Tainui Internet Log

May 2000

Recorded by Brian Fairweather

This is the continuing Internet log for the Australian Registered ship "Tainui" – it’s one year mission, to seek out a fun life in remote civilisations – to boldly go where very few ships have gone before… insert theme music here…

May 1 to 2 – Brian spent most of this time running around, trying to sell his car, pack up the house, help Kath move into her new flat, put stuff in storage and generally go nuts. Dan did some stuff on the boat, but not even sure what anymore. We did get back over to the CYCA and put the mast back in – hooray! Nice leather covers on the spreaders, looks classy. I won’t even write how much it all costs – Dan and Brian are very much looking forward to spending a few weeks on the ocean, where there is nobody to take your credit card. Turns out that Yan can’t go, as he blew the engine of his Harley riding down from the Gold Coast and now can’t afford it. Turns out that we had one more applicant, Wessel van der Donk, from Holland, who is working in the Blue Mountains taking care of some kids and being a chef! Sounds like a good mix, so now we are a team of four – Dan, Brian, Greg and Wessel – bound for Opua, New Zealand.

Customs has come to meet us at the CYCA, stamped our passports and cleared the ship – now we have 24 hours to get out of town!

May 3 – Spent the morning doing all those absolutely critical last-minute things that you always forget to do until just before you leave… (Actually did sell the car to a dealer for a reasonable price – I’ll miss my red convertible MX5!) Finally had everything all packed up and ready to go and by 2 pm, we are heading out of the CYCA and Rushcutters Bay. Oops, forgot fishing gear. We have line but no hooks – great. We pull in to Double Bay and Brian jumps ashore again, as someone had mentioned there was a good fishing shop there.

There isn’t.

I proceeded immediately to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and asked the concierge where to find a deep-sea fishing store. (As you do – I love life in Sydney!) He actually located one in Waverley, so I hailed a taxi and went off… One hour later and $80 poorer for the taxi and gear, I’m back aboard Tainui. We better catch a lot of fish! Okay, now we’re really, really leaving this time and we mean it.

By 3pm we are passing through the Heads of Port Jackson, leaving Sydney Harbour and the home I’ve known for three years. I am thinking back on the fun I have had, the friends and family whom I’ve gotten to know and I have to say I am suddenly very sad to go. At least I know I’ll be back again at the end of the year – to everyone I know in Oz, best of luck, lots of love and I hope that you’ll keep up with our trip, as I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you again soon!!! (Actually wiping tear away as I write this…)

Okay, enough sentiments – the adventure begins here!

By 5pm, we are cruising along when BANG – there goes the jib halyard up the mast… the actual stitching on the roller furling jib has let go! We have two options: try to fix this (minor) problem at sea as the sun sets, or RETURN TO SYDNEY and fix it in the Harbour. The name of the game is safety, so we turn around and look for a discreet anchorage where the customs guys won’t find us. Shhh…

Wessel is chosen to get pulled up to the top of the mast as we are anchored in a secret location near North Head (just outside Quarantine Station, home of Customs? Oops.) Brian also gets to work on finally completing some work on the forward bilge pump, while Dan stiches the sail. All is made well and we go to bed early to get a fresh start in the morning.

May 4 – We’re off at 9am and sailing again! Dan’s sail repair seems to be holding OK… We have breakfast on board and after a few hours, the landlubbers (Greg and Wessel) have each contributed their breakfast to the sea in a major joint barfing session! Now that they are initiated, we sail on out of sight of land… we are cruising… pretty good winds and we are making good way…

May 5 – Had the first overnight watch – everything going fine, but it’s a real pain to have to get up for a four hour shift in the middle of the night! We do shifts in pairs (Brian and Greg, Dan and Wessel for now) and they are: 8am to 2pm, 2pm to 8pm, 8pm to midnite, midnite to 4am, 4am to 8am and then all over again… this means that one night you are on watch for four hours from midnight to four, but the next night that’s how long you get to sleep! It takes a bit of adjusting.

