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Back to Waiheke with friends

by steve, on April 15th, 2012 (New Zealand)

Shortly after 9am John, Jose and Carrie arrived to join us for the weekend. They are the parents/sister of Lissa who crewed for us down from Fiji last year. Because the forecast had the wind dropping by midday we were off as soon as they were settled.

The footbridge was already open so I called ahead requesting it stay open so within minutes we were out in the bay heading towards Waiheke. We raised the sails and looked for and found the wind. Seeing a lot of bird activity one the water I put out the fishing line. You never know.

We had to put and end to the fishing because it wasn’t long before we had three decent sized kahawai aboard. Lunch and dinner were more than sorted.

Tidewise our departure was far from ideal and we frequently had strong currents against us. The wind was a little fickle so we used the engines from time to time. When the wind dropped to unusable we tucked into Owhanake Bay for lunch. Lunch turned out to be bread, salad and raw kahawai with soy sauce and wasable. Utterly delicious.

We decided to press on so soon after lunch we motored an hour east to eventually arrived at Owhiti Bay where we had better protection from the wind and swell.

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The bay had a few boats in but is definitely off the beaten track. Our guests all decided to go for a swim trying to encourage us to do so too. Their gasps upon entry and the time it took them to warm up upon return convinced us we made the right decision to stay behind. We are definitely spoiled by tropical water temperatures and the water here holds little attraction for us.

Just before sunset we gave Carrie the fun fair trip up the mast. Not for everyone but she seemed to enjoy it.

Evening dinner was delicious stir fried kahawai. We have plenty more left over. We had a nice evening chatting over a glass or two of wine.

Category: New Zealand | Here is my comment

Shopping, movie and friends

by steve, on April 14th, 2012 (New Zealand)

In the morning we made a second run to Countdown to provision for the next week. We had a lot of stuff so we had to take a taxi back to the marina. Once this was all stored (freezer is now on) we headed out for lunch then on to watch a movie, The Hunger Game, at a nearby cinema. We enjoyed it.

The afternoon was spent, mostly by Helen, cleaning the boat. In the evening we were visited by our kiwi friends Lew and Tracey who we first met on the Otago Railway. It was nice to see them again and catch up.

Today we’re off to Waiheke with another set of friends who’ll arrive this morning. Should be fun. We’re now anticipating leaving around 10am local time as the winds are forecast to drop off around midday. It means we’ll be struggling against the tide but that’s better than struggling against still air.

Category: New Zealand | Here is my comment

Auckland Errands

by steve, on April 13th, 2012 (A Cappella, New Zealand, Passages)

Paul, having spent the night with us, was very helpful in giving me a ride to the Icom service center here in Auckland. It turned out to be a lot further away than I expected so I was very glad of the ride. On the way back he dropped me off at the lift raft service center. His car wasn’t big enough to take the life raft so I opted to complete the trip back by taxi.

Despite the manufacturer stating we should service the life raft every two years this was the first time we did so. I was shocked to see how much was replaced but pleased to learn what was actually in with the life raft. There is quite a substantial set of flares contained which will complement those we have in the cabin in case of distress where we don’t need to leave the main boat. Flares do have a limited lifetime so it was good we had this service done now. Of course, it is important we have a life raft that works in the unhoped for event we need it.

Once the life raft was installed into it’s slot I walked over to the workshop near Pier 21 to give them our desired lengths for the kauri trim we want to prevent our next microwave from sliding off it’s home.

After that it was time for lunch. We ate a very delicious sushi then headed off to the supermarket for our first round of provisioning. On this trip we only took what we could carry the mile or so back to the boat. (Today we’re going again but returning by taxi)

In the afternoon I made the 45 minute return walk back to the work shop to pick up our trim. It looked really nice. Had a quick chat with Pam from Passages who appeared to welcome a quick break from polishing the boat sides.

In the afternoon I managed to work out a new plan to have our mainsail attended to. We’d already decided to return to the Viaduct Marina for when Sam arrives 11 days from now. We changed our booking to come in a day early and arranged a hire car so we can drive up to Whangarei and have it sorted there and then. The last thing I want is a weather window to appear and have to miss it because we need to get up to Whangarei to have our sail fixed. The sailmaker has agreed to this so we’re all set.

Incidentally, a fantastic weather window opened for Fiji yesterday. Pity we’re not in a position to take it. Particularly considering the southerly winds we have right now have brought a bit of a chill.

Early evening Ed from A Cappella dropped by. We’ve not seen him for a year so it was nice to catch up. They have a similar plan to us for the next couple of year so we’ll be still in touch with them for a while. There is a special tie amongst all those we crossed the Pacific with in 2010 and it’s nice to keep in contact.

Around 7pm past crew(wo)man Lissa visited with sister Megan. It was nice to see them again. They’d been invited out to Waiheke for the weekend but can’t make it. She does a lot of wedding photography so weekends are inevitably busy. We shared pizza and stories. Nice evening.

Category: A Cappella, New Zealand, Passages | Here is my comment

Auckland Celebration

by steve, on April 12th, 2012 (New Zealand, Passages)

We decided not to wait for the wind to pick up only to discover that the wind picked up just as we left. Perfect. We had a fantastic sail down to Auckland. There is something special about bringing your boat into a city and this was no exception.

I had a lot of excitement when Dignity showed up on the www.marinetraffic.com. Kind of cool to think how that was working. Our AIS transponder was putting out digital information over the VHF which was being picked up by a station in Auckland. That information was being published on the internet. www.marinetraffic.com was displaying that information showing where we were (and where we’ve been) and we were picking that up using our vodafone dongle to connect to the internet from the boat while in motion. Not the most effective way to find out where we were but all pretty cool.

The links above (both the same) will zoom in our location. If Dignity is there in the center it means our transponder is on and we’re close to one of the receiving stations.

We had booked a berth at the Viaduct Marina ahead of time. As a swing footbridge has been built across the entrance to the marina we had to call ahead to have it raised. It turned out it already was raised so we came in as another boat was departing. Once we saw where we had been allocated we spent a little while getting the fenders and lines set up and then backed in. The security guard helped us tie up. He even did proper cleat hitches which you don’t see often.

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Once settled we headed off for a walk. We went around the dock and over to the marine shops west of us. We picked up a part for the dinghy and found a place who can make up some trip that we can use to prevent our next microwave (that Sam is bringing) falling off in the same way the last one did. The trim will be made of kauri wood which will be a special reminder of New Zealand once we leave.

We bumped into Pam and John from Passages who were on the hard near the place where we found the trim and chatted for a while. We’ll meet up with them properly the night before Sam arrives.

Back on the boat we prepared for Paul’s and his son, Tom’s, arrival. It was good to meet up with them both. Paul had just struck a couple of work deals which was a good excuse to celebrate. We did.

Category: New Zealand, Passages | Here is my comment

Real time

by steve, on April 11th, 2012 (New Zealand)

For those of you who are catching the blog near real time we are now showing live on marinetraffic.com. There was definitely a shadow behind Rangitoto as even the Waiheke ferry disappeared behind it.

I’ll leave the transponder on for a while when we’re in the marina so you can hopefully see where we are on the above site (should you wish to).

If you can’t find us on the above link, try this one which will zoom in on us any where we’ve been running our transponder near a major port.

Category: New Zealand | One reader has left a comment, here is mine
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