Year 2 – 5 January 2024 -New Zealand- North Island - Auckland

I woke early to see water drops on the window but there was no wind which was good. I therefore thought we should get the mainsail up. This meant getting everyone up but we had a cup of tea or coffee first. I had had a look the night before to get everything ready in advance.

We had to lift the sail out on to the deck and then get it out of the bag. The mainsail is quite large and has 5 vertical battens. Its head has two loops which fit through a slot in the mast on to a T fitting on the top foil. The sail has a hard circular rib which goes into a slot in the foil and then we raise it keeping the rib in the foil putting in the battens as we raise the sail. We eventually got it up and secured the back of the sail to the outhaul and then we could furl the sail in through the mast which went well.  This took us about an hour and a good exercise.

This was a relief as within an hour the wind was strengthening and it would have made life very difficult. We had breakfast and then I started to go through the boat internally to provide familiarisation of the boat. We then had a coffee and then went through then the outside of the boat and operating systems. There were lots of questions and it is a lot to take in.

We then had an early lunch and then decided to head out for a test sail. The wind was quite strong 14 -19 kts with gusts up to 25 kts. We managed to get out of the berth without hitting anything and then out into Auckland Harbour. The aim of this was to check the engine, rudder, autopilot and sails etc. I did a few 360 degree turns and all seemed good. We then got out the mainsail and genoa and were soon sailing along well east which the crew enjoyed. We tacked up and down the harbour and were soon sailing along and near an ex–New Zealand Americas cup boat call NZ68. We were not going as fast but were sailing well. In the tacks the crew were getting used to operation of the winches and steering. We then got out the staysail and tacked up and down again. After a couple of hours, we put the sails in and headed back to the marina. It had been a good exercise and I think the crew enjoyed it and were quite impressed with Stormbird.

We reversed into our berth well and the crew were beginning to work as a team in terms of lines and fenders etc. Once we had sorted ourselves out we had a well-earned beer and then showered and headed out into town and a nice meal and a few drinks.

It had been a good productive day and we will provision tomorrow. I had heard from customs that they will come on the morning of the 7th to check us out of NZ. I had also heard from the weather man Bruce I am using that we should be good to leave on 7th January 2025 for Sydney.

The picture of the day is our first sailing experience together.

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