1 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 1)
After the big party last night, we both had mild hangovers - it's not the best way to start a 1,000 mile passage, but by half past ten, we had everything stowed and were sailing away. We went out of the Egeria Channel on the north side on Tongatapu, which was a ten mile jaunt through reef infested waters.
There were some very confused seas and winds on the north-western tip of the island but after a couple of hours, things started to settled down as we headed out into the open ocean and away from the effect of land. For the rest of the afternoon, we had 15-22 knots from ESE, which with our south west course, gave us a fast boisterous reach. These fabulous sailing conditions continued all night and most of the time we were bounding along at 6.5 to 7.5 knots in six foot seas.
We're both in a state of mild shock that we're actually heading to New Zealand. It's only been four days since we decided to leave the Ha'api Islands and since then we don't seem to have stopped to take a breath. At least we haven't had time to worry about this passage - yet.
2 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 2)
Dawn brought us overcast skies and the wind backed to the west, but it was still blowing at 20 knots, so we were screaming along on a broad reach. By eight o'clock, we'd done 140 miles in 22 hours, which was a really good start to the passage.
I downloaded the weather forecasts and then agonised over our routing for an hour. We were only 100 miles from Minerva Reef and it was decision time - should we stop or should we carry on direct to New Zealand? The GRIB files show that there's a high pressure system building over New Zealand which is spreading out and will give low winds just north of the country for the next ten days with no sign of any south-west gales.
We decided to sail straight to New Zealand and changed course to 210 degrees, which is the direct rhumb line to Opua. The conventional route is to head more west and to cross 30 degrees south at a point directly north of Opua, which would put us in a position to better handle south west gales. As the forecast is currently for south to south-east winds en-route, it makes more sense to keep further to the east and we can then head more west, if we encounter strong south-east winds.
After lunch, the clouds dissipated and, for the rest of the day, we had a superb beam reach doing seven knots in boisterous 6-8 foot seas. Just after midnight, the wind dropped to 12-16 knots, so we unfurled the genoa and stay sail and glided along in four foot seas under a half moon. It was a beautiful night, but the cloudless skies made the temperature drop, so long trousers and fleeces were essential when on watch.
3 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 3)
The clouds rolled in just after dawn and we had a few heavy showers during the morning, but thankfully, the wind didn't pick up much above 20 knots. By lunchtime, we were back to blue skies.
The weather forecast showed 10-20 knot ESE winds for today and tonight and then the wind should start to back to the north tomorrow. A mild trough will follow and give us variable winds for 12 hours. After it's passed, the forecast is for stronger south to south-east winds. Our plan is to head more south as the wind backs tomorrow and then we can head south-west when the winds from the south hit us.
I chatted to Horst on "Flow" on the SSB radio at lunchtime and they are 30 miles south-east of us having a good sail as well.
We've slotted back into our three hour watch system and, with the settled conditions, we're both getting a good amount of sleep. Glenys made pizza with oven roasted vegetables for lunch and then produced roast chicken drum sticks with rice, pac choi and pumpkin for dinner, so we're not starving.
In the middle of the afternoon, the wind veered to the SSE and forced us to head 30 degrees further west. It was very strange and only lasted for four hours before it backed to WSW again - must have been a local anomaly. We had another wonderful night sail, with clear skies and settled seas.
We crossed over longitude 180 degrees last night, so we're now exactly on the other side of the world to the UK, which is quite scary - it's a long way home.
4 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 4)
By mid-morning, the wind had backed from east to north-north-east, so we were sailing almost dead down-wind. I rigged up our spinnaker pole and pulled the genoa out to port, so that we were running wing-on-wing. The strength of the wind had dropped to around 12 knots, so our boat speed was down to 5 knots.
The GRIB files now show a small low moving across the southern end of North Island, which is likely to give us south-west winds on the 6th and then a longer spell of south winds until the 8th. In addition, there's now a huge low forecast to pass to the north of us, which is predicted to pass over Minerva Reef and will give gale force easterlies where we are now.
We've had a great sail up to now, but it looks like things might get a little tougher in a couple of days' time. Our plan is to continue sailing down the rhumb line and take whatever comes - the wind will be against us, but at least it's only forecast to be 15-20 knots and who knows what tomorrow's forecast will bring.
For the time being, we wombled along in nice calm seas for the afternoon, but the wind gradually dropped, so at five o'clock, I turned on the engine. Three hours later, the wind picked up enough to sail again, but at our watch change at 2200, we gave up and motored.
By one o'clock, the wind had backed even more to NNW and picked up enough to sail yet again, so we gybed the main and ran on a broad reach with the wind on our starboard quarter. During my 1-4 watch, the wind picked up to 10-15 knots, so I unrigged the spinnaker pole and put a reef in the main.
