1400 NM to Australia

Tuesday 22 May at 9.00 we have an appointment with the custom to check out of New Zealand. The custom gave us 30 min to leave and was not happy when we said that we needed to fill up the diesel. We left Bay of Island just a few minutes more than the 30 he gave us.

Around lunchtime we turn of the engine and enjoy the coastline where we saw a lovely rainbow.

It took only 1/2 hour and the engine was on again and after 4 hours we had to turn back since we started to take in water in the engine room. It is the same problem as we had in Tuamotos. The water pump to cool the main engine broke. Back in the same mooring place early evening. We had dinner on board and went to bed early to be up and ready in the morning when the mechanic arrives.

The leak is fixed and we have a new appointment with the custom to do a new checkout at 11.30. The weather looked still okay to start our sailing which we were very happy about. You never know when the next weather window will be.

After two really rough sailing days it is nice to have a bit calmer sea. Even if the waves are higher then before they are longer, which makes a much softer roll, although from time to time there comes one wave that really rock the boat. We been drinking a lot of water, had a sandwich for breakfast and some bars, buns and biscuits. So on our third day Edgar made us some food.Noodles in a cane, just add warm water. Easy but so good to get something warm in our bodies.

We take shifts and tries to sleep for a couple of hours. It is not that easy in the rolling sea. I tried to make the bed as tight as possible so we don’t ride around like a soap in a soap dish. There is a few hours when it is totally black and we can’t see anything except the stars. Then the moon comes up and it lights up so we can see the sea, waves and the clouds. You can even read a book in that light. After a few days on the sea you mix up the days so it is good that we have calendar in our mobiles to tell which day it is.

Tuesday at 20.00 we changed to Australia time which means turning the time back 2 hours. At this point it didn’t do much

Wednesday we put up the stay sail with the boom out on port side and the genoa starboard side. It is a very nice and smooth sailing that day. Next day we need to change the settings and the stay sail goes in and the genoa goes the port side and change the course a bit.

It is very rolly again. Things starts to bang in the boat and suddenly the coffemachine and baking machine fell down, nothing broken but wet on the carpet from the water in the coffemachine.

Edgar fell in the stairs just before we left and strained his foot.It is still a bit swallowed but looking better.

Friday we have good wind and doing 6-8 knots, a few squalls so we been reefing the sail a few times. Highlight was the dolphins that came and swam around for 10 min. 175NM left. The water temperature is getting warmer 24.7 degrees from 18 degrees when we started in Opua

The sea can’t make up its mind!!! The waves are coming from all over it feels like we are having a good speed from 4.5 to 9 knots with only less then half off the genua out.

We reach the tip of Fraiser Island and turn in towards Bundaberg. 40 nm left and we are in Australia. The last 40 nm we motor sail since the wind is not that good. All in all we had a good sailing in the sense that we have not used the engine a lot on the other hand it has been the worst in the sense of rolling. Our bodies are so tiered and looking forward to sleep in our bed a full night without any rolling.

We arrived in Bundaberg Marina and dropped the anchor on Saturday night and stayed there until Monday morning when we checked in with custom and bio security. Everything went well and now we just relax a few days before we head up towards Mackay to get new start batteries and meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.