Underway at Last

Well, 17 months after giving up our marina berth in Van Isle marina in Sidney, we are on the last leg of the trip to New Zealand. W3 dropped Tony off at the resort this morning so he could catch his ride to the airport and then back to the boat to get ready for an 8-10 day passage to Opua. The weather routing we got from Bob McDavitt has us heading south for a few days before heading off west to almost the longitude of Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island. Winds are predicted to be between 15-25 for most of the trip. We spent 40 minutes under power when we left the anchorage then all sails up and with a few gybes, out of the western reef. We are deep reaching at between 6 and 7 knots. We'll see how long we can keep this up. With 3 of us on board, it is a different sort of passage. I am more aware of the responsibilities I have towards everyone on the boat as well as what the boat is doing and how she's performing. The more speed we can wring out of Tarun on this passage, the better. We have a voyage plan made for 5 knots so if we do significantly better we will need to get an update mid passage. The sun is out, we saw a big sea turtle on the way out of the final reef and everyone seems happy on board. We're off to NZ!!

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