5 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 5)
At eight o'clock this morning, we'd done 590 miles with 455 miles to go, so we're well over halfway. It was a pleasant start to the day with a light cloud layer and the sun breaking through every so often. The wind stayed constant from the NNW, but gradually dropped near lunchtime as a line of darker cloud approached us over the horizon - the low pressure trough that we've been expecting.
The weather forecast hadn't changed much from yesterday - we're going to get south to south-west winds on the nose from tonight until the 7th, when it should start to back around to the east and give us a good reach into Opua for the last couple of days.
Just as we were about to have lunch, the wind picked up to over 20 knots as we passed by a squall system, causing me to spring into action reefing the main and genoa. I just got back into the cockpit and put the bimini side flaps up before the rain hit us - phew... Once into the low pressure trough, the wind died down and we had to start motoring again.
By four o'clock, the wind had backed 180 degrees around to the south, so it was almost directly on the nose. At first it was only 5 knots, so we kept on motoring until we'd had dinner and our evening showers. By this time, the wind had picked up to 12-15 knots, so I put one reef in the main; pulled out both headsails and we started beating upwind at 6 knots on a course of 245 degrees - only 35 degrees off our ideal course of 210 degrees.
It's now noticeably colder during the night because of the south wind and I'm now wearing warm long trousers, a thin goose down gilet, a fleece and thick socks. Halfway through my 7-10 watch, I had to go forward to reef the main because the wind was gusting up to 22 knots. This was a bit more complicated than normal because I had to change my clothes first, taking off my fleece and long trousers and putting on a waterproof jacket against the cold light rain.
We had a miserable six hours bashing into a 20-25 knot wind, heeling over at alarming angles and slamming into waves, but by three o'clock, it had calmed down to 15-18 knots and it was nice sailing along at 5-6 knots with a full moon peeking through the thin cloud layer.
6 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 6)
Dawn revealed a pleasant looking sky with 90% cloud cover, but the wind veered more south-west, coming directly from where we want to go and putting us on a course of 255 degrees - 50 degrees off our rhumb line of 205 degrees.
The forecast is for this wind to continue until tomorrow morning, when it will start to back and by tomorrow afternoon, we will hopefully be back on course to Opua. It looks like we've got another three nights at sea, arriving in Opua in the early hours of the 9th.
I went onto starboard tack to see if it was any better, but we ended up on a course of 150 degrees, which was five degrees more off course, but at least it was a change from heeling over to starboard. It's a little frustrating, but nobody said that it would be easy.
It could be worse. There's a massive low forecast to hit Minerva Reef on the 8th and 9th, bringing gales force winds, lashing rain and five metre waves. I'm so glad that we didn't stop there. The atoll is in the middle of nowhere with tno land, just a fringing reef, so big waves will break over into the lagoon. In addition, the wind will clock around during the 24 hour storm and the only protection is from the reef, which is good for only one direction.
I'm hoping that all the boats that left Tonga after us have not stopped or at least left Minerva Reef a few days ago. The effects of the low will be felt down here with very strong south-east winds on the 10th, so the boats behind us might get a bit of a hammering anyway unless they're a lot faster than us.
The afternoon was incredibly irritating. The wind stayed on the nose and we tacked a couple of times thinking that the wind had headed us only to find that we were worse off on the new tack. Glenys had a low moment in the afternoon, overcome with the frustration of it all.
We eventually settled on our original course of 255 degrees because we find life aboard better on port tack. Glenys finds it easier to work in the galley and it's more much comfortable in the starboard berth that we sleep in. By sunset, we'd managed to sail 60 miles in 12 hours, but had only made 35 miles towards our destination.
During the afternoon, we picked up an AIS signal which turned out to be the Hokule'a, the Polynesian voyaging canoe that we first saw in Papeete in French Polynesia after they arrived there at the end of a long passage from Hawaii. They're on a parallel course to us about 12 miles further upwind and obviously heading for New Zealand. We'll keep an eye out for them and try to intercept them if we can.
On my 7-10 watch, the wind backed by 15 degrees, so we were able to steer a course of 240 degrees - finally heading a little bit more towards Opua. However, it was a very fickle wind. Most of the time I'd have 12-15 knots and, just as I was about to shake out a reef, the wind would gust up to 20-25 knots. So our boat speed was varying between 2 and 6 knots. On Glenys's 10-1 watch, it was even stranger, with the wind dying completely, forcing her to motor a couple of times - once for 30 minutes.
Then on my 1-4 watch, we’d be beating into a 15 knot wind and suddenly the wind would drop to 5 knots and be coming 90 degrees from the port side. With no power in the sails, the waves would stop us almost dead in the water and the auto pilot kept freaking out. At one of these episodes, I tried hand steering immediately, but we still stalled in the water – I started to worry that there was something wrong with our rudder; or the autopilot; or our instruments; or was the wind somehow coming straight down out of the sky; or were we sailing through some kind of magnetic anomaly affecting the compass; or were there aliens messing about with us? Eventually, I gave up trying to sail and motor-sailed – everything was fine after that.
