New Zealand

New Zealand remains about our most favorite bit of earth on the planet. The landscape is enchanting, the people warm and friendly, the climate pretty much perfect.

We had long dreaded the passage to New Zealand. We're not really into rough sailing conditions and had read too many horror stories of sailboats caught in huge storms, e.g. the infamous "Queen's Birthday Storm". What we experienced was nowhere near our worst weather, but toward the end it really wasn't much fun.

Here's yet another sunset somewhere enroute to New Zealand. Morganeers will note the presence of a staysail in addition to the genoa. At first we had very light winds and put up all the canvas we had. Toward the end of the passage the genoa was shredded and the staysail became our only headsail.

The total distance we had to cover was on the order of 1300nm, not our longest passage by any means but one that we expected to get nasty. What we didn't expect was to lose our radios, GPS and e-mail, but these are the kind of things you just have to face: it's part of the "adventure". Toward the end all we had was an Iridium phone with 15 minutes left. Then the engine blew up...

But, obviously made it to Opua in the lovely North Island of incredible New Zealand. Please Join Us...

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