Barrier or bust!

As I sit here in Port Fitzroy sipping on a pepermint tea, the wind 'bullets' have finally stopped belting down the valley and out into the main bay here on the west side of Great Barrier Island.  Rain is expected overnight - the first in the three days I have been back in NZ...

Wednesday 29th October

Finally packed the last gadget(!) Tuesday night after a hectic last few days getting organised for some serious coastal sailing across the deetch... Am taking my old Vitus converted Cycle-Cross bike over, so carefully weighed bags before leaving home - 200g to spare, I reckoned!

Usual smooth Emirates Big Bus trip across and met Canny at the airport and spent a couple of hours catching up with he and Jen at theor little one-bed unit before heading into town to stay with Roger and Ryoko for the night.

Rog is looking fit and was out on a gentle three hour ride before I arrived - I feel like having a lie down just thinking about it.... 

Dinner at the little Japanese eatery on the gorund floor and an early night ready for the 0730 Naked Bus north.

Thursday 30th October

All loaded and on the bus at 0720 - it's an easy way to travel Northward.  Soon after 11 we were desending the steep hill into Opua carrying bags and bike.  The friendly folk at JB Marine (Thanks, James!) agreed to store the bike until I return to reassemble it in a week or so...

Out to E63 and Kalai looks good - with a little bit of growth under the waterline, but not too bad.

Visits to the Marina office to sort out replacement keys (they changed the locks), to the sailmaker Roger to say gidday and thank him for his latest work (new Genoa), to the chandlery to check the deck paint had arrived, the fuel dock for some spare diesel and finally to the General store to provision for the week ahead.

Westerlies 30kts plus at Cape Brett meant no early start, but a better day was predicted for Friday...

Emailed Webb Chiles, who had recently arrived on his Moore 24 ultrlaight all the way from USA via Hawaii, Tonga and Samoa and was hooked up to our mooring near the club house and arranged to meet for Dinner that night.

It was great to meet after exchanging emails the past couple of years and to hear of his adventures on the journey south... it's not hard to admire his determination and courage in coming so far in such a small vessel.  He heads home for a few months and we hope to reconnect when he returns to continue his travels next year sometime between May and June.