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The Sun – it Shines

by steve, on March 22nd, 2012 (Freezing Rain, Ivory Keys, Kilkea II, New Zealand)

After days of miserable weather today was a very welcome change. The skies were blue and the sun was out. It hasn’t rained all day.

This morning we went out for a walk with Marion from Kilkea. She showed us the walk around/through the golf course. It was simply nice to be out.

We popped into the shops at the tail end of the walk to pick a few things up. On the way back to the boat we were passed by and picked up by Don (Irv) and Marie from Freezing Rain who are back in the area. We ended up chatting with them for a while before heading back down our dock to the boat. Before we reached Dignity we ran into the Ivory Keys and ended up chatting with them for some time too.

We eventually made it back to the boat and at some point geared ourselves up to do a little more boat work. Mostly cleaning at this stage. I cleaned out all my fishing gear throwing a lot of old line away and derusting a few things that needed it. I also fixed the navigation light which had given up the ghost.

We invited the Kilkeas and Freezing Rains over for curry dinner. Knowing that the Kilkeas and we are likely to be leaving tomorrow we imposed a limit of one bottle per couple on ourselves. I think we did pretty good when we ended up with three between us and a sip of port (well – what was left from Tuesday evening) back on Kilkea.

The weather is looking okayish for a departure to Great Barrier Island tomorrow. As long as we leave early. We still may lose the wind along the way but might get away with it. We need to move on.

It’s only a month before Sam arrives and we’d like to get to see a fair bit of the Hauraki Gulf before then. Time to move.

Presuming we do get out of here early morning we’ll be turning our AIS transponder on. We should be visible for sometime at the the station down in Auckland that relays boat positions onto the web. A good site to see this data is www.marinetraffic.com. Look for us popping out of Gulf Harbour around 7:30am to 8am.

And if you want to see the weather forecasts we’re looking at, a good one is here.

Category: Freezing Rain, Ivory Keys, Kilkea II, New Zealand | Here is my comment

Trashed

by steve, on March 21st, 2012 (Kilkea II, New Zealand)

The Kilkeas had us round to dinner last night. We took a couple of bottles. Last thing I remember was five empties and the port coming out. Spent today totally trashed. Don’t know how long I was there after the port was out but Helen says she left ‘early’. I don’t remember that.

Category: Kilkea II, New Zealand | Here is my comment

The Hauraki Gulf

by steve, on March 20th, 2012 (Kilkea II, New Zealand)

That’s where we are. Really.

There is this website I once saw. It painted such a nice picture I made a note of it. Here it is: http://www.holidayafloat.com/sailing_in_the_hauraki_gulf.html.

Have a read. If you get as far as the last paragraph, the one for climate it says, and I quote, “February and March are generally considered as the months with the best and most-settled weather for the Hauraki Gulf …”

What? Seriously? It’s March now and it’s been March for some time. We’ve seen about three settled days this month.

Here is today’s forecast (which, incidentally, is pretty close to yesterday’s) : “For the Hauraki Gulf: Tuesday: Southeast 35 knots gusting 50 knots, easing to 30 knots gusting 40 knots this morning, to 25 knots gusting 35 knots this afternoon and to 15 knots this evening. Very rough sea becoming rough this morning and slight in the evening. Fair visibility in scattered rain.”

Settled weather? My arse.

We spent yesterday morning in the boat simply because leaving the boat and dealing with the water density in the air would have been more akin to swimming than walking. After lunch things had improved sufficiently to be described as miserable. We accompanied David and Marian to nearby Orewa as they needed to pick up some reading glasses and we needed to get a letter notarized (the outside world continues to impinge). On the way back we stopped off at the Countdown in even nearer by Whangaparaoa to pick up some supplies including some more wine given the recent rate of consumption.

Back at the boat we had fun getting our shopping aboard as the wind (as it had all day) was still doing an excellent job pushing the boat away from the dock. I had to pull the boat in and when it was close enough, let go, and in the few seconds available get the next box of stuff up to Helen.

That just about defines our excitement for the day. By mutual consent the Kilkeas and us took a night off from each other causing a chorus of relief from our livers.

