It was time to leave Fiji unfortunately as the season was coming to an end and we had to be back in New Zealand by the 6th December for Insurance purposes.
Shane, a friend from NZ flew up to help out for the leg back. He had to come up at a moments notice as he was busy with his Business, but was keen to do a Blue water leg, and we could not give him a lot of notice as it all hinged around waiting for a decent weather window. He worked in with this and we really appreciated it.
Farewell drinks with the local boaties in at Vuda Pt
Shane on board and rearing to go :)
The boat was ready, stocked well and all safety gear checked and ready. It was with sad feelings that we left the Marina at Vuda Point and the farewell song sung by the great staff there at the marina was a bit emotional.
Initially we could not lay New Zealand and were 40 degrees off the Rum line but after 6 hrs we were starting to bring her back and even though it was hard on, at least we were going in the right direction.
A lot has been said about the return leg and the course out of Fiji for it, with a lot of people opting to take a more westerly course and then come back over as you get closer to NZ. I looked at the weather and we were going to get easterlies closer to NZ so decided to stick as close to the Rum line as possible and even when the wind swung out of the south, I elected to steer east of NZ rather than west so that we could pick up the Easterly when it did come round.
There was two days where we motored due to entering the convergence zone and having no wind. This was planned for and we had plenty of fuel on board. One of these nights when I was on watch, there was no moon out but all the stars were out in abundance. The sea was that calm, it was like a mirror and the stars were reflected in the sea. Along with the Phosphorescence in the water off the back of the boat, it all added up to a very surreal feeling on the back of the boat on your own.
The easterly took a while to come back and we were on the nose with boisterous seas and 25-30 knots of wind. It wasn't pleasant for some 36 hrs with the boat coming off the tops of some of the waves and taking a bit of a hammering but 'Falshator' soaked it up and took it all in her stride. The only problem we had was about 2 o'clock in the morning, we came off a big wave and the boat crashed down into the sea. The impact somehow tore the Anchor locking pin out and the anchor came loose and went out over the bow for about a meter. It preceded to crash back and forward into the starboard bow and did a bit of damage to the Gelcoat. we turned the boat down to run with the sea and I was hanging over the bow trying to pull the anchor in by hand. It was eventually gathered back up and lashed down. Incredible that we had come all this way and two days out of home we incurred the worst damage for the whole trip. That said, it could have been a lot worse.
The last day we were able to get the Gennaker up and had a great ride into the Bay of Islands averaging 9-10 knots all the way in.
The temperature had dropped significantly, but the biggest change was the colour of the water around NZ. I had forgotten how green it is compared to other areas of the World.
There was a great atmosphere in at Opua, with a lot of boats coming in to clear there and the officials were efficient but pleasant to deal with, considering there were easily 10-15 boats coming in per day.
We spent a bit of time in Opua dealing with customs and our Bank. we elected not to import 'Falshator' at this stage to avoid paying GST and Duty. We brought her in on a Temporary Import classification, but this meant we still had to pay a deposit of the same amount which you get back when leaving NZ again. I thought it would be better for us to arrange with our Bank to keep the money there and get them to write a Credit Letter for Customs. This turned out to be a mission and took our bank two weeks to get organised. In that time we were not allowed to leave Opua Marina and were more or lesser held captive there until it finally came through.
When we finally left and headed down to Auckland, it was a grey dreary day weather wise but it was brightened up hugely when we saw our friends Barry and Sue coming out to meet us on the way in on their boat 'Bizzare' and then to top it off, all our family and a lot of friends were waiting at the Marina when we got in.
It was a great end to our trip and its taken a while for it all to sink in, but we are both over the moon about suceeding and fulfilling our target.
I am overjoyed about the way the boat has both performed and also the extra work that went into her with extra Batteries, Solar Panels and the Watermaker. it has all worked out well and if and when we decide to take her overseas again, I wouldn't change anything in that department.
'Falshator', you have been good to us, have a well deserved rest now and we look forward to out next venture where ever and whenever that may be.
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