I hope everyone had a great Xmas. Here's the link to the video for the final leg from Tonga to Auckland.
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Thursday 20 December 2012
Hawaii to Tonga - Video
Here's a link to another video, this one of footage taken on the Hawaii to Tonga leg, also including another dodgy soundtrack.
Home At Last
We have made it back to NZ in one piece!
I did not get to make any post during our stopover in Tonga, but to summarise, we made reasonably good time to Tonga (some slow going through the doldrums), and had far less gear problems than the previous leg. The new crew members settled in well, although the first 24 hours out of Hawaii were horrendously choppy and uncomfortable, leading to some serious sea sickness from some of the guys and perhaps some wonderment as to what they had got themselves into.
While I say we had less gear problems, we did have one significant event when the engine room bilge pump failed, and in the process of starting up the engine driven pump to clear the bilge yours truly screwed up and managed to blow the engine exhaust apart. Huge kudos go to Simon for his persistent efforts in sweltering heat and humidity to patch it all up and get us going again.
We spent 4 nights in Vava'u, Tonga, and then got under way for NZ, with a beautiful weather window opening up prior to all the nasty shit that has just descended on Fiji and Samoa, and soon to head south to NZ. We averaged over 200 nautical miles per day all the way to NZ, and arrived off Great Barrier after 6 1/2 days. There were only four crew for the final leg, but by dispensing with the mizzen sail altogether we made handling the boat quite easy. Indeed, most of the trip was made in 20-25 knots of wind with a fully reefed main, no mizzen, and some combination of reefed jib and staysail, and we still were routinely chugging along over 10 knots. If it had not been for some strong counter-currents we hit for a full day we may well have done the trip in less than 6 days.
We are now parked up in Whangaparoa, Auckland, and everyone is getting some well deserved rest (except for me - back to work...). I'd like to say thanks again to everyone who has supported us through this sometimes trying project, and especially to Jon, Wayne, Paul, Duff, Kim, Simon, Ross and Jordan for all their hard work and efforts in crewing our new baby down to NZ.
I will post some more videos etc soon, and will probably start updating the blog again in the new year when we haul out again and start phase two of the grand restoration.
Cheers,
James.
I did not get to make any post during our stopover in Tonga, but to summarise, we made reasonably good time to Tonga (some slow going through the doldrums), and had far less gear problems than the previous leg. The new crew members settled in well, although the first 24 hours out of Hawaii were horrendously choppy and uncomfortable, leading to some serious sea sickness from some of the guys and perhaps some wonderment as to what they had got themselves into.
While I say we had less gear problems, we did have one significant event when the engine room bilge pump failed, and in the process of starting up the engine driven pump to clear the bilge yours truly screwed up and managed to blow the engine exhaust apart. Huge kudos go to Simon for his persistent efforts in sweltering heat and humidity to patch it all up and get us going again.
We spent 4 nights in Vava'u, Tonga, and then got under way for NZ, with a beautiful weather window opening up prior to all the nasty shit that has just descended on Fiji and Samoa, and soon to head south to NZ. We averaged over 200 nautical miles per day all the way to NZ, and arrived off Great Barrier after 6 1/2 days. There were only four crew for the final leg, but by dispensing with the mizzen sail altogether we made handling the boat quite easy. Indeed, most of the trip was made in 20-25 knots of wind with a fully reefed main, no mizzen, and some combination of reefed jib and staysail, and we still were routinely chugging along over 10 knots. If it had not been for some strong counter-currents we hit for a full day we may well have done the trip in less than 6 days.
We are now parked up in Whangaparoa, Auckland, and everyone is getting some well deserved rest (except for me - back to work...). I'd like to say thanks again to everyone who has supported us through this sometimes trying project, and especially to Jon, Wayne, Paul, Duff, Kim, Simon, Ross and Jordan for all their hard work and efforts in crewing our new baby down to NZ.
I will post some more videos etc soon, and will probably start updating the blog again in the new year when we haul out again and start phase two of the grand restoration.
Cheers,
James.
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