Sailing from Napier to Wellington - The Ancient Pathway.

Plenty of drama on board, we've got a wee malfunction of the autopilot. Seems to be running a little bit westward. I'm Grant and this is Sarah. We're adventurers and Christ followers. We're exploring the ancient pathways of faith as we navigate the waters of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Anxiety and fear are normal emotions, but they aren't places that we're designed to dwell in. Anxiety robs us of joy in the present moment and fear steals from us enjoying the future by stopping us from risking failure. On our last leg south, Rob and I found ourselves in a dangerous and scary situation when we faced an unforecast gale with no electrical systems, a failed mainsail furler and 36 hours with no sleep. I've only got so many of those passages in me. Over the last two weeks we've replaced the failed alternator, repaired the broken boom furler, and now we're hauling Ishmael out for some much needed hull maintenance. When we're done here Ishmael will be ready to roll, but I'm not so sure that I am. Our penultimate leg south is from Ahuriri Napier, down the Wairarapa Coast, infamous for gale force winds and massive seas, and around the equally infamous Cape Palliser. Then into Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington Harbour. My friend Rob arrives the evening after another storm and we set off with a seemingly good 36-hour window to scamper down the coast. Between the Last Legs horror show and this ruthless coastline in front of us, I'm feeling tied up in knots about leaving harbour. The problem is we can't stay on this visitor's wharf forever and the only way to get through a challenge is to go through it. We've basically motored through the night, a little bit of sail up from time to time. The sun's just coming up. We've only really got about four knots of breeze behind us which isn't enough to fill the sails. It's set to fill in in the next few hours but right now we're actually ahead of schedule because we're motoring in such a straight shot towards Castle Point. I'm just gonna keep going. This piece of coastline isn't the sort of coast where you just sit around and wait for the nice breeze to come in. You get down as fast and safely So that's what we're doing. They'll stick with us, just going to keep rumbling down this wide of an upper coast and see what Cook Strait has in store for us around the corners and on. Plenty of drama on board, we've got a wee malfunction of the autopilot. We've been in contact with our friend Bruce who we brought the boat off and we think we might have fixed it by tightening the belt. It seems to be running a little bit westward but at the moment it's holding its course more or less well enough so just kind of going to not touch it. We don't want another episode of Hand steering for 30 hours like we did last time, so yeah, it's working moderately well. Let's keep it working moderately well. Apart from that, the passage is going really well. We're about five hours ahead of where we should be, which is along about six knots at the moment, which is really good. We're going to keep motoring though. We don't want to get behind. It's just too much at stake at the other end in terms of a front coming through, so let's get down, get around the corner and get into Wellington before things can cray-cray on Friday. It's just after midnight on night two. We've just come around the Pelliser and we're crossing the Pelliser Bay. In about three hours we're going to be entering the Whangamui Art Harbour, Wellington Harbour. Engine's off, it's got 12, 13 knots of breeze and we're just punching along the view here across the bay and at almost that sea state which is very very rare in the Cook Strait. Just enjoying the sailing while it lasts, it's great. As we cruise into Wellington in the pre-dawn, it strikes me That my pre-trip fear and anxiety served me nothing. Seeking permission to enter the harbour between the time of 03.40 and 05.00 this morning, over. Um yes there's no problem if you could keep to the eastern side of the channel coming in and keep well clear of any arrivals departing rail ferries, so When writing to his young friend, the Apostle Paul wrote, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. In other words, you're built to go do magnificent stuff, love others and frame things in your head the right way. In fact, these things can be viewed as God's spirit expressing itself through you. Imagine facing our fear, trusting God, and thinking about our situations in a healthy way was an expression of God's Spirit dwelling in us.