Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

User avatar
SV1K
Site Admin
Posts: 1520
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:00 pm
Location: Wellywood
Contact:

Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby SV1K » Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:20 am

Message received from Mike via email...
Mike wrote:Hi All,

Suzuki1k texted asking where we were so I thought I would give an update on how things have gone, where we are, what reefs we have hit, if the boat is still floating and what bits have fallen off or broken down on it.

Before I start I need to thank quite a few people in the 4wd community who have helped me/us get to where we are now. I wouldn't have got the boat to where it is and I'm pretty sure through the help and contacts on this forum my life has been spared many times over (HANDRAILS !!! talking about the freaking handrails and me hanging on for dear life - NIBS big thanks dude, SIG also big thanks hope you got your bottle back alright, if not, Alex at real steel in the
hut was meant to drop it off). Sorry to anyone I've missed but I think I have got everyone, maybe, perhaps!

Stinky and Taz01 for storing all the crap that went onto the boat and the stuff that didn't, and for the use of the machine shop , fabrication shop and mail room.
Suzuki1k for radar mast and crane build and looking after ore while we are up here, possibly lathe down hatch or was that Mark?
Mark for getting the engine in through the hatch (one heavy little bastard) and help with ore and server stuff and other stuff no doubt.
Nibs for help with the handrail
Sig handrail also - potentially a life saver multiple times over so blame them if I come back alive. Plus kickass soldering iron and elec wof.
Curly for bringing the poles down strapped to his wagon like lances and books and advice.
rolla4wd for one very important window that took several large waves and stood up to them with ease!
Jafa for help with the little black engine now re nick named Percy after a freight train - because that's what it sounds like coming through the boat stupid dam thing!!
Chrome for the fish plates, that held on the self steering.
Turoa for coming around and talking shit every now and again and making us old farts miss how cool it was be to young!
Those guys guys who helped with the pump in Tauranga and the self steering gear in Whangarei, can't quite remember your usernames or names as I don't have access to ore (this comes via sat phone) but just as appreciated.

No doubt I've missed someone but in case I have thanks just the same, the help we received was amazing and has made the trip stress free , well sort of .....

First of all the biggest sailing trip we had done was 180 miles each way to Chch, a nice day and over night sail to "home" . The trip down was good the return not so good. We then set sail on the 29th of April for the Bay of Islands some 600 odd miles. By the time we got to castle bay we had 40 knots of wind and we were doing 8.5 knots constantly, our boat is only meant to do 7 as a hull speed and constantly sits around 6 knots. So we were flying. Then we got
to Napier and things got worse. 50 knot winds, and massive seas, 4-6m waves from behind. We had several decide to board us i.e. come over the back, fill the cockpit up and try and come down the companion way!! One even smashed the rudder off the self steering gear and bent the shaft - we no longer have that with us now. (this brackets and fish plates worked well, didn't even budge!!, pity the gear itself couldn't take that abuse). Then across the Bay of plenty we had little to no wind and motored but it was such a relief to get past that
cape so we didn't care. Up through the Hauraki was awesome, I would like to spend a bit of time there when we come back through in December. Once we got to the Bay of islands, we spent two weeks finishing the stuff off I never got finished. Watermaker was one of those jobs, got that going the day before we left! The little engine was another, that was 3 days before we left and what a racket that thing makes. I'll be ripping that out and getting something modern
when we get home, might even rip it out up here and give it to some village chief in trade for some banana's or something.

We left Bay of islands on the 18th may and headed for the Kermadec Islands some 550 miles away. We arrived in 3.5 days and we achieving speeds of 6-9 knots the whole way and averaged 160-170 miles a day which was pretty good going for the rust bucket.
Kermadec Islands are amazing, truly how this planet should be or was. If your into diving and snorkeling the fish life was amazing, Kingfish bigger than the 2 meter sharks which stalked you in packs of 6-10 grrrrr, a spotted black groper 1.5 meters long by 1.5 meters wide it seemed!! and thousands of other fish, the viz was bad because there were to many fish blocking everything ffs! otherwise the viz was 30-50m.

