February 11, 2022
Today would be our final day to enjoy some mild weather before the storm hit. At this point there was some disagreement among weather experts as to what sort of storm this was. It had formed in the tropics and turned into a cyclone named Dovi before it headed south for New Zealand. Met Service Fiji still considered this a cyclone, but Met Service New Zealand insisted this was no longer a cyclone but a tropical storm. I figured it was safe to call it “cyclone remnants.” In any case it was going to get really windy in many areas of New Zealand, including here at Great Barrier Island.
During the day I sat outside and considered our situation. In a harbor scattered with boats, there’s a subtle kind of feeling that happens in the hours before a storm, an impulse to watch other boats along with a sense of being watched, because you never know who might be “in the know.” For instance, I was a bit obsessed with a boat anchored south of us in the middle of the channel. Would that be a better spot? Did these people know something we didn’t? How about the boat that appeared and anchored north of the entrance to this bay. What are they doing there? Are they going to move? And it’s possible, even likely, the guy on the boat we left behind at the unnamed bay was wondering the same thing about us, wondering if we might have been “in the know” about something when we left in a hurry.
Along with looking at other boats, I also spent a considerable amount of time staring across the channel to the west side. There were no indented anchorages, but what if we just anchored in the channel next to the large rock island? We certainly wouldn’t want to do that at this point, but maybe we could move in the morning when the wind was supposed to go west? Second guess, second guess, second guess—a person can drive themselves crazy!
We also stayed on top of all weather updates, anxious to see if the forecast would get better, worse, or stay the same. This day was a strange combination of enjoying a relaxed day at anchor and being tense and on alert. On top of that, it was hot! We actually ran the engine so we could run our air conditioning, not something we ever expected to do at anchor in New Zealand.
So while relaxing, we worked on our computers and binge watched TV. While stressing we checked the weather and looked around outside. It did help to have comfort food for lunch and dinner: lasagna and burritos, and champagne as our evening drinks. Comfort food galore! We stopped just short of making brownies, which would have been a bit over the top today—maybe we’d make them the next day when we’d really need comfort food!
Below, a few photos as the sky became increasingly cloudy in the evening (click to enlarge any photo).
For now it was just a matter of sitting and waiting. It looked like the system would gradually pick up over the course of the next day and stay in the 20-knot range until around midnight; then things would start to get interesting. The wind would pick up into the 30-knot range, then the 40-knot range starting around 2am. Around 7 the following morning, we’d start seeing gusts in the 50-knot range up to 60 knots. It’s a good thing we had more burritos! –Cyndi