Decided to heave to (turn across the wind so you are ‘parked’ on the ocean, sort of into the wind) so that we can pump the bilges. They have diesel and slime in them, since we couldn’t pump out while in the harbour. The bilge water has actually come up into the cabin a bit on this port tack, so we have oily water all through the cabin – great. It is actually a huge job to mop this up, adding to this, the bilge pumps start clogging with all the junk in the bilges, so that two become unusable and the third needs its filter cleaned every five minutes. I decide that the filter is no good and sew up a rubber-coated placemat and wrap it around the intake to the pump – this low-pressure filter works much better and we are finally able to pump the bilges dry. (We love jury-rigging by now.) I resolve to get proper filters, gauges and strainers for all the bilge pumps in New Zealand.

By 3pm the main is double reefed as the wind has picked up from the North, meaning we are having a very fast run towards New Zealand! By 10pm we are actually ¼ of the way to the New Zealand coast!

May 6 – We are still flying along, but looking at the log, the barometer has begun to fall – expect some rough weather ahead. We check in with Sydney radio for weather forecasts and find gale warnings. By evening, the wind has started blowing from the West and very strong now! The seas are rising – Greg was originally looking for waves that were at least 3 metres high when we left Sydney – now it’s hard to find one that is not! By 10pm, the wind is blowing a true gale, we estimate force 8, but probably truly force 9, as the seas have reached 5 metres high. We have triple reefed the main now and have the jib rolled into a tight reef on the roller furling forestay. Even that is not enough – the roller furling line suddenly lets go and now we have a full jib out, which we scramble to drop in high winds! Should have put the thing away a long time before and put up the storm sail on the inner forestay… dumb.

We decide to put up the storm sail on the inner forestay – as we raise the sail, the mast starts ‘pumping,’ as our running backstays aren’t tight enough – additionally, the sheets aren’t tight enough and the sail is flapping wildly – in the middle of this, the halyard lets go and the sail comes crashing down! (I am secretly glad, as I was not happy with the effects of the runaway sail– last thing we want is to snap the mast!) There is no turning back to Sydney now - we use the spinnaker halyard to pull up the storm sail and keep going…

Now we have the jib lying on the deck, with the storm sail up – as the wind picks up, we go to take down the main – the wind has blown so hard that the mainsail track has torn off the mast at the bottom and some of the hanks that hold the main on are torn through, too! We get her down roughly and tie up the sail as best we can.

The wind is as strong as I have ever seen – we are running at least 10 knots before a following gale, with only a storm jib up. It’s scary enough when you are sitting on deck, watching the waves breaking around you, occasionally over the boat, dumping a foot of water into the cockpit, making it a bathtub! When you are below decks trying to sleep it is terrifying – the sounds that echo through the boat sound like the whole thing is coming to pieces – every wave that crashes against the stern seems to shake the boat and make you wonder whether it will hold together – every time I look up to the window, it seems to be freshly covered with another burst of water that then sloshes around the deck as it drains off – I can’t help but wonder whether our new boat is really up to this!

The truth is: the boat is up to it, the rigging is strong, and it sounds worse than it is, even (especially) in a wild gale. The hardest part is dealing with the fear of it all, as the boat is actually performing very well, in terms of sailing along with the storm!

Next problem: we have three good-sized hatches on Tainui, which are wood covered with plexiglass – they can be pinned so as to open either forward or backwards – when we set out, we pinned them backwards to prevent waves from breaking over the bow and washing them open. Of course, we should have pinned them totally closed! This becomes apparent, when Wessel is rudely awakened in the forward cabin by the hatch blowing off. I went forward to survey the damage and saw that the hinges have been torn from the wood by the force of the wind – stupid, because if we pinned them all down, the wind could not have opened them wide enough to do this damage. I have to climb on the foredeck with a hammer and nails and pound the hinges on for now, then tie rope across the forward hatch in four directions to secure it. Back to the main cabin hatch, which is much bigger and would be a catastrophe if it went in… put all the pins in and tied it down as well for good measure. The aft hatch was already secured with all pins, but a few bits of rope across it make me feel better. Now, we are secure as we should have been from the start. We’ll have to fix these hatches right in New Zealand!

While I am fixing the aft hatch, I have a look over the stern the check things out (thought I heard some banging while in the aft cabin) – sure enough, the swim platform has fallen down and the rushing water has torn the wood strips right off! It gets tied up and added to the list of things to repair – it’s getting to be a long list! Also noted that the tri-light is not working and we are using the steaming lights instead – the starboard nav light hasn’t worked since Sydney…

The autopilot is able to keep a steady course nearly downwind, with the waves coming from the aft quarter, and we are absolutely screaming along. By the time the wind and seas lighten 20 hours later, we have moved about 2 degrees of longitude! This is well over 100 miles under a storm jib alone! Very fast, but wouldn’t want to do it every day – May 6 has been tough.

