Chapter Six

It would be fair to say that very little sleep was had by the crew during Friday night. Not only did we have water coming into the boat from two sources, one known and one not, but also the bulkhead beam supporting the mast had a split in it and this was now working due to the heavy seas. This split had been noticed when we took delivery of the boat but we had been told that it had not caused any problems in the past. There was a special pipe and hydraulic jack on board in case additional support was ever needed. When we encountered the first front in the Pacific, this had been installed and had remained in place as a safety measure. The jack was a cheap brand so needed pumping up every 2 hours due to the working of the beam slowly creeping the pressure off.

The source of the water that was coming aboard that we knew about, was from the cowl vents. Now even though these were mounted on large dorade boxes the cowls themselves were held on by hose clips, so it was not possible to turn the cowls away from the seas. This combined with the small drain holes in the dorade boxes soon filled the system with water. We had inserted the plugs into the vents in the deck head, but every wave taken aboard produced a steady spray of sea water. Due to the darkness we could not find the cause of the other water that had found its way aboard, so hopefully the coming day light would solve this mystery. We just pumped the bilge out every half hour or so.

Dawn found 3 very wet and tired crew, a large SE swell and building seas and wind.

"The Captain" Jamie Thomas on watch

We could see land ahead and this proved to be Cape KariKari, so at 08.00 when we were just north of Rocky Island we went about and headed back out to sea.

At this point I think a confession is due. As we intended to make landfall near the Great Barrier and not Northcape, we did not have any detailed charts the northland coast, were we now found ourselves. Yes I can hear you all saying "why not that’s not very good planing", however in our defence I would point out that Jamie and I discussed taking a "Pickmere’s atlas" of the Northern coast, but in the event did not, as we were led to believe that a chart of this area was on board. This in fact was true but it was a large scale pacific chart and lacked fine detail. The only other Navigation aide was my GPS (a Garmin 48) which has all the major dangers, headlands and islands, listed in its data base.

Needless to say we took no risks when closing the coast.

As we headed back out to sea we listened to the latest weather forecast from Northern Maritime Radio which was for more of the same with a revised forecast due at 16.00 hrs, we had breakfast and a coffee, thanks to Jamies balancing act in the galley.

We now needed to find the source of the other water that was coming aboard.

This was traced to the hand basin in the head which had a common outlet with the sink. Every time we were on a starboard tack the water would surge up the outlet and as the plug was in the sink, when ever the boat went going down the back a wave or swell the water would run up the pipe into the hand basin and spill out into the head area. Turning off the sea cock on the sink outlet soon fixed this problem.

The inside of the boat was wet and you basically had to stay in your wet weather gear to stay dry. Trying to lie down was like being on a trampoline while someone else bounced up and down.

As we headed out to sea we were making 4-5 knots ahead with 2-3 knots to leeward. During the morning we passed 2 ships one of which slowed down to check us out and then steamed on. Lunch was ryvita and topping and I can tell you that the ones with peanut butter do not sit well in the stomach. Yes this did lead to me feeding the fishes.

After taking two sea sickness tablets I managed to get some much needed sleep albeit on the wet cabin sole.

We had gone about at 12.30, well actually gybed about as the self steering rudder was proving to be a real problem when trying to bring the bow though the eye of the wind and waves. This was caused by the centre of effort being moved aft due to the fixed blade and it also acted as a pivot brake when turning the boat with the main rudder.

The weather forecast at 14.00 was for an increase in wind and seas with gusts to 40 knots and seas becoming rough. We had a large ground swell from the east with a wave patten forming on top. At 5pm we found ourselves the middle of Doubtless Bay so gybed about an headed back out to sea for the night. We had made a total of 10nm over the ground towards our revised destination, The Bay of Islands. This over 9 hours and 40 miles of sailing.

We fully reefed the headsail which left us with 3 reefs in the main and the staysail. This resulted in the boat slowing down to 3 knots with a slightly more comfortable motion.

Several boats heading for New Zealand had sought shelter in Tom Bowling bay and we heard them advising Northland maritime radio of the same.

We only sighted one ship during the night and managed to tack about at 01.00am.

Daybreak found us off and east of the sugar loaf (Wekarua Island) in Moukahakaha bay 12 nm east of our last land fall in Doubtless bay. Another gybe had us heading once again back out to sea for the day.

We had set up a radio schedule on Friday night with Northern Maritime Radio, reporting our Lat and longitude, the local sea conditions and how we were fairing. These were twice a day at 08.00 and 16.00.

Tranquillo was now taking green water over the cabin top as we punched our way up and over the swells and seas that were continuing to build and the wind was forecast to increase to 35-40 knots with gusts of 50 knots and very rough seas. This weather system was caused by a "squash Zone" (named by Bob Mc Davit) where the isobars are jammed up between a high and low.

