Snorkeling, coconuts and Sophia racing

The title of this post pretty much sums up our lives at the moment. We are loving and enjoying the cruising life and we already feel we have adjusted well into it. We have slowed down a little bit and are now ‘only’ changing anchorage every 2-3 days with a few day anchorages mixed in as well. We’re still super keen on snorkelling and are in the water every single day, except in Neiafu where the water isn’t as inviting, although not bad at all.

We try only going into Neiafu once a week for groceries, internet etc and try and time it with the Friday afternoon yacht race. It’s very easy to spend money while in town, even if you’re cheapies like Phil and I. Back to the yacht race. Last Friday was our first and it was a great day for it, sunny and a 15-20 knots breeze. I think it was my first race in only shorts and t-shirts ever! Arrochar, another Lyttelton boat had arrived in Vava’u the same week and we cajoled them to join us as crew. Phil was happy he got to use his no 1 head sail (some semi-fancy race sail). Spinnakers etc weren’t  allowed and there’s no handicap, first across the line wins. There were about 10 yachst in the race, most much bigger than Sophia, except Sala, a 29 feet half tonner, owned by a young NZ couple. Because Sala was below 30 feet she was allowed a leg less than the rest. Thanks to Phil (but of course) we got a great start and were first to the top mark, quite surprised ourselves. We kept our lead and were only beaten by Sala because they had to do a shorter course, but they also did really well. It was pretty funny beating all these big 40-50 foot fancy yachts.

We have just done another race yesterday and despite much less wind (10 knots), amazingly we were again the fastest boat. All credit goes to Phil though, he always puts us right on the start line right on time and is coaxing the maximum speed out of Sophia the whole way along, continously trimming sails (which of course are in excellent shape and almost new). It's also a great way to meet new people afterwards and have some fun.

Snorkeling just gets better and better as we have moved to different anchorages where snorkelling is supposedly good. We look forward to going down to Hapa’ai and checking out the snorkelling there as it’s apparently even better. We have now seen a moray eel and a shark (Phil’s first, it was funny, he moved behind me and grabbed my arm, whereas I tried to swim closer to get a better photo, without success though. It was just a small white tipped reef shark, maybe only ½ meter big). Also lots of clown fish and their anemones, my favourites.

One of our highlights so far has been Swallows Cave. We joined forces with another NZ boat (Wind Song, a couple from Wanaka) and did the long dinghy trip together. We had sailed past it a few times as it’s on the way into Neiafu harbour and were really looking forward to going. It’s a massive cave with an entrance as wide as maybe two dinghies, letting in a good amount of light. Unfortunately there’s a lot of graffiti in there, but it’s still a cool cave. The coolest part was under-water though! Huge huge schools of fish!

Last subject for now is coconuts. Yummy. I love the coconut water, Phil is still getting used to it, but at least he has learned how to get into them (Arrochar showed us, they had been taught by locals). The white flesh is also really tasty and I’m now contemplating how to use it in a cake ideally also with chocolate. If anyone has a recipe, please do let me know. Again, check out the Vava'u album on facebook for pictures to match our adventures. Here are some pretty tropical flowers.

First week in Vava'u

We have now spent over a week in Vava’u and we’re still having a great time. Tonga is made up of 171 islands and four different groups. In the south is Tongatapu (with the capital Nukualofa), then Ha’apai, then Vava’u and in the very north the Niuas.  Most people are quite surprised to hear we came directly from Gisborne to Neiafu (Vava’u), as most leave from Opua and go to Nukualofa, which is the shortest distance, but our route made most sense to our situation.

The first three nights we spent in Neiafu as we had to get more fruit and veggies, do laundry, fix the leaking toilet pump and pick up our west marine (US) package with our BBQ mounts. A public holiday extended our stay with another day as everything was closed. Getting our parcel was very easy, except for the fact that I (Astrid) got chatting with a local girl while waiting in the office and one thing led to another and they thought I was with her and the peace corps or something, so 2 hours later I ended up paying duty on three drums with food and gods know what else before they realised all I was after was a small package to a yacht in transit! They all thought it was hilarious and were of course sorry about the mistake and gave me back my money. I had fun too and made a good friend whom we plan to visit in her village.

