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Bob McDavitt ’s guide to weather forecasti ng and trip planning in NZ‘Rite of Passage’ Part 1 - Ruth WalleyNew Race Sponsors - Total Yacht Care Rum RaceSpot the Yot and WIN! All about the December Calendar Sponsor - Transmarine ProTreasurer STILL NEEDED!

December 2018

2 | Tell Tales

IN THIS ISSUE...

Commodore’s Report..........................3Christmas Quiz....................................5Bob McDavitt ’s Weather Corner..........6Rite of Pasage - Ruth Walley................8December Sponsor Transmarine Pro....9‘Spot the Yot’ ....................................10Noti ce of Race - New Series...............11Marina Update..................................14Quiz Answers....................................14Full December Calendar of Events.....16

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On the cover: ‘It’s beginning to look like Christmas!’ by Jilly Alexander

Tell Tales | 3

COMMODORE’S REPORT

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Opua Cruising Club,

I must say that the days are flying by and I can’t believe another year is almost gone. There is a hive of activity around Opua and every one is busy with getting all of the last minute jobs completed before the Holiday Season

Thanks to all of the hard work of our Committee Members we have had good turn outs in our racing both for Inter Club and our own Wednesday’s and Friday Nights during the week. As well as a few good social events coming up. Keep up to date by checking the Calendar and FaceBook.

There is a great Christmas Dinghy Parade scheduled on the 20th and everyone is welcome to participate. It will start down at the BOI Boat Yard and Finish up at the OCC dock. So please join in as it will be a great night. See poster later in this newsletter.

Moving on into January there is the annual event “Bay of Islands Sailing Week” where yachts from all around NZ come to the Bay to participate right in our back yard. There is a division for everyone, from A Division right down to a Cruising Race around the Islands, with and without spinakers and of course Multihulls. So come on guys, I know some of you new into the Bay would like to join in. Contact admin@bayofislandssailingweek.org.nz and visit https://bayofislandssailingweek.org.nz to find a division that suits you.

Of course we can’t forget our Bar and Kitchen staff as they too put in extra hours and effort during this time of year. So thanks guys and Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!!

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Club for our annual Commodores Party and Christmas show on the 8th, don’t forget if you have a party trick or a turn you’d like to share please contact Jilly Alexander 0210799566 or Malcolm 09 402 8116.

Hope everyone has a festive Season and that you all have gotten your letters out to Santa!!

Cam

4 | Tell Tales

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Tell Tales | 5

 

Nautical  Nowledge  (and  a  bit  of  seasonal  cheer)  QUIZ  #4  Test  your  crew!!    Pour  a  drink  and  check  out  your  expertise  with  these  five  quick  questions.  

1.   What  is  the  number  one  cause  of  person  overboard  from  a  yacht?         a.   Getting  hit  by  the  boom     b.   Falling  from  the  mast     c.   Getting  caught  in  the  spinnaker     d.   None  of  the  above  2.   A  rotating  device  with  blades  that,  when  moving,  propel  the  boat  is;     a.   Rudder     b.   Propeller     c.   Hand     d.   Gear  3.       The  first  recorded  Christmas  service  in  New  Zealand  was  conducted  in  which  year?     a.   1840     b.   1814     c.   1769     d.   1642  4.       According  to  Readers  Digest  which  are  the  top  three  most  covered  Christmas  songs.         a.   Snoopy’s  Christmas,  White  Christmas,  Jingle  Bells     b.   Silent  Night,  Jingle,  Bells,  Little  Drummer  Boy     c.     Rudolph  the  Red  Nose  Reindeer,  Jingle  Bells,  Silent  Night     d.     White  Christmas,  Jingle  Bells,  Silent  Night  5.   Which  cardinal  mark  is  shown?  

  a.   North     b.   East     c.   South     d.   West    

If  you  struggled  with  any  of  the  questions  or  you  want  to  expand  your  knowledge  of  sailing  theory  take  the  free  eLearning  courses  at  International  Yacht  Training.  https://www.iytworld.com/courses/course-­‐types/elearning/    

Merry  Christmas  Julie,  Vice-­‐Commodore    

   

Answers on page 14

6 | Tell Tales

THE WINNING FORMULA BOB MCDAVITT’S WEATHER CORNER

SEVERAL NEWLY ARRIVED CRUISING YACHTS WILL SOON BE SAILING AROUND NZ WATERS USING OUR COASTAL AND

RECREATIONAL WEATHER FORECASTS. MANY OF THEM WILL READ THIS MAGAZINE, SO NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO

INTRODUCE THEM TO THE JARGON WE USE

Th e fi rst rule for safe boating is “watch the weather”. Here in the roar-ing forties, winds from the warm tropics clash with winds from the chilly Antarctic. Th e resulting weather is a mix of pattern and chaos. Weather maps only follow the pattern. Computers “paint by numbers” and reduce this pattern to a matrix of dots that aver-ages things out, becoming more-bland the further they go into the future. MetService marine forecasters take into account what’s coming from over the horizon, combine the ideas from several models, and add skill and experience to produce a forecast that is the best available “idea-from-isobar-land”. Th en chaos may cause the real world to deviate from that idea.