Apart from the vagaries of the wind, it was a lovely night with a full moon peeking through a few scattered clouds in an otherwise clear sky. However, it was damn cold and I've started to wear a fleece hat on watches.
7 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 7)
At dawn, we were still motor-sailing along the rhumb line to Opua with only 250 miles to go. After breakfast, the wind picked up to 10-15 knots, but was still from the south, so we had a go at sailing again. Unfortunately, the wind was still playing silly buggers and the waves were slowing us down to 2-3 knots, so the engine went back on again.
I downloaded my morning GRIB files which showed that the wind should back during the day to the south-west and then reduce in speed over night, but we'll probably be beating all the way to Opua.
We motored until ten o'clock, when the wind finally picked up and backed enough that we could hold a course 30 degrees off the rhumb line. We spent most of the day hanging on for grim death or sleeping wedged in a berth on the starboard side.
The wind dropped around four o'clock in the afternoon, so we were back to motor-sailing. I decided that while we were motoring, we might as well gain some easting, so that we'd be in a better position when the wind comes back tomorrow and we set a course 30 degrees east of the rhumb line. We had a nice hot beef curry for dinner, then donned extra warm clothes ready for the night.
It turned out to be a magical night. The wind dropped to 5 knots and the seas subsided to a couple of feet high, so we slid along at six knots under a full moon. However, it was very, very cold. I spent all of my 1-4 watch down below keeping warm and only popping my head up every so often.
8 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 8)
Just after sunrise, the wind picked up to 15-20 knots, so Glenys started pull out the sails. Feeling gallant, I nipped out of bed and went to give her a hand dressed just in a pair of underpants - I wish that I hadn't bothered because the wind was bloody freezing. I was so glad to dive back under my duvet five minutes later.
The sea quickly built up to some very nasty, steep, 4-6 foot waves that were stopping us dead in the water, so we turned the engine back on and motor-sailed for a few hours - we only had 120 miles to go and we were both getting weary of bashing to windward.
Motoring 30 degrees off the rhumb line last might meant that it added 15 miles to our passage, but I'm glad that we did it because we were able to sail closer to the rhumb line all day - there's nothing more depressing than beating up wind seemingly heading away from your destination.
The waves were relentlessly bouncing us around, so we hove to at midday, giving Glenys some respite while she made us Rosti for lunch. Thirty minutes later, we were back to pounding upwind. The wind around here is very odd - veering around and changing strength all the time, which is strange because we're so far from land. We must have turned the engine on and off four or five times during the day.
Glenys spent some time this afternoon throwing away fresh food and cooking some things prior to our arrival because she knows that the quarantine people will be taking a hard look at everything and it's better to be prepared. She made oven roasted vegetables with the last of the peppers; coleslaw with the last of the cabbage and carrot; and salsa with the last of the tomatoes. Then she made enough lasagna to give us a meal today and tomorrow in anticipation that quarantine will take every other bit of meat away and we won't be able to get off the boat until the next day.
The wind deserted us again at three o'clock in the afternoon and we motored until midnight when the wind picked up to 12- 15 knots. For the first time in four days, we had winds from the east and reasonably calm seas allowing us to sail with the sheets slightly eased, directly towards our destination. It didn't last long, an hour later, the wind had veered and increased to 20-25 knots, putting us hard on the wind and forcing us to sail 20 degrees off the rhumb line.
At two o'clock in the morning, we were 40 miles away from Opua, so I called up Maritime Radio and asked them to contact customs to tell them that we would be arriving around midday tomorrow (with fingers and toes crossed). Before we left Tonga, we had to email a form to customs giving them advanced notification of our arrival and this was another little formality required before entering New Zealand's 12 mile limit.
At our change of watch at 0430, we were still 35 miles away and being forced remorselessly off course by the wind, so we gave up, rolled away the genoa and motored straight for port crashing into the rising waves.
9 November 2014 Tonga to New Zealand (Day 9)
Land was in sight when the sun came up, but it took another 3 hours of motoring upwind to gain the calmer waters in the Bay of Islands. Glenys cooked up scrambled eggs with pan fried potatoes and baked beans for breakfast to use up her remaining eggs. We tidied up and chilled out as we motored towards Opua under fabulous blue skies and flat calm water. With a nice cup of hot tea in my hand, life did seem grand.
At first sight, New Zealand looks like Scotland or Wales with close cropped grass covering rounded hills. The sea shore is mostly cliffs pounded by the sea, but as we got further into the bay, little coves started opening up making it look like a bit like Maine. Being a Sunday and a beautiful morning, the fishermen were out in force and we had to weave our way through dozens of small boats of all shapes and sizes with fishing rods sticking out everywhere.
