Cruising

Belena - Back in New Zealand

Postcards

Article published on 03/02/2023

By Gilles Ruffet

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published inn°188mar. / apr.

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Following their stopover in Fiji, Marlène and Benno set a southerly course. Despite their superstitions, the crew were obliged to set out from the 300-island archipelago on a Friday. The weather had dictated it for them…

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Who: Marlène and Benno
Where: Minerva reef and New Zealand
Multihull: Brazapi 50
Blog : www.sail-belena.de

We had to motor for the first few hours, and then the wind arrived, and we mostly ran at 8-10 knots, and made good progress until the next morning. We had to break down hard to let a front pass in front of us. We arrived in the North Minerva Reef in the morning and were all alone at first. But not for very long, as soon after, another yacht came in. It didn’t take very long for more boats to come. And already there was a lively ‘social life’ and we soon met other sailors for a potluck, went fishing for lobsters together, and there was also a joint dive outside the pass, which was very spectacular. We also wanted to go to the South Minerva Reef again, but after one day there a weather window opened up to sail to New Zealand. Once arrived in Opua, we were immediately welcomed by the authorities. the clearance took some time, then the staff of Opua Marina let us know that we arrived just in time for the Cruisers Festival. We took part from Wednesday to Sunday. We didn’t like that we had to drop anchor back into the brown broth off Opua, but some sacrifices have to be made for the entertainment. We were served something to eat almost every day and there was also a party, and we met a lot of nice sailors again. They also organized a bus and drove us to the street party in Kerikeri. The main street was cordoned off and there were stands everywhere with food, of course something to drink and several live bands that made good music and where people danced. After the festival we pulled the anchor out of the mud and visited different places in the Bay of Islands. We are planning to sail to the South Island with Belena.

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