April 30, 2008 - Departure from Opua

We cleared out with New Zealand Customs this morning, fueled up, and headed out of the Bay of Islands, along with about 5 other boats. As we cleared the coast, we had short, choppy seas, and the wind was just over our port bow. We had too much sail up and buried the bow a few times before we got our act together and reefed down. By late afternoon my seasickness overwhelmed the drugs I'd taken, and I was making my first donation to the side deck. As the night wore on, both of us would make several more contributions to the deep. Upon reaching deeper waters as the sun set, the sea state changed and we traded wind driven chop for bigger swells. Until the swells won out, we experienced uncomfortable, sloppy seas.