Day 1 at Sea

It is now 7am and we are getting our first ocean sunrise in many months.   We finally got out of Auckland at noon on Wednesday.    It was bittersweet leaving NZ, not knowing if or when we shall return.   Our first afternoon and night have been very mild with light winds and relatively smooth seas.   The boat is running perfectly after resting for 6 months and having a great deal of scheduled maintenance.

 

It was weird leaving Ann on the dock as we headed out, but our passage crew is doing well.   I actually got 8 hrs sleep the first night.  Having a 3rd person capable of standing watch makes the nights go quickly as we each have only 4 hrs 'ON' and 8 hrs 'OFF'.

 

Forecast is for seas to build today to 6' – 8', but they should be on our beam and the ride should be good.

 

Eric

Email reminder

Just a reminder to everyone that we now regularly only check our 'at sea' email.    Text only with no photos or attachments, please.

 

Eric

It's time to move on ......

It's hard to believe we arrived here in Auckland NZ 6 months ago.    We have had great adventures and met many wonderful people.  But, as always in our wandering cruising life, there comes a time to move on.

 

We have been waiting for over a week for a reasonable weather window to head north to Fiji and it looks like we will depart Auckland late morning tomorrow, (Wednesday NZ time.)    This will be an unusual passage because Bear and I will be joined by two experienced 'superyacht' crew members.    Ann has had a series of stomach issues and has undergone numerous medical tests.    Nothing serious has been detected, however, we feel it is best for her to fly to Fiji and wait for us there.

 

Our crew members, Jo and Sam, are both very experienced sailors and each has logged many sea miles aboard a variety of boats, including superyachts.   Sam is a Kiwi and will be making the 6 day passage with us and then return back to NZ.    Jo has become like one of the family and is planning on staying with us for a while in Fiji.    She is also trained and experienced in teaching and speaks multiple languages.   She is helping Ann with Bear's homeschooling and doing miscellaneous housekeeping.

 

Life aboard Oso Blanco has taken on a new look and feel as we head back to sea.    We'll keep you posted and try to do a better job of plotting our position on the blog.    

 

Eric

America's Cup

The next America's Cup will be sailed in 70' catamarans in San Francisco.    As a build up to that event,

preliminary events will be sailed as a series called the Americas Cup World Series in 'AC45' (45 ft) catamarans.   The boats are being built as one designs here in Auckland and the teams are starting to organize and practice.   The World Series regattas will be sailed in different venues around the world.   To date, 5  of the 14 or 15 AC45s have been launched and they are based right here in the marina where we are moored.   They sail right past us each day.

Today was the first day of AC45 practice racing and all 5 boats were on the water.   Practice racing not only trains the crews, but gives the race committee a chance to experiment with varying course designs and the media folks a chance to play with all their new high tech gizmos which will attempt to make yacht racing interesting to the masses.   

Through some folks we met here in NZ I got a chance to go out on the Coast Guard high speed crash boat for the event.   Conditions ranged from relatively light air to 20 – 25kts.   We were in the thick of things.   Awesome.   The acceleration of these boats is unbelievable. 

In the final (4th) race it was blowing pretty good and one of the Team Oracle boats buried her bows and rolled over.   One support boat put a line on the bow to hold her into the wind and another pulled from the side upright.   There was some damage to the wing, but she sailed the 5 miles back to the harbor.

Very cool ..........

Eric

Looks like me in our "E" boat days

Seven Vakas Begin Historic Voyage by Bear Bloomquist

These are Vakas

A Vaka is an ancient Maori canoe with two hulls. They are 22 meters long and hold 16 people. There are 7 vakas and 2 support boats beginning a historic voyage. Their path is: NZ - Fakarava - Hawaii - San Fransisco - San Diego. They start in mid-April and end in mid-August. Their mission is to promote the awareness of pollution of the ocean. They use the wind to move and the stars to navigate.

Maori are native islanders from the South Pacific. They came to NZ on vakas. The tattoos on a Maori face (if you can read them) will tell you who their parents are and what skills they have mastered.

This is the Haka

The Haka is a dance the men do before battle. They slap their bodies, stick out their tongues and widen their eyes. Here is one version from the All Blacks rugby team(copied from my t-shirt):

 Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
 Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!

 Tenei te tangata puhuru huru
 Nana nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
 A upa ...ne! ka upa ...ne!
 A upane kaupane whiti te ra!
 Hi!

To learn this, we went to the Auckland Museum and went to the Vaka send off ceremony.

Back in NZed

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are back on the boat in Auckland and getting ready to launch to Fiji after Easter. Much work has been done on the boat in recent months and she's in good shape for the season. Our plan is to spend a couple of months in Fiji, then on to Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia. We won't experience as many miles or destinations this year but the leisurely pace will allow for more diving, exploring and wandering. We're looking forward to it!

Ski Season Grand Finale

 

Today is day 4 of our week long adventure at "Mike Wiegle Heli Skiing" in Blue River B.C.

This is a spectacular operation tucked between the Cariboo and Monashee mountain ranges.  Each day we are skiing in a group of 10 along with 2 guides.   Morning stretch class starts at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7 and then we board the helis as soon as weather permits.   Morning fog or snow can delay our start, but it very rare for them to miss a day of flying.   Our highlight of the first 3 days was day 2 when we skied from 9 am - 4:30 pm, had 11 heli lifts, and skied over 35,000 vertical feet.   The entire day was spent on glaciers in the high alpine above the tree line.   Every run is fresh tracks.   The pace is fast and the helicopter is usually waiting at the bottom to haul our tired butts back for another run.   Lunch is flown in for an on mountain rest.

The lodging, food and all services are truly first class with wonderful buffets each night.   Their ski shop provides a wide range of powder skis and you can try different types and models of skis each day.   Our room is a small suite with a Jacuzzi tub, steam room and laundry.   The base lodge includes a large gym, exercise room, and massage rooms.   

We had skied over 50 days this season before we got here, but you can't be in too good enough shape for this.   We are certainly keeping up and doing well with our group, but we are in the "slow" group.   Most of the folks in the other groups have been here multiple times.   One guy in our group is on his 45th week here over the last 20 years.

More to follow ........................

Eric