Our biggest challenge yet!

Sailing all the way to Coromandel without using our engine!!

Our plan was to leave Whangaroa and sail slowly down the coast, discovering new bays, islands, and places that we had missed on previous trips. Previous to completing our checks whilst preparing Klepper for our trip, we noticed a small drop in oil pressure, which has been of concern. On completing our engine checks and specifically the oil levels, we discovered the oil was a thick white sludge, obviously a serious amount of salt water had got into the engine, This is a pretty serious situation whilst being so far from home. We had an over riding sense that we needed to be back in Coro so that we can haul out on to the hard in Thames. Not wanting to risk breaking down on our home, we decided to embark on a different adventure, sailing all the way to Coromandel without using the engine. Klepper weighs eleven tons and is hard to maneuver in light or no wind without her engine. We decided to sail nonstop away from land to avoid drifting onto rocks.

So we sailed from Whangaroa Harbour to Coromandel, 160 nautical miles and three and a half days, with no engine and managed to make it all the way into Coromandel Harbour to anchor where we are tucked in from all the weather.

What an adventure! We had perfect hot sunny days, clear starry evenings, and everything from no wind to lots of wind! Every sail got a chance to be used even our favourite and most scary sail the Spinnaker got to fly! Our spinnaker is like a giant kite, and because it's so big, it has often felt too overwhelming to fly ... but this sail really was the star of the journey as we had only 2-3 knots of wind which would normally bring us to a complete standstill.. but we managed to move along up to 5 knots at times.

We'll now rest up and recover from all the excitement for a few days and then figure out what we will need to do with our engine! But right now we are relieved, exhausted, and very happy.Read more