Hello to everyone! In our last blog, we told you about our adventures in Marlborough Sounds and Nelson.
This time we will tell you how Azimuth finally got fixed, (YES, the anchor windlass is working again!) We visit the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park, we sail all the way up the west side of New Zealand’s North Island, round the Northern capes and fight our way down the East side of New Zealand and end up in the Bay of Islands, where we were sailing in September/October last year, circumnavigating the whole of New Zealand’s North Island.
So last time we told you about the problems we had procuring the parts we needed to fix our ailing anchor windlass and bow thruster. Whilst we waited for the parts to arrive from Lithuania and the USA we decided to save some money in marina fees and head out from Nelson to visit the Abel Tasman National Park and anchor whilst we waited. It turned out to be a great decision and we motored across Tasman Bay on a windless sunny day and dropped the new anchor for its first ever trial on the West side of Adele Island, right in the heart of the Tasman Park. What a gorgeous spot. The sea was flat calm, the anchor bit first time (great because I still had to pull it up by hand!) and the birds were singing in the dense forest that covered Adele Island. At low tide a huge sand spit would appear at the end of the anchorage. We were in the perfect spot to relax and wait and take the opportunity to explore some of the coastline.
I got the new canoe out and assembled it on deck and then took it out to go and explore Adele island, I took this video:
Over a couple of days, we walked several miles of the Abel Tasman Track, a very popular walking track in New Zealand, visited and walked by many thousands of people every year. It takes you through the lush sub tropical rainforest on another of NZ’s very well maintained walks.
There are lots of little beaches to explore on side tracks and the views are stunning when they appear as you walk through the dense forest. You come across vibrant streams that cut through the steep sided hills. I put together this video to show some of the highlights of the bits we walked.
It was quite a busy spot overall. Everyday, a fleet of canoeists would come through the bay where we were anchored to stop at the little beaches on their way around Adele Island. The channel between the island and the mainland was navigated by countless speedboats delivering tourists to various parts of the National Park, sending their wakes in to the anchorage. But we didn’t mind, at night when all the mayhem disappeared, this was an perfect spot to enjoy the peace and quiet when the noisy birds wrapped up for the day.
While we were in Adele Island, Cyclone Vianu hit New Zealand at the top of the North Island and we watched daily to see its progress, hoping that it wouldn’t affect us down in the South Island. In the end, it wasnt a bad cyclone and passed through very quickly, spinning off the east of New Zealand.
We saw no significant wind where we were and were blessed with some amazing sunsets from the cloud that was spinning round the edge of the cyclone.
Plenty of time for Ailsa to cook us a fantastic roast dinner or two!
All I had to do was watch the tracking information as my parts for the windlass left Lithuania and the US and worked their way slowly across the world towards New Zealand. Eventually when the final part reached Auckland and cleared customs, we thought, okay, lets head back to Nelson and make arrangements to get the hydraulic pump for the windlass and bow thruster refitted.
Getting the new anchor up was tricky! It weighs 10kg more than the old one, and wow, does it have some holding power, after three weeks in the mud and sand at Adele Island, it did not want to move! I had to use one of the sheet winches to pull it out, a great sign that this anchor was much better than the old Delta anchor. We had a wild sail back to Nelson, starting as a close hold in about 15 knots apparent in to a 30 knot beat as we approached Nelson haven. The wind was howling as we got in to the anchorage area, and I struggled to get Azimuth lined up between all the moored boats while the wind gusted to 35 knots, We dropped the hook and it immediately held in the soft mud, solid! Very happy with it.
That was a Friday, and I got an email to say the parts had been delivered to Hydraulics people. So I called them up, and yes, the part was correct. We arranged to go in to Nelson marina for the following Tuesday to get the work done.
We took the chance before then to take the dinghy to shore and go for lunch and visit the Nelson waterfront.
Tuesday arrived, and we motored in to the marina and took our berth. I prepared the engine room for fitting the pump, fitting the new belts for driving. Eventually, later that afternoon, Sam, the technician from FPS turned up with our pump, all reassembled. A really nice bloke Sam, he worked hard to get everything installed. And within a couple of hours, we were ready to test the pump again. On went the engine. Ailsa went to the windlass to press the button, whilst Sam and I watched the clutch engage on the pump and the pressure build, and the windlass came to life again! It may sound silly, but after three months without a windlass and having to wind in the anchor by hand, this was a moment of personal elation for me!!
The bow thrusters worked great too, I was a very happy man! That evening we went out to celebrate at the Sprig And Fern pub in town for some drinks and a visit to a restaurant for some delicious Thai food.
The next day I had to go and pay the bill for the hydraulic work (ouch!) and then Ailsa and I did some more supermarket runs to top up the boat larder again. We had one more night in the marina, and then it was crunch time. I had been watching the weather for our sail to get back to the top of New Zealand for weeks, and as we were due to to leave Nelson marina, there perfect opportunity had appeared, a huge high pressure system was sitting to the West of new Zealand giving us a light downwind sail for several days to get to the top of NZ. We had to take it.
