What would you do?

[Alan Wheeler]

Nope, no Coral. Just Rock. Pete is very correct in his statement of "peppered" around. You really have to study charts as you can be sailing in clear blue sea, miles from land, in 200ft of water or more and a rock will be just under the surface somewhere, ready and waiting. Of course, like all countries, not all NZ is like that. The difference form most countries, is that NZ is hugely variant in geography in a very short distance. The NZ coastline ranges from continental upthrust/down thrust, to alluvial/silt to volcanic to sunken mountain chains to glacial in only a few miles of each event and each event being millions of years apart and in the making. We have live Volcanoes and extinct volcanoes and in the case of many North Island areas, many "hope the heck they are extinct" volcanoes. The country is some1000miles long and 80 across. There is one hr difference in the time of Sunrise/set, between the bottom and top of the country. 98% of the population live within a short distance from the sea. The sea temperture varies all the way around the country, due to currents coming from different parts of oceans and colliding with the land mass at differing locations.
In Fiordland, the mountians have share verticle faces that drop thousands of feet straight down. Carved by huge ancient glaciers. It is impossible to anchor, even with the boat right against the rock face. In the Marlborough sounds were Pete and I hail, we have mountains that are sinking beneath the sea. We sail in deep water in sunken valleys of 100-300ft deep and the infamouse Cook straightthat pluges to 8000ft. Just 30Nm away is some of the shallowest water you can find. The Farewell spit area. You can sail for miles and miles with only 6-10ft under you. The country varies so greatly.

[BC Mike]

Auckland has Mt Roskill, Mt Eden, Mt Albert home of Xena warrior princess, One Tree Hill and others that I have forgotten. They are all within a few miles of each other.
The left hand side of Vancouver Island has quite a few rocks just under the surface.
Michael

[Alan Wheeler]

The one that Aucklanders are most afraid of is Rangatoto island. That last erupted back in the late 1800's. And of course, anything that may just pop up in someones backyard is still very possible. White island has become a little more "vibrational" lately and some experts have suggested it may do something sometime. Of course, in Volcanoe time, that maybe next week, next century or next milenium. Some other fellow with letters after his name, only out done in length by his beard has also suggested Taupo may not have had it's last word yet. Taupo is the site of the largest eruption the earth may have ever seen. I reckon he just wanted local land value to drop so he could get a good deal on a holiday home.

[mudnut]

300,000 bills worth of boat?Did he have like 3,000 bills worth of rigging?Someone out there said there might be more to the story,but ****,if ya had a boat worth that much,wouldnt you have like extra,you know extra sails,extra something?No wounder he wanted to get back on board! thats a lot of money to see someone else get, even though it was "insured". And to think about the insurers?c'mon.Talk about living the champain life on beer wages.Even Im not that stupid,I hope,more to the story thats my bet.

[southernman]

I can't blame the french guy going back to his boat. Recently some fisherman down here tried to claim a american yacht as salvage rights for a rescue and tow. I believe he got awarded 30k in costs in the end. I can vouch for the crap weather. Wheels we had 59 knots on our wind meter off Wellington and that was not during the night when we made the mistake of sleeping aboard in Seaview Marina. 65 knots!

Anyone following the Greenpeace / Japenese whaling saga in the Southern Oceans?

[NoTies]

Ooooh, don't go there Southernman. Yikes. Greenpeace actions sure are polarising (pun intended) people.

After viewing what I could about the rescue saga I still have a major issue with the guy setting off his EPIRB when all he wanted was a tow.

[BC Mike]

It is official, the news told me, Wellington is the second windiest city in the world, behind Chicago.
I have been to both places, so my scientific test must be correct. Like most stories the news has it wrong.
Wellington has the most wind.

Michael

[OldYachtie]

Now that's variety. I visited the imaginatively named North Island in the 70s, while sailing Batwing from Seattle to Hong Kong. It was pretty much a "Shire" kind of place. There were many, very many, sheep, and I learned words unknown in my own, far off land. Hoggets, for example were often being sold by the hundreds of thousands to Saudi Arabia. Hoggets made the national news quite often. (Not hobbits, this was long before they filmed the Lord of the Rings there.) -TD