Melbourne bound...

Sitting in the 'Down Under' Cafe at the airport after an uneventful trip on the Naked Bus from Whangarei, driven impeccably by may favourite driver, Jonno.

Sat next to Sally, a Houhora-based remarkably youthful looking resident who informed me she had already had her 60th and was to be a great grandmother soon!  Made me feel even younger than I feel after some maritime relaxation therapy (MRP).  She was on her way to see her son in Sydney and brother in Surfers then home for three days to pack and move to Tauranga in order to live with her little sister and start (another) new life.  Fascinating life story, ranging from backpacking in Greece in her late teens to working at the Kaitaia Orana Motor Inn in the 1970's (the very same run by Barry and Ruby a few years later!)

The conversation helped the time to pass and in less than 2.5 hrs we were in Downtown Auckland, arriving to a howling gale and horizontal rain... ahh the same old Auckland I remember fondly!

Waiting now to catch up with some family and friends before leaving to fly out about the same time as the Melbourne Cup horses will be thundering their way around Flemington...

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces in a few hours time.

Lunch at Russell, Lilo and Curry in Ngunguru

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. 
Water Rat, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. 
 Psalms 107:23-24

If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man--a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than like a fish or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close hauled or running free--parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive. 
E. B. White

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.” 
Robert Henri

All good things... here in Ngunguru I'm re-packing my bag, travelling home considerably lighter than the 30kg I arrived with two weeks ago, and feeling somewhat lighter in soul!

It has been an exceptionally enjoyable time, with a stretch of constantly fine days in the mid-20's and only a couple of brief showers at night.  Sailing breezes mainly out of the SW-NW quarter, calming down as evening fell.

Yesterday Barry and Ruby bravely ventured north to Opua, carefully sharing the driving in Barry's longest stint since his heart attack some weeks ago.  I showed them over the recent improvements on board, then we ambled back down the dock to the Marina Cafe for a fresh brew.

The day promised much early on and we elected to motor out the harbour, Barrington on the helm, to anchor off picturesque Russell for lunch...

.A brief shower sent us scurrying into the saloon to finish our filled rolls, fresh fruit and hard-boiled eggs.

Weighing anchor we motored at first and then unfurled the headsail in 6-8 kts of westerly to coast gently on a rising tide back to Opua.

Cleaning up and packing completed, we set course for Ngunguru in the nick of time with a heavy band of showers negotiated south of Kawakawa before the weather cl;eared again through Tikipunga and out to the coast.

Today dawned fine (again!) and a few trimming and maintenance jobs were completed to help the octogenarians manage their delightful little home in the retirement village. A vege plot with strawberries ripening nicely lies behind the creek nestled at the foot of a hill where elevated water tanks provide good pressure to taps.

 

We managed to discover some useful items among the treasure trove that is Barry's garage - many garnered from a succession of boats owned over the past few decades... just in case they might come in useful - as indeed some will, including this genuine rubber "Lilo" air mattress (modeled elegantly on the garage floor by Nana Ruby), which I'm told will be on the yacht for some serious Christmas floating around a quiet bay by the mother of our children!

Cooked one of Dad's special curries for tea tonight - even enough left for tomorrow night's repast!

Off into Whangarei in the morning and then the Naked Bus to Auckland and on the 1850 flight to Melbourne.

Looking forward to getting back home, though I hear there are some maintenance jobs and other issues lying in wait!

A final word of wisdom from Ralph Waldo Emerson...

"The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor..."

Sailing the circuit one more time...

Beautiful days such as this are gems and too precious to waste... so, breakfast was toast and tea about Russell as i got under way early on an ebbing tide.  The breeze was filling in as the fresh whole wheat sour dough from the General Store was being toasted on the grill.  Ceylon Supreme tea and chunky peanut butter on toast - such are the simple pleasures of a sailors life!

Paragliders abounded and sails hoisted as we rounded Tapeka Point with a building SW breeze up our stern.

Yesterday I ticked off the last major task when I spent the best part of the day organising and fitting some "senior friendly" grab rails on the cabin top.  Trying to find something that wouldn't detract from the nice clean lines was tricky, but I reckon these look pretty good.  The kind folk at Cater marine allowed me to use their workshop to carefully cut some threaded stainless rod to the (prayerfully) right length before sucking in some breath and drilling holes through the 19mm ply deck, carefully coating the holes with epoxy and then sealing the lot with terrastat compound...

