[password] radioactiv
[position] 34 46.028S 174 41.608E
[weather] Baro 1026. 15% cloud cover, high wispy clouds, mostly clear blue skies
[speed] 9.3
[heading] 330M
[status] Yesterday Team SV MOONFISH left Hobsonville marina and headed to Westhaven fuel dock. After filling up the diesel tanks and petrol cans, Capt?n Mike, First Mate Sasha, and Crewie Tim-o-Tei cleared customs around 4:30pm, we pulled up the main sail and headed out into the harbour motor-sailing. Winds were light, and we all said our non-verbal goodbyes to Auckland city as we made our way past Devonport. Finally we were are on our way!
The Auckland team at NZ Customs were awesome! Daniel from NZ Customs made his way down to the fuel jetty and we worked through the simple paper work in no time at all. Thanks NZ Customs you made leaving from Auckland easy, stress free and quick.
Leaving from Auckland at dusk was a new experience, usually MOONFISH departs from Opua (up north), and usually we clear in the morning and spend the most of the day sailing as hard as we can away from NZ. This time our plan was different, spend the night hugging the east coast, to get north. Once at Cape Brett we turned right, happy to head a little bit west of the rhumb line to Fiji, to avoid some headwinds that are forecast to occur in a couple of days.
Today is our first ?real? day of passage, the land is fast disappearing and soon we?ll see 360 degrees of blue. This is the time we all settle in, slow down, and finally have time to think. This year?s preparation has been one of our most challenging, we decided to stay in Auckland so we could work right up to our departure. But what we didn?t account for is the time and mental focus needed to prep the boat and ourselves for passage and 5 months on the hook. That?s why heading to Opua is a good idea in some respects ? as it provides a physical distance from our NZ summer life (i.e. working). And while we missed catching up with our friends; Erica, Dave and the kids, (Hell you guys!! We hope USA is awesome!) we do have to admit we didn?t miss the pre-passage angst that generates amongst the sailors via arduous weather conversations that are part and parcel of this blue ocean cruising scene.
Thanks to all the people who helped us as we prepared MOONFISH, Boydy (South Pacific Marine) the stack pack looks awesome, and we?ve already discovered the new netting feature not only allows rain water to drain but also means we can see the weather vane through the stack pack on both tacks now which is really handy. Ian (IMARINE NZ) the diesel heater got a lot of use last night, and kept us toasty warm, we can?t get over how much of difference our new Stella Airtronic Diesel Heater is making! We love it! Thanks to both the riggers who helped us (we really appreciate how quickly you worked) Brett at Focus marine (thank you!) and Steve at The Rigging Shop. Also thanks to Team Sharpe Focus, Pip and Sharpy helped us several times, with Sharpy even heading up the rig to remove our cap shrouds and Pip and Sharpy helping us get our forestay down without it ending up in the drink. You guys are sailing legends! Also Mal-i-Bu and Pauline (Aqua Plumb) thanks for everything you guys have done!! Thanks for the cosy yummy dinner the other night, thanks for the head cleaner, and for keeping Capt?n Mike busy with a job.
Other prep included? Replacing our anchor winch $$$!, repairing cockpit covers, getting the engines serviced, and the outboard, replacing a window, installing new legs to the saloon table ? it now goes up and down and becomes a day-bed, new thingy-ma-bob that manages the engines charge into our house batteries (thanks Ian from I MARINE NZ) purchasing a new code zero furling system $$, boat insurance, Sat phone charged and loaded with minutes (USD$), not to mention boat provisioned with food and drink, new bean bags purchased, and filled at Mum Watson?s house (that was hilarious by the way! Filling bean bags with your partner is akin to putting up a tent with your partner, if you can do it together without wanting to kill each other you really are on to something. Barbara, sorry for making such a mess ? it was Mike?s fault haha heh heh). Turns out bean bags are great on yachts, but the Sun?s UV rays really hammer them, they seem to only last a season before the covers split.
Last night we kicked off passage with some delicious cheese rolls (Aka Southern Sushi), Tim?s mum Margaret made them - Tim says he helped. These things are soooo tasty, they?re a kiwi-tradition; A piece of white bread, is filled with cheese, dijon mustard, onion soup mix and evaporated milk, it is then rolled and baked in the oven. 2 large bags of frozen cheese rolls were delivered (among an unbelievable amount of food that Tim turned up with yesterday). All Sasha had to do was pop them in the oven to heat through. The boys had 3 each and a celebratory beer, while Sasha?s first passage meal, a good old lasagna was heating up in the oven. The lasagna went down a treat with enough left over to feed both boys for lunch today. Then Tim started with our 3 hour night shifts, Sasha took over at 11:15pm. Light winds meant head sail went out, then head sail was furled away, then 8knots meant turn off engine, then 4knots meant turn on engine.. Once around the hen and chicks we turned in towards land to sneak between the coast and Sugarloaf, so the main was trimmed as our reach became tighter. Sasha was pretty chuffed with herself, furling and unfurling the head sail by herself, and trimming the main, for a while there the boat was sailing a long nicely.. but it was touch and go with the wind. Oh and importantly Sasha saw a big container ship on the AIS called Pamela (that?s her mother?s name) which she took as a very good omen. Mike took over at 2:15am, and then plonked onto the bed at 5:15am when Timmy headed back on watch. Sasha woke up at 7:40am and freaked out as she was supposed to be taking over from Tim-o-Tei 7:15am, so she jumped up and got dressed but Tim was sweet as, happy to be watching the sunrise over Cape Brett. We still had internet service then so we posted a photo of the sunrise on our Instagram (Search @SVMOONFISH).
After a nice plunger coffee, we all had muesli, yoghurt, fresh orange and apple slices for breakfast. And now we are planning a blind cookie tasting competition ? as we literally have about 10 litres worth of home-baked cookies on board? thanks Mum Watson and Mum Honeybone! The rest of the day will be spent figuring out what passage meal we eat for dinner. Aaah life at sea is simplistically awesome! AWOB.

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