Nightshift- North Island Burger King Tour continued.

Once clear of the top I set a course to take me welt to seaward of Pandoras Bank. I then ruled a straight line down to the South Island that would take us over I Oomiles offshore of the west coast (at the mid point), which I didn’t want to be close to as the only port I considered good to enter in rough weather was New Plymouth. Half a day later the wind stopped and we were motoring on a glassy calm sea. I couldn’t check on progress of the front that was supposed to have a strong northwesterly flow preceding it, as both the VHF and the cell phone were out of range. 1 decided it didn’t really matter anyway as if the forecast said something I didn’t like there wasn’t much I could do about it and the boat was rigged for heavy weather. After motoring for about 10 hours, (the calm before the storm), the wind started gently from the north and we were sailing again. Over the next few hours it steadily built and backed to the N/W. As darkness fell we were back to the second reef with a building sea.

Late in the evening the wind quickly built to gale force and I dropped the main altogether. I had been advised that it could be bad to let a H28 run too quickly in front of a gale, so I set just the storm jib. This gave us an average speed of about 6 knots as I didn’t really want to find out what BAD was. (I must ask Charles to elaborate on BAD next time I see him). I don’t think I could say we enjoyed this gale but by this stage it was no longer an unknown quantity, we new Nightshift coped with these conditions with ease with minimal input from us. We were l00nm or more from the nearest land, so nothing to bump into and in spite of rain visibility was quite good. George the windvane with his little storm vane fitted was steering like a trooper so the only problems were trying to sleep and eat. My efforts to wedge myself in my berth to sleep resulted in quite a good imitation of an epileptic break-dancer.

The wind blew about 35-40 knots from the N/W for about 25hours, by dawn the seas were big and breaking. The wind was still blowing a gale on the tops but considerably less in the troughs, being sheltered by the wave behind it.

Later that day, during Rachel’s watch, I was again trying unsuccessfully to sleep. I suddenly heard the clattering of winches and Rach shouted down that the wind had changed to 51W in a matter of seconds. I had been expecting it to do this like most fronts, but not that fast. I had already decided to go into New Plymouth to rest up a bit and I had resisted the temptation to head for New Plymouth as I mew this would put me too far to the east to lay New Plymouth when the wind turned S/W. I had been staying to the west making as much progress South as possible. When the wind turned, a quick check of the chart revealed that we could lay New Plymouth with the wind forward of the beam but not by too much. I put up the main on the ₃rd reef and we continued like this for a few hours with the storm jib. The wind eased a bit and I shook out a reef and changed up to the working jib. The sea was getting messy with the S/W wind producing a confused sea with large N/W swell.

I had confidently told Rach that the wind should further reduce now the front was past, (a lot I knew). About 15 miles out from New Plymouth the wind started to increase, at first I couldn’t figure out why but I think it was compressing against Mount Egmont as it flowed across New Plymouth. I had to tuck in the third reef again but we were still sailing fast. As we got closer to land the sea conditions kept getting worse and the wind increased. A 2 metre breaking wind chop was coming from the S/W the tops of the N/W swells were getting blown to pieces. The surface of the sea was all white and foamy and the air was full of spray. Nightshift had solid waves breaking on her regularly and Rach, who was on the helm, was having waves regularly break on her head. (I didn’t really trust George under these conditions). At 10 miles out the surface of the sea was almost smoking with the strongest wind I had ever seen. Nightshift was overpowered, we were still sailing fast but the leeward rail had disappeared some time ago and hadn’t been seen since.

It was time either for the trisail sail and storm jib, which I didn’t fancy rigging just for a couple of hours, or to try sailing with just the main on its ₃rd reef. Normally Nightshift won’t sail in wind forward to the beam with just the mainsail but it wasn’t a normal day.

As I struggled forward to douse the headsail the wind gusted and laid nightshift further over. I was trying to stand on deck with water thigh deep flowing past, but the current was too strong. I managed to hand onto the boom with my legs trailing until Rachel got Nightshift higher into wind and the deck resurfaced under me. I got the headsail off and we continued with just the triple reefed main alone. Surprisingly we were still sailing at 5.5 knots in spite of the sea conditions. About this time I went inside to give Ian Syme a call for directions on where the marina was in New Plymouth as I knew he had been in there recently on a delivery. Ian gave me directions. I also called the Port Authority, who told me to give them a shout when I was safely inside the breaking waters and advised me I didn’t have to worry about bumping into anything going out.

The last 5 miles were very entertaining. The wind consistently pushed nightshift over on her side even with the small triple reefed main. Rach got really good at bouncing nightshift upright to clear water that collected between the cockpit coaming and the seats and covered the instruments. At one point a larger than average wave broke on us and for the first time we felt the keel loose its grip on the swell face. Nightshift slid down into the trough on her side, when we got to the bottom the top lifelines were well under the water. This turned out to be not as bigger problem as I first thought. The hatch was closed, we were harnessed on and even before we had untangled ourselves, Nightshift sprang back up, almost shook herself like a dog, and carried on sailing none the worse for wear with water pouring off her everywhere and a cockpit full of water. Fortunately, this was the only time this happened.

When we were getting close to the breakwaters I started the motor, I didn’t want to start it earlier as I wasn’t sure how well it would run on its side. We went between the breakwaters, which looked spectacular with waves exploding into spray on them. Being very careful not to get down wind, as I doubt we would have been able to make progress back up even with motor and sail.

Berthing was entertaining, once again a couple of helpers appeared. I was pleased to be safely tied up and almost felt like doing the Popes trick and kissing the ground but the marina was still moving a fair bit and 1 probably would have got a blood nose. The main walkway of the marina had been broken by the N/W swell and had to be secured by big chains. My only problem then was a disagreement with the first mate over what was more important, having a shower or going to Burger King before it closed. Eventually we had dinner at Burger King and then went and saw a movie smelling like hobo’s.

After a few days of R & R and "FINE" weather we left for the South Island. The last leg was uneventful apart from Rach catching a really big Tuna off Cape Egmont. 24 hours later we arrived in Port Hardy and spent the next few days sailing around Durville Island with the best fishing and definitely the best weather of the entire trip.

The conclusion the trip was supposed to be a shakedown cruise for us and the yacht, prior to going offshore. The yacht performed faultlessly with only a split in the rarely used Genoa, caused by flopping against the spreader in light winds and lumpy seas, and a blown bulb in the Tricolour. Rach and I had our illusions of light winds and fine weather cruising shattered, but we probably learned a lot more than if the weather had been good.

At times I found myself asking what I was doing out there but sailors have short memories and there is something addictive about cruising, as after three days in port I can’t wait to get to sea again. Since we have been back Rach has been searching the Internet trying to find a job that pays us to go sailing but reality has sent us both back to our regular jobs.

One thing I am sure of once we have saved up some more leave we will be off somewhere else. I have discovered that the worst days sailing in pouring rain with the wind on the nose is better than being at work.

By Steve Hopkinson