Meanwhile, Roberton island hove into view as the stovetop spluttered its welcome to my morning caffeine fix... ahhh Indian Elephant Hills Peaberry beans freshly ground are hard to beat!

Wind was more southerly than SW so Omakiwi Bay wasn't a good prospect, likewise Urapukapuka bay turned out to be a little exposed.  So, motorsailed across to Rawhiti bay and found a gorgeous lunch stop... and another desirable bach to add to the list!

A leisurely lunch and a tiki-tour of the bays in the inflatable... then weigh anchor and back across to Urapukapuka with the wind now more SW and some shelter to be found tucked up in the western corner of the bay.  One of my favourite spots - especially when found in spendid isolation on a pristine day.

The obligatory row ashore and walk to the top was undertaken, with photos accompanying... (I've noticed that boat does hog the camera!)

It really is a quite spectacular place...

Homeward bound after a (very) brief swim in the 15.8 deg water!!! Thank goodness the solar shower had gained some warmth...

Magnificent sail home, hard on the nose tacking in 12-16 knots f steady SW saw us average over 5 kts and nudging 7 at times.

Home on a full tide and a clean up with time for a quiet red in the cockpit after a long but immensely satisfying day.   Several messages and a phone call as I sat in the cockpit (My Back Door view) from an old friend whose son wants me to take his wedding in January - in NZ!

Could be possible - I may have to come back again - it's tough, but someone has to do it!

Two Ferries, Two Tracks, Too Tired!

Having achieved a reasonable stopping point in the interminable task that is the ongoing maintenance of a sailing vessel, I decided that some exercise would be order.  Not being known for discretion in this particular area, I challenged myself to do the big circuit from Opua to Russell/Paihia return.  

So, after breakfast and then the obligatory Marine cafe hit, I wandered down to the General Store to start the journey via Vehicular Ferry.

(I thought a shot of my floating office helps to convey the ambience as I sit typing tonight...)



These ferries run every ten minutes all day until 10 pm, the 5 min trip connecting Okiato Point with Opua.   These are the same ferries with which I play Russian Roulette when exiting the marina - there are two of the blighters and they sneak up on you, usually when you are distracted with pulling in fenders or adjusting throttles! They only travel at 5- 7 knots and are relatively harmless... still, I shouldn't complain - $1 for a pedestrian isn't bad!


Exiting the ferry, I walked up the steep hill (which came to be a recurring theme for the day...) and plunged down towards the beginning of the track proper - with signs accompanying.  My special friend (Suunto watch), promised to inform me of my pace, time taken and distance covered, so I set my face steadfastly toward Russell...

The track meandered sedately along a grassy path and then through dappled arched vistas of quite delightful purview... How hard is this, I thought (as it turned out - this was a somewhat premature perspective)

 The track began to climb through some beautiful native bush which I almost appreciated between gasping breaths (just finding some form, you understand).  Pausing to adjust several errant shoelaces enabled me to gain a second wind and pick up the pace again. Up and down, up and down... how many different ways of tackling a hill can they find...?

 Bursting out on the next ridge opened up a vista of delight - oyster farms!  These are the real McCoy - and unlike the oysters growing in abundance next to my vessel on the pier, these are able  to be legally harvested and sold to aficionados of the swallow-and-smack-lips-in-satisfaction brigade.

What goes up...  plunges very steeply down  in this case.  Still, well constructed stairs beats sliding down through the 'cutty grass' on ones backside like when we were kids, eh?

 Yet more board-walks led to the...

 BIG OYSTER!

Followed by more board-walks across the mangroves...












Till we eventually neared Russell after a mere 2.5 hours and came upon the the... "What were they thinking...?" Tree...

I can only presume that the occupants had a fetish for china... or is this the real NZ Tea tree?

 Finally arrived at the picturesque town of Russell, focal point of early European settlement in to Aotearoa...



I was resting the weary legs at the local watering hole with some lightly battered, freshly caught snapper... and then this bird turns up, demanding attention - time to go, I reckon and headed toward the "Waitere" ferry to Paihia.

Great old boat, one of the originals and still going - single screw, wooden seats and does about 6-7 knots flat out - with the 30 kt Northerlies today she was rocking and rolling across the estuary, even dipping the gunwhales in at one stage! 

Feeling a little footsore after nearly three hours of tramping (i.e bush walking ) I headed south again around the coastal walkway back to Opua... Paihia is full of US and Brit backpackers - nuff said!

