A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 5/31/2026 – 6/7/2026

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Last Sunday, we were hunkered down for a three- day storm. We stayed in our pajamas, wrapped in giant fleece blankets, and spent the day curled up in the salon, alternating between working on our computers and watching movies while the wind howled outside (~25kn, gusting to 35kn). 

At one point, our bilge alarm went off, and we discovered a surprising amount of water in the starboard aft bilge. Thankfully, it was fresh water. Our first step in situations like that is always a taste test, which either brings instant relief or immediate concern. After a bit of investigating, we traced the leak to the galley foot pump, a system we never use. We switched it over to salt water, which stopped the leak, or at least bypassed the problem for now. We’d love to remove the foot pump system altogether at some point, but for the time being, we’ll be keeping a close eye on it.

On Monday morning, we decided to run the generator. Lately, we have been running it about once a week, which is more often than we ever ran our old genset. It’s remarkable how much your mindset shifts when you’re not constantly second-guessing the reliability of your equipment. So far, we have put around 40 hours on it, although according to the manufacturer, it is not considered fully broken in until it reaches 100 hours. By comparison, we averaged only about 110 hours a year on our old generator. Every start-up felt like a high-stakes event. We’d hold our breath, cross our fingers, and hope for the best- haha. With our new one, we just shrug and push a button! 

We turned on the heaters and enjoyed the morning despite the wind and rain outside. I baked a coffee cake (this recipe is my favorite), and we chatted about our plans. 

There appeared to be a possible weather window on the horizon, though it was still too far out in the forecast to put much faith in it. A lot of boats have been waiting more than a month for an opportunity to sail from here to Fiji. We scrolled through WhatsApp messages, reading everyone’s hopes and pleas that this potential window would materialize. While we certainly empathize with their eagerness to leave, this time we do not really relate.

We’ve absolutely felt that sense of urgency before, but despite having been in New Zealand longer than we’ve stayed anywhere since moving aboard, we’re perfectly happy to wait here until the right weather window comes along. Perhaps it’s because we haven’t forgotten how miserable our passage from Tonga to New Zealand was, and we have no desire to repeat the mistake of rushing out on a subpar window only to find ourselves battling terrible conditions. Perhaps it’s because New Zealand has been one of the most welcoming countries we’ve visited. Or, perhaps it’s because the boat is significantly more comfortable now than it has ever been. As I write this, we’re eating cake with the heaters running, cappuccinos in hand, and jazz music playing over the speakers, so it’s hard to complain! The bottom line is that we’re content to stay put and enjoy the fruits of our refit labor until the stars align for a good departure.

The wind continued to build on Monday, hitting 40kn+. We could hear the wind whistling through the rigging, and felt the boat vibrate. Given the conditions, it was fairly calm in our anchorage. There wasn’t much fetch, and there were no other boats around to worry about. If we started dragging we had a solid 15-20+ minutes to react before we’d be in any trouble. These were great conditions to build confidence in our new ground tackle and alarm system. 

The peak of the storm arrived around 1AM Tuesday. We lay in bed listening to the wind howl and the rain pour. Lightning flashed in the distance, which always gets our hearts racing, but thankfully it moved on without paying us a visit. Even so, we didn’t get much sleep.

We were happy to see sunshine and blue skies by 9AM. The wind had subsided and shifted around, now pushing us toward shore. Hoping to move to a cleaner anchorage just outside the bay to make some water, we decided to pull our anchor and head out. 

As soon as we poked our bow out of the harbor, we turned right back around. The waves outside were huge, with breaking seas of around 10 feet just beyond the harbor entrance. Instead, we reanchored on the other side of the bay, where we were no longer on a lee shore and could sit more comfortably while the sea state continued to settle. We took advantage of the mild wind conditions and hoisted our mainsail for the first time since we installed it, marking the reef points in our new lines with needle and thread. 

Ray pulled out the Rainman and filled our water tanks while I cleaned and applied UV protectant to our enclosure. The water clarity in our anchorage wasn’t ideal, so we ended up putting a fair amount of gunk in the filter. However, we didn’t really have another choice.

We decided there wasn’t any need to make the push to the Bay of Islands until the weather allowed us to sail or we needed supplies such as fuel or food, whichever came first. It sounds like it’s pretty crowded over there. So, I pulled some meat out of the freezer to thaw. We have enough produce for the rest of the week, at least. 

By Friday, we were back to sustained 25-knot winds. We kept ourselves entertained with indoor projects. I baked the best batch of sourdough ciabatta I’ve ever made. As much as it pains me to say it, my starter is a huge fan of cooler weather. High-hydration dough is effortless, nothing overproofs, and the results are light, airy, and incredibly delicious. I fear this may be a seasonal talent, and that all bets are off once we’re back in the balmy tropics. This is the recipe I use.

Ray was in his workshop, working on a way to add the generator exhaust temperature and oil pressure to our boat monitoring system, so it would alert us if something was abnormal. He’s loved having a dedicated space to tinker without intruding on our limited living space. It’s vastly different from our previous setup, so organizing things in a practical and intuitive way is the next challenge. He has secured all of his most used tools onto a peg board with magnets, which so far have stayed in place. Some of the cabinets were purpose built, for example, one specifically to accommodate my sewing machine, but the rest is open real estate, so as time progresses and he’s been using the space he’s been shuffling around how things are organized. 

He’s been liking these yellow Stanley Fatmax storage containers to organize the little odds and ends, and I cut shadow foam for specific tools in an attempt to keep the drawers from becoming junk drawers. If you have any other organization tips, we’d love to hear them! 

Anyway, as the week comes to an end and the storm finally passes, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, hoping for a good window to make the hop to Fiji. Fingers crossed it arrives sooner rather than later, as it’s getting colder and colder here!