RNI leg 2

Rob reports
 

In Wellington

Approaching Wellington

My last message was written off New Plymouth where we had been “on the wind” for the approx 3 days it had taken us to sail from Cape Reinga (about 300 NM) and were looking forward to a course change and some easier sailing for the last 150 miles to Wellington.

Well we tacked around the coast surrounding Mount Egmont enjoying the change of scenery and calmer waters but as our course became closer to Cook Strait so did the wind direction never mind, we never expected it to be easy and actually thought it would give us good tactical options to pass some boats. We had downloaded weather information onto our Expedition yacht racing and performance so were expecting this and more wind as we would approach the strait. I was amazed at how accurate our data was as the wind changed slightly and we tacked again to follow our “optimized course” as computed on our Expedition program which took us towards the top of the South Island and would take us down across the top of the Marlborough sounds, exciting stuff. 

New Plymouth

 We changed sails as the wind increased and kept changing sails as the wind increased more. Somewhere around midnight we decided to go easier on our mainsail which by now was double reefed so for the first time in my life (while racing) actually turned away from our course and ran “bare poles” while setting up our trysail. Our wind speed instrument wasn’t working so good so I couldn’t guess how windy it was but with just the trysail up we were doing 4 to 5 knots quite close to the wind and had good steerage control through the waves.

We were aiming to get a bit of shelter from the top of the South Island and were quite happy when the wind did drop but then a bit dismayed as the wind dropped right out and left us becalmed. We were by now just stunned and couldn’t believe how things had changed so completely so we cleaned up and had a rest.

The wind returned and we had a very pleasant sail around the top of the south island and across the Cook strait (tacking and on the wind of course). An interesting time through the Karori tidal rip with the current taking us through impressive standing waves and over the ground at about 6 knots although the wind had again died leaving us becalmed again off Wellington harbour entrance for our last challenge. 

Interisland Ferry - these things move pretty fast.

Luckily the tide stayed in our favour and actually swept us into the harbour, we certainly would not have been able to get in at that time without it. The harbor was like a sheet of glass until the breeze filled to sweep us across the finish line just after 1 pm. A total elapsed time of 5 days 2 hours and 52 minutes. My slowest ever long distance race and just maybe the hardest. Not sure but it was definitely a challenge the whole way.

The RPNYC was amazing had had organized to have people get on the yacht from a dinghy immediately after the finish to help with the sails and berthing, we felt like VIPs big thanks to those guys.