(no subject)

Well it is with sadness that we have to report that for a number of reasons we have decided to abort our planned voyage to New Caledonia. We are now at Opua having cleared back in here late this morning.
We left Whangarei Harbour at 1230 on Friday the 1st. and had virtually no wind for a while. We motorsailed as far as Ngunururu when a reasonable south westerly kicked in. We then had some very enjoyable sailing and passed Cape Brett at 1 the following morning. All was well and we continued to make good progress on our journey north. It had started to feel that we were going to make a fast passage although it's always dangerous to make these sorts of predictions too early! Peter Blake used to say that the race isn't won until it's finished.
Then it got close to midday on Saturday when the wind started failing as we were just at the latitude of North Cape. We were concerned, but not too much so at that stage. However, time was important to us. After all the delays we had had this year including probably 2 months of waiting for a favourable weather window we had finally identified such a window and decided to go. But, in retrospect we probably should have flagged it altogether because leaving early in October means that we would only have had about 3 weeks in NC before having to leave again to avoid the cyclone season which means the possibility of cyclones increases incrementally from then on. It was always going to be pressured because of that and pressure of dates and boating can be a dangerous combination. However, we did decide to go and there we are.
After being becalmed for some hours (which is quite unpleasant in an ocean swell with no wind) the wind then started from the north! Exactly what we didn't want and thought we had avoided. Our spirits were not at their best at that moment. Anyway we decided to make the best of it and started motoring again but things didn't change. We then made the fateful decision to turn around and make back for NZ with these time limitations looming large in our minds. If time hadn't been a consideration we would have just persevered but we felt we couldn't take the risk of a slow passage. For 2 hours our decision seemed vindicated and then wammo - at about 8 last night we were hit with a SE blast which by then was straight on the nose. Exactly as forecast! However, we felt committed by now and ploughed on. It was a slow rough and wet trip back - and very cold. Things improved slowly as we moved further into the lee of NZ though and we arrived off the Cavallis just north of the Bay of Islands at 5 this morning. We then proceeded to Opua where we cleared back in. We are feeling quite let down and disappointed but we also feel that overall we made the correct decision all things considered.
Our plans now are first to catch up on sleep and then to cruise up here for a time and maybe again a longer passage to the Barrier. All good practice. Then back to Whangarei in late November/December followed by the deck caulking job. Then next year we will go at the right time (end of April) and visit Vanuatu and New Caledonia with next to no time pressures.
As always we will keep you posted!
Love
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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