Our Most BRUTAL Sail (& breaking stuff

I'm Nikki, this is Jason, and this is Curiosity. Our home and the driving force behind our thirst for exploration, literally and philosophically. Because we believe curiosity is the key to unlocking life. It's what pushes us outside our comfort zones, softens our assumptions, and helps us embrace the great unknown. This week that comes in the form of setting sail for our most ambitious voyage yet. All right, this is it. Almost, almost two years since Curiosity sailed into this harbor. She is now finally sailing out of it, and we are headed to New Zealand. I almost can't believe it. Okay, let's do this. It's been a long journey to say the least, and for those of you new, here's the short version of how we got here. You see, we've been nomadic for most of our adult lives, but our seafaring days started back in 2016 when we purchased Curiosity without a lick of experience. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Are we gonna, are we gonna accidental jibe? I hope not. So we got a crash course in sailing and set off into the horizon. Seven countries and 13,000 nautical miles later, it was time for a trip to our homeland. So we sailed into Tonga and anchored the boat on land for cyclone season. We flew back to the states, spent some quality time with family and friends, and we're on our way back, but then COVID hit. Quarantine and eventual border closures left us stranded in Fiji and our boat abandoned in Tonga. A year had passed by the time we were finally allowed back, and our poor girl was in a sad state. It took months of pouring every ounce of elbow grease we could muster to get her somewhat seaworthy again, but there are just some projects and parts we can't get in this Okay, the windows are a bit of a problem. They've started to delaminate, which really means they're coming unglued. So if we didn't have these screws in here helping to hold it in place right now, they would just fall right out. It's not just like a regular plexiglass that we can go get and cut out and put in here. It's like a specialty type of plexiglass with a very special curvature to it. So we have to be able to take it in and have somebody fabricate one for us that is the same exact thing as what we have right now, and we cannot do that here. That needs to be in a mainland. And then there's the French freezer. We've got to replace the port lights, the trampolines, the new mainsail, the stanchion base, the cutlass bearing sleeve, and the list goes on and on and on and on, and we keep adding to it. Unfortunately, most borders throughout the Pacific are still closed, but New Zealand has an application for vessels needing major refit work, and that's definitely us. Yes, Jason, we can certainly help with the vessel exemption application. You've got a solid case. A lot of paperwork, fees, and six weeks later, we're approved. Now we're setting off for a non-stop voyage from the tropics in the Kingdom of Tonga to the wilds of winter in New Zealand. It's a 1,300 nautical mile journey south where we'll not only drop 20 degrees in Fahrenheit, but also in latitude. I'm sorry. We are leaving with completely full batteries. That is a good feeling. A little bit sweaty here. It's been running around like crazy as I was checking out. They said, oh, well, Customs is going to follow you out, so you need to tell them exactly when you're going to leave. So it's just been like balls to the wall, getting everything done, getting all the engine checks done, clearing the knot log, getting everything prepped. And so we've just passed Customs. They're going to follow us supposedly all the way out the channel to make sure we're actually leaving. It's sort of a thing they do now with COVID, to make sure nobody, I guess, does anything they're not supposed to. It's bittersweet. Super, super bittersweet to leave here. The people have been so good. Bye, Tui. Bye, Kel and Adriana. Ben and Lisa. Gee, I mean, there's a thousand people. I won't name everybody. Thank you all for making this place so amazing. I mean, I couldn't have thought of a better place to be stuck during COVID. We're so grateful for everything the Tongans have done, for everything the expats have done, and all the support all around. Thanks, guys. The sail's going to go good. It's got to go good. Are we okay? There's a bilge alarm and a freshwater alarm. All of a sudden, Jason came running up and he's like, there's water, there's water, there's water. And I was like, I don't understand. The bilge pump was on, but yet the freshwater pump was on, but no water was on. We're not even, like, fully out to sea yet and all of this has already happened. Not exactly how you want to start the trip when you don't have a water maker. Okay, this is going to be exciting. You found it? Something bust? Yeah, I guess so. I guess the pipe busted. Hey, we have some more toilet paper. Shit, there just went like 50 gallons. That's all fresh water. Dang. Should we vacuum it out and then put it back in the tank? So crazy. Just broke, huh? I had a couple plugs made in case one of the pipes ever break or when I need to work on it, so I had two of them made. You needed them both? Yeah, well, this faucet is old and it has, like, a braided mesh and the mesh just exploded. