- - East Cape to Mercury Island - written by First Mate and Mermaid No 3

 


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 the side of the hull next to your head. 


Daylight and we are a couple hours off the Mercuries.  As we neared land the swells reduced. and we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins.  A whole family including a baby. They stayed with us for around 15 minutes doing their theatrics.  

Mercury Islands in the background.  



Found a peaceful spot in Peach Grove Bay on Great Mercury Island to moor for the night. Showers food and most importantly a very long kip to catch up on a long hard night and three days of constant sailing.






Antics on the way .....


Campbell studying the mating dance of the First Mate!  






Ahhh but perhaps that wasn't the mating dance as crew member Lisa is using the quiet time to fix the First Mates foot.  Deep tissue massage - the boys were a bit jealous hahahaha.  I'm sure the first mate as put teeth marks in the bean bag though  






The true identity of the Ninja - It was Fritz all along.  








Comments

  1. Glad you have all survived the weather. Dolphins look like great fun 😁

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the photos - that sky one looks foreboding.

    ReplyDelete

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