The last lap – sailing to New Zealand

The passage south from the tropics down to New Zealand is one most sailors dread. Not just because it represents the end of cruising the idyllic south sea islands.

Complex weather systems are at play. It is, after all, still early spring in New Zealand. Powerful lows routinely slide north from Antarctic waters, between Australia and New Zealand, bringing the risk of gales. But waiting late spring increases the risk of hurricanes in tropical waters. To manage the lows, we use the best available weather forecasting – but reliability diminishes more than 3 days out, and it’s a 7- to 10-day passage. Timing is everything. To help with our routing, we engaged Pacific weather guru Bob McDavitt.

Today, we reached the half-way point of the 1,200+ mile passage from the Vava’u islands in Tonga to Whangarei, New Zealand. And so far, it’s been quite the ride. Stiff easterly breeze on the beam and big lumpy seas.

This makes for fast sailing. We’ve logged just shy of 200 miles per day. Each of the three days eclipsed our previous best.

Life on Turtlebones is normally pretty chill. Not in these conditions. The massive seas have tossed the boat around relentlessly, successive waves slamming into the hulls. The motion and noises are constant. Moving around is a challenge. Cooking requires holding pots in place. Never have I envied an octopus more.

Doing one’s business on the toilet is risky. Imagine riding a bucking bronco while praying it doesn’t morph into an impromptu bidet experience.  

Turtlebones doesn’t seem to care. She climbs the face of each towering wave, and slides down into the next trough. At regular intervals a particularly big one breaks over her decks, drenching the entire cabin top, and sending torrents of seawater into the cockpit. During the worst of it, we keep the big glass doors closed, and rarely venture out.

Thankfully, the forecast calls for the winds to abate and seas to moderate sometime this evening. That’s the good news. Frustratingly, they then turn around and blow from the south – the direction we’re going. Making headway will require tacking back and forth.

A day later the winds disappear completely. So, we’ll fire up the engines, and motor. Likely, for the next 36 hours. At least the seas will be calm.

Dawdling, however, isn’t an option. Not if we want to reach Whangarei before the next low brings potentially nasty weather for the tail end of the trip.

As someone once said, this passage is like a dog trying to cross a four-lane highway.