Our route took us up the river passing the small towns of Russell and Paihia where we could see hundreds of yachts swinging on moorings. The local yachts were starting to move and I had to keep a wary eye on them, while frantically trying to remember the Rules of the Road - it’s a long time since we’ve been near so many boats.
By 1030, we’d reached the Opua Marina and tied up alongside their excellent Q-dock. “Laragh” and “Pamela” were on the dock, having arrived yesterday, so we jumped off the boat and had a chat. There was almost hysteria in everyone’s voices as tales of bashing to windward with fickle winds were exchanged. It’s nice to be here.
The customs and immigration arrived within an hour and the process was very efficient. The Quarantine officers went through all of Glenys’s food cupboards and the two fridges asking what various things were and inspecting containers of rice, beans and flour. In the end, the only things that they were going to confiscate were two boiled eggs which had been shelled, but they let us eat them rather than taking them away.
With eggy breath, I dealt with the customs officer, who filled in a few forms and stamped our passports, giving us six month visas. She asked if we had any weapons on boats and I fessed up to having pepper spray. She said that she had to take that away as it was illegal in New Zealand, but she agreed to hold it in bond for us. We can pick it up when we clear out of the country - I just have to give them two weeks’ notice, so that they can pick the pepper spray up from the local police station where it will be locked up.
By midday, we were safely tucked up in a marina berth sipping our first cold beer for a week. I wandered up to the marina office to check in and was asked how long we were going to stay. I then realised that I didn't know. We've been so focussed on getting through Tonga and making sure that we had a good trip to New Zealand that we haven’t thought through what we are going to do for the next month.
I went back to the boat where Glenys and I had a short planning session. We’re booked to be hauled out in Whangerei in four weeks’ time, but that’s only 80 miles away. We eventually decided that we didn't know what to do, so I went back to the marina office and booked us in for a week, so that we can sort ourselves out and work out a plan…
In the evening, our good friends Rod and Mary from “Sheer Tenacity” came on-board for a beer or two. We met them in the West Indies just after we moved onto Alba and have been keeping in touch. They have been in New Zealand for a year and know the area well. After two hours reminiscing with them, we staggered to the yacht club bar and met up with “Laragh” where even more tall stories were exchanged over even more pitchers of beer.
10 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
We were both feeling a little bit dull this morning. I couldn't sleep and got up at seven o'clock, while Glenys lurked in bed until half past nine. I don’t blame her, it was very cold when I got up, so I put on the heating system, which took the chill out of the air. After she dragged herself out of bed, Glenys spent the rest of the morning going to the launderette to wash four weeks’ worth of dirty clothes, while I worked on catching up on admin now that we've got a good internet connection.
In the afternoon, Rod from “Sheer Tenacity” drove us into Paihia, which is a quaint little seaside town. We didn't have much time to look around - just went to the small supermarket and the liquor store to buy enough to last us a week.
We've signed up to an event called the “All Points Rally”, which basically is a way of getting cruisers to come to Opua rather than the other New Zealand towns. The organisers of the rally have planned a series of events over the next ten days and there was a “sausage sizzle” put on by a couple of the local businesses this evening.
With free beer and a sausage butty on offer, most of the fleet attended and it was great to see people that we've met along our way through the South Pacific.
11 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
I like New Zealand so far, apart from the sand flies here in the marina. They are voracious little buggers and they've got on board. They’re low level ankle biters and leave a spot of blood after they've bitten us. I received a couple of bites on the first day and three yesterday, before I had enough sense to spray myself with insect repellent and wear long trousers and socks. The bites have swelled up and I'm now in itch-hell.
I sorted out my "To Buy" list, which after six months in the Pacific islands has grown to over 180 items and that’s just the technical stuff, not including Glenys’s things for the galley. I wandered into the two chandlers in the marina and they have everything that I need, but I restrained myself to just looking. We’ll be hauled out in Whangerei in a couple of weeks’ time and I can go into a buying frenzy there.
Glenys took advantage of the free water in the marina and hosed down the cockpit and decks. The bimini and spray hood were caked in salt and everywhere was sticky to touch, but it’s all looking nice and clean now.
12 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
A big low is approaching from the Tasman Sea, which is forecast to bring south-west gales and five metre seas to the north of New Zealand for four or five days. Boats have been dribbling in over the past three days and the later arrivals have had a rough time of it. They’ve been caught up in the huge low that passed over Minerva Reef and they've been beam reaching in 30-40 knot winds to escape the worst of the weather. In the last two days, they've had to motor-sail fast to get here before these new south-west gales hit. I think that we timed our passage well.
