October 13 – Despite not being there, I’m watching closely Dave’s progress to New Zealand. This can be a challenging passage, but I’m confident Dave and his trusty crew will do just fine. Weather is looking good and like it will cooperate.
Here’s their first update:
We left Nuku’Alofa at 11 am and are headed towards N Minerva. Wind was light 8-13 and varying from N to E. Currently we are seeing 11 kts from 75 degrees.
Position 22 01.970. 176 42.982
155 nm from N Minerva
Making 6.5 with motor to reach reef Sunday morning
With latest forecast we may make a lunch stop at Minerva and keep going.
Sea state has settled down and crew is sleeping well. We had the pole out, fixed a bent furler spool the anchor had bent, unjammed the main vertical batten withough going aloft, and sadly lost our fish line due to my butter fingers.
Water & batteries are topped up which is also nice.
Dave