We left Hobart in sunny and calm weather. In the Derwent River, dolphins cavorted around us. Next the Mumm36 Bill had crewed on escorted us further down the river. Our friend Zack had it set up as a "drinks trolley" for a gaggle of friends. It was a nice send off, and made it all that sadder to leave.
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| Drinks Trolley, goodbye Zack! |
We motored past spectacular Tasman Island and its rafts of giant seals around sunset at 2030. Bill was thrilled with his lavishly birthday gift of M&Ms. Actually, he got a really nice foulie jacket too. Anyhow, the northerly wind came up and we reefed. We had the usual long low SW swell and the steeper N windwaves.
Most of the passage was light air. In 9 days, we motored 90 hours. No complaints here. A number of other boats were caught in the NZ weather bomb hundreds of miles apart, so we were very happy with our lot.
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| Calm crossing |
Our only moment of near-drama was finding screws on the deck under the gooseneck. It had been badly worn and Bill had it repaired in Hobart but had trouble getting the right fasteners He managed to remount it but has permanent souvenirs of the job in form of tefgel spots all over his new "couture" jacket. Oh well... It was pretty for a few days. It still seems to keep the water out.
Albatrosses and gannets were our constant companions across the sea. NZ is 2 hours behind Tasmania, and one issue in setting the clocks forward, was: on whose watch would we set the clocks ahead. That watch would be 2 hours shorter.
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