It was a blustery day with rain showers, so I put up our cockpit tent and we’re nice and snug now. Both of us spent most of the day sitting at our laptops surfing the internet. It’s such a luxury to have a decent connection although it’s damn expensive. The pay-as-you-go wireless schemes are all based on the amount of megabytes used, so we’re paying $20NZ (£10) for 3GB of data, which lasted us one day…
13 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
I did a few statistics today. Since leaving Ecuador at the end of February, we've done 7,600 miles with 72 days spent at sea on ocean passages, which equates to 27% of the time. In the past 9 months, we've had 59 nights at sea. We've now travelled 20,000 miles since moving onto Alba 3½ years ago, so it’s time for a rest from travelling and we need to knuckle down to give the boat some Tender Loving Care.
It was a very showery day and cold. Rod from "Sheer Tenacity" took us to a nearby town of Kerikeri where we went to various stores and did some serious re-provisioning. One essential purchase was a couple of nice new, soft duvets to protect us from the cold New Zealand nights.
On the way, Rod took us to the small town of Kawakawa where there’s a famous public toilet that he wanted us to see. Honest, a toilet - these Kiwis really know how to sell to tourists… This place was built by Fredrick Hundertwasser, who was an Austrian artist who lived in the town for 25 years until his death in 2000. He’s famous for the buildings that he’s designed, which incorporate bold colours and irregular shapes and the toilet in Kawa Kawa reflects this with strange curves and brightly coloured tiles.
14 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
It was lousy weather with strong winds and rain, so we lurked indoors surfing the internet and chilling out.
There’s a radio net every morning and John from “Wind Flower” (who has organised the “All Points Rally”) is really dominating the airwaves and promoting the rally. Over the next week there are visits to a vineyard, a pub crawl on a ferry visiting various towns, a golf day, barbecues, etc. There are also seminars being run by the local businesses, which are blatantly trying to get us to stay here in Opua and spend lots of money with them. Some cruisers are really lapping up the rally, but I'm not so keen on being organised…
15 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
The day was a little better, but we still had blustery winds. Rod and Mary came over and took us into Paihia to watch the Hokule'a being formally welcomed to New Zealand. The Polynesian Voyaging Canoe arrived two days after us and they have been lurking in the marina waiting for the weekend ceremony.
It was all a bit disorganised at first. We hung around on the beach for a couple of hours, waiting for them to land. There were lots of television crews around and they didn't seem to know what was happening either. The Hokule'a anchored off shore and the crew members were eventually loaded onto an impressively large 70-man Mauri war canoe and brought ashore.
Once ashore, we were treated to the spectacle of a hundred Mauri warriors lining up to meet the crew of the Hokule'a. Various rituals, including a Haka were then performed. Individual warriors kept rushing out from the line and making threatening charges at the new arrivals while the other warriors chanted, roared threats and stuck out their tongues. Eventually the Hokule'a crew was accepted by the warriors and the speeches started. Having already experienced long Polynesian speeches, we sloped off early.
16 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
It was a lovely day - this New Zealand weather certainly changes quickly. We went out for a day trip in a car with “Flow”, “Laragh” and Joe from “Cygnus”. Karen acted as tour guide and took us to the local attractions including the farmers market at Kerikeri, the Stone Store which is the oldest stone building in New Zealand, some waterfalls and our day was (of course) finished off with a visit to the Hundertwasser toilet.
We also visited the Puketi Forest Preserve, which is an ancient forest of Kauri trees, some of which are over 1000 years old. These huge trees are a kind of pine and produce a resin called Kauri Gum, which was used by the Mauris to start fires and later by the Europeans to make varnish and linoleum. Originally, the gum was found as hard deposits in the ground, but later as supplies reduced, the Europeans started to cut the trees to make them bleed gum. Unfortunately, this allowed disease into the tree and the remaining kauri trees are now protected.
The “All Points Rally” kicked off tonight with a party. There was a jam session with about eight people playing, so it was very raucous. There were some really good players, so I'm glad that I left my guitar on board - they would have completely overwhelmed me.
17 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
I spent most of morning agonising over buying a new radar and a chart plotter system. It’s one of the major purchases on my long list and I’ve just found out that the chart plotter that I want is on special offer until the end of November. I asked for a quote from Cater Marine (one of the chandlers here in Opua) and compared the prices to those offered by Defender in the USA. The prices here are 15-20% higher, even though we don’t have to pay any sales tax.
I took my figures into Cater Marine and chatted to Glen (the Managing Director) about his high prices. He rang the Raymarine distributor here in New Zealand and told them that I was going to import stuff from the states unless they could give me a better price. After a bit of discussion, I’ve sent Glen an email including a quote from Defender and we’ll see what Raymarine will do.
We’re getting a bit weary of the Rally now - it’s time to leave. Some people just love the way that everything is organised and want to take part in all of the activities, but the presence of all these people is making me keen to leave. Perhaps I really am a misanthrope.