The ground swell was now running at 10-12 ft with 8-10 ft seas on top. Not particularly pleasant sailing conditions. It was in this same weather pattern 36 hours latter that "Woody Goose" went ashore in Great Exhibition bay with the loss of one life and the boat ending up wrecked on the beach.

It was about this time that Frank discovered that all the side lockers behind the seat backs were full of water. We never did find where this came from but suspected the deck to hull joint as later we found a crack where the scuppers were cut through the toe rail. (Footnote: later in port we found that the engine water anti-siphon hose had come off the through hull fitting in the lazzarette just under the hull to deck join, and this allowed water to enter the boat on certain tacks.)

At some stage during the night a wave had ripped the spray doger off 3/4 of the back hoop, however later in the morning Frank and I were able to wrap 3 turns around the hoop and secure it with some cable ties.

Once again we gybed and headed back to shore at 12.00 noon and ended up in the entrance to Whangaroa Bay, just North of Stephenson Island, just 6nm down the coast from where we had been at day break . We had discussed our options on the way back into shore and it was decided that we should try to seek some shelter, clean up the boat and get some badly needed sleep, but only if we could get some local assistance to guide us safely into the lee of some land.

I put a call through to Northern maritime radio and advised them of our position, asked them to advise MAF (Ministry Agriculture & Fisheries) and Customs of our intentions and asked for the VHF channel for Whangaroa harbour. We raised Whangaroa radio and they kindly organised for Colin from the local game fishing club to come out meet us and guide us in. They also gave us a safe course to steer for the entrance to Whangaroa harbour, an area both Jamie and I were unfamiliar with and where Lion Heart was wrecked on false head while being talked in some years earlier. We would not have attempted this without the assistance of a boat to guide us through.

Northern MT radio came back on with a message from MAF that "we were NOT to seek shelter but to make for Opua." We resisted the urge to pass our thoughts on at this statement, but I logged MAF’s telephone number and asked them to pass on that I would ring when we were in calmer waters and explain our situation. It is to be noted that we had NO intention of going ashore, just to seek shelter and rest to enable us to be able to continue on to Opua and clear in.

We managed to start the engine and ten minutes later sighted Colin and his boat which was heading straight towards us. He circled around us and gave instructions for us to follow him and to watch out for the Reef to port at the entrance. We advised him that we only had 3-4 ltrs of diesel left so needed to get through before the tide turned. At about this time Colin received a vhf call from the NZ Customs launch "Hawke", which just happened to be on an exercise at the Cavalli islands, and that they were heading for Whangaroa and to tie us up to their mooring buoy off the marina at the game fishing club.

New Zealand has very strict rules about where you can enter a boat into the country and Whangaroa is definitely not one of them. We all thought "s..t this will be interesting!"

We tied up to the buoy, hoisted the Q flag and awaited the arrival of "Hawke" some 40 minutes later.

They came along side and instructed us to move and tie up along side the wharf where they would come aboard and carry out an inspection along with the MAF officer who had driven up from Opua and was not a "happy chappie".

While Frank and I stayed on board with a Customs officer and the MAF man, Jamie went aboard Hawke with the ships and our papers. After a through rummage of the yacht the customs officer said he could now understand our decision to seek shelter and went back to report his findings to the other officers. It was then MAF’s turn and he carried out a through inspection of the food on board. This involved checking all the lockers( which were full of water) and placing some items into the quarantine bag) He then said it was likely that we all could be prosecuted for entering an "un-designated Port of Entry". This conversation was then continued on board "Hawke" with the Customs officers, MAF and Jamie. Eventually we were cleared in, thanks to the efforts of the Customs and MAF officers and allowed to go ashore.

Here Colin had arranged a shower, a meal, and a motel room for us for the night. They are really great people in the Whangaroa.

Over diner Frank decided to arrange to leave Tranquillo on a marina berth until Christmas then come up and cruise on down the coast.

After diner we put in calls home to let them know we were back on land and arranged for a ride next day down to Keri Keri in the Bay Of Islands, with some friends of mine where we picked up a hire car and drove back to Auckland, arriving Monday night.

Ten days later we had our arranged diner with Ulf, Poly and Max before they headed off to explore NZ.

Did I enjoy it ? You bet.

Would I do it again ? yes but probably in a bigger, faster boat.

What lessons did we learn ?

1: Always trust your instincts, and take extra fuel and charts. You can’t have too much of either (within reason).

2: Don’t get on the wrong side of MAF or Customs. They do a great job but have to follow the rules as set out by the bureaucrats in Wellington, but first always bear in mind the safety of the ship and crew and advise them of your situation. If you need to seek shelter instigate a "Pan Pan" call. This then allows them some latitude, but only if the situation is serious.

3: Always take a fishing rod. It is the only way to catch Mahi Mahi.

My thanks to Frank and Jamie for the opportunity to do this delivery and for their comradeship.

Kerry.