Looking ahead we see a window of opportunity to leave here on Friday when lighter north west winds are expected and the sea state to have calmed. That would give us a great run for the 40nm to Great Barrier Island. We will watch and wait.

Category: Kilkea II, New Zealand | Here is my comment

Providence

by steve, on March 19th, 2012 (Kilkea II, New Zealand)

In the morning we met up with David and Marian to head over to another section of this vast marina for the weekly farmers market. There were a number of stalls selling a variety of foods and stuff all looking pretty fresh.

David and Marian are trying to sell their car before they depart for Australia so they left it at the car park with signs fore and aft while we took a pleasant walk back along the edge of the marina.

Back at the boats we parted ways for a couple of hours. We later rejoined the Kilkeas to watch the beginning of leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race – from here to Brazil via the southern ocean. The local forecast is pretty grim but this is nothing compared to what the six boats are going to encounter down south.

The race had the boats sail the harbour three times before heading out and round a marker not too far from us. Once the boats had completed their harbour legs we left the boat to view them from a nearby hill.

We were momentarily distracted by a piece of providence. Marian found a fresh snapper on the dock and another floating in the water. She retrieved them making the decision this would be good for dinner. We could see nothing wrong with them and could only wonder if someone had simply caught too many and dropped a couple.

We found a good vantage point where we could watch the fleet through our binoculars. It was quite exciting but hard to tell who was in the lead. We were all quite glad to be ashore and not out on the water which had been one of our considered options.

By the time we headed back further decisions had been made. Helen and Marian headed off to view some of the nearby show homes while David and I were dispatched to fillet the fish. I learned a couple of things from David who did a far better job than I so that was good.

David and I rewarded ourselves for our hard effort with a couple of beers while we awaited the ladies return. When they did Helen and I took the fish and headed back to Dignity as Helen had offered to cook the fish.

David and Marian joined us for dinner which was excellent. A few bottles of wine helped polish off the dinner and the evening.

Overnight the weather has deteriorated considerably. We have howling wind and rain outside. There are 50 knot winds forecast for today out at sea. We’re quite glad to be in the marina and not out on anchor.

Category: Kilkea II, New Zealand | Here is my comment

Race Day

by steve, on March 18th, 2012 (Kilkea II, New Zealand)

Waking early I scoured all the local forecasts. They called for easterly winds in the high teens and seas around a meter. That was just fine for us so we made the decision to sail down to Gulf Harbour Marina to meet up with the Kilkeas.

Well, the winds were from the east so the forecasters got that bit right. However, the winds turned out to be around 30 knots and the seas a tad more choppy than expected. Once you’re out there you just deal with what you get and it wasn’t too bad. We’d left with one reef in the main and soon had two and about 3 reefs in the head sail. We still made very good time doing 7-8 knots in general and about 9 at times despite a counter current. There was a definite sense the boat was moving faster than it used to.

We consequently made very good time into Gulf Harbour Marina and were greeted at the end of our dock by David and Marian who helped us tie on the lines. With the wind blowing us off the dock it was good to have someone there to help.

We soon had ourselves sorted out and joined the Kilkeas for a ride down to Auckland to watch the Volvo Ocean racers perform in the harbour.

Marian came up with the idea to watch the race from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron club house. With Irish chutzpah she blagged us into the place despite our inappropriate dress. There we not only had food and beer but had an excellent view of the harbour as well as a TV with live commentary of the race. Brilliant.

It turned out to be excellent fun made all the better for the New Zealand boat, Camper, winning the race.

After the excitement settled down we headed back up to Gulf Harbour Marina and stopped by Kilkea for a quick drink. Irish Canadian’s on St Patrick’s Day. No such chance of a quick drink. To be quite honest, St Patrick’s Day had nothing to do with it.

The Volvo Ocean Race leaves Auckland today and has to take a dog leg nearby before heading out. The forecast for today is closer to what we experienced yesterday so plans to be out there to watch them go by are probably going to be parked in favour of getting up on the hill and watching them from go from up high.

Looking further out the weather situation will continue to deteriorate. We have two low pressure systems barrelling and I suspect we’ll be here in the marina until later in the week.

Category: Kilkea II, New Zealand | Here is my comment
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