The weather forecast looks to be good from tomorrow until the 23rd, so we’re planning to leave tomorrow and sail 40 miles north to Whangaroa. Rod and Mary from “Sheer Tenacity” came for dinner and we had another good night lubricated with plenty of wine.
18 November 2014 Opua to Rere Bay , Whangaroa, New Zealand
I ran around in the morning sorting out a few things and we finally escaped the marina by nine o’clock. We had a slow sail out of Opua Harbour with the wind behind us, but after we rounded Nine-pin Island, the wind kept veering 45 degrees, so we gave up and motor-sailed to the Cavalli Islands.
We sailed into Matauri Bay just across from Great Cavalli Island, but there was quite a swell coming in from the north, so we decided to keep on going all the way to Whangaroa Harbour. We had a few more attempts at sailing in the fluky winds, but not for very long.
The approach to Whangaroa Harbour is very impressive with steep sided cliffs and, once inside, the sea was very flat. We went into Rere Bay, which is a lovely anchorage surrounded by rock pinnacles and we were the only boat in there apart from a strange looking house boat anchored a long way from us.
19 November 2014 Rere Bay , Whangaroa, New Zealand
We had FOG this morning - the first that we’ve seen since Maine, two years ago - I was so excited.
By mid-morning the mist had cleared, so we packed some sandwiches and water into our small rucksacks and headed out to tackle the Duke's Nose, which is a fun little hike up to the top of a nearby rock pinnacle. It only took us 30 minutes to get up there, but there’s a steep scramble with a chain to hold onto, which added interest. There’s a fabulous view of the bay from the top.
We were soon back down by the sea shore, so we decided to do some of the Riverside trail. As usual, we couldn't bring ourselves to turn around, so we ended up walking all the way to Totara North, which is a small community spread out along the main road on the other side of a big ridge. We chatted to a local guy who pointed us in the direction of a pub where we had a great plate of fish and chips.
It was a long, forty minute grind back up a gravel road to the start of the trail and then a pleasant walk back to boat, where we found that “Flow” and Laragh” had arrived in the anchorage. Glenys made a big Beef and Pork Chili and we invited “Flow” and “Laragh” over. After dinner, they wanted to have a look at our movie projector and settled down to watch the Hunger Games - there was no way that they were going to budge until the end…
20 November 2014 Rere Bay, Whangaroa, New Zealand
It was another nice day, so we went up the Duke’s Nose again with “Laragh” and “Flow”. I took a rope along and belayed Karen up a couple of the tricky sections - first time that I’ve used a Munter Hitch for a long time.
In the afternoon, we chilled out and recovered from the shock of two hikes in two days. We were all invited to “Laragh” for dinner.
21 November 2014 Rere Bay to Okura Bay, Whangaroa, New Zealand
We had another lovely sunny day, so we all motored around to Okura Bay, which is in Totara North where we walked a couple of days ago. It’s a pleasant bay with good holding in 4 metres of water. There are a lot of small sailing boats on moorings and a dock with a couple of commercial fishing boats alongside. Interestingly, the New Zealanders don’t say “dock” they say “wharf”, which sounds very old fashioned to my British ears.
Along with “Flow” and “Laragh”, we went for a walk along the road and ended in the same pub where we had fish and chips again, but this time with a couple of beers. After indulging in alcohol at lunch time, we dozed the afternoon away and went to “Flow” for dinner. We took along our instruments and, with David & Katrina, played music until nearly midnight.
22 November 2014 Okura Bay to Rere Bay , Whangaroa, New Zealand
I received an email from Cater Marine about the radar and chart plotter. They’ve knocked £300 off the whole package, which is not bad. It would probably cost me £300 (and a load of hassle) to get stuff shipped in from Defender in the USA, so it’s a good deal. The equipment is now only costing 5-10% more than in the states, so I've ordered £4,000 worth of electronics gear from Cater Marine. And so the spending starts…
After putting my red hot credit card away, we motored across to Whangaroa Town and anchored off the small marina. The town is very small with one tiny grocery store, a hotel and a café. We bought a couple of pies for lunch and walked up to the top of the hill overlooking the town, which was a strenuous, but pleasant 45 minute walk with a bit of a scramble at the top. The view of the Whangaroa Harbour is stunning.
Back at the boat, we motored back around to Rere Bay, which we think is the most dramatic anchorage in this area and chilled out for the afternoon.
23 November 2014 Rere Bay , Whangaroa, New Zealand
It was a lovely day, so we decided to stay put and have a chill-out Sunday. In the morning, at high tide, we went for a small excursion in the dinghy up a small tributary of the bay. It’s a pleasant little trip following a river coming down through the valley with steep sided conglomerate rock cliffs looming above.
