Thursday12th November Still fine weather but the forecast is not too good.

Friday 13th November The morning and afternoon were lovely, but by 17.00hrs we saw lightning ahead and decided to reef down. By 23.00hrs the wind had increased to gale force and we dropped the main and run under headsail. The lightning was spectacular, all around the boat. We disconnected the Sat Nav and radio in case we get struck.

Saturday 14th November The storm finished by early morning and we had a good sail until 19.00hrs when another gale hit us, it was stronger than the first and we hove-to for the night.

Sunday 15th November We are still Hove-to and the wind is SE exactly where we want to go. All the pilot books are wrong. By 18.00hrs we started to sail again under headsail and mizzen.

Monday 16th November Still gale force from the SE we are 90 miles from Cape Brett, Bay of Islands.

Tuesday 17th November We still can't sail were we want to go and have been hit by another gale; the seas are the biggest we have ever seen. The boat is really slamming about, dropping off big waves with a crash. We are tired physically and mentally so we have decided to heave-to to give us and the boat a rest. Earlier we tried doing a big tack but it didn't help much. We are so close to where we want to be it's frustrating to know that we can't get there. If this storm had hit in the middle of the ocean I don't think we would feel so frustrated.

Wednesday 18th November Still awful weather. We tacked west today and sighted land at 14.00hrs we tacked away again before dark, the wind increased again so we dropped the main and sailed with the mizzen and reefed headsail again.

Thursday 19th November We spent all day tacking into the Bay of Islands and finally tied up at Opua at 17.00hrs. The customs cleared us and we were delighted to be on land. Susan Hiscock stopped by in her dinghy to welcome us to New Zealand; it was a real thrill to meet her.

The next day we found a boat yard and arranged to be hauled out at the weekend. We met a lot of very friendly people and really enjoyed winding down after the rough sail. We painted and antifouled the boat. Dave replaced a rudder pintle and checked all the underwater fittings. We bought a second hand car and drove to Keri Keri, a very pretty village. It is strange to travel at 30 mph instead of 5 knots. We finished work on the boat and set off to explore the Bay of Islands. We left the car in the Yacht club car park. Our first call was at Roverton Island, a beautiful deserted anchorage. We walked all over the island and were the only boat in the bay. Next we explored Urupupapuka Island 4 miles eastwards; from here we plan to sail south to Whangarei. The wind is getting brisker again but we decided to sail south to Whangamumu Bay, 10 miles down the coast we sailed beneath Cape Brett lighthouse at 6 knots in the wake of Captain Cook who named nearby Percy Island and the whole bay of islands. We had a good NE force 4 and soon gained the secluded harbour.

Next morning with a steady NE we sailed to Tutuaka and from there to Whangerai. In Whangerai everything is available for boats; in fact nearly everyone owns a boat. We went to Opua to collect our car but found it had been stolen; it was later found dismantled but unfortunately was not insured for theft so we had a rotten Christmas. Dave built a stainless exhaust for the boat; we have gone through 3 steel ones since we left so hopefully this one will last longer. Nick Sketes, from Wylo, who we had last seen in the Caribbean came by and told us where we could find the best chandlers, it was good to catch up on old friends.

After Christmas we bought another car and traveled to the South Island for a month using the excellent campsites and enjoying being land based for a while. Queen Charlotte Sound looked a lovely cruising ground when we crossed it on the ferry but the strong winds and big seas made us happy that we hadn't sailed down there.

We arrived back at the boat on 5th February. When we collected our mail the HYC yearbook was in it and we spent all day reading it.We had sent to Auckland for Australian visas and whilst we were waiting for the passport to be returned we had wonderful surprise a good friend from Hull and his girlfriend, who were backpacking through Australia and New Zealand came up to visit us for a few days. We had many happy hours together. Two Danish people came to see us. They have a 21ft boat in Denmark and want to do an ocean passage so we offered to take them over to Sydney on Blue Spurr

Tuesday 1st March The Tasman Sea has a very bad reputation. All the people we spoke to who had crossed it warned us to expect a bad passage. Hoping to avoid anything too bad Dave called the met office and got a five day forecast. We can expect 5 days of easterlies from tomorrow. There is a hurricane near Cairns north Queensland.but the met office said we will be too far south to feel any effects from it. Soren and Bente, the Danes arrived today.

Wednesday 2nd March We left the harbour at 8.00hrs with a light easterly and sailed the 12 miles downriver at a gentle pace. Soren caught a fish but lost it off the gaff hook. The wind is from the east and the sea is very calm.

Thursday 3rd March Another perfect sailing day, Easterly force 4 and we are making north at 5 knots. We lost our heavy fishing line and lure to a big fish today. We are sailing up the NE coast of New Zealand and it seems hard to imagine how bad the weather was when we came down this way in November.

Friday 4th March The wind is still east force 4. We rounded North Cape into the Tasman Sea during the night and left New Zealand behind. We are averaging 5 knots in these light winds. It is amazing what a clean hull can achieve. Our passengers are really enjoying themselves, and spent lots of time on the after deck fishing.

Saturday 5th March Another lovely day. We all had salt water showers on deck during the day. By evening the seas started to get bigger and the wind increased to gale force. We took some big waves on board and salt water got into the fresh water tank. Luckily we have 2 five gallon carriers on the aft deck. We had to reef down during the night. Our passengers are taking the bad weather very well.

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