Day 4, underway to New Zealand. 650 miles to go.
We couldn’t ask for better weather so far on this trip. For our first two days out we had 15 knots of wind from the SE, right on the beam. We motored for about 8 hours last night then had an unexpected wind gift today, 15 knots from the south. We’re right in the middle of a big high pressure and aren’t supposed to have any wind at all here so are thrilled to be moving under sail still. Our heading is westward, to put us at a better angle for Opua when we hit the SW winds closer in that everyone seems to get right at the end.
I’m so anxious to get this over with that it’s been a struggle to enjoy this passage. But the trip has really been lovely so far. After a year in the tropics, the cooler air is so refreshing. I’m wearing wool socks at night and a thick fleece coat and wrap myself in a cozy blanket under the dodger to avoid the dew that settles on the rest of the boat at night. I’m snuggling like crazy with the girls — it’s just been too hot and sticky and sweaty to do that for so long. How wonderful it is to keep each other warm again.
Even surrounded by nothing but blue water we still find things to fascinate us. Today we experienced the solar eclipse and watched as the bright sunny day turned dim for an hour. For days now we’ve been surrounded by pumice stones thrown up by underwater volcanoes and tonight was able to catch a baseball-sized one. Albatrosses soar over the waves. Also today we crossed into the eastern hemisphere, now we’ve sailed in all four.
Yesterday we sailed right past Minerva Reef; this weather window is perfect and we want to take advantage of it so kept on towards Opua. We should be sighting the Cape Brett light early next week and are so excited we can nearly taste the sausage rolls already.
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25-27.66S
179-40.57E