Th e winning formula is to get the best forecast and then twist it, using your own local knowledge to fi ne tune it to your location.

To help you twist the words, here is a decode to the jargon used in marine forecasts

• Wind warnings are issued and updated whenever the need becomes apparent. Th ey are given sequence numbers (e.g. Alpha 42, is A42, the A stands for Auckland) that restart at 1 each month. When you hear that a new wind warning is in force, check it out...it implies AC-TION may be required, but may only apply to part of an area or may be issued as much as 24 hours in advance.

Strong Average wind from 25 knots to 33 knots (Auckland inshore area)Squall Sudden onset of 35 knots or more lasting up to an hour Gale Average exceeds 33kt remains less than 47knots Storm Average 47 knots or more

• Th e Situation is a brief word-description of the key players on today’s weather map; such as lows, highs and fronts. Th e MORE it mentions, the MORE the possible chaos of interaction. Th e forecast only picks one outcome, the most likely outcome, and the situation helps you can ascertain the alternatives.

Th e Forecast = Winds + Waves + Weather Th e forecast is given in averages that are scaled to fi t a nominated area for a nominated period.• Wind: is aimed at the average over ten minutes as measured at 10 metres above sea level. Speed is given in increments of 5 knots. Direction is in degrees true, and given as one of the 8 points of the compass (octants) that the wind is FROM with a plus-or-minus of one octant.

Tell Tales | 7

THE WINNING FORMULA ‘MetBob’ McDavitt For example, northwest 15 knots means wind FROM between north and west. Gusts, lasting a few seconds, may add as much as 50% extra to the wind speed. Knots are used by navigators for speed, One knot = 1 minute of latitude per hour. LAND forecasts often have wind speed in km/hr (sometimes abbreviated to “k”). Th is helps you pick that a land forecast is NOT for boaties.

Signifi cant changes to the opening wind are mentioned. In COASTAL forecasts, a signifi cant change is 10 knots or two octants (90 degrees). RECREATIONAL (or inshore) forecasts cover a smaller scale of time and space, so for them a change of 5 knots or one octant (45 degrees) is suffi cient to mention. Terrain eff ects can swing the breeze a lot and may halve or double the speed. Wind over land acts like water fl owing over, around and between rocks: it contorts along coastlines, curves around corners and dips and dives over hills and dales, gallops through gaps and slides down slopes. During quiet summer days, air is drawn onshore to replace air rising over hot land (sea breeze). On clear nights, cold air drains down valleys and along rivers out to sea (kata-batic winds). Mountains cause rivers of wind around them or thru gaps like Cook Strait or provide shelter and make large puddles of calm.

Waves = Sea + Swell • Sea State refers to waves formed by the local wind and tide. Quoted wave heights refer to SIGNIFICANT HEIGHT; the average of the top third. One wave in three is higher than this. Th e occasional wave (1 in 100) is 50% higher, and the Maximum wave (1 in 1000 or about once a day) is almost twice as high (actually 180% higher). In the forecast the sea state is given as a descriptive term on a 10 point scale defi ned as the Douglas Scale ( H.P Douglas, 1917) that is directly related to the average wind speed as follows. Th e Douglas scale describes fully developed waves.

Local waves may be smaller depending on their FETCH (mnemonic) Th e Force, Extent, and Time, of wind over the sea Combines to build the Wave Height. Our Coastal areas extend 60 nautical miles (111km) off shore, that is the fetch length used in above table.When wind opposes the tide, waves steepen especially in confi ned spaces such as bars and passages. Continued on Page 10

