POST

Monday October 8, 2007
Sunshine, dark clouds then a 15 minute downpour over and over again is the experience of
the day. Our goal for today is to complete some housekeeping chores around Bella Donna and
attend an informal gathering at the Aquarium of skippers and crews of the sailing vessels
headed for New Zealand at 3PM in the afternoon. The radio net mentioned that someone who
made the passage last year and who now is a New Zealand resident wants to answer any
questions we have.

One of the best chores to do on the boat on a day like today is scrub her down. If you are
lucky you can scrub an area and the periodic rain will wash away the soap suds with the
dirt leaving a clean surface when the sun dries up all the rain. I feel like singing the
kids song, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider Crawled Up The Water Spout".

Time flies and it is 3PM before we know it. The man answering our questions turns out to
be an American from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was the store manager for West Marine
there. He and his wife took off in their sail boat making it through the Panama Canal,
down South America and across the South Pacific to Tonga then New Zealand last year. As
many cruising yachties do, they decided to stay in New Zealand and work for a while.

The yacht crews at the meetings represent a wide spectrum. The smallest sailing yacht is a
22 foot sloop that two young men sailed from Denmark. The yacht with the least equipment
is a small German mono hull with a VHF radio and charts. Almost without saying Bella Donna
is at the high end of the spectrum. The crossing of the South Pacific to this point has
been easy for everyone; the fair winds are very predicable and dependable. Seldom if ever
has anyone had to sail to weather which is uncomfortable in any yacht. The conditions from
Tonga to New Zealand change as highs and lows roll out of the Tasman Sea; pushed by the
southern hemisphere jet stream they dominate the weather we will face. The idea is to use
a weather router who tells you when to leave and what route to take. We are using 2 of the
best routers. The other thing that helps us is we are motor sailing the less than 1200
miles and should complete the passage in 6 days. Some of the smaller yachts could easily
take 10 days or more as they can not motor sail very far.

It is spring in New Zealand; the summer sailing season is about to start. It starts slow,
most of the locals start their vacations in mid December for Christmas then high season
lasts into late January. There will be some great cruising in Bella Donna's future.

God Bless Bella Donna.