So just before lunch, we pulled off the dock (using a working bow thruster!) and headed out of Nelson marina and into the port to get to the entrance to the sea.
408 miles were ahead of us to get to Cape Reinga, the cape at the very top of New Zealand.
The sea was like a millpond, up went the mainsail, and we motor sailed for a few hours until we caught a puff of wind and glided through a very still sea at about 4 knots, the sun setting over the mountains of Abel Tasman.
On Day 2 the wind continued to be light and then disappeared all together, leaving us ghosting along again on a flat sea doing about 2 knots, mostly with a gentle swell behind us. We had stunning views of Mount Taranaki, the huge volcano on the West of North island, which was snow capped and about 70 miles from us. This was particularly pretty as it went a golden colour as the sunset. We also spent hours and hours sailing past a couple of oil rigs and huge tankers.
Towards the end of the day we turned the engine on again for a couple of hours and that gave us the opportunity to catch another patch of wind to sail through the night. On day 3, the swell picked up from a storm to the south of us, and the wind was very gentle, so we rolled around for the day, the wind slowly building and making things more comfortable by the end of the day. Sunrise on the 4th day bought more wind, and we made good progress until late morning the land around the Northern capes came in to view. We were sailing nicely now on a broad reach, but as we approached Cape Maria van Diemen, named by Abel Tasman, the Dutch explorer, the first European to discover New Zealand, a squall drove in and the wind accelerated around the cape, The sea state was thankfully not too bad and we whisked around that cape and the bigger Cape Reinga on a close hold with gusts to 30 knots. It was fast sailing that got us round the capes quickly, and into more sheltered winds right at the very Northern Tip of NZ. A momentary lull in the wind strength and we took the opportunity to drop the mainsail and motor the last few miles in to a beautiful anchorage off a beach at the back of the North Cape, where two other boats were also sheltering for the night. It felt like a very exposed spot, being right at the tip of New Zealand, but the shelter was very good, with only a small swell making it round the North Cape.
We dropped the hook in sand, and after sailing non stop for 4 days, took a well earned rest, and celebrated with a large gin and tonic!
The wind was to swing more to the East over the next two days, and was predicted to become stormy in the next two days. This was no place to ride out strong winds, so we decided to head further South to find better shelter. We planned an early start to give us the best chance to get some miles in. It was a joy to watch Ailsa just press a button to activate the windlass, which so easily pulled in the anchor!
As the sun came up we were motor sailing hard around the North Cape, The seas were big and we had 25 knots on the nose. A little squall produced a crazy rainbow in the sunrise.
We fought for at least an hour before we were free of the Cape, the tidal current, the strong winds and seas, and then settled in for a close hold sail down the east coast. The winds had other ideas! We fought all day on a beat, continually getting driven towards a lee shore and having to tack numerous times. In the end we sailed 45 miles just to get 25 miles further South, but found our anchorage for the night in another remote and fine anchorage off the beach in Waipapa bay.
This would be our home for another few days whilst the winds offshore were blowing 35 knots, we were tucked up in this pretty bay, barely aware!
Eventually the winds shifted again and gave us an opportunity to get a little further South again, heading for the harbour of Whangaroa. It was another blustery day, with a big horrible swell, and we fought another beat, this time more manageable as Azimuth carved through the big swell at 6 to 7 knots. It was not a pleasant ride though, and Ailsa looked like she was going to succumb to the Mal de Mare, but managed somehow to sleep through most of the journey! It was with some relief that the narrow entrance to Whangaroa finally appeared and we motored out of the swell and in to flat calm waters and dropped the hook in a spectacular spot called Lan cove surrounded by steep cliffs made of basalt.
Two nights here had us feeling up for the fight again, and this time the wind promised a light downwind sail to the Bay of Islands, about 25 miles further South. The sea state however, had not improved, and we motor sailed for several hours with the jib flogging away until we could get some better winds. A couple of large squalls ruined the party for a bit, but finally we spotted the North entrance to the Bay of Islands, a large ship killing rock that was being pounded by the swell and we sailed in to the Bay. As we passed an anchorage we had stopped at in October 2025, we both took the opportunity to remark that we had now circumnavigated the entirety of New Zealand’s North Island with all the crazy sailing and winds that we had experienced along the way!
Another hour had us dropping the hook at the end of the Keri Keri inlet which is where I am writing this blog from today.
Here’s another video giving you a peak of some of the moments of this trip from Nelson all the way to the Bay of Islands:
It feels good to have made it back to the North again. Now we are poised to make the leap from New Zealand and head back to the South Pacific, our destination: Fiji. We just need a weather window and its time to wave goodbye to New Zealand. It feels like New Zealand is on old friend now, and we will be sad to leave. Its been a hell of a ride!
Join us next time then when we head back to true blue water sailing!
Dom and Ailsa on Azimuth.