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Has anyone told you that you are wonderful people?

By midday today Phil was enjoying some sailing after 21 hours motoring.
Then he added to the picture with letting us know the menu: Beans ‘n onions for lunch. Accompanied by Pink Floyd on the stereo.

Early evening sounds nice: Perfect day here. About 200nm east of Norfolk Island. Just about to click 1st 500nm.

Since there is now a little more wind he’s expecting to use the Code Zero some more tomorrow.

It sounds like the weather is quite pleasant up there… hopefully warmer than here!

Somewhere along the line he concluded that since he’s not home I’m getting some rest…
Yeah right! I might have already put most of my clothes on Waimanu, but there is still someone moving into our bedroom after I leave. This should require emptying the room out first! 🙂

One of today’s activities was buying groceries. Apparently we still need to eat food. Who knew, right?

I have already sent several packets of coloured pencils ahead on Waimanu for sharing with kids in the outer islands, and Phil has sorted a few pairs of reading glasses* for folks who might feel unable to contribute to family productivity as their eyesight changes with age, so I popped in to Warehouse Stationery to look for some pencil sharpeners and pencil cases.

It was a wonderful surprise to find them as clearance items.
Taking what I required to the counter the chap there didn’t just make conversation- he wanted to know what I was going to do with half a dozen of each. He knows my kids are too old to need them.

He seemed delighted when I said where and why I was taking them with me and made me wait for a few minutes while he checked something out the back.

Returning, he gave me a good bundle of school exercise books* to add to our supplies and simply asked for a possible photo of where they went so he can share it with his business associates.

School exercise books, sharpeners, pencilcases
Some simple school supplies

I’ve been really encouraged by such positive responses when people ask where we are going and what we might do there. It’s lovely, and so much more positive than being asked Why?

Anyway, time to sleep, plenty of packing and moving to do tomorrow! 🙂

 

*Thank you, thank you, thank you to the folks who have contributed in such wonderful ways. You know who you are!

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Where did the wind go?

Received this bonus message from Phil last night:

Nice day. Very nice sunset. Had Code Zero up for short time. Going nicely. catch u tomorrow. LOVE YOU


And midday message today:

S294202 E1721316 COG350T SOG5 Sailing after 21 hours motoring. Beans n onions for lunch. Pink Floyd on. LOVE YOU

I’ll put the coordinates on the map when I’m back on the computer- currently posting from my phone. Don’t you love technology when it works well?

There can’t have been much wind if he was motoring yesterday.

I received a message this morning with course instructions for making the most of the next weather phase, and it looks like nice sailing conditions! Yay!

Speaking of YAY! – didn’t they do well?!

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Systems are go?

So today’s collection of satellite texts came in to my email account [insert technical mumbo jumbo here about how systems communicate and what the various options are. NOT!]

Here ya go, in all their raw glory:
1st message
Today, 11:39 a.m.
all well. S314525 E1725905 Log 330 COG345T SOG5/6

2nd message
Today, 11:43 a.m.
ME! Learning. Eating again. Having FUN

3rd message
Today, 11:51 a.m.
noon to noon yesterday 144 Today 1380 Some Rain. Sunny now. SSG fantastic. will try text again tomorrow. love to aii

Now I’m going to take a wild guess and say you might be feeling a little confused.
I’ll attempt a translation which I’m hoping is fairly correct (since I can’t actually ask TheMan right now)

1st message, received today at 11:39 a.m.
* Everything is going well. This is where I am [look at the map, I’ll try to attach an updated link] I’ve travelled 330 nautical miles of the trip so far. I’m heading the right way and I am sailing 5-6 knots [between 9 & 11 k/h]

2nd message, received today at 11:43 a.m. is a reply to one I sent asking what was wrong with the phone [because the nice man on the telephone, calling from The-Ship-Not-Windows-Support said there were issues with it, but Phil probably meant something else] So this one seems to mean
* There’s nothing wrong with the phone, it was me. I’m learning, I’m eating again, I’m having FUN! [This is good, it’s quite normal to not really want to eat when you first leave, especially if it’s stressful]

3rd message, received today at 11:51 a.m.
* Yesterday I sailed 144 nautical miles [267km] and today I’ve done 138nm [255km, I’m guessing that 1380 is a typo and should be 138.] It’s been raining, but it’s sunny now. The thing I built to steer the boat by itself is working really well and I love it. I will have another go at texting tomorrow. Pass my love on to everybody.

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Is she really that small? Or: before departure

Thought you might want to see a photo or two of Waimanu. These were taken on Friday, the morning they left Sandspit

Being loaded now, she’s definitely sitting a little lower in the water

And to give you an idea of how tiny Waimanu looks to other people here’s a side-by-side with her berth-mate Swan

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Progress!

Well he’s all packed up, motored out of Sandspit Marina on Friday morning and headed for Marsden Cove where he cleared Customs at 8:45 yesterday morning 🙂

I’ll keep today’s post simple: here’s a map

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Hello world!

Welcome to The vdMz Sail – hopefully this will be where we update you all with our sailing adventures.

Since sailing away from land means there isn’t a lot of internet available our updates probably won’t be particularly frequent. Please be patient with us.

Yes we’ll post photos and maps when we can. Maybe even videos 🙂