Just a short hour and a half later I was glad to sight E-pier, take off the shoes and relax - a good day and some great memories. Nearly 20kms and over four hours of relaxing-on-boat-fat-burning exercise!!!

Lighted, Netted and Floored...

Good to be back in Opua and have a nice hot shower!  Water temperatures down the coast varied from 13-15 deg, a little chilly for swimming just yet.  

Canny and I worked on some more lighting installation, installing new touch sensitive 12v led's over the galley and fridge which are really bright and low power consumption.  Meanwhile we figured out how to best fit the storage nets I had had made for the front berth using a combination of sanctified common sense, kayaking nous  and kiwi ingenuity...

 

Today was yet another gorgeous sunny day, but no sailing as I was trying to get the last of my jobs list completed: interrupted only by the obligatory morning coffee at the Marina Cafe!

I pulled the roll of tredmaster non-skid decking I had ordered back in May but hadn't had time to fit.  Careful measuring and improvisation using a panel from the quarter-berth as a straight edge still resulted in some interesting moments.  The vague recollections regarding installation methodology surfaced at strategic times... but perhaps the most interesting came when my first very well mixed batch of thickened epoxy got very hot and extremely sticky very quickly! I wondered whether I had inadvertently mixed what we used to call in the old boat-building days a "hot brew!" Evasive action saw me whacking the first sheet in place and frantically digging the smoking brew out of the plastic cup before instantaneous combustion was achieved.  Suffice it to say the next brew was a little more sedate in "going off."  In hindsight, it was probably a combination of warm day and hot surface that accelerated the reaction.  I'm pleased with the end result, even if it meant a little fiddling to compensate for the too rapid adhesion of the first section and it becoming permanently fixed a few mm south of where I intended. The odd shape and dimensions of the cockpit floor meant I had to use four sections to cover the area, but its not too bad! Even had a piece left over to fit in front of the main hatch.

Decided tonight was Club night so wandered down to the Bistro to watch the Wed night races and ended up chatting and sharing a drink with Mike and Grimmy, two of the locals.  Grimmy is now an H&S inspector, but worked in the construction industry and helped build the Opua Marina, while Mike started as a school teacher and turned his hand to building. They reassured me, as we were discussing the recent America's Cup and the narrow win of the Australia Trimaran over the local favourite Vodaphone NZ in the recent Auckland to Russell Coastal Classic, that I didn't have too much of an Aussie accent, eh mate!

Evidently  the above yacht made it across the Tasman in three days which was probably just as well as accommodation I'm told was a little limited... the crew I'm reliably informed, are now sleeping somewhere ashore...

Sailed the four winds...

Dawn came this morning clear and still, with just a gentle zephyr ruffling the deep waters of Whangamumu harbour...

Today turned out to be our most ambitious sail in some interesting conditions... we ghosted up the coast in a dying SE breeze, barely making it through the gap between Cape Brett and Piercy Island before the wind died and we started the diesel (known as "The Barrington"), and hooked up "Bruce" the Tiller Pilot so we could enjoy the view unfettered by such mundane tasks as steering the vessel!

As I was relaxing on the foredeck, I had a sense of deja view as a large fluke hoved into view. Several weeks ago, while out kayaking at Queenscliff, I had followed a Southern Right whale out toward Port Phillip heads and this fluke was no coincidence!  As the tail fin disappeared I yelled out to the first mate "Whale Ahoy! 10 m off the starboard bow! Get the camera!!!"  (or words to that effect!).  

A dorsal fin appeared, which then lazily followed us for some time, sometimes disappearing and then resurfacing, seemingly at a leisurely pace.  It is probably that this was a basking shark, the second largest fish species, a plankton eating, non-threatening creature that feeds on the surface and grows up to 12 m long... we're not sure how big this version was, but stayed a respectful distance clear...

The breeze began to fill in as we headed west from the Cape, trying to avoid the many tourist vessels that visit the famous Hole in the Rock and promise their clients that dolphins will appear at some stage...

The breeze meanwhile continued to fill in from the NW (not SW as predicted and promised!) and soon we were smoking along at 6-7 kts on a tight reach past Urupukapuka island toward the KeriKeri inlet.

It was such a nice day and we had plenty of time with a great sailing breeze (13-15 kts by now), that we elected to head up to KeriKeri.  Past the rolling green hills and beautiful bays we tightened up hard on the wind to lay the marks up the harbour channel.