While in Neiafu we went to a local bar where the lady boys (can’t remember their proper name, but boys raised as girls if the first 4 kids are boys or something like that) do a weekly show. It was attended by both cruisers and locals and was good fun. The ‘girls’ would do individual routines and come flirt with the men in the audience and receive bills stuck under their dress straps. Steve from Rapsody (Lyttelton boat) took us and had been before, so he and Phil were hiding behind a table in the very back, haha.

When all our errands were done we couldn’t wait to get out of town to really get into the cruising life and snorkelling. We have been changing anchorage almost daily and we snorkel every single day.  There are tons of good anchorages and they are maximum half an hour apart of so, so cruising is very easy. It makes sense that it’s a sailing mecca and a popular charter destination.  However, it’s not crowded, usually there are only a few boats in each anchorage and it’s not hard to find one to yourself. The other cruisers are mostly Kiwis, Americans, British and French.

The weather had been nice and settled since we got here. It’s pleasantly warm, but not too warm and sometimes even cold enough for long sleeve and pants. The water is about 23-24 degrees, so a wet suit is required for snorkelling.  The water is beautiful and clear, we can usually see our anchor at 10 meters depth. There are some coral, but compared to the Red Sea and other places, it’s not that spectacular. Where there’s coral, there are lots of small tropical fish, but nothing big. I was lucky enough to see a big turtle plotting along the bottom when checking our anchor, but Phil missed it. It almost makes up for me missing the orca on our passage, but not quite!

We won’t blog as often now, because we don’t need to download the weather every few days as we just get the weather forecast over the vhf, so it’s only when we’re in town we have internet. I have uploaded more photos to facebook, so check it out if you'd like to see images to our stories.

NZ to Tonga passage, day 10 and 11 (arrival)

We’re in Tonga!!! Yipee, it’s fantastic, beautiful, warm, tropical, exotic and amazing. OK, the last two words are only Astrid's, Phil doesn't agree with me on those. As a Dane, a pacific island is just about one the most exotic things I can think of.

We arrived Tuesday 2^nd July about 1.30pm, so the passage took us just under  11 days. On our 9^th night out, we could see the mountainous island Eua just south-east of Tongatapu (where Nukualoafa, the capital is).  We then sailed up alongside the whole of Tonga on the eastern side and north of Ha’apai group we turned west and then we sailed north directly into the Vava’u group.  We had anticipated we would have to find a quiet anchor that night, but thanks to the lovely 10-15 knots trade wind, it turned out we could make it to Neiafu (the ‘capital’ of Vava’u, where you have to clear customs) early afternoon.

Overall we're very happy with the passage and especially the weather. Sure, it was a bit bummer waiting three weeks in Gisborne, but it meant that we had good weather on passage. Minus the first few days it was a bit on the light side, but rather that than 45 knots on the nose. We had no major breakages, just a few issues. Our oldest spare auto pilot ram finally had it, the whisker pole used as a bow spit for the code zero needs strengthening and our toilet pump is leaking, annoying, but not crucial.

Clearing in was easy, even with four different people having to ‘clear’ us: customs, quarantine, immigration and port control. The only hick up was that we couldn’t find our clearance paper from Gisborne. This would have incurred a big fine, so we got quite nervous while looking everywhere and the Tongans sitting drinking tea in the cockpit. Finally Phil found it behind the drawers where it had fallen down and was hidden! Good lesson to keep good track of your clearance papers!

Neiafu is the Tonga’s sailing mecca, it’s here most cruisers go, plus there’s lots of charter boats. Still, it only takes 10 minutes to walk through the main street in town  and you have seen it all. It’s an extremely sheltered harbour, but quite deep (+25 meters), so like everyone else we have opted to pick up a mooring. Right away we spotted another Christchurch boat, Rapsody with Stephen on board, pretty funny. They helped us drink our celebratory bottle of bubbles.  However, the best thing was the extremely quiet boat at night time and a FULL uninterrupted night’s sleep :-)

For photos of the trip (mostly sun sets and rises!) see our facebook page: NZ to Tonga passage
 

NZ to Tonga passage, day 8 and 9

Yay, we're finally having really warm weather! It's now consistently about 25 degrees during the day and still over 20 at night time, so clothes are getting much more scarce now. Yesterday we even took down the sail and took turns holding onto the ladder and dipping ourselves in the ocean. At 21 degrees water temperature it wasn't warm, but nice and fresh. We're in the middle of the Tonga Trench, so it was pretty mindboggling to 'swim' in 8-9 km depth!

