West Coast Day 2 (the slog begins)

Today was a bit of a grind. We settled into our watch shifts nicely - essentially three 4 hour shifts; 4 hours on watch, 4 hours off watch (but upstairs and ready if needed) and 4 hours asleep (only called upon if necessary). We also decided to split the 4 hours on watch and 4 hours off watch into two 2 hour segments, trying to break up the monotony and tiredness of hours straight concentration behind the wheel.

The watch system worked really well, and we all got in our rest. Those who were on watch were greeted with plenty of wildlife, dolphins (or maybe small whales, difficult to tell from a distance), Sunfish, petrels and other seabirds, and even a visit from an albatross!

Unfortunately, the predicted Westerly change did not come through, and we spent most of the day tacking upwind, trying to make the most of the light and shifty winds. We did manage to turn the motor off for a few hours and we enjoyed the serenity. The water had turned an amazing azure blue, and the only other sign of human life was the occasional plane overhead leaving a vapour trail.

Around 5.30pm, with the wind lightening further, we decided to roll away the genoa (which we pulled out early in the morning as the wind had lightened), and we turned the motor on, pointing the bow towards Taranaki. While it had been nice trying to sail, it was feeling like we weren't making any ground towards our destination even though we were traveling at close to 6kt. This speed meant we were only heading towards our destination at 3kt at best as we had to zig zag our way South.

With the headsails both away and the engine on, we were making between 5 and 6kt directly towards Taranaki which was ticking the miles off significantly faster.

Status quo was maintained through the night watch, and we came up with a more realistic arrival time into Nelson of late Friday or early Saturday morning.Read more