NZ - Tonga is about 1,000 nm as the crow flies, but since it's a good idea to make some easting before entering the Trades at about latitude 25 S, we planned on routing via the Kermadec Islands at about the half way mark.
Administered by New Zealand, the islands are uninhabited, apart from a small research group at Raoul Island. One also needs special permission to land there, so we just planned on anchoring overnight off the research station near Oneraki Beach for beer and showers, weather permitting.
Thus our course of about 045T, which gave us a deep broad reach and some interesting following seas on our first night - all manual steering. A sleigh-ride at 9-10 kts, even more interesting when the moon set before midnight.
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| Oops! |
Our departure was timed on the heels of a passing trough and ahead of the next high (see earlier explanation of the west-to east cycle of highs & troughs
here) so we expected the wind to back and the sea state to moderate, which they did steadily overnight. By the end of Day 2 the High had caught us and we were motoring!
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| Quick fix |
Unfortunately that first dawn revealed a cut in the mainsail. The slick new halyard had slipped a few inches, allowed the well-eased main to rub the top spreader above the spreader patch. Easy enough to fix with sticky-back Dacron patches underway, but hey. Boats. Maybe we should have popped that first reef in after all...
However comma, 180 nm in the first 24 hrs was not a bad start!
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| We can eat! |
By Day 3 we were ready for some action and, as always, it all came at once. Steve was in the galley, serving supper (a manly quiche) when one of the reels started screaming, but he was still first to the rod for a bit of a battle with a yellow-fin tuna. Steve won, but it took over 10 minutes to land our first catch, all of 15 kg he reckoned.
No sooner was the tuna cleaned & stowed and dinner served, but the engine began to stutter. Stutter then die.
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| Bleedin' engine... |
We new this scenario, been here before. Despite having cleaned the fuel tank earlier and fitted new fuel filters (two of those 101 jobs), we now had a fuel filter blockage.
Hmmm... how clean was that fuel from Marsden Cove marina?
So chef (and occasional fisherman) Steve again doffed his toque blanche and donned his chief engineer's hat for a spot of tinkering, ably assisted by Arthur. Changing both fuel filters was easy enough, but bleeding the system afterwards took an age. Maybe next time we'll part fill the filters before fitting, like the book suggests...
Oh, by the way, Steve -
your watch!
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| A Watch |