Day 7 and 9 continued to be very light and a bigger swell developed (possibly from a big low around the South Island, glad we're not there...). The swell together with 3-6 knots of wind from all over the stern quarters made for very slow speed (under 2 knots) and the main sail continued to pop and bang, very frustrating, so we gave in and finally motored throughout the whole night. This morning the wind finally filled in and we are having a lovely 12 knots SSE breeze (tradewind!!!) and are doing 6 knots. Today we also saw our first ship since Gisborne. Saw and saw, our AIS told us a freighter was 12 miles ahead of us, too far to spot with our own eyes. It was the most excitement that happened all day and we both jumped up when the AIS alarm beeped.

We have decided on going straight up to Vava'u and then hopefully visit the Ha'apai group later on.

Position: 22,26,1 S and 175,00,6 W
1040 miles so far. (103 miles daily average the last 2 days, again exactly the same as last report!!) 240 miles to go to Vava'u (only 60 to Tongatapu, the bottom of Tonga). This means we might get to Vava'u on Tuesday, of course depending on the weather.
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NZ - Tonga passage, day 3 to 7

We missed getting day 3 and 4 update out last time we downloaded the weather, so this little update will cover 5 days. They are actually really hard to distinguish from each other and it's hard to believe we have already been out 7 days.

We have had almost all westerly winds, ranging from 15-25 knots almost close hauled (and waves splashing over Sophia) to southerlies. Overall it has eased more and more every day, the last two-three days we have been bobbing along to a 3-7 knot WNW'erly and our speed has ranged from 2 knots to 7.5 knots. There's soft rolling ocean swell, but it's not bad at all. It did take us at least 3 days before we both felt fine and had all our appetite back.

The sea temperature is now 21 degrees. When we remembered to check a day out of Gisborne, it was 18 degrees, so it's a good improvement. It's 20-25 degrees during the day, so we're still wearing clothes, but increasingly less. We have worked out a good watch system starting at 8pm, where we each get 3 hours sleep twice during the night, supplemented by day time napping. We have gorgeous sun sets and sun rises and I (Astrid) am taking way too many photos.

All in all, we're very happy out here in our own little 'bubble'. We're a tiny spec on a massive ocean (still haven't seen any other boats), at the mercy of the weather and winds, and we have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world, but we're content without the knowledge.

By day 4 this was our status:
522 miles so far (262 since last report), so amazingly steady speed! 575 more to go
Position: 30, 48, 0 S and 177, 41, 7 W. Parallel to but about 50 miles west of the Kermadecs

Now, day 7 it's:
807 miles so far (day 5-7, 285 miles, daily average 103 miles (corrected for the 6 hours missing to make up exact 24 hour slots). 290 miles to go.
Position: 26, 13, 3, S and 176, 02, 2 W.

We actually haven't decided where to clear in yet, we have the options of either Nukualoafa, Lifuka (Ha'apai), or right up to Vava'u. We'll make the decision when we're closer and it will depend on weather among other things. The 290 miles to go is to Tongatapu. Vava'u is obviously longer than that.
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NZ - Tonga passage, day 1 and 2

Thursday 21 June we finally got our weather window and left Gisborne and we have now been 48 hours underway. So far all is good. We started out in a 10-15 knots southerly, which build to 25 knots when we neared East Cape and stayed around the 20-25 knots the first night and day. This has been typical of most of our other trips, so we're fine, although the bouncy sea means we're both a bit green and mostly just sleeps when not on watch. This second night the wind eased and we even had to motor a few hours. We know there's some NW coming so we're trying to get as far north as possible, as it should be lighter there. All today a westerly has slowly been building in strength and is now close to 20 knots.