We landed on Raoul Island which you need a permit for, we were the first
visitors there since the doc staff had arrived there last august. They picked us up in little 4wd golf buggies called mules, pretty cool little things and grunty. We shot off down the track and through the bush on the volcanic island.
It was straight out Jurasic park- no really it was, pretty crazy I have to say.
We did a bit of diving there and then the exhaust sheared off the engine, the one I welded up two days before we left Wellington (knew I should have got Taz01 to weld it ;-) ) I then had to weld it on in their semi unused workshop on Raoul Island with an arc welder running off a solar power array that was measured in tens of kilowatts!!

We then set sail for Tonga 500 + miles away. That took 3.5 days as well so we averaged slightly slower speeds as the winds didn't quite have the same puff as they did in the first leg. We arrived into Tonga on the 27th and stayed the night and then cleared the next day.

Since then we have moved to the Hapai group, run aground once in the big boat, busted our wind generator, run aground once in the small boat, lost the cooling completely from the engine once, rebuilt the main raw water pump once, and almost run aground more times than I care to admit. The charts for the island group we are in were drawn in 1882 and are the same charts, they don't translate onto the gps as they use different datums. There have been a few boats this season wrecked on reefs so it can get quite stressful especially when the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind gets up on the water loosing your
only means of navigation (the gps can be half a mile out on the maps, so it shoes you going through a reef or in an island!!)

We really did choose the safari of boats being steel, when we hit, we hit pretty hard, 15 tons of boat dead stop from 3 knots, the whole boat tried to trip on itself and since we sort of bounced back I threw it in reverse and took us straight back out the same way. Quite fortunate really. Only some major paint scratches but nothing that wont buff out :D . We learnt a lot from that - make sure your holding onto something when your brace for impact ;-)

So we have 9 days left before our Tonga visa has to get renewed and then we head to the tourist part of the Tonga where all the other boats go, we are currently in the part where they are all scared to go and have only seen 3 other boats the whole time.

Will send out another update in a month or so, any issues Suzuki1k can't deal with you'll have to wait till I get to an internet cafe which will be in about a week and half I reckon. Then I have to fight all the bikini clad woman for a computer, funny thing is I keep loosing and end up in the queue for hours!

Cheers
Mike

User avatar
niblik
Sausage Shack
Posts: 3305
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 12:00 pm
Location: erm.. out in the shed for a mo...

Re: Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby niblik » Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:42 am

Awesome. Sounds like mikes keepin true to form too. His boats following in his rovers footsteps. :lol:

Cheers for that Reece.
ImageImage

User avatar
crazyclark31
Hard Yaka
Posts: 867
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:13 pm
Location: invercargill.

Re: Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby crazyclark31 » Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:22 am

thats a cool read. man that would an awsome trip.

User avatar
rokhound
Hard Yaka
Posts: 2558
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:00 pm
Location: Christchurch

Re: Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby rokhound » Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:29 am

Awesome Mike.
Is the plan to head around as many islands as you can in the time you have? (you know you are going to be in the interweb cafe for ages now :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: )

Take care dude, as you know, the sea is an unforgiving farker.
Ugly is a state of mind..... and the state of my truck!

User avatar
tomsoffroad
Flopsie
Posts: 2445
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: North Canterbury

Re: Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby tomsoffroad » Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:49 am

Wicked man :D Looking forward to the pics :mrgreen:

User avatar
chrome
Hard Yaka
Posts: 946
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:00 pm
Location: the swamp

Re: Where is the world is Mike? Read it here...

Postby chrome » Wed Jun 20, 2012 5:20 pm

that sounds like a serious trip mike, livin the dream methinks
good luck to you both :D
DIRTY OLD HILUX
022 519 7700

Return to “Where in the world is ORE”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests