Dolittle's Voyage Around NZ (Part 4) - Nelson to home

by Stefano and Helen on 11 Nov 2014 With the improvement in the weather it was time to head north and home. Once again Cook Strait was kind to us and the wind was sufficient that we were able to dispense of the motor and sail our way up to the North Island.

Over the next three days we alternately sailed and motored in varying strengths of wind and at times surrounded by dolphins and seals.

About 20 miles east of Gisborne at about 2.00am we had a somewhat unnerving experience. We observed what we thought was a red port light, a single white steaming light and a small white light some distance behind coming towards us at about 45 degrees on starboard. We were motoring and so were the give way vessel and more or less on a collision course. As we got closer I decided to alter course to starboard to pass behind whatever it was. When I did this the first vessel lit up his boat with deck lights and put a spotlight on the barge he was towing. He was now stopped, or nearly, and the barge behind him, he was now winching in towards him, no doubt in order to discourage us from going between. At the time I could not remember what the lights were for a tugboat towing a barge but the thought had gone through my mind that this was what it was. I think he had some lights out--and knew it! We ended up passing it by about 100 metres on our port side. I thought about the yacht off Little Barrier a few years ago that was run over by a barge and realised how easily it could happen.

On the fourth morning we saw White Island blowing small puffs of steam into the air and knew that Tauranga was in sight. It seems that the wind in the North Island is much kinder to yachties than it is down south and we finished this leg by sailing for a whole day. After four days at sea, mostly motoring, we were glad to be back on dry land and the icing on the cake was the arrival of our granddaughters who we hadn’t seen for over three months. Our crew left us here as the delays caused by Lusi had added extra time to their voyage and they were keen to get home.

After two days of catching up with family, our son joined Ian for the final leg to Auckland via one of our favourite places, Great Mercury Island. Then it was all downhill and motoring (of course) back to Westhaven - 89 days away
and 3422 nautical miles covered.

Conclusion:

This was an awesome trip. The scenery was very spectacular, the boat was perfect for the job, weather was more difficult than we anticipated and having a timetable, albeit loose, to pick up and put down crew forced us to make some movement decisions that we would have preferred not to have made. Having said that, there wasn’t a single person I would not take again and would recommend this trip to others. We saw only a few other boats, only one other yacht came from Auckland that we are aware of, one from Australia, one from England, three from Dunedin and one from Nelson. Because there are so few visiting boats, you’re a bit of a novelty to the locals and they tell you all the 'gossip' about other boats. We went to places that you can only get to by boat and you are in really remote spots where you are really on your own. So be well prepared.

Anchoring

We carried four anchors – 1x65lb CQR and two Manson 45lb ploughs and 1x55lb Delta.. The main anchor 65lb CQR on 50 meters of 10mm tested chain then to 50meters of 18mm nylon braid. We had enough extra chain and warp to deploy four anchors if needed. I’m a bit paranoid about secure anchorages especially in deep water and if I did this trip again I would have 100 meters chain on this main anchor. Around Northland we usually anchor on a 45lb Manson plough but changed to the bigger CQR at Akaroa during a blow. We have a horizontal Maxwell anchor winch and we did have some problems with the gypsy so used a buoy line on the anchor all the time and sometimes brought the anchor up on that.

Navigation

In the cockpit we have a Garmin 750S chart plotter, inside we have a Navman plotter and on a laptop we have Memory Maps. Every one of these gave us some problems. We encountered a real storm in Cook Strait with winds up to 60knots with driving rain and spume and the Garmin being a touch screen device went berserk. This was something I had never considered and could be easily remedied with a piece of good clear plastic over the screen. In my opinion the charting system in the Garmin is sometimes difficult. The names used to identify places are very often not the names you would expect to find in that place. They often refer to rivers or some obscure name that appears to have come from a Lands and Survey map rather than a marine chart.

There are also different levels of information depending on the scale being used. This can be a trap if you are doing a longish trip and have say 25miles of chart showing. Several times I observed 'places to avoid' visually, but until I changed the scale to say three miles, there was no danger shown. A couple of times when coming on watch at night it took me a few minutes to get my brain around just where we were. That aside the Garmin worked fine. The Navman after a while failed to depict the actual charting system we had entered into it and reverted to its default system – interesting that when we got back to Auckland it came back again. The Memory Maps which are by far the most readable charts, completely died, but this may have been a computer problem. I do running fixes on a paper chart on the longer coastal trips. Modern electronic navigation devises are wonderful, but I’m just a tad distrustful of them and frequently revert to traditional methods.

We purchased paper charts, around 50 of them, covering the whole trip. Also available are 'cruising guides' for the central NZ area, East Coast South Is, Stewart Is and Fiordland. These are full of wonderful local info and advice, particularly good anchoring spots and historical features.

