209 Nautical Miles to Go to NZ

We are motor-sailing, really just motoring since the light wind is dead on our nose, but with light seas, also almost on our nose. I recalculated fuel and it looks like we can get in on fumes if the wind does not pick up, which it might. We'll go to plan B then which is to tack off to sea and back again to get in to refuel in Opua at the Bay of Islands. The B of I is one of the premier cruising grounds in NZ and we have not been there. We are on a schedule (hate that word!) though as we need to get to Whangarei asap. I actually have a job interview lined up with an electrical company that wires boats. I got this through emailing a specialty recruiter while in Vanuatu. Not sure what will happen with that.

We had a bit of a scare yesterday but all is well right now. I thought I found a leaking through-hull which would be a hazardous to your health situation. If it had failed entirely or if we could not keep up with the leak we might have had to abandon ship. Not a pretty thought. And, to make life more interesting still, our main day-to-day bilge pump failed. The bilge pump takes any stray water out of the bilge where it collects and dumps it over the side. We do have a bigger backup pump which we call our high water pump. It works but I have it rigged up to only go on manually but it does have a high water alarm that goes off if the water gets high, which it did. That will put the fear of all that is mighty in you. Not good especially when you have an active leak, which we did have, just not the t-hull.

When we lost the water pump belt the other day, I did not notice the belt broken so checked the raw water pump impeller. The impeller is a rubber pump vane that does wear out and I have had to replace it a couple of times over the last three years. But when I found the impeller OK I put the cover back on it but it had some salt encrusted on it and prevented a good seal, or at least it started off sealed but leaked later, badly. That was the source of all the water in the bilge and led to me thinking the t-hull was leaking. Water was sloshing around in the bouncy, bouncy of the wild seas yesterday and I was looking under and over with a flashlight on my knees and thought the worse. Last night we took turns turning the bilge pump on and off manually every 15-30 minutes else the alarm would go off. The worry of course was that the leak would get faster than the pump or that the pump would fail. We like to have backups up and running at all times for stuff like that.

Today, with calmer seas and no wind, I looked in and found the water leak source, double-checked the non-leaking t-hull and found a fuse gone on the main bilge pump which probably overstressed the fuse from running constantly. All is working now and if we don't run out of fuel, or the winds don't get too nasty again, we will clear in with Customs at Opua in two days, refuel, then head on south to Whangarei if the weather cooperates. This has definitely been one of the more challenging rides we have had. The 3000 mile trip from Mexico to the Marquesas was a cake walk compared to getting from and to NZ. It is famous even out here and some people avoid it. That is why most of our American buddies refused to come back and headed off to Australia where they report it is VERY expensive. Oh well, you choose your poison. We are too broke so are suffering with the rest of the Kiwis coming back home.

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