Gary's Deliveries

This final leg of a Pacific 62 yacht delivery from Opua to Bundaberg saw a marked improvement in conditions after several days of unsettled Tasman Sea weather. Overnight, the adverse systems cleared. We settled into light headwinds of approximately 5 knots with a 1.5–2 metre ocean swell on the starboard aft quarter. In these conditions, the Pacific 62 tracked cleanly and efficiently, maintaining an average cruising speed of around 9 knots — appropriate for fuel management and mechanical longevity on a passage of this length. Sea State and Vessel Performance With the swell on the quarter, the yacht rode comfortably. At one stage, even after reducing revs, we recorded a top surfing speed of 24.4 knots while descending a larger set. While this is not a sustained operating speed, it reflects hull efficiency and sea state alignment rather than aggressive throttle input. For deliveries across the Tasman Sea, especially from Northland to Queensland, speed management is deliberate. The obje...

The last 24–36 hours of this Pacific 62 yacht delivery from Opua to Bundaberg have been the most demanding of the passage. The low developing south of New Caledonia deepened more than earlier forecast guidance suggested. As a result, we received stronger wind and larger sea state than initially expected. Tactical Course Adjustment – Running With the System As the wind veered into the northeast and strengthened, sea state built quickly. Rather than hold a direct northwesterly course toward Bundaberg, we altered progressively to keep wind and sea aft of the beam. That tactical decision placed us temporarily on a southwesterly heading, trending toward Lord Howe Island , despite Bundaberg lying to the northwest. The objective was straightforward: Avoid beam seas in 4–5 meter conditions Reduce roll and structural loading Maintain steerage with controlled stern-quarter alignment At peak intensity, gusts reached 40 knots with breaking waves exceeding 5 meters. Speed, ...

 Mid-passage on this Pacific 62 yacht delivery from Opua to Bundaberg -  conditions have shifted from manageable following swell to more dynamic quartering seas. Overnight wind remained moderate at 10–15 knots, but 2–2.5 metre swell from the aft quarter created significant yaw. The vessel was repeatedly lifted and slewed to port before dropping off the back of the wave and attempting to round to starboard. The Garmin autopilot corrected effectively each cycle, but the result was continuous lateral oscillation. This “yo-yo” motion is typical when quartering seas interact with hull form and speed. It is not dangerous when controlled, but it is uncomfortable and requires speed discipline to reduce surf acceleration and stern lift. Speed Control and Surfing Management By midday Saturday wind increased to 20+ knots, with sea state building. With energy from the aft quarter, the Pacific 62 briefly surfed to 17.1 knots. For delivery work, that speed is excessive. Surf-induced accel...

After 9 days at home it's off to the next adventure on "Moonlao".  I flew up to Opua on Tuesday morning to jump onto the next yacht delivery which is a new Dickie Boats Pacific 62 which I am taking to Bundaberg in Australia with my crew mate David. David's journey from Auckland to Kerikeri airport was a bit of an adventure in it's own right.  He was told his 16:00 flight was cancelled and told he could get on the next available flight in 2 days time!!  Or take the offer of a couch replacement which he did so instead of a quick 40min flight he had a 5hr drive and arrived around 22:00. In the meantime I was zipping around in the hire car getting the provisions for the trip.  Wednesday saw more provisioning and and filling out the multitude of paperwork required by the NZ Customs for clearing out of NZ then another mountain of paperwork for clearing into Australia.  I also booked our appointment with Customs to go through that process for noon on Thursday. Early T...

 WOW, it's been a week since my last post.  How time fly's. To be honest very little has happened apart from the boys catching loads of fish.  I've lost count of how many but I will try to recount them - 4 small marlin, 1 small/medium sized marlin, 6 or 7 tuna and a Pacific barracuda.   If our cupboards and fridge/freezer were empty we would have eaten like royalty with all that delicious fish.  But, we didn't need them so they all went back into the deep blue sea.   All the meat we have in the freezers has to either be consumed before we arrive or the Fijian bio security team will take it all along with any fresh veg, fruit, eggs, honey and an assortment of other food as these are not allowed to be brought into the country so we have been using up all the steaks and chicken we can BBQ! As I mentioned, very little has happened on this delivery.  We have been at sea now for 11 days and in all that time we have only come across 1 ship and we di...

Today is Monday here (Tuesday in NZ) and we have so far covered about 650nm since leaving Bora Bora.  Weather has obviously been very warm and until last night very calm seas.  AC has been working hard to keep us cool and the seas have picked up as expected to keep us lively on our toes. Over the last couple of days the boys have managed to catch 2 small black marlin, 1 slightly larger black marlin and 2 decent sized (girthy) tuna all of which were sent back to the deep blue sea again as we don’t need the food.  One of those tuna alone would have feed the 3 of us for the whole trip. We were struggling to set up the Fijian charts on our nav system but after a call to the guru in Florida he managed to do his magic and I am very pleased to say we now have them on the big screens on the bridge and not having to rely on my iPad for navigation around and into Fiji.   

 Just over 24hrs into the trip and all is going smoothly. We have the luxury of air conditioning thought out, 2 large capacity water makers, 3 generators as well as 2 big alternators and vessel stablerlisers which do a very good job of stopping the rocking side to side motion so we only have to handle the rocking back and forth motion which at the moment is very limited so it's been a very comfortable ride so far. I have planned our route to go further north than the direct line to Fiji as there is some nasty weather further south causing decnet sized waves to head our way so the further north I can go the more those waves will dissipate, we are actually going to go over the top of Samoa before heading back towards Fiji. The conditions so far are fairly decent, we have wind off the starboard bow at about 10-15kts and seas are around 1/2 to 1 metre mainly aft of the beam.  We have had a bit of rain but that's all good as we are a motorboat not a yacht so we are snug inside with...

I arrived into Papetee, Tahiti from Auckland on Wednesday morning around 02:30 after a flight from Auckland where I left at 21:30 on Wednesday night!  So arriving earlier on the day I actually left! Always a strange experience crossing the date line and going back a day!     I had a night in a "dated" hotel at the airport before my late morning flight to Bora Bora. Interestingly the airport at Bora Bora is on it's own island so you have to get the airline's ferry.  Got picked up and taken to the boat which is a Nordhavn 76 trawler launch.  A beast of a globe trotting boat more like a mini ship with all it's systems onboard including 2 large water makers and 3 generators.  Talk about redundancy! So the day was spent being shown around the boat making sure I know how systems work and where all the important items are.  Then it was on to the paperwork for clearing out of here and into Fiji.  Clearing out was pretty easy, I just set up an account...