am, exactly 8 days out from Nuku Alofa, having had about as perfect a trip as we could ever have dreamed about.

Entering the Bay of Islands in calm conditions

Opua anchorage

   In total, we sailed 1103nms, only 31 miles further than the direct rhumb line. For most of the trip we enjoyed a beam reach, and for about 2 days the wind was a little forward of that point, but turned back in our favour for the last 4 days. The seas got quite big and lumpy for days 4 and 5, despite the winds never getting above 21 knots, which was the highest wind speed we noticed at any stage. The sea state was due to the southern ocean systems pushing their way north, but it flattened out nicely as we approached NZ. Dolphins came and played around the bow on many occasions, and we were able to take some nice footage.

For the sailors, this is a summary of the trip!

Day 1                149nm        6.1knot avr

Day 2                 140              5.8

Day 3                  156              6.4

Day 4                   120              5.0

Day 5                   147              6.1

Day 6                   156              6.5

Day 7                   113               4.7

Day 8                   125               5.2

TOTAL               1103nm         5.74knots

As I write this blog , the approach to Opua is experiencing gale force winds and wild seas, and its been pouring for 3 days ……. Just the stuff we were only too `pleased to avoid!

A pair of happy sailors