May 7 – The storm has continued through the early morning, but by 6:30am, the winds have eased to Force 6, which is still strong, but seems like a breeze by comparison! The first albatross is spotted and the moon comes out for the first time tonight… The compass light has shorted out in the storm, so Brian rigs a temporary one with some batteries, electrical tape and wire. Also installed the brackets for the stereo speakers in the cockpit! Now we have music without sliding speakers all over the deck – it’s nice to have some calm seas…

May 8 – After all the excitement and speed of the previous couple of days, we decide to have a lazy day today and not work too hard! This is probably good, as the wind is now light and from the East, right where we are heading…We turn on the engine for a while, make hot water and all have showers. Also, got the desalinator working and make some fresh water, just for practice – we have three full tanks of fresh water, which should be more than enough for our trip. A lot of the ‘fresh’ food has gone off and gets pitched over the side – Dan takes a well-deserved nap after the previous day’s battles and sleeps for 5 ½ hours as we motor along. He misses the dolphins that come out to swim with the boat! They seem to like the violin concertos that are playing on the stereo… Once he wakes, Dan delights us all with his trumpet practice – surprisingly, the dolphins do not reappear – after an hour of scales, I’m hoping for another storm…

We realise that we have no idea what day of the week it is and all agree that this is pretty cool!

May 9 – The wind is still from the East and moderate. We are sailing close-hauled early in the morning. By 2am we are past our third waypoint and only 350 miles to the New Zealand coast! At this rate it will be an amazingly fast trip – at 1300 hours, we decided to change from the Sydney time zone to the New Zealand time zone… While Dan and Greg are on watch, the stars are out in force, including shooting stars and a moon rainbow (!?) I was too sleepy to get up, but Dan and Greg agree that it was one of the most amazing effects they have ever seen – described as ‘a large white semicircle in the sky, all aglow with silver, like an alien sports stadium.’

Dan also saw the first ship since leaving Sydeny – until now, we had been all alone.

May 10 – When I finally wake up, I am pleased to work out how to program the waypoints into the GPS, so that it plots our course and deviation on the screen – cool! (I think Dan is a purist and prefers to do it all on paper…) By 5am we are motoring again…

The official log has the following note at 6am: ‘Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring.’ The day goes on like this, until about 1pm, when – hey there’s something on that $80 fishing line! We caught a tuna!!! Took a few pix and video just to prove it, then Brian had a go at killing and cleaning it. Yuck, actually. Lots of blood.

Greg found the fish book that we have that actually shows how to properly kill and clean a tuna – we sort of try all the steps, including dragging it backwards through the water after cutting it in various places to bleed it, then pull it out so as not to lose it to any passing sharks. In the end, we filleted it and had enough tuna for all of us for a couple meals…

Dan makes fresh muffins for evening tea and we are all feeling quite satisfied with ourselves when suddenly… the engine revs down and cuts out! What now??? How about – no more fuel in the starboard tank! We really should have paid more attention to our fuel consumption – there was over 350L in that tank. We have an additional 150L in our port-side tank, and another 100L in plastic jerry cans in the locker, but it’s not good to go to the bottom of a tank! Now we will have to switch tanks and prime the injectors, etc. Nigel Calder’s book comes out again (he wrote a book that tells you everything you will ever need to know about boats – it’s sort of our ‘fixing boats for dummies,’ except it’s not really for dummies…) and we work out how to prime the diesel engine.

Diesel engines are actually pretty cool – ours is over 20 years old and, if kept well-maintained, will probably run well for another 20 years easy. The problem that we have now is: we don’t know when the last time the port tank was used – there could be some nasty stuff in it that we don’t want to pass through the engine! After opening the valves and trying to start the engine, we fear there may be some blockage and decide to try another approach. We put 20L of diesel from the jerry cans into the starboard tank and try to prime the engine. This is done with a small level that you pump with one finger, while loosening various nuts along the fuel path to bleed out the air in the system. It doesn’t seem to be working and we spend a frustrating hour trying to get it done. After a while, we work out the problem – it’s actually mostly primed already – just the injectors need to be bled! The engine starts and we figure we have 16 hours of fuel left.

