Day 7: Land ho! Aotearoa!

Overnight, just motoring along with no wind, finally dropped that current against us and making good time. It will be close to closing time at the Opua Q-dock, not sure if we’ll make it in time. There is a stream of boats coming from Fiji, Tonga, and New Cal to New Zealand; all of us tucking in for the cyclone season.

Calder, on watch from midnight-4am, has enjoyed the sunrise at 3:30am. Today, he saw a massive fish jump, so started fishing. Within minutes he had a fish on and reeled in a beautiful albacore tuna. This is a first – he caught a fish on his middle of the night watch!

Land ho! Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. Yellow q-flag and our tattered NZ flag up.

We took our final Citizens of the Sea water samples. Such a beautiful sunny day to arrive. After we called to check in on VHF to Maritime Radio, we soon got a radio call from a friend out sailing welcoming us.  A Kiwi friend of ours, Dean, was waiting and waving from the wharf. I was so excited to arrive that I did some happy bouncing around on deck (it has to happen sometimes!). Other friends walked out to the end of their pier to wave and welcome us.  The marina staff e-mailed us with a slip assignment and welcomed us “home”.  We did spend a lot of time here last year and we are feeling the love on our return.

We tied up to the Q-dock at 4:20pm just before close and officials stopped by to let us know that we’d be the first checked in tomorrow. Tuna poke bowl for dinner. Now, time for a good night’s sleep, thankful to have had a safe passage.

Final Stats:

Total miles covered from New Caledonia to New Zealand: 995.3 nm

Average speed: 6.7 knots

Fastest day: 206.7 nm

Slowest day: 135.7 km

Number of fish caught: 2 tuna (a skipjack and albacore)

Number of showers taken: 1 each person just before arrival to New Zealand

Foods that tasted best on passage: pears, popcorn

Foods that tasted worst on passage: risotto (I don’t think Cora and I will have that for a long time!)

Number of French baguettes eaten: 8

Citizens of the Sea water samples collected: 22