8 | Tell Tales

We sailed out of the calm Bay of Islands and into a growling ocean. Sailing from Opua to Van-uatu we were expecting a lumpy sea and brisk winds for the first day but that soon changed to 20 knot winds and 3m waves.Capt Argh Rob and our granddaughter, Kurly Kyra Kop, were feeling the strains of seasick-ness but we saw a big albatross bird soaring around us and we were cheered that it was a good omen. On my late afternoon-watch I spotted a very large ship heading straight for us on a collision course. We watched him intently to see if he would change course and sure enough he did. Thank goodness someone was doing their job properly. We would have had to try and make radio contact if they hadn’t been. The container ship steamed around us then corrected himself back on to course and carried on out of sight. That night I pulled the graveyard shift, 12h00–03h00, and I saw another container ship but this time running parallel to us. They were the only two boats I saw during the whole trip.The next morning the waves were now crashing well over 3m high and with a mighty jolt of the boat I lost my grip on the handrail in the saloon and I was thrown down the steps, back-wards, and landed on my back on the galley floor, striking my bum with force on the seawater pedal for the kitchen sink, bruising my coccyx badly. However I still managed to make 3 bowls of 2 min noodles for the sick, weary and wounded.

(By the way, falling downstairs backwards is called a ‘Diana Movement’ named after our friend who one dark night, with her pyjamas around her ankles, thought she was reversing onto the toilet to pee but instead she reversed down her top stairs landing on her back at the bottom of the stairs with her feet up in the air.)By the third day with 5m waves and no let up on the weather, not one of us had even cleaned our teeth or changed out of our pyjamas since Day 1. It was impossible to walk about so we kept as horizontal as possible. Going to the toilet was extremely tricky. Getting on to the seat was one thing but pumping it out was another as you have to put your head down over the bowl. Poor Kyra was very seasick and spent a long time wrapped up in blankets in the cockpit being doused with spray and wishing she had stayed home. Nights were the scariest, the longest and the loneliest. The noise of the ocean, the slapping and banging of the boat seems to be louder when you are down in the cabins. That “swoosh” sound as you can hear and feel the boat surfing down huge waves is quite terrifying when you realise you are just in a tiny fi-breglass capsule in the middle of a very large ocean. For outside company we had an Albatross, an Australian Sea Gannet and two sooty black terns. We began to run West to try and avoid a Low Pressure system and the even more bad weather that began to approach us.Rob is now over his seasickness and trying to cheer us up saying how perfect these sailing conditions are but he’s not impressing us two at all as, quite frankly, we don’t believe him. The weather has dropped slightly (but not for long) and we are doing 8 knots in 18knot winds but we all know the weather forecast that says a storm is coming. Of course the barometer dropped and it all turned to custard again. Kyra was now incapacitated with seasickness, vomiting and having dizzy moments and hallucinations which we assumed were side effects from the seasick-ness pills. She couldn’t go down below at all so she slept in the saloon all tucked-up but in an exhausted fearsome sleep. I kept stroking her hair and whispering it was all going to be alright even though I thought it would not. Continued on Page 15

‘RITE OF PASSAGE’ Ruth Walley

Tell Tales | 9

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DECEMBER CALENDAR SPONSOR

10 | Tell Tales

SPOT THE AND WIN! No-one spotted the little tiny yacht hidden in the November edition!Another 20 litre Burnsco branded dry bag is up for grabs this month. All you have to do is search our Sponsor’s adverts in this issue and let us know where you have found the little yacht to go into the draw. Email info@opuacruisingclub.co.nz by December 25th to go into the draw to win. Th e winner will be announced in the January issue.

THE WINNING FORMULA CONTINUED

• Swell refers to waves rolling in from the ocean. Th e signifi cant height is given for swells of 1m or more in half-metre steps and the direction they come FROM.Sea and swell are given separately because each coastal area has nooks and crannies that may be sheltered from sea or swell. Combination depends on location.

Weather: is included if it drops the visibility.Since the horizontal horizon for a 2m adult at sea level is 6 nautical miles (nm) , if the visibility is better than this it is deemed to be good and not mentioned in the forecast. If less than this then one of these terms is used and the cause of the drop is visibility (showers, rain, thunderstorms) is mentioned. FAIR 3 to 6nm POOR 1 to 3nm FOG /VERY POOR 1nm or less

• Observations OBSERVED WINDS from key places are given on VHF by coastguard in degrees true and knot. Radio station ZLM also includes some barometer readings at 0803, 1203 and 2003hr local time.

1. Notice that the only words from the Beaufort scale that are used in modern day marine fore-cast are the words “strong”, “gale”, “storm” and “Hurricane”. 2. Notice that in NZ we do not issue “hurricane: warnings. However, we do get hurricane force winds and they can arrive from around a weather system that has come from the Southern Ocean rather than the tropics. Th ese are covered by a “storm” warning.