May 11 - After all this, we are getting more gale warnings to the North… we sail a bit Southeast and finally heave to as the wind increases – it is coming again from the East and we can’t make progress against it. We sit downstairs in the pitching cabin and watch the radar. We are in an area that could potentially have shipping traffic – sure enough, there appears a large blip that is heading right for us – about 12 miles away, but these things move fast! We decide to call on the VHF radio and actually get a response from the ship – it’s the container ship ‘Berlin Express,’ heading to Auckland. We give her our position from the GPS, but she doesn’t see us on her radar, of course. We are so tiny in comparison that if they ran right over us, they probably wouldn’t even notice! At least now, they know where we are, and since we’re hove to (not sailing), we can’t do much. We notice their course changing and are really pleased with our radar and the handling of the whole situation! We call them again to say thanks and they are really polite and wish us a good journey – cheers to the crew of the ‘Berlin Express!’

Dan, Greg amd Wessel stay up for a while, eating spaghetti and watching the radar – it’s a rough night and every once in a while a rogue wave crashes over the boat and the cockpit fills with water and then drains out. The storms are supposed to be decreasing, but we have been stuck at 168 degrees for a couple days, with the engine problems and bad weather…

May 12 – Still hove to or making slow progress under motor, using it sparingly. Every time we go forward a bit, it takes a lot of effort and as soon as we heave to again, it all gets reversed. We have been listening on the radio to conversations between the Taupo Maritime Radio operators and a yacht named ‘Eureka’ – they are about 50 miles away from us and caught in the same weather, but seem to be doing it rough! We also have been listening to a Mayday call from a dive ship that has lost two divers – after a few hours, the Mayday is cancelled, as all are retrieved safely…

Finally, at 8am, the weather breaks and we start sailing – the winds have changed from Easterlies to Northerlies and we are making some progress towards the Northern tip of New Zealand. At about 4pm, in less than 30 seconds, the wind makes a sudden 90 degree swing round to come from the West and we are moving fast again… in eight hours, we move a full degree of longitude, from 168 degrees 55 minutes to 169 degrees 53 minutes – that’s more distance covered than in the past 36 hours!

May 13 - The wind speed increases to Force 6 and we are flying again… another ship is sighted on the horizon and on radar, behind us to the West. We once again make contact to be safe and turn on the foredeck lights, as visibility is somewhat limited by waves and occasional rain (and our less-than-perfect lights.) We actually are going so fast that this ship doesn’t even gain on us for hours! Finally, her course takes her south of us and she passes in the night like… well… a ship in the night, really.

By 7am we are so close to New Zealand that we stop plotting our course on the large-scale ocean passage chart and start using the local New Zealand chart! At 9:55am Greg spots one of the Three Kings Islands – we all owe him a beer. (Dan also gets one for seeing the first ship.)

A few hours later, I spot the actual coastline, with a steep cliff in front of an imposing peak. Somehow I don’t seem to qualify for any free drinks, but I’m sure plenty will be available once we arrive…

Update on the radio: ‘Eureka’ has lost her sails and is headed for port on the Western side of the North Island – they made the wrong decision and ran South before the storm, whereas we waited it out and sailed North through it. They took a lot of abuse and seemed shattered, whereas we feel pretty good, having made our repairs on the run and dealt with everything.

May 14 – We are sailing again with the storm jib down and our jury-rigged roller furling sail out – it’s midnight and we have made it around the Northern tip of New Zealand and are cruising down the East coast towards the Bay of Islands, our destination. By daylight, we are within sight and by 10am or so, we are entering the bay and very impressed by the large rock formations that frame this harbour. The land is green and beautiful and we are all quite glad to think about walking on solid ground. Dan leads us in cleaning up and getting shipshape – we raise our NZ courtesy flag and our quarantine flag on the starboard spreader, then have showers and dress nice to meet the officials. Dan believes in presenting a clean and tidy boat and crew, demonstrating pride and respect – I think this does go a long way in making customs and immigration easier.

