Never Start a Passage on Friday

Lane:
Well sometimes, no matter what you do, things just don’t want to fall into place. That is what happened to us as some of you noticed on the FindShip app. We had finally checked out of New Zealand and were so happy and excited to be on our way. The winds were favourable and we were speeding along the northern coast of New Zealand. We had left our anchorage about 5:00 in the evening on Friday and watched a beautiful sunset as the temperature started to drop. The wind died some as well and we started the engine to keep our speed up while transiting the coastline. The sea was still running a bit rough from the week of storms along this coast and as the wind now dropped the boat began rolling and the main was banging back and forth. It made it very difficult to sleep for both Kay and I. The night passed very slowly as we stood our watches, three hours-on, three-off.
Suddenly there was a loud BANG and a crash! What the Hell was that I yelled as I ran up on deck. It was still dark, very early morning hours. What I found was the main boom had come lose from the main sheets. Literally broke the ½” stainless steel bar that formed the bail, which the main sheet blocks attach too. The welds had finally given way under the force of the main boom banging back and forth during the night. Now, of course, in the dark, without much sleep, we had to get a line around the boom, which was swinging with such force we didn’t even want to be on deck. You can’t just grab the boom and hold it while you tie it off. It would simply knock you out into the ocean. Finally, after several tries, we managed to get one end of a line around the outer end, just past where the sail ended, and when it swung back towards us we grabbed the line and wrapped it around the aft winch. Then we started cranking the winch to get it under control. Once we had it calmed down a bit we also put a line from the end of the boom up to the bow of the boat, which held the boom out. This is called a preventer. At last we could sit for a minute and take a deep breath. Wow! That was dangerous.
With the boom now under control, we jury rigged the main sheet blocks back on to the end of the boom and all was well onboard. The sun was rising. Time for breakfast!
Kay:
After breakfast we were alerted to another life-threatening situation when the shackle at the base of the main sheets had come loose and now the boom was throwing this huge block around like a medieval mace. Scary!!!!. Keeping well out of the way of this lethal weapon, we managed to get it under control and replaced the shackle. Note to self. Must wire the pin!!
Later that morning I said to Lane “Gosh, Lane, how come the cockpit is so slippery?” We found diesel spilling out of the tank vent. Pouring out!!! The obvious reason seemed to be that the aft tank had been overfilled, and with the sloppy seas, diesel was spilling out. So Lane simply closed off the vent valve.
We continued motor sailing for a while until the engine gave a few sick sounding coughs, then died. What now????
The winds were steady and we were sailing along nicely. Lane was absolutely exhausted so went below to sleep for a couple of hours and would tackle the problem when he was more refreshed and after lunch.
On investigation, we had been running on the aft tank and somehow, we had managed to shut off the return valve and created a blockage in the fuel system. So, Lane spent the next 2 hours in the engine trying to bleed the system, but no luck. Nothing, it seemed, would get the fuel flowing. Maybe we had done further damage?? What more can we do?
Our options were to carry on for 5 more days to Noumea and sort out the problem there, but really it was more reasonable to turn back to Opua, just in case the problem turned out to be more complex. So, at 1500 we decided to turn back.

Another overnight sail but we enjoyed pretty nice conditions back down the coast (that we were beginning to get very familiar with). As we sailed into the Bay of Islands there was SV Phoenix with Collin and Akemi waiting for us. They had learned through Find Ship that we were returning and they came to meet us in case we needed help. When the wind completely died we were grateful to accept their offer of a tow into Opua, seven miles away where we dropped anchor. Sunday night dinner of Roast lamb, mint sauce and vegetables at the Opua Cruising Club finished the day beautifully. All is Well that ends well!
Today we sorted out the engine and fuel issues and are once again getting ready to set sail. The weather looks good for heading out tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. There is a very cold and windy storm blowing through New Zealand now. We’ll see what happens.