Back to the Islands!
The time has come, Silver Fern is finally on her way back to the South Pacific! Wooh! We departed from Viaduct Harbor in Auckland this morning and are steadily making our way Northeast towards the Kermadec islands. Spirits are high onboard, as we’ve all been looking forward to this moment for quite a while!
Silver Fern crew from Auckland to Tonga!
John and I arrived back at Silver Fern early last week, and were greeted by Adrian, who was looking after Sea Breeze just a few slips down from us at the Viaduct. The trip preparations commenced, with the biggest of the jobs being to service our windlass, as cruising around the islands would prove very difficult without the ability to anchor. Adrian and John managed to take apart and rebuilt the system, replacing a few nuts and bolts along the way.
The crew arrived Friday afternoon, everyone showing up throughout the day to drop off bags and scope out their new home for the next two weeks. Provisions were delivered and stowed away, which is no small feat when prepping to go offshore. Friday evening was spent going over the first round of safety briefs and boat familiarization, and finished with a delicious crew welcome dinner cooked by yours truly.
Kirstie amidst the provisions chaos!
Yesterday was spent doing more safety briefs, a bit of winch training, and (everyone’s favorite) refueling. To refuel we took the boat over to Westhaven marina, which was a great opportunity to get a bit of line handling practice in before heading offshore. Scott set the bar extremely high with dinner last night, whipping up a nachos feast for the crew.
A very attentive crew during safety briefs
By this morning, there had been more than enough anticipation, the crew were all itching to get to sea! We went over the man overboard procedure, and practiced sending a swimmer down on a halyard, Andreas being the sacrificial crew for that role. The final thing on our list to check off before departing was to clear customs. Luckily for us, NZ customs were extremely efficient in getting us all cleared, and we were ready to depart by 10:00am this morning. Everything was stowed and lashed, lines were set to slip, and we were off! After a highly efficient mainsail hoist, we were on our way out of New Zealand!
Man overboard training
We’re making excellent speeds towards Great Barrier Island, which we plan to stay South of as we make our way out to sea, to set ourselves up on the best wind angle on our sail to the Kermadec islands. With about 500 nautical miles between us our first destination, we are expecting about 3 days until we see the southern most island of the Kermadecs. Our forecast is looking like we should have a wonderful sail up, with the wind on our beam most of the way for this first leg of the journey. What more could we ask for!
Cheers!
Liv
We’re off!