On December 11th at 6 AM, after 18 days at sea, we made landfall in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. WOOHOOOO! It has been my dream for two and a half years to complete this leg of our circumnavigation, and even though we limped in with a dead engine, it felt amazing to know we’d made it!
The NZ Coast Guard and customs were really cool about letting us drop anchor in the only bay I felt confident sailing into. We had just come through 70 hours of bad weather with two systems basically back to back, so I hadn’t really slept in days and needed to rest before I could tackle the engine. With our quarantine flag up, I went to sleep for four hours. I awoke to a beautiful, sunny day, and when I stood in the cockpit to take in the scenery, I noticed that a friend boat I hadn’t seen since the Marquesas in July were anchored in the same bay! Since we were under quarantine, we weren’t permitted to visit each other, but it was still reassuring to see friends in our new home.
I spent the rest of the day working on the engine. Yet another impeller had degraded and blocked up the raw water flow through the hoses and my heat exchanger. By the time I put the engine back together, it was dark and I didn’t want to travel the final five nautical miles upriver to the customs quarantine dock until daylight. The next day, we cruised up to the dock and cleared-in. It was an easy process, and since I was the only boat, I didn’t even have to wait long. Two days later, they took Zia away for quarantine.
Lots of things have happened since landfall, and I have so much to share from my last passage since I lost satellite communications and couldn’t write to our supporters. Be on the lookout for new Logs in your inbox soon! Until then, you can stay posted on our day-to-day via our instagram or facebook.
Want to see us keep going? Please consider buying one of our limited edition 2020 calendars! You can enjoy the South Pacific all year long. :) Proceeds will help cover the cost of Zia’s very expensive quarantine fees.
xo & fair winds,
elana, zia, and s/v windfola ⛵️💕31 December, 2019; Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand