For my time in SW bay, the weather was not good with strong SE winds and very rough seas with a bIg swell. It was better to stay and wait for better conditions. Eventually the forecast was for the wind to ease and go Easterly and the seas to calm a little. It was around 100 miles to Port Villa so at least a 24 hr passage. Weighing anchor early one morning I headed out of the bay and rounded the end of the reef of Ba Arum point before shaping a course for Efate. Grey at first the seas still fairly rough but throughout the day conditions eased some. I couldn’t quite make the correct course due to wind and waves so had to tack eastwards at some point. The night passed quietly with the wind having eased to easterly 15 – 17 knots, but shortly after dawn with Efate in sight I was virtually becalmed. Actually this did me a bit of a favour as under engine I could set a direct course which probably saved me a couple of hours. Rounding Devils point I crossed the bay and soon could pick up a mooring in Port Villa.
Here I could shower, drop of my washing, do some much needed shopping for supplies and have a coffee and a meal. I also needed some time to rest and then prepare for the passage to New Zealand. One of the chores was scrubbing the hull so that I might comply with NZ strict bio-security laws. I took 2 long mornings to do this, diving under the hull in a face mask armed with scraper and scotch pad, it is quite exhausting work. Checking the forecast it looked like there was fairly decent weather window coming up so I decided to leave on the Monday. First thing Monday then I took a bus up to the customs wharf to complete my clearance papers and pay the harbour dues. A bit of last minute shopping for bread and fresh veg and then it was time to pack up and stow the dinghy and cast off from the mooring.
I knew for the first couple of days I would have headwinds so would have to tack but was lead to believe by the forecast that the wind would go easterly then fall light maybe even calm before getting into westerlies near NZ. Trouble was as I was to find the forecast was nothing like the conditions I found. I did have to tack quite bit those first few days as I was getting pushed westwards and my rhumb line course was towards the SE/SSE. All this of course adds to the distance to be travelled and the time. 4 days out and I was close to the reefs and banks of the SE end of New Caledonia and my course was heading straight for the Banc de L’Orne forcing me to tack to the East to clear it. 8 days out and a ran into a calm patch so I motored for just over 24 hours to get through this. During this time I had the only rain of the passage. I had spotted a nasty looking rain cloud dead ahead so had altered course to try and skirt it. Looked liked I might succeed at one point but I either didn’t skirt it enough or there was no avoiding it anyway. Still wasn’t so bad, a brief increase in wind than torrential rain for 20 mins. Still it will have washed away some of the salt coating of Sea Bear.
The wind returned so sailing again. The latch spring on the servo paddle of the wind vane steering gear broke so it was disengaged. It say something for Sea Bear’s sailing abilities she kept on her close hauled course no bother and that I only noticed that the tiller was steady whilst the wind vane altered. Peering over the stern the paddle was trailing uselessly in the water. I managed to re-engage the latch and lashed it shut.
10 days out and I was passed by another yacht and we had a chat over the vhf, mainly about the weather. We were less than 300 miles from New Zealand by now and should have been getting SW or W winds however we were faced with relentless strongish SE’lys. These persisted for some 5 days
My worst day was having logged 101 miles noon to noon I had only made 37 miles net gain towards NZ, next day 88 miles noon to noon but just 35 miles gained in the right direction. It was pretty depressing and I was feeling pretty low.
Eventually however just after dawn 15 days out I came within sight of New Zealand, at first the coast had coyly hidden its-self behind a bank of haze but it was gradually revealed. A big pod of dolphins came swimming around the boat, leaping out of the water as if to say welcome to New Zealand.
Just past Tikitiki rock at the entrance to the Bay of Islands a NZ customs rib came by for a few words. They said they were expecting me as they had picked me up on AIS and the customs would be ready for me at the quarantine dock. Some I was tying up at the dock and clearance into New Zealand proceeded.
It had been a tough passage, 1557 miles logged as opposed to rhumb line course of 1,100 miles and just short of 15 days, I was glad to get in and felt in need of a rest.