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. So if these plugs work, it shouldn't leak and the light shouldn't go on, so I'm ready when you are. Okay. You do not want to see the bilge pump light go on. All right, here we go. Okay, I think it worked. No leak here. We're good. Jeez. All right, and only a little water down. That could have been a lot worse. It could have been a lot worse. Jeez, talk about I need to take a shower really bad. So I just came in to take a shower and I was like, holy crap, the light's on. What's going on? Oh my god. That's exactly how I was like. Yep. I can attest to that. That's exactly what it was like. Okay. Fresh water out to the sea. When that sleep won't come and you've cried your song let it come to you there's nothing you can do until I see you smile just below those eyes that tell me you're okay it's written on your face as you come to light I come alive your silhouette in the summer sky but this is only a measure while we're doing it we're out here I don't know how crazy it is I don't know what we're in for but it's kind of crazy my hair is crazy no it feels kind of crazy oh yeah it does feel crazy it's all stormy and you just I don't know feels weird even just to think that we're going to be on such a long passage we've got 10 12 days ahead of us who knows how long it's going to take a new country which feels weird as well but good anyway I'm so excited I have so many emotions going on it was nuts getting out of there checkout process took two days uh to get clearance to leave so that's nuts had to say goodbye to everybody that's the most goodbyes we've ever had to do other than whenever we left like from the united states because just so many friends we've been here for so stinking long anyway so yeah mixed emotions all the way around it feels a little sad but it's so exciting at the same time and here we go finally getting some wind and also getting our first storm so let's get into it we're definitely moving we're yeah now we're getting up to seven knots and we're starting to get like 23 24 knots of wind so excited to throw in another reef on the main sail and of course the attachment point is seized sun's just come up and we're passing Kofua island there which is the volcano and cow which is the dormant one the taller one on the on the left oh what a night yeah that was a pretty rough night man 30 plus knots of wind at about 80 degrees the true wind so we were 80 to 60 degrees so we're kind of beating into it big waves and sloppy seas and not feeling great pitch black no food yeah i'm glad that night's over uh-oh got tossed all around got first did not last more than a couple of hours jason's of course still on the edge gotta take it easy but feeling better today at least the light is out the winds have calmed down a little bit we're hitting 25 30 we're just more like 15 to 20 sea stays still a bit crappy but to be expected considering all the stormy weather uh and unfortunately there was a very loud pop last night and i don't know if that's when it actually happened but we busted yet another window would you look at that not entirely sure what to do about this window because it's wet and sticky and really humid so anything that needs dry or cure time isn't going to work tape's not going to work but i do have some butyl tape that's kind of good sticky and gummy something and a little dab on each side we'll see but i mean i can feel the air from the outside you can see the crack it's a good one okay so water is coming in not gonna be good smoosh it into the crack yeah well you haven't seen that much of me it's because i kind of felt like crap all day the weather's gotten a little bit better we've only got 15 knots of wind and the sun is out a little bit of blue sky so i don't know i'm feeling good i mean good bitter bitter what i want to tell you is 155 nautical miles in our first 24 hours it is three o'clock and that's how many miles we've done so we are moving right along so i'm running the engine every now and then to top up our battery because it's been so gray and cloudy our solar is not doing much especially with the sail the engine which only puts in like 20 to 30 amps which is not very much when you have a that's nice it is nice a gray day made it through our first day feels like it's been two or three days just what a start oh so now i feel like i'm just maybe getting over the over the hill and now it's gonna be better it's just like that first day of passage you know what you're in for it's all the nerves did i forget anything did i not do something i needed to do whether it was for the boat or just like anything i need to schedule anybody emails i don't even it's just so many things and you know you're leaving like the land connectivity and resources and everything and stuff feel all the anxiety kind of melting away easing into it my head is clearing this is where the real journey begins that's what i feel like anyway turn your sorrow in burn every piece of it let me comfort you i'll be your go-to