Monday, May 30, 2016

On Our Way to Fiji...Finally!

After Michael's additional extension for time in New Zealand came, we will be departing. It is Tuesday, May 31st in NZ at 10 am...and Customs Agent Cooper just left the boat giving us our clearance papers to depart. So we will be on our way in a few hours.

The weather is certainly not perfect. In fact, it should be an adventurous passage – something we usually avoid. But there is nothing else on the horizon for weeks at least. So we will head out and hope for the best. The good news is we should be able to sail all the way. The bad news is we will be sailing in quite hardy wind...it doesn't look like we will see anything less the 20 the whole way and much of the time it will be 25. It will be a southwesterly, then westerly, then southerly then south east and then east southeast....or at least that's what the morning forecast. Our course is northeast, so the wind will be from behind which is good – so will the seas – which are also predicted to be about 2-3 meters. So we should go pretty fast though we will have limited sail up as there will be lots of squalls. The bad news with the wind from behind is that it will be chilly and wet in the cockpit. It will be nice to get out of the 30 degree latitudes and into the low 20s!

Check out our progress on the website YIT.co.nz We will submit a position report to them daily. It may be too rough to bring out the computer for log updates. We have a good boat that will take good care of us (and lots of seasick meds!)
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At 4/26/2016 8:32 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.41'S 174°19.56'E

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Monday, May 23, 2016

Fronts, Lows and 6 meter seas...oh my!

That's why we are still in New Zealand and still waiting for a weather window to get to Fiji. Each day we are hopeful that a window will open for us to get out of the increasingly cold weather in NZ. Every other day – that window slams shut. One major low after another has been crossing from the Tasman Sea and into NZ leaving people stranded in snowstorms on the island and us stuck in Whangarei trying to stay warm and dry. It has been very squally – lots of wind, rain and cold.

The seas out there are quite high and we are happy to not be in them. But the clock is ticking and we are required to leave the country because of our visas...so we hope and wish that the good weather will come SOON.

For now – we get lots of projects and cleaning done. We even saw a great little movie "The Hunt for the Wilderpeople" - its a NZ made film and very charming and funny. The perfect thing to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We even got most of the kiwi jokes – maybe we've been here too long!
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At 4/26/2016 8:32 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.41'S 174°19.56'E

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Sunday, May 15, 2016

Weather Watching

It is time to get back to the islands. Our immigration soon expires and it is getting cooler with each passing day. Winter is on its way to NZ and we need to be on our way north – to warmer climates! So now we wait and watch the weather patterns – which seem to change daily. One day we think we will be leaving on Wednesday and the next morning – that changes. Then it looks good for the next 12 hours...and then it changes again. The fronts, ridges, lows and highs move like pieces on a chess board. It does feel like a chess game at times...we want to make the move when all the right pieces line up and we'll have an easy trip. Okay, we'll settle for not necessarily "easy" but at least not really stormy!

Or destination is Fiji – with perhaps a stop at Minerva Reef weather permitting. To get to Minerva it will be about 7 – 8 days and to Fiji another 3-4. It is hard to predict weather in this part of the world that far out – so we look for a window to leave in decent weather and nothing huge on the horizon. Of course all this has to happen by May 28th!

For now we are pretty much ready. The boat is pretty well provisioned with only the last minute stuff to get. It is cleaned and things are pretty well stored. Michael has been getting lots of projects done including having made a side curtain for the cockpit. That should make the really rainy days much more comfortable at anchor and perhaps, even at sea. If we stay here much longer, he'll get the second one done as well. He also has put on a new track for the dodger (the old was pretty cracked (most likely the original when the boat was built in 1987.) That was a chore as the place we bought the track from told us to use a heat gun to heat it and bend it into shape...well that didn't exactly work. It was better to not use the heat and simply bend it and put the screws in a bit at a time. The heat actually malformed the track part so we had to really work to undo the mistake by reheating it back into its original shape which took twice as long. But its done. We also replaced another opening port that leaked – we had a spare on board so that was convenient. We re-waterproofed the bimini with outrageously expensive water-proofing. Michael replaced the small windows in the bimini as well.

So Astarte is looking pretty ready to go. We're pretty ready to go. Now we just wait for the weather to say..."GO."
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At 4/26/2016 8:32 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.41'S 174°19.56'E

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com