I am pleased to report that Sea Kiwi berthed safely at Chaffers Marina in Wellington Harbour at 0830hrs on Monday 31 October, after departing Whangarei at 1900hrs on Tuesday 25 October.

But not without drama !

On Sunday 16 October, under the management & guidance of Dave, Sea Kiwi was lifted out of the water at Docklands 5 in Whangarei. I had acquired from Lusty & Blundell some new Raymarine electronics (E120 12″ widescreen Hybridtouch MFD chartplotter/radar/depth sounder and i70 insruments), requiring a new skin fitting in the hull for a transducer. While Sea Kiwi was out of the water Scott Williams from EMPower Electrical  commenced installation of the electronics, Dave’s friend Womble scraped and scrubbed her bottom and she had a fresh coat of anti-foul and all annodes replaced. All very ably supervised by Dave. Dinsy & I arrived in Whangarei on 18 October to keep a watchfull eye on everything, and help where necessary. Sea Kiwi went back in the water on Friday 21 October and back to her marina berth where Scotty continued the installation of the electronics. The installation process took fully 9 days until 25 October. We were determined to depart Whangarei on the 1900hrs high tide that day, and Scotty was literally packing up his tools and clambering on to the dock while we were throwing the lines.

On board for the delivery trip were 3 of us : Dave (skipper), with myself and Dinsy as crew. We were without Sniffy who had unfortunately had to withdraw from the trip at the last minute because of work pressures in his earthquake-damage assessor role. Dave determined we would do 4-hour shifts during the day and 3-hour shifts during the night, so that we would rotate times.

We motored the 2 hour trip from the town basin marina to Whangarei Heads in flat calm water. We continued  motoring at 6-7 knots bearing 115 deg, reaching the western side of Little Barrier at midnight. We still continued motoring through the early morning hours, reaching the Colville Channel at 0600hrs on Wednesday 26. We motorsailed in to a light easterly, passing the Mercury Islands at 1200hrs. We caught a nice Albacore just south of the Mercs which I filletted and froze for later consumption. Consumption by Dad, as it turned out, because we offloaded it with him in Napier. We sailed/motorsailed comfortably across the top of the Bay of Plenty during the afternoon in a 10kn NW on our port beam, keeping a sharp eye out for “Rena” containers. We trucked along like that during the night, arriving at lovely Hicks Bay at 0500 on Thursday 27. We manoevoured up to the sheltered calm of the shallows near the beach, dropped anchor and all 3 of us headed for bed for some welcome sleep. We had had a very easy sail, but sleep now came easily as well. I think our tiredness was more to do with getting Sea Kiwi ready for the trip than the actual trip so far.

Dave roused us at 1130hrs and we headed off, motorsailing towards East Cape in a 15kn SE in moderate seas. Conditions changed as we rounded East Cape. The wind veered to the south, 15-18kn, right on the nose. Sloppy sea, especially through the gap between East Cape and East Island. Generally unpleasant. Too much for my constitution, for a time!  We motorsailed with reefed main & staysail, just to keep a decent weigh on. To make matters worse, rain set in. At 0300 we staggered past Tolaga Bay. Conditions improved with dawn with 10kn SE, enabling us to slide inside Ariel Rocks with eased sheets. By midday the sea state was much more comfortable, and the wind shifted further east. We motorsailed through the gap between Mahia Peninsular & Portland Island & turned towards Napier with a 10-15kn easterly on our tail, under full main & headsail, starboard tack, and enjoyed a very pleasant sail until the wind died later in the afternoon as we closed on the entrance to the old Napier port. We arrived in the port at 2100hrs, fuelled up and then berthed outside the Napier Sailing Club. Too late for a rum in the clubrooms, but the nearest pub welcomed us!

Saturday was a beautiful sunny Napier day. We welcomed aboard Sea Kiwi family & friends who had travelled to see us : Dad from Havelock North,  Lynn & Bridget from Wellington, my sister Liz & brother Peter from Auckland, brother Tony from Palmerston North, Lynn’s family Graham, Sharon, Craig, Annabelle & Lisa from the Waipuk. farm, and friend Sue from Nelson. We adjourned for a very pleasant lunch to the local restaurant but eventually Dave roused Dinsy & I away from the festivities, anxious for us to get away again on the Napier high tide. We departed, to many waves goodbye, at 1530hrs.