cause these are youthful days we will grow in great we're so better our time is best together like the next day you must know that i love you so never bargain you feel waiting gold and this is only a measure it can only get better it can only get better and this is only a measure it can only get better it can only get better if you'll see it through a single eye your dinghy looks very sad she's a little deflated poor minion i don't know what happened maybe too much pressure it's the same thing we've always done yeah it's what we've been doing for the past four or five years maybe it's just finally enough or she just has a small hole or leak or something somewhere definitely not happy poor girl get her fixed up when we get to new zealand i'm feeling better that's good news it's a beautiful day what the heck are we gonna you think it's okay like this i think we can do anything about it skip playing before the sun up here before the world has even stirred let's get out of we don't need to hug oh the head is clear let's follow the coast as far as it goes or until we disappear that gives me an idea let's get lost together let's go chase that postcard let's get lost together the outer casing is that called the sheave i can't remember what that outer casing of the line because there's the outside portion and then there's the inside which is like dyneema or whatever clearly i'm highly educated on these lines a little bit line inside unfortunately because of where that split we can sort of still use it but we have to keep the sail double reefed be able to keep it up like this for a little while see what happens worst case you can't keep it up like it's just gonna let the line down which means the sail goes down it's not like it's stuck up which would be way worse one more thing to deal with one more thing to replace i guess we'll be doing all new running rigging whenever we get there as well because now i'm not going to trust any of it let's see what happens in the next three hours what a day i just can't even believe what all has happened since we left it's confirming that we really needed to get to somewhere with supplies and a good place to just work on the boat because clearly we got a lot of stuff that needs some love oh my goodness but you know it's incredible like how much can go wrong that doesn't really i mean that you can still just keep working through you know it's like you patch things up you make it work and you just keep keep going and you can do that as long as you know there's still air in the boat and water outside do something that we really didn't want to do which is stop off at Minerva Reef because there is a nasty little system that's headed our way right now to pass over us which is like the next day and a half which will somewhat clear the path into New Zealand and it's not just because we don't want to get smacked it's we really don't want to get smacked coming into New Zealand because it can get really really nasty out there especially this time of year and what we've been seeing is the system is through about every five days and those systems have been literally like category one and two cyclones because the wind strength is so strong within itself not something we want to get stuck out in so we're gonna make a stop at Minerva for about a day and a half it's not a great thing not a terrible thing we could stand to vacuum out our bilges we've got some water a small leak somewhere we just can't seem to figure out where it's coming from and obviously just assess some of the broken things maybe see if we can patch up the dinghy take care of some of these other little things before we take this next stretch yeah that's what's happening the boat's been going so fast we've kind of had to keep everything reached curled in most of it because slow down we're getting there too quickly which is not as high as possible because it's a narrow entrance and there's bombings inside and we've never been here before and it's two miles away and i can't even see it okay reminds me of going into the atolls and like stay here for a week that seems solid looks like all sand what do you think so there is one bombing behind us so we'll have to go swim over there and check it out yeah i'll try to inflate the dinghy and see if it works looks beautiful it's a lot windier than i expected and choppier but it's low tide it's gonna get worse at high tide it's better than bobbing out at sea tomato onion and garlic oh if there was only smell-o-vision it's a little bit of lemon rosemary sea salt there love this stuff not sponsored but should be definitely not the right type of pan it's gonna be a terrible idea but i'm gonna try it anyway okay i did not think that was gonna actually work tomato onion garlic egg cheese omelet it's clearly my nap time coffee chocolate banana coconut bread i'll uh i know i'm gonna get asked and it's just a really good one so i'll drop the recipe for that in the blog post it goes with this video i was like oh i'm just gonna i'm just gonna stay up i'll just get to work and then i'll be fine but now i'm like uh maybe i should take a nap i'm gonna make it oh yeah cheese