By 12:20pm, we are tied up alongside customs pier and are getting the paperwork done. Only then do we realise it’s Sunday and these guys have come to greet us on their day off! They are pretty cool anyway and give us no hassles – we had already laid out all the stuff we thought would be quarantined and made their job as easy as possible. In fact, they were downright nice and helpful!

We took a marina berth at Opua Marina and cleaned the boat a bit, then went to the pub and had a big lunch and beers, beers, beers. Also, a few phone calls to say Hi to loved ones, then more beers, actually. Later, we did laundry, cleaned up and went out for some beers and dinner!

Overall, the trip took 10 days of travel, not counting our original departure. Three days were spent not moving at 168 degrees longitude and we encountered three good-sized storms, broke a lot of gear, and had some really good sailing, too. In all, a success, but we’re really glad that NZ has good quality boating services at low rates, as we’re going to need them!

May 15 – Finally started getting to serious cleaning, laundry and fixing stuff.

Afterwards, Greg and Wessel went off to Paihia, the neighbouring larger town, while Dan and Brian worked on the boat – we finally figured out how to connect to shore power using our inverter/charger – had to buy an adaptor from the local electrical shop. Also, found a guy who repairs sails and canvas and he came over to see our sails and cockpit cover. He is going to restitch the sails and the covers and put a big zipper in the cockpit cover, so we can zip it back like a convertible top, as we always wanted!

I got the great job of repairing the forward toilet, as it had stopped flushing out. Without too much detail, it required lots of pumping and replacement of a few gaskets in foul places, but now works better than ever. I am convinced I could get a job as a tradesman if I wanted to…

Dan and Brian will go to Paihia tomorrow to try to get an Internet connection and publish this log! We are also looking into how to get email connected for the boat while sailing – we have a modem and computer – I think we need some software and stuff. We definitely want weather fax and better communications for the next leg to Tahiti…

May 16 – We did get to the Internet Cafe to publish this log (obviously!) and do some other things. Also downloaded all sorts of software so that we can try to hook up to email while sailing via the HF radio...
We're getting lots of repairs done to the boat here in New Zealand because:
a) we need them done
b) things are pretty cheap here!

May 17 - I got the sad news that my Grandmother passed away, so I'll be heading off to San Francisco to attend the funeral with my family - meanwhile, Dan and I are arranging for sail and canvas repairs, a fix to the leaky mast fitting, pump repairs, hatch repairs, mainsail track repairs and a whole lot of other stuff that really does add up, now that I look at it...

May 18-22 – Brian headed off for California, while Dan is lonely on the boat... it turns out that Brian's friend Gary won't be able to make it to New Zealand for the Tahiti trip, so Dan recruited an Aucklander to come along. His name is Brendon and he's an electrician - excellent! Many repairs are made and much money is spent...

May 23 – Brian has spent Monday in San Francisco trying to locate a modem and information on whether it will work with our HF radio - this is needed to get email connectivity on the seas. It turns out that these modems are sold in Auckland, which is good, since I'll be there in about 15 hours. I fly to Auckland, arriving at 5:30am local time, and spend a couple hours in the Qantas lounge using their Internet connection and telephones, trying to locate all the gear we'll need. Actually, I went to the lounge BEFORE clearing customs in NZ, so they have 'closed' my flight from Los Angeles. I speak to the Qantas receptionist, who calls customs and they say that it's no problem.
By the time I'm ready to go, it's 11:15am and I call the US Consulate to find out if I can get additional pages put into my passport, as it's a bit full. No problem - they close at 12:30pm. I walk downstairs with my carry-on luggage (a backpack and computer bag is all I took with me on this trip!) and go through customs. I have to go see the supervisor, as the flight was closed. I explain and get through OK - it's now 11:30am.
As I walk to the 'Nothing to Declare' exit, the lady looks at my arrival card and says 'Please follow the blue line.' I have NEVER had to follow the blue line before!
Now they want me to empty all my bags so they can look through them. No problem, I've only got two small ones! I look over and see that there is a young, scruffy looking guy and his girlfriend at the next counter - one of the dogs had seemed a bit interested in him back at the luggage carousel and he was now explaining why his jacket held the scent of marijuana...
A woman came out to meet me and ran a cloth around my bags, then brought the cloth to a little machine that beeped a lot. When she walked back, she said that she had found traces of heroin on my bags - HEROIN! I have never used drugs in my life, much less tried to smuggle heroin through an international airport!
She asked me several times if anyone had used my bags, my clothes, etc. I had her test things separately until she isolated the trace. It seemed to be on my video camera - bizarre. Of course, now they are asking me all sorts of questions and going off into the back room to talk a lot... I looked around and realised that everyone in the room looked a bit like a backpacker and then it hit me:
Every time I had ever been through customs before, I was dressed conservatively - perhaps in a suit, etc. This time, I have a shaved head, goatee, I've just arrived from a few days in LA, I have no luggage, lots of stamps in my passport and when she asks me to empty my pockets, I pull out a few thousand dollars in cash (for the rest of the year on the boat!) Oh no, I LOOK LIKE A DRUG CARRIER!
It's now 12:00 noon and I'm wondering if I will make it to the consulate and start to think I might have to call the consulate back to get out of jail or something! Of course, I am carrying nothing illegal, so I'm not really that worried and this all seems quite funny until I think 'cavity search' and get a bit nervous.
Finally, they seem convinced that I am only in a hurry to get to the consulate and decide to let me go. It's now 12:30pm and the consulate is closed. Ouch. I call and manage to get a 2pm special appointment, where they quickly add a few pages and send me on my way. (In the San Francisco office the day before, I waited an hour in line to be told it might take more than a day to accomplish the same!)
In the end, I got back to Tainui and Dan, Brendon and I do a bit more work and spend a big night out in Paihia for dinner and the local late-night drinking hole.

