The Devil Wears Foul Weather Gear

Sailed under staysail with engine assist until we reached the top of the Coromandel, 3-4m swells right on the stern, cork screwing down the breaking waves. Exhilarating!! Today has definitely given us the best of the sailing conditions. Seas have flattened out, No. 1 reef in the main plus staysail and we are hitting 10+ knots.  Comfy motion down below, the sun is shining. Doesn't get much better! Looking good Lisa! It's been fun Cam! Fiji next year? Just one or two more entries in the Log to finish our amazing adventure.

08.15am Wednesday 9 June 2021!  Anchor up and heading out - destination Auckland, 65nm to go of this epic adventure around New Zealand. Grey skies and drizzle, expecting lumpy seas but the wind conditions have settled down.  Champagne chilling in the fridge, Commodore will be at the dock to welcome us in. With fair winds we hope to be in around 6pm this evening. Go MIMU, Team Bartley and crew! (as an aside - we have loaded a short video clip on the Dolphins at Play blog - if you click on the title of the blog in your email, then the video will pop up)

 Day 2 of being marooned on Great Mercury Island.  We are sheltered in the most beautiful bay whilst chaos reigns all around us.  The wind is pumping in the trees above us and on the horizon a white wall of water whipped up. Highlight for us is the family of 5 dolphins that have befriended our anchor chain.  Rolling and submerging scratching their bellies - just hanging out in the tropically blue water. These dolphins are around 3 meters long and are very comfortable with us sharing their bay.  

  The Wild Weather Report - Mimu is in the middle of that circle and purple/red means HUGE wind and is the reason why we are staying put.  Looks like a window will open for us Wednesday to sneak through the Colville Channel and then its downhill to Auckland. What a beautiful bottom Mimu!! Farewell, we'll be back   Off to explore Great Mercury.  We buzzed along, on the plane bouncing over small wind whipped waves into Michael Fay's harbour. We spied a yacht moored there to visit.  Chatted to a young couple off on a sailing adventure around NZ waiting out the weather like us.  A landing and now to explore. Wet feet but what's an adventure without wet feet! Looking South East. The scenes that awaited us as we climbed over a high point.  This is the east side of the island (we are moored on the west) and the wild ocean view was spectacular.  Wind was pumping!!! The Skipper deep in concentration .. the dying art of splicing a rope  .... No such th...

  YUMMMMMMM Jean's delish Thai Green Curry.  Just warms your innards!! First Mate Jean is doing a fabulous job in the Galley!!  Cooking in the Galley and moving around resembles being drunk!  You are not sure which way the boat will be thrown on the big swells. Woke up for the 4am night watch, opened the cabin door to this absolute carnage in the main saloon. Mimu took a particularly large wave on the beam.  This carnage nearly flattened the sleeping Skipper!! It was like playing hopscotch to get to the cockpit stairwell.  

  The inaugural video of the blog !  Action on the deep blue sea.  The start of our journey from East Cape to the Mercuries.  Non-stop sailing from Tory Channel in the sounds to Great Mercury Island.  We had 6 hours of full sail from East Cape towards the Mercuries.  Sailed with perfect sailing weather - fronts coming through like a freight train.  Order was wind would pick up then torrential rain would come and the wind would ease back.  Incredible to sail along and see White Island below us! So far out to sea!!! Then the wind picked up even more ......... Rainy squalls all around us, severe wind gusts of 30-40 and then peaked at 50 knots! We battled the night with the main and motor.  As the night went on the swells grew higher.  Mimu rolled beautifully up and over 3-4 metre swells. The boys stepped into action and held the cockpit while the girls were allowed to sleep.  SLEEP???? What is that !! when waves a crashing and bashing ...