Honey

Honey

Sailing around New Zealand

Emily is sailing solo around New Zealand on her 32 foot yacht Honey, from Lyttelton south down the east coast, around the bottom of Stewart Island, up the west coast of the South and North Islands and down the east coast back to Lyttelton. The whole adventure is expected to take 3 months. This blog will provide updates as I travel (when I have mobile reception to upload).


Sunday 30 December 2012

On hold with nasty weather

Honey is now all stowed, and minus lashing a few items down (anchor, gas bottle) and a couple of not so major jobs plus getting the perishable food on board, I am now finally ready to go. It has been a mammoth job to get ready! But now the wait is with the weather... a disturbed westerly front crossing the country at present, looks nasty and not the sort of weather I intend to start off in. This is the current weather situation...
It looks like my best chances for a weather window to leave will be around Friday (4th January - into the New Year), hopefully by then the high below Aus will have pushed the westerly weather system away so I can make a break for Stewart Island. Until then, my plan is to keep a close watch on the weather, finish off a few little jobs on Honey this morning, and then Tim and I may take off to the Sounds for a few days to sit this weather out. Hopefully it blows through quickly!

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Almost ready, on weather watch

I had hoped to leave on Saturday 22nd, at the same time Andy Gillies left bound to Stewart Island - he's arrived safe and sound, and I'm still here in Lyttelton! It has been a real push to get Honey ready to go. By 23rd December the hard work had been done... Honey had been fitted out with all new ropes, two new jammers, a reefing system so it can all be done from the cockpit, lazy jacks making it easy to lower the mainsail, LED navigation lights and a tonne of other bits and pieces! This was thanks to Dad, together we spent the weekend working on the final jobs. Christmas Eve was spent finishing off work (office work that is), sorting out the communications and then the provisioning (minus the perishables) - Mum and I were in the supermarket to almost 11pm at night! I took the morning off on Christmas Day, lunch at Mum's and was then chomping at the bit to get back to Honey - so yesterday afternoon I serviced the winches (they're running really nicely now), and took Honey out for a sea trial. Autohelm working well, phew, but electronic compass out by 180 degrees, oops, must be mounted backwards! Today has been spent sorting out what to take - the front rooms at home are chaos! And putting everything in order so that I can leave for 3 months. There are now only a few wee jobs left to complete on Honey (including fixing the compass), a bit of the final provisioning (perishables), cleaning the boat, packing stuff up, moving it onto Honey and then stowing, and possibly a further sea trial before I go... So now we are on weather watch... there is some nasty weather brewing down south which looks to stick around for at least a week, which means Stewart Island is looking doubtful for New Year. Tomorrow is finishing off the the final few jobs and keeping a watch on the weather... 

The final push to get ready

To follow...

Back in the water, but still lots to be done

To follow...

Haul-out – the hard work begins

To follow...

Preparations start – lessons on a diesel engine

To follow...

Racing – the Winter Series

To follow...

Weekends in Banks Peninsula bays

To follow...

Honey Sails South – Napier to Lyttelton

To follow...

Honey Sails South – Auckland to Napier

To follow...

Girls take on Waiheke

To follow...