Nov 4th, 2009 - Last Night at Sea for a While

It is 1:20 AM on Nov 4th. Nov 3rd in the USA - Happy Birthday, Mary, my sis-in-law! I am on night watch and wanted to pop downstairs to do a quick update. As Frank has been mentioning in his blogs, it has been a blessedly docile passage this year. We remember back to last year's passage from Tonga to New Zealand and tremble at the memory of the gale-force storm that had us in its vortex for a frighteningly long leg of the journey. This year, when we agreed to return to New Zealand, John Martin, the ICA Chairman who sails "Windflower", promised Frank and I that if we stuck with him he would choose the best possible route and weather window for us to make a safe trip back. We took him at his word and are very happy we did. In spite of the lack of strong sailing winds, and that the trip has been nearly accomplished using the "iron jib", we are not complaining. Normally a crossing to NZ is guaranteed at least one big dicey blow. We skirted them all this time.

We plan to arrive at dark-thirty tomorrow, which means we can tie up to the "Q" dock and get some rest and tidy the boat up before the Customs, Quarantine and Immigration Officials arrive at 8:00 AM the next morning. Already, Frank and the boys are icing down champagne with the promise of a toast to a job well done at arrival there. Apparently we can gather on the dock, which is completely isolated, just can't board any one else's boat. This will be interesting. My big plan is to SLEEP!

The best part of the short trip from Norfolk Island to here so far has been watching the beautiful giant orange moon rising while the sun has been setting in the skies, each night. Tonight's full moon performance was particularly spectacular! Although it is Spring time in this part of the world, it sure looked like an engorged Harvest Moon to us. Just breathtaking.

I have 30 minutes left on this watch, then off to beddy-bye at least for a couple of hours. Although the trip has been relatively short, we are both pretty tired, so 2-hour shifts is all we can muster this last night.

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