Cyclone Gabrielle departs
February 14th, 2023
Opua Marina, Bay of Islands, NZ.
Today the torrential rain and very strong winds were both much less as Gabrielle makes its way to the SE. Pressure has been rising and as of late afternoon pressure was 991 mb, and wind blew from the SW at average 24, gusting 44 knots. I guess big weather systems don’t just switch off but I can see from interactions around the marina many are looking forward to some calm. And rightfully so, as it has been a hectic and very memorable three days!!
We spent most of the day putting canvas work back on the boat and drying wet things. Also checking in on some fellow sailors and swapping stories from our various experiences from the awesome power of Cyclone Gabrielle’s visit.
The dodger was the first thing to go back on the boat providing some shelter for our companionway.
Tāiko looking more together with the canvas covers on the cockpit.
Further afield many people have been significantly affected and many parts of the country are without power or mobile coverage still. A silver lining for us in our situation of power and mobile down on land is we have gone to great lengths to achieve self sufficiency aboard Te Tāiko so we are quite comfortable and living almost normally aboard. Just a bit of sun to get the house battery bank to 100% is what we need now.
Signing off - Cheers from Skipper Adam