Blasting North...

Thursday November 11th

Thursday morning was a slow start after the 13 hr sail on Wednesday.  A cooked breakfast, shower and morning coffee helped ease us into the day.  

A series of fronts whipped though as the wind gradually shifted from NW to SW with the passing of the low system off to the east.  We waited around until the worst of the rain bands had come through, knowing that our goal today was less ambitious than the previous. We figured we would head north up the coast perhaps as far as Whangamumu which should provide some shelter from the predicted 25+kt SW winds.  Given our expected course and destination, to the north, it was button down the hatches and don the wet weather gear as we left Tutakaka marina around 1345 for the blast north.

Plenty of white caps and rain squalls still around as we started with reefed main and partly furled Genoa we soon found our groove and Kalai proved a very seaworthy vessel as she surged across the various bays with their katabatic winds giving some extra spice to the journey. Soon we we confident enough to unfurl the Genoa and for a period of over three hours our speed hardly dropped below 6 kts, and most of the time was between 7-8.  

The only real hazards along the way were the appropriately named 'Danger Rock' off Whangaruru harbour entrance and the somewhat more benign-sounding 'Elizabeth reef' which almost claimed an earlier Davidson31 which was pottering gently north full of Mckays et moi nearly 40 years prior!



The more than 50kms were reeled off in just over 4 hrs, with an average speed of 6.4 kts - certainly a record for us on this trip.

It was with both a sense of relief and regret (that the roller coaster tide was over!) that we rounded the final rocky promontory and started 'Barrington' for the mile long passage into this beautiful key-hole harbour.

Moonrise was shared with the four other sheltering craft as we enjoyed a warming pasta and a fine Shiraz...