Year 2 – 4 January 2024 -New Zealand- North Island - Auckland

It rained had in the night and the wind howled and made it difficult to sleep. When we got up it was calmer and there was a chance of some sun. We had a coffee and I did some further admin etc. Mark helped repair the fridge lid and then sorted out a chipped bit of wood on a floorboard.

We had done these jobs early in order to get to the Maritime Museum which is excellent. It was quite blustery when we walked to the museum. We spent a very interesting couple of hours looking round and although I had been I could spend some time in the areas I was more interested in. The America’s cup area was very interesting in particular.  Mark enjoyed it.

We left about 12.00 noon and walked back having a coffee en route. We were waiting to greet Kevin Deamer and Tom Watson who had flown in that morning and shared a lift. We met them by the marina and it was good to see them and we welcomed them to Stormbird and showed them their cabins.

Once they changed they were put to work in sorting out the anchor chain and the rope markers I have which needed securing either end. This took some time and we had a bit of lunch. We had not put the mainsail on yet and thought that we really needed to turn the boat round due to the wind direction. Mark and I chatted about the best way to do this. I decided due to the strong wind we would wait until the other 2 crew members arrived.  

Grant Harrington landed in the afternoon and Trevor Greening a little later. They eventually got into a cab and I was due to meet them by the marina. Just before they arrived I got the new batten from the sailmaker which was good. Grant and Trevor arrived and we welcomed them to Stormbird.

However, we dumped their bags on board and then talked through turning the boat around and how we were going to do it. I decided we would attach some lines and have two on shore and as we released the main lines we would try and stay close to the pontoon as we went back. The problem was that the wind was on the side and we could easily be blown on to the boats on the other side of the pontoon. The idea being that if we were being blown off they could put the lines on the pontoon cleats and stop us moving any further. We slipped the main lines and then reversed and managed to stay quite close and so the guys on shore did not have to put them on cleats.

Once we were beyond the pontoon we had to change the fenders and lines over to the other side of the boat and then reverse back. The wind was quite strong and we had 3 lines on the pontoon and we were about 15 feet off. We found the easiest thing to do was to walk it back with the engine and bow thruster. We took our time and made it without hitting anything. It was our first test as a crew and I am glad we had 6 of us as we needed the hands. Once done we had a beer which was well deserved.

I prepared a chicken lemon supper with mash and carrots and as a crew we had a good supper together. I did a bit of a briefing and then at supper we all introduced ourselves, talked about our families and sailing experience.

It felt good that we had all arrived. We all needed to gradually get to know each other and lots of chats were going on.

We will hopefully get the mainsail on in the morning.

The picture of the day is us all together in the saloon.

Need/Opportunity Year Two

I am in need of more crew from April to September so if of interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com