It's very exciting finally to be underway and on such a big passage. We haven't seen any ships since Gisborne, just endless blue waves. We were visited by a pod of dolphins yesterday and we still have some sea birds around us. It's surprisingly warm, well, compared to our Stewart Island trip in February, so we're quite content just wearing one or two layers of wool when below.

This post is an email sent via our satellite phone, and will hopefully automatically post itself on the blog and our facebook page should also be notified. We will not be able to see any emails or comments until we find internet in Tonga (except emails to our sat phone email address).

260 miles so far (average speed of 5.4 knots) , 837 more to go to the bottom of Tonga.
Position: 34,49,4 S and 179,40,9 W


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Christchurch to Gisborne

29th of May we finally left Christchurch! Only about 2 months later than planned!!! And three weeks after our farewell party. It truly is an enormeous effort getting ready for departure (closing down a sail loft at the same time does not make it any easier), despite how ready we thought we were when we came back from Stewart Island early March. But we are as ready as we'll ever be now and even finished some less important jobs while waiting for a weather window.

It didn't look like a super good window so we didn't make the finaly call to leave until two hours before, pretty much just when the southerly front hit and it was hailing! But, as usual, the worst passed and two hours later by 9pm it was not raining, though it sure was cold! We're extremely impressed that a good bunch of our friends turned up to wave goodbye. Thanks so much :-)

Un uneventful trip and 27 hours later we arrived at Wellington around midnight. Phil had been through with Sophia on the delivery trip and we had both been there a few months earlier for the Wellington-Nelson race on Krakatoa, so it wasn't a problem arriving in the dark. Thanks to Gordy and Matty G at Duffy's Rigging for letting us stay at their berth. That warm showers was priceless! Wellington is such a cool city and we were right in the middle of it. One of the best things about the North Island is Burger Fuel. Four different kinds of veggie burgers and the BEST kumera fries, yummy!

We left at 9pm that same day we had arrived, the tide happened to be pretty perfect and a new southerly front was due to hit at 3am, so hopefully we could make it round the courner of Cape Palliser and get up the coast a littel bit before then. Of course the reality didn't quite work out that way, as the southerly was weaker and slower to arrive. That was totally OK though and we had a great first day out with beautiful weather and only 10-15 knots! 30 knots southerly arrived just after dark (of course) and lasted most of the night, but eased a little bit later on. We arrived around 7pm in Gisborne Friday night, almsot 48 hours after departing Wellington. Again a dark entry, but we had been shown by several people on charts and googlemap how to enter and it was quite straight forward. Only one big wave shoved up out of nowhere and scared us a bit (well, Astrid...), but that was it.

Well, it's now 2 1/2 weeks later and we're still in Gisborne! It takes a lot of patience to get a good weather window. Well, as least one that doesn't involve up to 55 knots headwind! Two lows (first one a really big one) have passed, and we're now fairly certain we got a decent window tomorrow, but we'll are yet to make the final call, we might wait a few more days and let some of the northerlies pass. 

About Sophia

Sophia is a Davidson 35, designed in 1981 by Laurie Davidon, a New Zealand yacht designer, most famous for being one of the designers for New Zealand's America's Cup boats, which successfully challenged and defended the Cup in 1995 and 2000.

The Davidson 35 is a New Zealand built production boat, designed as a fast cruising yacht with no concession to rating rules. It is thought that it was the first production yacht built with a walk through transom. Dave Blundell (builder of the Davidson 28) built the first 10 in solid GRP, and then Export Yachts Ltd brought the moulds and built the next 30 or so in GRP Balsa Core.

LOA: 10.66 m (or 35 feet)

LWL: 9.14 m

BOA: 3.31 m

Draft: 1.8 m

Displacement: 4727 kg

Ballast: 1955 kg

Sail Area Upwind: 54 m2

Sophia is one of the later ones, built in 1986. She was commissioned by an Auckland architect who named her Sophia, the explanation being something about beautiful Italian curves. The SY means sailing yacht. Also commonly used is SV for sailing vessel. We actually bought Sophia directly off that first owner, but she had been owned by someone else for a few years, before he bought her back again.

