Waiting out a gale in Russell, NZ

The Schooner Maggie B is back in Russell, NZ, tied up securely to the pier. The forecast is for an Easterly gale with winds up to 65 knots, and 250 mm (10 inches) of rain tomorrow. We are nose first (headed easterly) into a “U” shaped part of the Russell pier with nine dock lines mooring us in tighter than a moth in a spider’s web. Hopefully.

We had a marvelous sail yesterday with Bill and Claudie Sellers. Bill is famous even among the many famous Kiwi sailors. He has traveled the world by sail, often single handed and has great stories about almost every known port. He is also one of the best scrimshaw artists in the world. His watercolors of nautical themes are very successful, and now his “Cook’s Endeavour in a Calm” is the centerpiece of our Crew Mess. He has built and is building his own ping my eye on the crew now, to see if any show signs of swallowing coins.

Last Saturday was just marvelous. It was the First Annual Russell Birdman Festival. A birdman festival basically means people dressing up in funny costumes, often with wings, and hurtling themselves off a pier, often into very cold water, to see who is funniest and flies furthest. Russell is a little town of perhaps 900 in the winter (@8000 in the summer!). The weather had been cold and rainy. The festival had beach digs, kayak races, spaghetti eating contests, bar-be-que cook offs, and the Birdman Competition.

On Saturday, just about exactly at 10 AM, as things started, the sun came out and it was hot enough to think about sunscreen. The day was perfect with perhaps 4000 showing up.

I am very proud that our new shipmate, Ben Carpenter, lead the “Super Liquor” Birdman entry, which won the “Master of Ceremonies Favorite” prize, NZ$100. Plus two cases of beer from his Sponsor! Photos to follow.
Just about exactly at Four PM, right after the final prize giving, the rain and cold returned. A perfect day!

Experienced advice is that to get to Tahiti from here, one needs to head straight east, wherever one needs to go to get a Westerly between 32 and 40 South, until you get to about 155 West, then you turn left for the Islands. The joke is that if you turn too early, you end up in the Cooks, and never, ever, get to Tahiti. Out latest forecast (we are using three different sources) says it may be until 21-22 July before there will be a chance of a nice southerly. We are ready whenever it comes.

All is well.