After leaving Napier, we motored directly in to an easterly breeze until we reached Cape Kidnappers. As we reached Cape Kidnappers, the breeze died. So we continued motoring south down the coast, waiting for the north west breeze that was forecast. It sort of came, then went. I did the first watch : 1800-2100. I motor sailed with full main. We had a horrible beam-on sea which caused us to roll heavily from side to side, making it difficult for Dinsy & Dave to sleep. There seemed to be no lee-cloths in the berths, although we have since found them . Dinsy got tossed out of his little berth on to the floor a couple of times. Dinsy relieved me at 2100 and Dave relieved him at midnight. By the time I came back on watch at 0300 on Monday we had rocked and rolled through the night in mostly light airs, shifting from NW to N to NE and back again. Mostly motor sailing, but sometimes just motoring.

A good NW breeze kicked in not long after sunrise and for a while we had some great reaching sailing with the breeze coming in from behind our starboard quarter. But it fazed out around the middle of the day and we ended up motor sailing again and then just motoring because surprisingly as the breeze died it veered south so that it was almost on our nose. But our run had been so good that we were in sight of Palliser lighthouse by 1530hrs on Sunday.

It had taken us just over 24hrs from Napier to Cape Palliser. Excellent time.

We motor sailed across Palliser Bay with the breeze back to the NW and pretty much on our nose. But only moderate. The tide was against us so the sea state in Cook Strait was pretty calm. We entered Wellington harbour as it was getting dark around 2100hrs. Much the same time as Lynn & Bridget & Lisa were getting back from Hawkes Bay. We decided that, for various reasons, we would not go in to the marina until Monday morning, so we motored up to Somes Island with the intention of picking up the Port Nic  mooring which lies on the south side of the island, in the lee of the NW breeze. Once there, we would congratulate ourselves on our successful and very easy trip, & tuck in to a few rums before turning in for a well-earned sleep. Unfortunately, none of that eventuated.

We motored up to the mooring, with Dinsy on the bow with a torch, Dave with a boat hook and me at the helm. Sea Kiwi was in neutral, drifting slowly up to the mooring, Dave raised his hand for me to stop, and I threw her in to reverse. A great graunching noise came from what I thought was the gear box, and Sea Kiwi failed to stop. I couldn’t engage reverse. I couldn’t engage any gear. We had no drive. Dave missed the mooring with the boat hook and we drifted perilously close to the shore to the front of us. To the starboard was a reef off the southern corner of the island, which was a lee shore for us. To port was a little bit of open water but then another reef. To turn to port would have been to stall in the breeze, so I put the helm hard over to starboard hoping our momentum and the slight breeze would swing us around, clear of the reef. As we came round Dave rolled out some headsail and we managed to gybe and clear the reef and sail a little bit out in to the open water and drop our anchor. With much relief.

I feared the worst about the gear box, but on investigation we found that it wasn’t the gearing. We had sheared the 4 stainless steel bolts connecting the coupling behind the gear box to the drive shaft coupling. So we still had a sound motor and gear box, but no drive to turn the propeller. We had a gloomy talk about all that and discussed how we might get in to the marina, without any motor, in the morning.

What we did in the morning was to ring Jocko for assistance with our Bluefin fishing boat. He was very obligingly alongside us about 0730hrs. We sailed across the harbour in a 10kn NW breeze behind us, then rounded up, dropped the sails and tied the Bluefin to our aft port quarter to give us some go-forward. I had rung Lynn to be at the berth in the marina to catch the rope that we hoped to be able to throw to her when we got in to the marina and were hopefully able to turn in to the wind and berth. Lynn was lucky to find a couple of guys at the marina who were only too willing to help her when she told them of our predicament. One of those guys got in touch with the Port Nic Sailing Academy people and just as we entered the marina to turn in to the wind towards our berth on the very end of C pier a Port Nic inflatable dingy arrived on the scene to help push our bow up in to the wind. We cruised in to the berth as though it was an everyday event, and not the drama and danger that it potentially was. We were very relieved once we got all the mooring lines secured !

We (mostly Dave !) spent the rest of the day taking apart the whole of the assembly behind the gear box so that we could replace the broken bolts. It took all day to get it apart, but we succeeded. We bought 4 new bolts and spent the whole of the next day putting it back together. It was all a mammoth task and a whole story all of its own. I can’t praise Dave enough for his skill and endurance tucked in to the tiny area housing the motor and fixing it. I was watching carefully and passing in the tools and bits and pieces he needed while working. I learnt a lot about how all that part of the motor works.

What caused the problem ? We think it was simple metal fatigue. The bolts had sheered cleanly. They were stainless steel but not high tensile steel. We have of course replaced them with high tensile steel bolts, so hopefully it wont happen again.

We were very very lucky that it happened where it did. It would have been a disaster for us and for other boats if it had happened in the marina.

So there you go. That’s my first Sea Kiwi boating story. Fortunately a happy ending.

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