Adventure arising

My brother Rob has a wonderful adventure coming up in the next few days. Dad, who turned 87 in April, recently sold his 32ft keeler to him, as dad's bought a 36ft launch. We appreciate that this is a big mind set change for dad, but he realised that if he's to keep out on the water, then bowing to power rather than sail may be the best move for him.

But dad lives in Whitianga on the Coromandel in the North Island, and Rob and his family live in Nelson at the top of the South Island (west of Picton on the map above). Today, Rob's flying north to spend a few days provisioning the boat up, and then sailing it home. Rob's a very competent sailor (here’s a story he wrote on a trip to Fiji from NZ), and joining him will be two equally competent yachties: Tina and Andrew Troup–siblings from Christchurch. Tina’s sailed to Antarctica and other antipodean islands, and Andrew’s building his own yacht (alloy) and has crossed the Pacific, among other trips.

This will be a heck of a trip. So they don't have to cross the notorious Cook Strait between the North and South Islands, they'll be sailing north up the east coast from the Coromandel, up and over Cape Reinga–which can be very turbulent and has often been named the worst bit of ocean in the world–and down the west coast. This is not a trip for the faint hearted! Once down the west coast, there's hardly a decent bar-less port to duck into.

They should also be well covered for safety gear–Andrew’s bringing his sextant–and they'll have a PLB, two VHF, two GPS, liferaft (hired) and an inflatable dinghy.

I am quite envious!