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The Roaring Forties at my heels. Sailing alone from Australia to New Zealand
28 November 2025 · 19 min · 60K views · Pazifischer Ozean
What this video covers
A solo sailor completes a 1,200-mile passage from Launceston, Tasmania to Nelson, New Zealand aboard Reikja, a 20-ton steel boat, at 40 degrees south latitude.Watch The three-week crossing — estimated at two weeks — runs through four gale fronts cycling every three days, with calms between.0:04 The sailor heaves to repeatedly: storm jib and heavily reefed mainsail, rudder turned hard to windward, letting the boat drift sideways and create a slick.5:15 A third front brings lightning and 50-knot gusts; the sailor notes that 500 CAPE joules in a forecast signals high thunderstorm probability, a detail overlooked in pre-departure planning.9:54 Midpassage, the engine stalls after three hours running; changing diesel filters finds nothing wrong, and the fuel line proves too corroded to disconnect for a canister bypass.12:09 The sailor's mother dies while the satellite phone is also dead, cutting off both family contact and weather downloads.11:06 Arrival at Nelson requires negotiating customs with no engine, eventually motoring in on a 5-hp outboard at one knot.16:53 New Zealand biosecurity had already seen hull footage posted to YouTube and cleared the boat without a dryout.18:26 A corroded fuel line is worth diagnosing before an offshore passage where engine failure at a harbor entrance becomes the only remaining problem.
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