See page 12 for ‘Where to get Forecasts’ and trip planning advice

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Tell Tales | 11

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12 | Tell Tales

Where to get the weatherMetService has 18 Coastal areas and 11 Recreational areas and produces marine forecasts for these compiled by a dedicated team of specialized marine forecasters. These forecasts are updated four times daily and carry an outlook covering the following three days. They are available at www.metservice.com, or for your mobile at http://m.metsrvcie.com.or download the MetService Marine Ap fromhttps://about.metservice.com/our-company/ways-to-get-the-weather/weather-on-your-mo-bile/smartphone-apps/or via MetPhone at https://about.metservice.com/our-company/ways-to-get-the-weather/metphone/

If you have access to email when at sea the you can download the text of a coastal or recre-ational marine forecast by sending a email to query@saildocs.com , no subject needed, with message SEND http://m.metservice.com/marine/coastal/NAME or http://m.metservice.com/marine/rec/NAME where NAME is the name of your desired region (e.g: brett or bay-of-plenty or lake-taupo)

Marine Radio Taupo Maritime runs ZLM radio HF/SSB/SW stations on 2207,4146,6224, 13356 and 16531 kHz in English Maps are sent via Radio Fax on the following frequencies 3247.4, 5807. 9459. 13550.5,16340.1 Schedules are on the MetService website

New Zealand Coastguard Weather information (Nowcasting) is available via VHF See the map at https://www.coastguard.nz/media/418138/20161019_final_coastguard-nowcasting-weather-information-channel-map.pdfor download their app from https://www.coastguard.nz/boating-safely/coastguard-app-the-boaties-best-mate/

Trip planning A lot can be said about the usefulness of windy.com for checking is it may be good to go sail-ing this weekend. Weather enthusiasts are always seeking new web sites for delving into the weather, and the best I have come across I heartily recommend is https://weather.geek.nz/In particular, when planning for next week , check out https://weather.geek.nz/nz_model_tiles.phpThe weathergeek site contains many weather treasures. Have fun checking them out.

THE WINNING FORMULA

Tell Tales | 13

Thursday 20th December ❖ Be at Bay of Islands Marina workberths by

4pm for judging and official start of cruise❖ Course up and down marina docks❖ Finish at Opua Cruising Club Dinghy Dock

PRIZES FOR ALL ENTRIESENTRY IS FREE

Santa will be joining us with lollies!!

For details on the event and to enter email info@greatescape.co.nz or robbs@36degrees.nz

Finally, a comment on the origin of the name El Nino as we move in to December: Th e full title of El Nino is “El Nino di Navidad” or the Christ Child of the nativity. It got this name because in Peru, once every few years, rain fell over a the usually very dry interior. Th ese rains arrive around Christmas time and so the event was named after the festival they were celebrating (Spanish is the leading language in Peru). In moderation, the rains are a bless-ing, and the title seems fi tting. But in the past few decades an El Nino brings fl ooding and landslides to Peru, It also makes the anchovies harder to catch, as these fi sh stay in the cooler waters, and in an El Nino the top of the ocean becomes coated with warmer seas from equato-rial regions, and the anchovies go deeper and out of reach..Th is incoming El Nino is already showing itself in Peru: https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9044580/eff ects-of-el-nino-landslides-in-peru-tornado-in-argentina/NIWA have stated that this summer’s incoming El Nino is likely to behave diff erently from normal. Th e warmer seas along the equatorial Pacifi c that make up an El Nino normally occur near South America, but this year they seem to be occurring more towards the central Pacifi c. Th is is known as a central-based El Niño, or El Niño Modoki. Modoki is a Japanese word that means "same, but diff erent".Th e unsettled weather we have been having during November is typical of an incoming El Nino. We can use this as an indicator that the coming months may bring the Bay of Islands more days with southwest winds than normal, but there will still be plenty days with sea breezes or with northeast winds. Maybe around a third each way.

Bob McDavitt for Tell TalesBob McDavitt is the weather guru that uses /\/\etBoB to provide weather information for

cruising sailors, primarily for those in the South Pacifi c.

