Black Panther

Make it two piedys, chainsaw the keels off and make a new trimaran.

As liveaboard I've never caught a thief, but i have towed several boats up the river, rescued a boat when the pile actually broke, secured countless sails and canvas covers and pulled lots of debris and plastic out of the river.

Have you purchased or are you searching? I was going to toss it, but hey that was my only national title. I never rose to such glory again.

Topical. Cleaning the mess in the chart table today and found this

West looking like the better option this morning

Cc and le Cam will also be to weather when they come out of this

He's broken into the new breeze, next 24hrs will be interesting.

I think it will come to who picks up the new breeze first. The boats further west , while sailing faster have yet to find the parking lot.

A few years ago my daughters found some swimming medals from 50 years ago in a drawer somewhere. They made them into earrings.

Will Colemans flyer to the east pay off. I'm betting yes.

Cheap can be good. I was recently told by a Raymarine person they wouldn't fix a problematic chart plotter screen. Apparently 6 years Is too old to bother with. Just replace the screen. Oh yeah, both screens coz the new one won't talk to the old one. Oh, and all those mfd won't work either. And better replace the two autopilots. With installation about 40k AUD. Why do you ask? Thankfully wasn't my boat, but you can buy a sh*t ton of navionics for 40k.

Good reason to skip past the main marine electronics companies. I use mxmariner. Cost $15 to buy and the charts are free.

I thought the nz charts were free?. I know I didn't pay for them

Have to admit that made me smile. Sailing around with a sextant 5 miles was considered adequate.

What was the maximum variation you found between charts?

1 & 2 aren't a particular worry, where do you get your information for #3?

Made it back to NZ. Have to admit I do like it here.

Go nuts and have outboard in a cockpit well.

I'd wait another week just to get them out of the way

Hey, thats what I said.

My thinking (FWIW) goes like this. A fastish boat will leave in a SEly and do 170-180 miles per day. So in three days you are half way. It's the second half of the trip that is likely more unpleasant. So you are looking for days 3 to 7 to have nothing nasty. Unfortunately forecasts are seldom reliable past 3 days. So, leave when the forecasts suggest days 3 to 7 will be acceptable. Try to get an updated forecast at about 500 miles to go and decide to carry on or park until things improve. Don't sue me.

Quick glance says i would leave Sunday morning

There will be weather.

So it coincidentally happened that yesterday I was threading my way south from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, and it was the end of a long weekend. Aussies were out on their boats in the thousands. Imagine driving from north head to westhaven and back for 6 hours straight, on the busiest day you can remember. Then double it. And I saw uncountable instances if stupid, dangerous and illegal behaviour. As in every 60 seconds. And every boat had its registration number in shiny 2 foot high font on its topsides. I don't think registration will make any difference in NZ.

I normally enjoy stories about how inadequate our military is, but this is a bit sad.