There are mangroves at the end where the river shallows rapidly and turns brackish, but the one thing that is very noticeable is the lack of wildlife here in New Zealand. If we went up a similar river in North or South America we’d be seeing lots of birds and other creatures like lizards, alligators and even the odd troop of monkeys. We spent nearly an hour on this little trip and saw a few seagulls, a Pied Shag and not much else.
We pottered about in the afternoon then John and Jan from “Second Chance” came over for a beer or two. They live on their boat on a mooring in Opua and gave us some good information on local marine businesses.
24 November 2014 Rere Bay to Matauri Bay, New Zealand
It was a lovely day, so we upped anchor and motored out of Whangaroa Harbour. We’ve spent a pleasant few days here and there’s more to explore, so we’ll definitely be coming back here in autumn before we leave New Zealand. As we left the shelter of the steep cliffs, the wind picked up to 10 knots from the north-west and we had a lovely, if slow, sail downwind in the calm seas.
Just as we passed Flat Island, the reel buzzed out and I landed a nice big fish. It looked like a cross between a Spanish Mackerel and a Barracuda and was soon brought aboard - my first New Zealand fish. It had a smelly, slimy skin like Barracuda, and had a lot of small bones, but tasted great in the fish butties that Glenys made later for lunch.
Around midday, we anchored in 5 metres of water in Horseshoe Bay on Big Cavalli Island. This lovely big bay has good holding and is on a large deserted island, but it’s very exposed to west and south winds. The wind had backed to the west, but was only 10-14 knots, so we scooted ashore to have a look around.
The shore is pebbles which are piled very steeply up to dense scrubland. There’s an old camping hut, but nothing else around. Alba was starting to pitch up and down as the chop in the anchorage built up, so we didn’t venture inland, instead, we stayed on the beach in sight of our precious home. Glenys picked up some nice sea shells including some lovely shiny abalone shells. At the far end of the beach, we disturbed a nesting Oystercatcher and a Caspian Tern, which kept dive bombing us to force us away.
The wind continued to back to WSW, so we were soon back on board pulling up the anchor and motoring a mile across to Matauri Bay, which in contrast to Horseshoe Bay , has a lovely sandy beach. Once around the headland, the sea calmed down and we had a lovely calm night.
25 November 2014 Matauri Bay to Urupukapuka Bay, New Zealand
It was a misty morning, but we just had enough wind to sail off the anchor. We don’t normally do this, but we were all alone in the peaceful anchorage and just didn’t feel like putting on the noisy engine. However, once clear of the anchorage, the wind died completely and we had to put the engine on anyway.
There wasn’t a scrap of wind all morning and we had to motor all twenty miles to the Bay Islands. On the way, we kept getting fleeting glimpses of Blue Penguins swimming on the sea, but they dive down below the surface as we approach, which is very frustrating.
We wove our way through the Bay Islands, past some lovely looking anchorages, to Urupukapuka Bay, which is a nice bay, but very shallow a long way from the shore - we were cowards and anchored a couple of hundred metres out.
Glenys dragged me off the boat and we went for a two hour tramp on the island (New Zealander’s don’t go hiking, they go tramping.) It was a very nice trail - just about circumnavigating the island. There are some steep sections, but the path is very well maintained and has steps on the more steep sections.
The famous "New Zealand Christmas Trees" (Pohutukawa) are just coming into bloom and can be found perched on cliff edges all over the island. This tree produces brilliant crimson flowers from November to January, hence the nickname New Zealand Christmas tree.
In the evening, I went on deck to throw away a bit of food and within a minute, we had our own private flock of Red-billed Gulls waiting patiently for more food. These small gulls have a similar shape to UK black-headed gulls, but have predominately white bodies and head. We couldn't resist throwing them scraps of bread, just to watch their antics while they hovered and jostled for position, then snatching the bread mid-air.
26 November 2014 Urupukapuka Bay to Opua, New Zealand
Our short “holiday” was over, so we headed back to Opua Marina to get ready to go down to Whangarei, where we are booked to get hauled out on the 8th December. Once ensconced in a berth, we connected to the internet and caught up on a week’s emails. I did a bit of research on the fish that I caught a few days ago and found out that it’s called a Barracouta and is the only fish in New Zealand that people don’t eat - here’s a quote from a web site …
Few anglers will actually cook and eat a barracouta – or at least few will admit to doing so! They all have a parasitic worm in their stomach, which when they die, leaves the stomach lining and enters around the backbone and into the flesh. If you are keen on eating one, gut them as soon as possible and then make sure that the flesh has no worms... Oh Dear!
I called in at the Cater Marine and unfortunately, our Raymarine radar and chart plotter hasn’t been delivered. I’ve been told that some of the parts won’t be available until the end of next week, so I’ve told them to deliver it to us in Whangarei next week.