Continuing on past the new Marina, we headed toward the narrow channel that wound its way right up to the Old Stone Store and Kemp's house, two of the earliest buildings constructed by the first settlers.  I can remember going there when I was in Form 2 (about 12 yo) and meeting an elderly Miss Kemp, descendent of the original Mr Kemp.  

The depth gauge was reading 1.1m under the keel (we draw 1.5m) and the tide had just turned to flow out... so, unsure of what the prospects were for navigating the channel on a falling tide, we turned and set sail for home. By now the wind had shifted to the West and we hoisted sail to slide through the Kent passage and up the channel to Opua.  Right on the promontory guarding the passage is this gorgeous property - we decided that it was the perfect retirement home with private beach and boathouse to boot!

By now the wind was SW and 12-15 kts again and with full main and genoa set we sped up the estuary toward Paihia.  Bemused, we noticed that several of the yachts out toward Tapeka point several hundred metres away, were going just as well as we were... but on the opposite tack!  Sure enough a minute later our good breeze died and filled in again from almost the opposite Easterly direction!  Needless to say that too soon died and "Barrington" was fired up for the final few miles home.  By the time we arrived at the marina we had covered 67 kms and spent 9.5 enjoyable hours sailing in winds from every direction of the compass... the final challenge  was manoeuvring into the berth with a SW breeze and tidal flow collaborating to make stopping in time a tricky business.  An agile first mate and judicious application of full astern allowed some tired sailors to breathe a sigh of relief. 'Home' again after four days of brilliant sailing and relaxing, all in the typically fine early summer weather here in the Tropical North!

Panarama, Pa and Paul

Woke early (even before the birds?)to a beautiful morning in Whangaruru, having arrived there last night and anchoring in the upper reaches of the harbour, near Bland Bay.

Such a nice morning, we decided to go ashore and explore.  According to the local tourism blurb..."Bland bay is an undiscovered piece of Northland Paradise with a huge reputation for great fishing, diving and recreational water sports.
 - 65kms north of Whangarei, 30kms south of Russell
- Fishing and diving at your doorstep

Evidently this area is of particular significance to Ngatiwai, who are the tangata whenua (Local tribe).  Uhimoanariki, the first ancestor of Ngapuhi, named this place "Whangaruru" while sailing up the coast. Legend has it that iIt took Puhi a long time to find a good sheltered place to settle, so when he did he named it "Whangaruru" Whanga (to wait), ruru (to shelter), or alternatively the sheltered harbour.  There are a number of Pa's (fortified Maori settlements) like this one we climbed just outside the cluster of holiday homes. You can see the ridges that were made for the fortifications on the right side of the hill.

Decided to head further down the coast to Teal Bay after contacting an old buddy, Paul Mcintosh who was up at the family bach for the weekend. Tried to find a suitable anchorage within the bay in several locations, but were either on a lee shore where we would be reluctant to leave the yacht unattended, or we couldn't find good holding.  The wind was gusting up over 15 kts but we eventually found shelter near an almost completed multi-million dollar house being built by, according to the locals,  a Russian millionaire who had purchased the local farm for $15mill in order to get access to the beach-side property.  It was great to catch up with Paul and Christine, there with their oldest daughter, Alice.  Paul and I were part of the legendary Balunatix, infamous as much for their practical jokes as their singing prowess and mastery of the well-known "Dead-Ants" antics - well before 'planking' became popular!

We headed back to the boat late afternoon in the ever-reliable rubber ducky with the little 2.5 Merc doing a splendid job on the 2 kms leg across to the other side of the bay.  The wind was predicted to back from the NW into the South, so we decided to head up the coast to one of my favourite anchorages, Whangamumu.  A deep enclosed harbour which is a safe anchorage in almost any wind direction. Some of the yachts were expected to hold up there on their way back after completing the Coastal Classic race from Auckland to Russell the previous Friday.  We had seen some of the stragglers on our way down from the Cape.

Unfortunately the wind stayed very light and stubbornly in our faces so we ended up motoring most of the way  on the 13 nautical miles back up the coast.  The new prop and serviced engine are going really well, with 2300rpm giving us 5.6-5.8 kts.  We tried a range of revs to see what worked the best - with 2900rpm pushing us to our theoretical hull speed of 6.8 knots.  Throttling back to 2200-2300 is however, a lot more economical!

We set up way-points on the marine GPS as we expected to arrive on dusk and the entrance to Whangamumu is quite narrow and long, with jagged rocks either side about 100m apart.

About half a dozen boats already anchored still left plenty of room and we cooked a late dinner of steak and pasta to top off another great day.