sailfish 0 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Hi All, We depart on our first big trip tomorrow from wellington to christchurch. While this doesnt seem much to those of you who could do it in your sleep its actually our biggest trip, first out of sight from land and first overnighter for our yacht. The amount of money we've spent on getting her ready we could have flown to surfers for the weekend and then to christchurch (two full fares) hired a nice big campervan and headed to the sounds and then charted a yacht for a couple of weeks We are in for light winds so we will try flying our asymetrical. We have never flown a spinnaker before but I googled it and it doesn't seem to hard Failing that we'll gull wing which we also havn't tried, nor googled either, but really how hard can that be Will keep you all updated if we get internet connection along the way. We are going away completely green and if we make it we'll be experts when we get back Thanks to everyone off here for their advice (wheels, knotme, curly etc) and those around the marina who tolerate my constant questioning Its made a big difference. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Don't forget the camera, and be sure to show off to all and sundry here when you arrive. Have a good one. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Cool. Have heaps of fun. It seems like a big hurdle at first, but once you clear each hurdle, you gain more and more confidence and the earlier hurdles don't seem so tuff anymore. I can't remember if I advised you about this earlier, but if you are around Kaikoura area in the night, make sure you reef down as you can sometimes get some very strange winds coming down off those ranges and it is not uncommon to be hit by what you think is a Southerly, but it is a local event. However, I thoroughly recommend you try and cross that area during the day so you can have a chance at spotting a big whale. Link to post Share on other sites
Atom Ant 0 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 f*ck! You got bigger Cajones than me - but that's cos I'm a chicken! God speed and fair winds... Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 It's actually not a bad trip AA. As long as the weather is not bad. It's ruffly a 24hr run and no major headlands and currents to worry about and being over the continental shelf for much of the way, the sea is better behaved. Then once you are back in shallow water of the Canturbury bight, the Peninsula gives plenty of sea protection. You should not be out if sight of land, apart from being ruffly 80Nm off the shore at the middle of Pegusas Bay, but you can still see the peninsula and the mountains. Link to post Share on other sites
sailfish 0 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 24hrs if your on a jet ski Still at it. Just on the approach to chch now. What a wicked sight coming in and seeing the lights of christchurch this morning. We had SE till just past campbell which gave us good time and then the wind slowely swung around behind us and dropped off. I tried the async spinnaker but it turns out that thing doesnt like dead down wind. Boy we went fast in light airs just not to the place we wanted to go We then put up twin poled out head stays and wow what a way to travel, meandering along 4.5-5.5 knots in light airs, lounding around eating lunch on the deck in the blistering south island sun Curly those poles were awesome, thanks for getting those down! saved our bacon Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Awesome Sailfish. So you heading into Lyttleton or Akaroa? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Awesome Sailfish. So you heading into Lyttleton or Akaroa? Lyttleton Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 So ... you caused the latest earthquake then??? Did you run aground or something? Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 First one was pretty much right under your track Sailfish. Second one was right on the beach. Link to post Share on other sites
1paulg 17 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 First one was pretty much right under your track Sailfish. Second one was right on the beach. Is probably surfing into the harbour ..! What a bugger getting more quakes -espec right now at this time of year Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Txt from Mike and Danni tonight Heh bloody nice welcome home! Two big ones and it came through the boat big time! Only in two metres of water so prob why Link to post Share on other sites
sailfish 0 Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 Far out, cruise down south and kabam, pow, boom those were interesting in the boat to say the least! First one I felt a slight shift in boat and then a small rumble and some shuddering and thought oh well so thats what one of their after shocks feels like in the boat. I had a look around outside to see if it was a big one but didnt see anything out of the norm so thought it must have been around the 5 mark, although the networks were all jammed up. Then the second one hit, massive shuddering like we had a 2 ton prop with half its blades missing trying to go full speed. I was sitting in the saloon and everything inside shuddered like crazy and was quite loud. We are steel, fully insulated and in water and it felt way worse than the first. By that stage we had learned the first was a 5.8 so rushed up top and saw a rock fall on quail island which was pretty spectacular. Sitting there in 1.8m of water wondering if there were any waves going to be coming in was stressful knowing that we couldn't do anything if there was except lock the hatch hope the anchor holds and ride it out. I also wondered what would happen if the ground rose up under the boat and we were then beached. Crazy thoughts were certainly going through my head. We went out to see a firefighter mate of mine who had a house in brooklands. He showed me photos of the old high tide mark for the lagoon at the back of his old house and the new one in his chicken coup. Seems those thoughts wern't crazy, brooklands sections dropped so far he could put his hand over his gutter standing on the ground and he's short! Given we draw 1.8m and the depth sounder recorded 1.8m a .5m change in sea floor would put us grounded or near grounding I reckon depending on how far under our pinger is. It was hard enough anchoring in the sounds and judging the depths and whats ok, but now its just unfair when the goal posts may get moved on ya Solar panels are working wicked, throwing 19amps in during the day (also accidentally wired the freezer on 24/7 after defrosting it) which kept the batteries fully charged. Its almost as windy here as in wellington harbor so the wind genny is working at night which is great. So far as long as we have average to good light and some wind we won't run out of power We were escourted in by 20-30 hectors who played us for ages maybe 1/2 an hour. We sat on the transom step and hung our feet in the water splashing about which they thought was cool and came right up to play. My brother got scared a couple of times and pulled his legs out at which time I had to remind him they wernt sharks We are off to akaroa tomorrow and then leave tuesday day to head to picton. This will be interesting to see how we go coming back around and heading up as the wind seems to be turning circles wednesday-ish Link to post Share on other sites
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