S/Y New Dawn: A Tough Trip From Opua To Tutukaka And On To Smugglers Bay And Whangarei Marina.

The weather forecast was for Gales all over NZ and I ran into it. I went into Tutukaka (who invented that name?) for the night and boy was it blowing. My anchor dragged about 80 m during the night, even though I had put out 65 m chain. But that bay has a bad reputation for the holding. I ended up spending two nights there.

Then on to Smugglers Bay and on my way it was blowing like mad. I registered 36-52 kn of wind, mostly from an OK direction, but even with the little Fetch, I had big waves. Not funny sailing in these conditions.

I ended up motor sailing the last 20 min in 40 kn wind on the nose and waves of 4 m, so that I could get a bit of shelter in Smugglers Bay. Well shelter is a big word here, as the wind from west, comes hauling around the Bay and hit me from north, west and east. It blew like mad all night (47 kn when I looked at 03:00 h and my anchor sail started to part - again. Well we survived but only with a little sleep.

Why did I sail south in these conditions? Well the yard was booked to haul me out on Friday 14 November, but could not do it because of the storm. So they advanced it to Thursday and I had to accelerate. Then it was cancelled as we still had the storm. I am now booked for next week, but yet another system is approaching, so I hold my breath.

In the end I decided to go to the Town Basin Marina and prepare New Dawn here as it is better sheltered. Once ready and the weather will be better, I will try to haul out at Dockland5 yard.

On my way up through the river, about 15 NM, I received 42 kn wind right on the nose and torrential rain. It was so hard that New Dawn had problems in steering and keeping the speed and the visibility when to almost zero in the rain. All went well and I am now at the marina. What a trip and it is still hauling outside.