Duet on Passage
22:16:60S 166:26:40E Numea. Wednesday 23rd July 2008. When we tell our friends that we are cruising in the Pacific they all think that it is, well, peaceful – no it isn’t. It took us 4 days to cover 734 miles from Fiji to New Caledonia which works out as an average speed of 7.6 knots. [...]
Duet on Passage
21:15:02S 171:40:25E Day three. The wind and seas have moderated and we continue to make excellent progress. We have already hit the magic 200 nm days run. We are disappointed not to be able to contact Russell Radio, could it be propagation? We are in contact with friends sailing from Australia also on route to [...]
Duet on Passage
18:59:10S 175:05:38E You have to have a plan B. We departed Fiji with all intention of heading to Opua, New Zealand. The weather looked pretty good, 20 knots from ESE. However the grib files were not telling the truth. Once out of the pass the wind was SE and 25-30+ with even higher gusts. It [...]
Duet on Passage, Fiji
17:46:27S 177:22:91E Fiji Bula! We arrived on Monday 7th July at about 6 in the morning through the pass. For the last 3 days we’d had gale force winds, heavy squalls and very rough seas. We had a triple reefed main and staysail and Duet was flying. We were exhausted by the motion and thoroughly [...]
Duet ll on passage day 7
20:15:55S 176:27:54E The sea temperature has risen from 10 degrees to 25 in the last couple of days. We have seen little of the sun and even less of the stars. The nights have been as black as a witches tit. There have been achingly long hours of light winds and motoring under a sullen [...]
Duet on Passage, day 3
30.22.65S, 174.05.71E We left Opua on Monday in light winds with a huge, confused swell left over from the gales. Our first problem happened just after midnight of the first night. There was a loud bang and the yankee was over the side. At first I thought the forestay had gone but thankfully it was [...]
Duet heading North
At last the wind decided to stop howling and there is a brief lull between storms. We departed Opua this morning in the company of at least 6 other yachts. We have been waiting for three weeks now for this window. We are heading towards Fiji. A bit of warmth will be more than welcome!
Waiting for the weather
35.18.85S, 174.07.30E Opua. It’s that time of year again and we must head out of the country or pay GST on Duet ll. So we wait in Opua, ducking out of unfriendly wind and rain waiting for a break in the weather. This picture is not Opua but down in doubtful sound where we cruised [...]
Update of summer cruise
36.37.40S, 174.47.30E Gulf Harbour After we returned from our summer cruise exploring Fiordland we ambled back to Gulf harbour via great barrier island and some of the beautiful island in the Hauriki gulf. Gulf harbour is a handy place to be for a variety of reasons, but it is jaw crackingly boring. Unless you play [...]
Duet on Passage, day 4
28:11:23S, 174:59:37E Yesterday was a long hard slog. The wind was light and the sea calm so perfect conditions for Simon to be hoisted up the mast to re-lead the Genoa halyard using the Spinnaker block at the top of the mast. There was no way we could attempt to feed a new mouse and [...]
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