27 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
Rod and Mary from “Sheer Tenacity” gave us a lift into Keri Keri, so that we could do errands and provision. The minutes on our satellite phone have finally expired, and we’re not going to bother to renew the subscription until we leave New Zealand, so we needed to sort out our communications again. I managed to buy a data card for our iPad that cost £15 for 5 GB of data, which is cheaper than buying wireless internet access.
Back on the boat, we tried to get a marina berth in Whangarei, but really struggled. It looks like a lot of the “Pacific Fleet” has already headed down there and the marinas are full up. After a bit of whinging, I finally managed to get a berth in the Whangarei Town Marina from the 1st December until the 8th when we get hauled out at Norsand boat yard.
In the evening, we were invited over to “Sheer Tenacity”, where Rod grilled some Boerewors sausages - a very South African thing to barbeque. They were heavy going, but very, very tasty - much better than the pork sausages that the Kiwis are fond of.
28 November 2014 Opua, New Zealand
It was a miserable rainy morning, so we hunkered down and did some serious internet work. Glenys has taken control of the iPad and loves having constant internet access. She is becoming a bit of a iPad bore, because every time we talk about something, she’s now looking it up on her iPad which seems to be glued to her hand.
I bought a couple of 2TB USB disk drives yesterday and spent most of the day copying movies and music from our old drives to the new - I still need to buy yet another 2 TB hard disk drive because I’m running out of space already. There’s only three weeks before we fly home to the UK, so I started to buy things to be delivered to our son. I blew £ 1,000 today on two new laptops and some other bits and pieces.
It cleared up in the afternoon, so I replaced some blocks on our roller reefing. I’ve become a great fan of Garhauer blocks. They’re manufactured in the USA from stainless steel with great bearings - much better than the more expensive, plastic offerings from Harken and Lewmar. I’ve spent £350 already, but that has replaced eight blocks and is a bargain - honest.
29 November 2014 Opua to Wangamumu Harbour, New Zealand
We were up early and escaped the marina by nine o’clock heading towards Whangarei. It was a pleasant sail past the Bay Islands and out to Cape Brett, which is one of the most impressive headlands that we’ve seen in our travels with steep cliffs and a white lighthouse perched on a ridge.
Once past the cape, the wind turned variable on us, dropping off to nothing then gusting up to 25 knots as the cold wind dropped down the steep sided ridges. We sailed and motored and sailed and motored for five miles into Wangamumu Harbour, which is another lovely, well protected anchorage.
After lunch, we donned tramping clothes and headed out to look at the old Whaling Station on the shore. This facility was in operation until the 1940s and was the only place in the world where nets were used to catch whales. The whalers strung steel nets across a channel not far from the station and then, using longboats, drove the Humpback Whales into the nets where they would become entangled and could be easily harpooned.
After looking around the ruins for a while, we set off on a trail, tramping up the steep sided hill to a ridge high over the coast line. It was a pleasant path, but the views of the magnificent coast were mostly hidden by trees and undergrowth. We turned around when it was apparent that we were as high as we were going to get and the path started going steeply down towards the sea.
30 November 2014 Wangamumu Harbour, New Zealand
Thankfully, the engine started this morning and we left by half past eight. There was no wind at all for the first hour, then a light breeze kicked in allowing us to sail. I put out a blue squid lure on the rod and, within 20 minutes, had hooked and landed a Yellowtail Amberjack. It was damn hard to kill and we ended up with blood splatters everywhere on the aft deck which took me fifteen minutes to clean up.
We had a big Bottlenosed Dolphin join us for fifteen minutes before it got bored with our leisurely 3-4 knot boat speed. Then Glenys went down below to make fish butties for lunch and five minutes later, the wind decided to pick up giving us gusts of 25 knots - typical... We reefed heavily allowing Glenys to finish off lunch and then had to roll away the genoa and pull out the staysail when the wind increased to 25-30 knots. It stayed like that all the way to the harbour entrance.
We anchored in Tutukaka Bay at about two o’clock, a little shell-shocked by the unexpected high winds. The anchorage is pleasant and sheltered, but we had difficulty setting our CQR anchor. We dragged the first time and then we left it for an hour to settle before backing it in again. I think that I’ve finally convinced myself to change our anchor to a Rocna. They’re made here in New Zealand and we should be able to get one fairly cheap (£500). Everyone who has one swears by them including Rod from “Sheer Tenacity” who has been banging on about them ever since I met him in 2011.
Jobs on the boat are piling up. The engine ignition switch worked okay today, but it’s definitely very flaky - I hope that it lasts for a few more starts and stops. Our Rope Stripper is making a horrible clacking noise. In a warmer climate, I would dive down to check it, but it’s too damn cold here… I just hope that it’s not doing any damage and lasts until we get to Whangerei tomorrow.