Day 5

Joy spoke to the boys via satphone today as they hadn’t posted on the blog or answered their emails – though it was obvious that they were still alive and well as the tracker had them moving in the right direction!

Matt reported that they’re both doing well, nothing much to report ... same old, same old – wind, waves, keeping on going..!

Saw other shipping on the AIS (Automatic Idenfication System) yesterday, but nothing today – nobody out there except the racing fleet.

Had Chilli con carne for dinner with dorritoes, which went down well (and presumably didn’t come back up again today).

Had rain, but keeping dry

Sea state good, 2m swell; 25 knots wind; boat speed 8 .5 knots.

Running  with no 3 sail , staysail and two slabs out of the main.

They can’t get the YB tracker via Satphone while they’re so far offshore, so don’t know where anyone else is, other than Danaide who they keep trying to catch up with.

Windcharger working well..

All exciting stuff.. and yes, these comments were only made in answer to direct questions from Mom – hence food related & keeping dry! J

Day 4

And so the hard yards start. Last night we rounded Cape Reinga doing close to 9 knots in the current, however the wind died out around 1 am to virtually nothing and we have been slopping around ever since.

We had Sister Mercers great calzone last night, which was very tastey. Unfortunately i am a weak human being and it didnt taste as great on the way up.

The radio skeds are interesting, some of the boasts are unable to get through to Taupo Maritime Radio, although i guess with having the trackers on the skeds are slightly academic.

Right now we are keeping a close eye on the weather, as it is suspected to change some time tomorrow into a bit of a gale. It will be interesting to see how we handle that. We are currently beating into the wind at about 4 knots with the number 1 headsail and the full main.

i have come to the conclusion that wishes made on shooting starts are useless, despite the 30 odd i saw last night i am still sitting on this boat.

i cant think of too much else to say, apart from the fact that im loving it!

Matt

--

And we're off !!

Leg 2 - start

No wind on the start line looks like we might be here for a while.

A great picture of us crossing the start line in Auckland, thanks to Sir David Tompkins.

Day 2 - Mangonui

And so the end of our second day out comes to an end. i have to confess already i feel like i'm done. i have satisfied my sailing urge and i could go home happy.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to restart at 1pm. winds are looking very light from a southerly/westerly direction.

Right now predict wind is telling us that our passage down to Stewart Island will take close on 8 days.

We had a good dinner at the Mangonui Yacht Club tonight with the rest of the fleet. So far in the fleet there has been one blown spiniker, a sheered off mast ring, 2 almost broken toes and some trouble with a mainsail. All in a nights work for this lot.

i am headed for an early night as we have a race briefing at 9am tomorrow morning. Good to hear that so many people are reading the blog, next week it might be a little less frequent as we will be out of cell range and will be posting via the satphone.

oh and i managed to catch a shower, its going to have to last me for the next week :)
Matthew

--

Famous Mangonui

Me and dad enjoying a lunch of fish and chips before prize giving tonight.

Leg 1 - Complete

Finish time 26/02 12:07

Me and dad, sitting in Mangonui - ready for a good sleep.

Late night out

First night out at sea, I have to confess I'm a little tired. Me and dad spent the night up and down every two hours, trimming sails and narrowly avoiding trawlers. The good news is that we over took Pelagian II on the way. We don't have much of a lead and they have decided to cut through the inside of the cavalies to try and shorten the distance.

We are currently still running with the number 1 and full main. Last night we had winds gusting 40 knots but it has died to a steady 15.

Race Day !

What a day! This morning was probably the hardest part, the nervous anticipation and the last minute checks. But once goodbyes were said and we cast off it was time to let the games begin !!

As i write this we are just off the Hen and Chick Islands, currently traveling at 8.5 knots. (35 deg 57' S, 174 deg 41' E). So far so good, i think we are coming 8th, feel free to check out the tracker by clicking on the Yellow Brick logo on the right hand side.

