Position: 45.44 S,171.24 E
Lovely fresh morning here. Jumped out of my warm bunk and into my cool fleece – a man on a mission. Had the kettle on and a pot of water for porridge on the stove in seconds, then stood dazed rubbing my hands together gazing out the open hatch at the morning scene and I liked what I saw. A slight ripple on the water as the wind tried to sneak up on us from the south west. Headed up on deck, got the jib up, and over the next thirty minutes as the wind filled in, pulled out the whole jib and the main, fist time in two days. We are now moving along at 4.5 knots and I’m sure the wind will build so we are off to a good start today. Mission accomplished.
In the meantime I’ve finished my oats and a big mug of hot chocolate and I can feel the warmth from that permeating my body. The coast is very clear, about thirty miles off our starboard side. We are looking at Oamaru, about 30 miles north of Dunedin on the South Island.
Moeraki Boulders near Oamaru. Image by: WT-shared ED01 at wts wikivoyage (own work) via Wikimedia Commons
We are close hauled on a starboard tack at about 170 T which is fine for now. At least we’re moving south and when the wind fills in from the north later, we will tack back in towards the NZ shore. At the moment we are 200 miles from the turning point around Stewart Island. Hopefully in the next few days we will make the turn towards Tasmania. I had a great ‘radio show’ last night with John, Cliff and Peter.
Note: If anyone has ‘connections’ with the communication satellites up there, could you please send up a message that Glenn is desperately trying to connect his sat phone so he can call home before he heads into the southern ocean. Thank you!
Course 270 Speed 5 knots Wind SE 10-15 Waves SE .25 m Cloud 30% Temp 13 C Baro 1012 +rising Miles in last 24 hrs: 40 nm.
