Blogs

We cleared customs in Opua bright and early Saturday morning, waved goodbye to the ICA fleet and headed out of the marina towards Vanuatu. Within 15 minutes we had discovered two problems! The rev counter was not working. Was it a faulty wire, a fuse, or worse, perhaps the alternator? A quick diagnoses showed that no charge was getting to the batteries. Oh-oh! When Karl went to inspect he noticed a second problem. The circlip that holds the steering together had bent and fallen off! So we turned around and went back into the marina. Fortunately the marina office put us in touch with Rob Walley from Marine Electrics. He turned up promptly on Saturday afternoon and advised it was a faulty regulator. He had none in stock but travelled to Kerikeri to collect one that same afternoon and had us up and running again early the next morning. What a star! The circlip was a challenge. Sea Power was closed and Bruce was away on his boat. Cater marine had all sorts of circlips - smaller ones and larger ones - but none the right size! Glen said he could get one in for us by Tuesday...but when I told him we had already cleared customs and Tuesday would mean missing the weather window, he said - let me make a couple of phone calls. He called a previous customer who had purchased two of the size we needed and explained our predicament. Fortunately this customer had not fitted the circlips yet and was happy to wait until Tuesday. The customer went down to his boat, retrieved them and get them back to the shop within the hour. Huge thanks to Glen at Cater Marine and his customer, we now have a new one fitted and a spare. NZ Customs were very understanding too and allowed us to leave on our original clearance rather than having to clear back in and out again. We finally departed Opua on Sunday at 10.30am feeling very grateful to all the people who went the extra mile to get us underway again.

Motored for the first 40 hours, on very calm seas with less than 10 knots of wind. Heading east so we could make the most of the easterly wind when it arrived.Beautiful sunsets and an amazing full moon. Caught an albacore tuna which was enjoyed for dinner last night. We turned of the engine and started sailing at 2.30am this morning, the wind has been slowly building and we are currently sailing in 20-25 knots of wind, doing 7-8 knots boat speed in lumpy seas.

We departed Opua, Bay of Islands this morning with Glen, Ben and Ken on board. We are motoring at 6.2 knots, with no wind and glassy seas. Heading east so we can make the most of the wind and it's forecast direction as we get closer to Minerva reef. 749nm to South Minerva Reef. What a great day to depart.

We have gathered many donated goods to transport up to Vanuatu and look forward to helping the villagers rebuild their lives after the devastation of cyclone Pam. On board we have thousands of vegetable seeds to help the locals grow crops again. Thanks to Terranova Seeds, South Pacific Seeds, Lefroy Valley Seeds and Sue and Graeme Cremer. We also have fishing gear on board to give away, with thanks to Burnsco, Jackie, Pieter and Sarah. To assist schools rebuild their educational material we have donations from Jackie and Patricia. You are all wonderful and we look forward to sending through updates on which villages are being helped with these supplies. Our first port of call is in Aneityum, the southern most island of the Vanuatu chain. These remote islands in the south were hit the hardest by the cyclone and we look forward to seeing what we can do to help. Thanks again to all contributors!