We bought Sophia in late October 2010. We had been looking for a cruising boat for over half a year (and fallen in love with a fantastic Swan S&S 36, which unfortunately turned out to be a total dud, so we had to let her go). After that experience we (well, mainly Astrid) tried to keep much lower expectations and feelings for boats. It actually even took some convincing by Phil to get Astrid into the Davidson 35’s. She has totally come around to liking them now though, especially Sophia.

The furthest Sophia had ever sailed was to the Bay of Islands and her set-up was very basic (the architect would probably say minimalistic), so it took a bit of work getting her ready for the trip to Christchurch. Some of the bigger jobs were cleaning diesel bug out of the tank, fitting an auto-pilot, changing engine mounts and adding a spray dodger. Phil sailed Sophia from Auckland down the east coast of the North Island to Picton with a couple of mates, as Astrid couldn’t get off work. The combination of the boy trip and Sophia being very light with not much gear, meant that she achieved her so far unbeaten record speed of 16 knots surfing downwind.

Sophia stayed in the Marlborough Sounds until February 2011. Phil’s parents live in Waikawa, so almost each weekend we did the four hours drive up to Picton. We did more work to her, but also just enjoyed cruising the Sounds.

It was when she came to Christchurch that the real work started! She spent 4-5 months on the hard over the winter and we worked non-stop! Overall she was in good condition, but as already mentioned quite basic. Below is a massive list of all the work we have done in roughly a year’s time. We did all the work ourselves, with the exception of very few things such as stainless steel jobs and difficult wood work.

But first a bunch of photos. When I read boat blogs I usually miss photos of boats, especially the interior. Not sure if people either forget it, or don't want to show their 'personal home' (which is what cruising boats really are).  Here is Sophia, of course very tidy for the occasion.

Sophia during one of the races in the winter series before she got all the work done to her, looking very bare...

Above deck:

Replace halyards

New rigging

Bigger wire lifelines

Install roller furler

Fix bent stanchion

Service winches

Wires for open transom

Make new washboard and teak surrounds for it

Make new teak hand hold rails

Make teak handholds for cockpit lockers

New anchors and chain

Rearrange nav lights

Fix gas locker

Bigger gas bottles

New Sophia graphic

New red stripe

Install hand bilge pump

Fix mast leak

Anchor locker modify floor level

Make bimini

Make spray hood

Make arch for radar, solar and wind

Below deck:

Add engine insulation

Change engine mounts

Change engine rubber couplings

Replace alternator

Replace thermostat

Replace fuel pump

Add hatch to saloon

Add solar went to head

New vinyl floor instead of carpet

Rail in front of stove

Make insert for double v-berth

Organise port quarter storage

Make book shelf & lockers in saloon

Make shelf in v-berth

Make shelf in quarter berth

Make extra shelves in galley

Teak skirting on bottom around saloon for old water damage

Make new instruments box

Change mast drainage system

Change to LED lights

Close off locker opening to cockpit

Painting all interior and lockers

Replace all hoses, add water filter

New water tanks

Install holding tank

New toilet seal and change pump location

New bathroom faucet

Electronics:

Install anchor windlass

Install water maker

Install wind instruments

Install depth/speed transducers

Install electric fridge

Install radar

Install VHF

Install AIS

Install solar panels

Install wind turbine

Install float switch for bilge

Set up sat phone

Out of the water jobs

Soda blast anti-foul to vinylester coating and build up new layers

New anodes

Take off rudder

All new through-hulls and sea cocks

Cut & polish

Sand and varnish tiller

Sewing jobs:

Main sail

No 1 head sail

No 2 head sail

No 3 head sail

Code Zero

Try sail

Storm jib

Squab covers

Bimini

Spray dodger
Sail cover (lazy cradle)

Stove bum strap

Cockpit squabs

Rain catcher/deck shades

Wind scoop

Fitted sheets for mattresses

Curtains

Harnesses

Covers for horseshoe buoys

Winch covers

Mosquito netting