May 24 -30 – While Brian has been away, Dan has gotten most of the things done on the boat. We now have:
- a new cockpit cover with a zipper
- a new water bladder to replace the leaky one
- a new saltwater pump, relocated higher
- new nav light
- a rebuilt fuel line
- a tightened stern gland
- a fixed log for the knotmeter
- a clean hull with touch-up antifoul (we slipped the boat for a few hours)
- repairs to the mainsail, roller jib and spare jib
- new roller furling line

Meanwhile, we have been trying to work out exactly how the modem connects to our HF radio, to enable email. Fortunately, we meet Jeff Casher, who sails aboard 'Sea Witch' with his wife, Gail. Jeff is a ham radio expert with lots of cool gear on his yacht, which is a Liberty 46. They came over for dinner one night, after Jeff and Brian hooked up the modem and tested it. (see new PHOTO page!) We also had a young guy named Chris come for dinner one night - he sails aboard Namasté, another yacht heading for Tahiti. This yacht has every conceivable bit of water sporting equipment strapped to her hull - several windsurfers, kayaks, etc. We decide to keep in touch with Namasté on the way via the HF radio and to catch up for some fun in Tahiti. We have also arranged to do daily 'scheds' with Russell Radio NZ, so that we have someone checking our position and advising us of the weather around us. We will talk to 'Des' every night until we arrive, and catch up on news from the folks on other boats whom we have met.

We finish up with some hatch repairs and other odd jobs, then decide we are pretty much ready to go! Dan has gone to the butcher in Paihia and bought a half-dozen pre-made meals that have been frozen for us - meat pies, casseroles, etc. This turns out to be one of the best ideas, along with the smoked sausages that are now hanging above the galley...

May 31 – Having made all of our phone calls home over the last day or two, we are now ready to leave - Brian's friend Dave Schaefer managed to get a fax of the boat registration to us, which we previously did not have! We had left so soon after buying the boat, it never made it to us in the mail - fortunately, Kathleen will bring the original with her when she comes to Tahiti.
Just as we are preparing to leave, the brand new zipper on our awning breaks! Fortunately, the lady from the sail repair place comes out to the dock and fixes it, giving us a few spares, as well. We note that the awning should be left a bit loose... we finally depart at 12:15pm and we decide to take a different route out through the Bay of Islands, just to sightsee. It's a very pretty place - we go by the 'Hole in the Rock,' which is a huge arch on the final point of land at Cape Brett - the tourist boats actually drive through it, but we are a bit too large and slow...
Goodbye to NZ and hello to the open ocean. Brendon follows the lead of our previous crewmembers and is sick before we are out of sight of land - Dan actually succumbs, as well, which is unusual - Brian feels a bit queasy, but stares at clouds and survives.

June 2000 Log

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April 2000 Log