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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.

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.

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.

A nice hike on Kawau Island

by steve, on March 17th, 2012 (Kilkea II, New Zealand)

There really is only one hike on Kawau. Most of the island is private with one patch being owned by the DOC (Department of Conservation). We went ashore mid morning and tied the dinghy to the dock. We decided to go for the walk first.

The walk took us down to the old copper mine. The pump house was modelled directly off those from Cornish mines so it looked quite familiar. The land through which we walked was very pretty – tall pines and ferns with lovely views over the bay to the mainland.

We took the inland path coming back. Under my direction we took a couple of wrong turns which bothered me not one bit as I was enjoying being out and about. We made it back to the mansion in time for lunch where be both opted for breakfast at the tea house. After our very filling breakfast/lunch we took a tour of the mansion which was reasonably interesting.

Having done the public part of Kawau Island we moved the boat over by the Kawau Island Yacht Club.

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We popped ashore in the dinghy to have a look around. We walked the vast (not) distance to and old smelter and all the way back. Having blown many minutes we headed back to the boat. We were still full in the evening that we passed on any thought of going back ashore to eat at the yacht club.

Today we’re almost certainly taking the boat round to Gulf Harbour marina at first light. We plan to spend the day with David and Marian from Kilkea II down in Auckland watching the harbour racing on the day before the Volvo ocean race takes off. The wind is picking up and looking to really build over the next few days. Being pinned into a marina for a few days is not really what we want but we can’t miss the chance of spending St Patrick’s Day with our good Irish friends.

Parua Bay

by steve, on March 13th, 2012 (Division II, Migration, New Zealand, True Companions)

As you can tell from the title of this blog there is no suspense regarding our outboard parts and whether or not we escaped Whangarei. We made it out but here’s our day in a little more detail.

Early morning, Brendan from the Palmer Canvas came round to adjust the straps for our blinds. They had been made a little too long and needed an extra attachment to keep the straps tidy when the blind is rolled down.

Steve from True Companions took me out to sell off the power tools the French techs had bought and to fill up our propane tank. I got a few $$$ for the tools but nothing exciting. They were all bottom of the range and at best could be sold half price. And the store needed to make a profit so we got enough for an evening meal. Without wine.

The propane store was a little more picky than usual about our non standard propane tank. But they filled it anyway so we were set.

Upon my return I called the outboard shop to see if our part had arrived. Not only had it arrived but the outboard had been fixed. Yay. I lowered the somewhat flaccid dinghy and paddled over to the outboard workshop on the other side of the river. I paid the bill and we manhandled the motor onto the dinghy. The engine fired up, the throttle moved easily. Things were looking up.

Back on the boat Helen was busy washing the deck knowing that we were fast running out of time to use the dock water. I paid up our dock bill and handed in the keys.

Helen took a break from the washing to do a last minute shop. While she was out I sorted out our vodafone dongle so we had ways to access the internet once out of the harbour.

I then headed off to Palmer canvas to pay our bill. I was delighted to find the work came in under 30% below the quoted price. Full praise to Palmer for a job well done and at a great price.

After some last minute rinsing we were ready to go. Alene from Migration was passing by and offered to throw lines for us. Just at that point Dan and his kids from Division II arrived in their dinghy. Paige told us not to go. They had drawn some pictures for us to say thanks for letting them play on the XBox. That was very nice.

With the kids helping, Alene threw off the lines and we backed out of our slip, turned around then headed down the river.

We soon learned how sheltered it is in the town basin as further down the river we were encountering 20-25 knot winds and choppy water. Once we made a turn and had the wind on our beam I put out the head sail and turned off the engines. We kept going this way until we approached the entrance to Parua Bay. The entrance was tight with shallows to navigate and a dog leg off to the right into ‘The Nook’ before entering the bay proper. In 25 knot winds we picked a spot to anchor, dropped the hook and were comforted to feel it bite and set immediately.

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In 25 knot winds we were not going to be going ashore so we settled in for a quiet afternoon / evening generally relaxing. We ended the day watching the movie Hugo which was very entertaining. The good news is that with all this wind, the wind gen is earning it’s keep.

The weather forecast is barely encouraging. Winds will soon switch to easterly but they’ll settle. The seas are currently rough. Around Sunday the winds are forecast to come from the northeast which may give us an opportunity to get out to Great Barrier Island. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to make it south to the Auckland area for the departure of the Volvo race this coming weekend. Pity. But we’ll keep our eyes on the weather. It’s a fickle thing.

On the up side the sun is having a go at shining at it’s not raining. The wind is still up but the bay feels like it’s beginning to calm. Perhaps we can go ashore later today.

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The Hauraki Gulf

Providence

Race Day

A nice hike on Kawau Island

Parua Bay