We had butter chicken for dinner with rolls, and have completed our 7:30 radio sked. I'm sure you can tell it has been eventful as the only exciting thing i can tell you was what we had for dinner. We have done 1 sail change, and have changed up from the number 3 to the number 1 headsail. the wind is still gusting 25 knots, due to die down tonight (although me and the weather man have serious trust issues).

From what i hear i'm probably glad i missed the news tonight, although now that we are out of range of radio stations im stuck with Dads choice of music (he pulls rank on that one).

Thanks to all those who took the time to come down and see us off, the txts keep rolling in, thanks for all your support - i wish it made us go faster!

Oh, we had dolphins as well, i forgot about that. They hung around for a couple of hours, i have some pretty cool footage of them.

First night out on the water, hopefully we can make up some time on Pelagian II who are infront of us.

Matthew

Race prep

Thought i would upload some of the photos of the work we have undertaken. Unfortunatly there arent many and there is alot we did that i dont have photos of. On the up side you can expect lots of photos of the race.

We made dams and flooded the deck

Testing for leaks

Resealing cabin top hand rails

The boat ended up filled with tools and equipment

Working hard at 10pm

AIS finally fitted

Resealing the filler caps

Fabricating the sat phone mount

Finished mount

Flare demonstration by RFD

No Turning Back

Time is up, what hasn’t been done we have to live with. We spent our day running around picking up equipment for the finishing touches. The laptop has been mounted at the chart table, the hull has been cleaned, clothes are on and everything is looking shipshape.

At 10am we had our race briefing for the first leg from Auckland to Mangonui. Weather is looking like it will blow for the start of the race, dying out to nothing by Sunday night.

Steve Ashley (The Rigging Shop) has gone beyond the call of duty as our rigger and has been instrumental in kitting us with the right equipment for the conditions we will be facing. in the last month we have put in a spare halyard, replaced the spinnaker halyard, put in a topping lift for the spinnaker pole, replaced the furling lines for the mainsail and the staysail, upgraded numerous shackles and tensioned the rigging.

I also owe another big thank you to RFD (suppliers of safety equipment) who have been more than generous in kitting me out with the new Crew Saver - Crew Fit 190 inflatable life jackets. I look forward to putting it to the test.

Our race numbers are on and the GPS tracker has been fitted, to view the tracker just click this link. The tracker updates hourly so you will be able to tell where we are pretty accurately.

Now it’s time to rest up before the start tomorrow!

Matthew

1 Day to go..

Only one day left, the pressure is on. Today was all about ticking the little boxes. Gas bottles filled, water tanks filled, clothes sorted, bedding sorted, sat phone and laptop mounted, boat tidy and packed (for the most part).

The main event for today was the safety briefing, held at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club. We were presented with lectures from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust and RFD (suppliers of life rafts among other things), as well as Musto (who actually make a very nice dry suit, reasonably priced at 3.5k). We had a refresher on how life rafts were packed and got to set off a few flares in addition to learning the dos and don’ts of a helicopter rescue.

For me the nerves are setting in and from talking to the other crews it seems we all share a similar desire to be gone already. We have done the waiting, planning and preparing, in our case for the best part of the past year. It is time to go!

Matthew

Let the Count Down Begin !

The blog is UP!!

Finally got there, for all those that have patiently been waiting a whole month for this glorious moment - my apologies.

This is the end of the beginning, me and Dad are just putting the finishing touches on the boat and crossing off the small things on the list (of which there are several) before Saturday.

As this is the first post i feel inclined to give some context to the blog, so here goes::

For those that aren't aware, me (Matthew Bradfield) and my Father (Charles Bradfield) have accepted the challenge of racing around New Zealand shorthanded (only two people on board). This race has only been done once before in 1990(for more info on the race please feel free to check out www.ssanz.co.nz where there should be live trackers and regular updates). We will be competing with 9 other boats, with crews of 2 from all around NZ.

This blog is our story.

Matthew

P.S. Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions about any juicy details i may have omitted - blogging is not a talent of mine.