THE WINNING FORMULA ‘MetBob’ McDavitt

14 | Tell Tales

1 a. Getting hit by the boom2 b. Propeller3. b. Samuel Marsden’s Christmas Day service at Hohi (Oihi) Bay in the Bay of Islands in 1814 is generally recorded as the first Christmas service in this country.We will also accept;c. On Christmas Day 1769 the French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville and his crew were in Doubtless Bay in the Far North. On board the Saint Jean Baptiste was a Dominican priest, Paul-Antoine de Villefeix. While no records survive, it seems highly likely that such an important Catholic festival would have been marked with a mass. 4. Silent Night: Written in 1818, there are 26,496 versions, White Christmas: Written in 1940, there are 20,721 versions, Jingle Bells: Written in 1857, there are 19,080 versions5. a. North

MARINA UPDATE Paul Stringer FNHL

The busy season is well under way with a new wave of offshore cruisers coming into the marina with every good weather system that passes. Another successful BOI Cruisers Festival has been and gone with plenty of action at the cruising club – I hope you all had an opportu-nity to come and join in the fun at some point. As our overseas guest settle in, the marina staff are preparing for the onslaught of Auckland boats that are due to start heading our way, so things are shaping up for another busy summer.The boatyard has been frantic with our hardstand capacity sitting at 110% for the last two months. This is fantastic news for all our service providers but a little frustrating for those boaties who have left their maintenance plans a little late. Please bear with us as we are trying our best to get everyone who needs time on the hardstand a spot before Christmas.We still have plenty of projects we are trying to complete in stage 2 of the marina and you may have noticed that the boat trailer park has had a coat of chip seal and line marking in-stalled. A new perimeter fence is being installed around the northern boundary of the hardstand are and two new bike rakes are to be installed. One next to the Café and the other next to the Visitors Lounge. We are still pushing to get the new carpark laid out. The area has dried significantly over the last few months and we are hopping to start drainage work soon, so we can re-lay the metal.I hope everyone is enjoying the facilities at the marina and relishing in the diverse boating community we have here in Opua – Safe boating If anyone has any queries with anything that is happening (or not) in the marina please do not hesitate to send me an email paul@boimarina.co.nz or contact me through the marina office and I will endeavour to get you an answer.

QUIZ ANSWERS

Tell Tales | 15

Continued fromPage 8That third night was the worst. The fury that was unleashed on us by the sea was if it had indeed become possessed. The wind was only up to 3o knots but the waves were now peaking 5m. The slamming of the boat, the waves that were crashing right over the coach roof and the clawing and wrenching of the waves created an incredible level of noise. It was deafening lying down in my bunk when I was off duty. I was constantly being punched and thumped by the boiling waves beneath me. I couldn’t believe the force of the pummelling. Our 44ft St Francis catamaran, ALBATROSS, was now climbing the waves and crash landing down on the top of the waves like a 7 tonne pancake and instead of surfing down the trough, she was now plung-ing and skidding down them with a violent shudder. Fear really gripped me. We were going to die. I just kept waiting for the moment, often thinking ‘well here it comes’ but Albatross would right herself and battle on. I have never known such a cruel sea as this and having just read the book ‘The Shape of Water’ I began to imagine a very mean-spirited water god lurking in this part of the ocean. I began to be afraid of how much punishment a boat could take and so I began sending my Thank You Mantra that I used to use when sailing in bad weather from CapeTown to New Zealand. It’s directed to Herman the Boat Builder thanking him for not building a LEMON but adding on this time that I sincerely hoped he had built a long lasting boat as well, as Albatross is now 14 years old. Rob was out in the cockpit doing everything he could to make the boat less stressful. He wanted to reef down to no 3 sheet but the reef was jammed so we had to stay with only two reefs in the main sail and ease off the pressure on the sheet. Nobody and nothing could help us out in this sea except the weather elements changing and that was down to natural science. My brother Dave had said he would have ‘a word’ in someone’s ear (I assumed it was King Neptune) but I think he whispered it into his deaf ear. I remembered when I was in high school at the end of every Term Assembly we always ended singing with the hymn “....for those in peril on the sea” and it always affected me because one seldom thinks of people in peril on the sea. I wish they would sing it more often. I began thinking of all my children and grandchildren and felt desperately sorry that my 19 year old granddaughter Kyra, whose life would end so prematurely with us, would never reach her dreams and how devastated all her family would be. I even began wondering who would come to my funeral - haha. If we make it to daybreak, I promised myself I would get up and clean my teeth and change out of my pyjamas even if I have to put my clothes on lying down seeing standing up was difficult. And I would never, ever do a sea crossing again............

Rob and Ruth Walley sailed from Cape Town in their catamaran ALBATROSS arriving in December 2010. In 2012 they bought Marine Electrics Opua and have been serving the boating population and the community ever since.

Catch next months edition to see how they fared as they approched the tropics!

‘RITE OF PASSAGE’ Ruth Walley

16 | Tell Tales