Getting ashore

We use a 2.85meter Zodiac blow up keel type with internal blow up floor inflatable with pneumatic wheels on the back permanently fitted – a magic dinghy that puts up with all sorts of abuse, is quite dry in a sea - powered by a 5hp Mercury 2 stroke outboard. Incidentally, if your inflatable is starting to look a bit 'used', you can paint it with a two pot gloss polyurethane to restore it and at the same time give it some protection from the UV rays.

Communication

Several cell phones (depending on crew) – Telecom appears to give the best coverage, VHF hand held radio and VHF boat fitted, SSB and email through laptop, weather fax via the SSB to the computer. For the computer we attached the T stick near the top of the mast to extend the coverage and this seemed to work. In Stewart Is and the Fiords and most of the South Is west coast SSB is the only communication you’ll have. The VHF will work in very few areas and these are shown in the NZ Radio Operators Handbook. Bluff Fisherman’s Radio, on SSB, with Meri Leask, is wonderful and she keeps a watch on any boats that want to be part of her evening roll call.
Rubbish disposal.

We only dump paper and food waste at sea so tins, glass and plastic were tied up in supermarket bags and left in the dinghy which is on davits over the stern and disposed of when convenient ashore.

Crew

We had invited about a dozen friends and family to share this trip with us and to help to sail the boat on the long legs. For most of the time there was us and another couple on the boat. These people met us at different ports along the way.

Seasickness

This became a major problem on a couple of the legs for three of the crew – two of whom had considerable yachting experience and assured me they could deal with anything. There was reluctance on their part to take medication but eventually I insisted that they put on Scopoderm patches and within 6–8 hours they were fine with no side effects. Seasickness among the crew, was becoming a major problem for me as it put so much extra pressure on the rest of us.

Weather

We chose the wrong year to go! For most of the time there was no wind or perhaps up to 10 knots hard on the nose. We travelled 3422 nautical miles and the motor did 512 hours. We motored everywhere – a couple of times 3-4 days without stopping. Between the no wind days there were fronts going through which of course increased the turbulence and made it rough for a few days so we were frequently motoring in swells of 2-3 meters particularly up the west coast---very tiring and uncomfortable. The weather was much more extreme than I anticipated it would be at that time of the year and with rapid changes as fronts went through. The forecasts could not be relied on for local situations. We met a fisherman and were discussing the weather with him. He told us that the met service had six forecasts, numbered one to six and a dice!!!!!! I remember on one occasion, looking at the weather fax isobar chart with a very experienced crew member, and him saying 'What we’re looking at is absolutely nothing like what we’ve got'. The isobars were miles apart and yet we had winds of at least 30knots. ---and from a different direction!!

Fuel etc

We can carry up to 430lites of diesel and we use about 3.25 litres per hour at six knots. Diesel is readily available and we topped up at Picton, Akaroa, Port Chalmers, Oban, Deep Water Cove, Westport and Tauranga. Check prices though before you fill up. We ranged from $1.29 to $2.00 per litre.

LPG

It’s getting harder to fill your own bottle now that most garages are going to the swap a bottle system. We managed to fill our own though at Picton, Nelson, Oban and Tauranga.

Water

Available everywhere almost. Take your own hose and a multiple size connection fitting.

Niuatoputapu, Tonga

We have spent a few days in Niuatoputapu (Niua for the locals), a lot of cruisers refer to it a Newpotato; just because they cannot pronounce the real name.

It is an atoll, but with a sizable island or an island with a large lagoon.....three villages and 900 people, probably as many horses and triple as many pigs...

They live a great slow life, no grid electricity, but they all seem to have a genset, telephones and laptops.

The supply ship comes once a month, so they love cruisers who bring any thing for them, but they also like to buy or trade stuff.

They are also exceptionally nice and generous with fruit etc.

Kids will circle you asking your name and if you have lollies or pencils, we would not bring lollies, I just wish we had a lot of pens and pencils for them.

We experienced fresh (25~27kn) winds for over a week, it is also colder, we have been using the thin quilt cover that we had not used for months.

To anybody who is considering coming here, I would highly recommend a stop for a few days.

They have no radio, just anchor and fly your yellow flag. After some time a white pickup will come to the wharf and people will wave their hands, so you go and pick them up.

Health will charge you 100T, immigration 25T, custom 8T, you can pay later once you go to the bank which is right next to custom and immigration.

No ATM, they will change your US$ @ around 1.8T for 1USD.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Vava’u, will be there Mon am.

We have been asked to give a lift to a priest whose brother died unexpectedly last night and the next plane is not due for another 10 days...

Before agreeing I wanted to meet him, he speaks fluent English, said he doesn’t get seasick and is happy to sleep in the cockpit lounge.

He also agreed not to smoke....

The forecast is for 20kn easing to 15 by Mon afternoon so it should be a good Island Cruising Association website