Tam

We had waited out the storm in Whangaroa without any major issues. Once the weather cleared up enough, we immediately pushed Meriwether back out into the open ocean where we retraced our route of the past few weeks. This included three partial day sails with two overnight stays in anchorages new to us until we reached the Bay of Islands (again), and eventually the town of Russell (again).

In Russell, we stayed only long enough for a meal and a quick resupply at the local grocer. Leaving after another single night stay (that makes four in a row) we charged to Deepwater Cove at the south eastern corner of the Bay of Islands. The plan was to stay a few days, exploring the trails and waiting for the right weather to start making miles south towards our eventual haul out and flight back to the USA. Plan… ha! By the following morning the forecasts were in and all were showing an enormous weather event coming down on just about all of New Zealand; Cyclone Tam, complete with 60+ knot winds where we were anchored. We have stayed at anchors in low 40’s and that was no fun at all.

Tam was still a few days out, but we didn’t have enough time to make it down the coast, so we were instead discussing riding it out at Deepwater Cove. Protection would be okay, but after lengthy discussion we both agreed that sitting here another week would be a massive waste of time. Instead we chose to backtrack a few miles to Jacks Bay, which is a designated hull cleaning area. If we were going to be waiting around, at least I could get Meriwether’s bottom cleaned up again before the haul out date.

It took two long days of diving and scraping, but I got the job done before Tam was set to arrive the following day. Jacks Bay was not as well protected an anchorage. Add to it that heavy winds would push us towards shore, so if our anchor slipped we would likely end up on the rocks. We discussed setting two anchors and letting out all our ground tackle. As long as the sea-state didn’t get too severe, that would do the trick… we figured.

After a couple more hours of discussion we finally thought of the plan to return to Opua and it’s large marina. At least there the risk of dragging anchor and crashing into the rocks would be mitigated. “Misery is optional” we kept reminding ourselves, and riding out a cyclone at anchor *is* completely optional for us. There was no need to do it, so a call was made, a slip booked, and we picked up anchor and ran away like wimps. It was the right choice in the end.

Tam arrived gradually. Luckily it lost a bit of steam out in the ocean and was downgraded to an ex-cylone but still had tropical storm conditions. With mildly heavy winds on the first two days, building to it peak over a couple more days, and eventually a few more days of tapering off. At the peak – which hit at 1am as usual – our wind instrument read 55 knots of wind speed. We did get a few gusts even higher, but did not get a look at the instrument. Instead we were dealing with the radar reflector which had fallen in the middle of the night.

The boats on the moorings and at anchor just outside the marina reinforced our decision as the right one. The photo above was taken 12+ hours before the peak of the wind, and it was already ugly. Even with a somewhat protected anchorage there, the wind was strong enough to kick up a pretty good fetch. The boats were bucking up and down as well as being pushed side the side as if there were made of paper. These are boats that weight tens of tons, and there were toys to Tam.

Meriwether and her crew did end up surviving our first every tropical storm / cyclone. We were extremely happy we chose to be wimps. It was rough enough in the marina, with little sleep that night and a lot of noise and heel from the wind. We did get the opportunity to meetup with more cruisers during our extra time back in Opua – some new, some old friends – quickly turning a misery into a fun week all things considered. But now, we had only two weeks to make it two our haul out, ugh.