All in one day
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 5 Nov 2008 20:29
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23:04.01S
178:10.66W
Hi Folks,
It all started with a 7 kilo yellow fin tuna, just
after we had written the blog, caught by Rob,gaffed by Chris and slaughtered by
Lyn , nicely diced and put in the fridge, with a large portion left out for the
evening meal , Lyn and Ruth swapped and the "Gordon blue" chef cooked it with
garlic butter , mashed spuds and peas , lovely jubbly ....
Yesterday afternoon we were overflown by the New
Zealand Air Force Orion patrol craft , Trevor was chuffed as he has seen his tax
dollars in action, we spoke to them on VHF they asked our heading and
destination , they were checking a number of yachts heading for NZ names ,
registration no etc ,and reminded us to send our entry forms 48 hr from arrival
!
After that we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon
dreaming of tuna in garlic !
All went very well until one o/c this morning ,
wind shift and a lightning storm that lasted two hrs , we moved to the outer
edge, picked our gap using the radar and drove through the middle of it using
Lyns esp, all sorts of lightning , some rolling fork lightning ,some
really big fork straight down , and sheet lightning accompanied by lots of rain
... all our electronics were hidden in the oven , and as much switched off as
possible , we still has the auto pilot on , I didn't fancy hanging on to a steel
wheel ,earthed to the rudder with rod gearing ...what a guy fawks
night, anyway I was up and about as the concerned skipper till we passed
through it , then left my watch buddy Trevor to take command for the first time
, I crashed out and awoke at 07:45 to try and listen , and report in to the
safety net ANZAC which all the vessels on this route use on passage , its a kind
of a club thing on the safety front , and as no bugger from Tonga or Fiji
is likely to come to your aid its self preservation that binds us together
.
An eluminated crew
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