Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • Taurikura Bay

    Keen to ensure all the crayfish we’d caught would not be mobbed by octopus I set out at 6:30am to retrieve the trap. I discovered that two of the fish frames we’d hung inside the trap had completely gone and the other 3 had been stripped to the bone by overnight critters. And the total catch of crayfish was….. You guessed it….. Zero.

    With no better reason to stay and keen to avoid any bad weather coming in we headed west to find shelter from the predicted bad weather due to come in from the east and then north. The fog and murk had completely lifted and as we passed the pass we had squeezed through the previous day I was quite shocked at how narrow it looked. If I could have seen where we were going we may have gone the long way around.

    The wind was again light so we motored back. The genset shutdown with a temperature alarm on the way back which usually indicates the zinc pencil has crumbled in the heat exchanger and it needs to be cleared out. The problem was easily mitigated by easing back on the throttles thus demanding less from the generator. We eventually set our anchor in Taurikura Bay which we understood to have good holding and protection from all angles, especially the east and north.

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    Here we found a couple of open internet connections so we could all catch up on communications.

    Later in the afternoon we went ashore to stretch our legs and look for the store we believed was nearby. We found it nearby and picked up a few bits and pieces before returning to the boat. Later still we were joined in the bay by Gary and Jackie on Inspiration Lady who were making their way down the coast and ducked in here with the same idea to avoid the forecast nasty weather.

    They invited us aboard for something to warm us up. We put the pizza in the oven and joined them where they ended up being quite generous with some fine rum. We ended up sending Ben back to Dignity to fetch the pizza which we all shared. Nicely warmed up I very nearly fell into the drink while boldly (perhaps too boldly) stepping into the dinghy. I saved my dignity by leaping back onto Inspiration Lady.

    The weather this morning is truly miserable. The wind is around 20 knots gusting higher at times. It is cold, wet and murky outside. We had hoped to hike the nearby Mount Manaia but this is not on the cards for today. Fingers cross for tomorrow.

  • Whatupuke Island (Hen & Chickens)

    Yesterday evening was fairly normal except for being invited over to Emily Grace to share desert with them. Kim had baked a pumpkin pie which wasn’t a pumpkin pie but tasted like one. We hung around for about an hour before returning back to Dignity as we were feeling a little tired.

    This morning we moved to Whatupuke Island, part of the Hen & Chickens group. The wind was light initially so we motored half way before being able to sail downwind with just the job out. It was foggy most of the way and it was a little nerve wracking coming through the nearby pass with such little visibility. But we made it ok.

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    We soon had the fishing rod and handline out and not long after were reeling in the snapper. Ben looked up the legal size limit and although the fish were not exactly huge, they were certainly bigger than the number Ben quoted. We caught fourteen in all putting four back as they really were just too small. Five I filleted leaving all the guts intact (giving us five ‘fish frames’ for our crayfish trap) and five I disembowelled so they could be cooked whole. Ben and I then hung the five frames from the roof of the crayfish trap and, now in the rain, dinghied out to set the trap. I then double checked the minimum size limit and came up with a different interpretation to Ben. We may have to use some relavistic style argument to ensure all the fish we kept were above the minimum limit.

    The trap with five fish frames looked irresistible. Our hopes are high. We have whole fish and some filets to cook and, no doubt, we’ll be bringing in the crayfish tomorrow morning.

    If the current weather forecasts remain as they are we’ll have to hightail it out of here tomorrow as the winds are expect to become strong from the east making this anchorage untenable towards the evening. We’ll be heading west for shelter at the same time getting closer to Whangarei where we’ll spend Xmas. It looks likely that we’ll have Sam’s Godfather / old friend / of Helen and myself and his family over on Xmas day so we’re looking forward to that. They’re over here on vacation and the timing works out perfectly for a visit to the boat.

  • Not a lot

    We finished off Sunday being joined by Tom, Kim and Emily from Emily Grace to consume take away pizzas aboard Dignity followed by watching the movie “The Fall” which turned out weird but fascinating.

    Today we agreed to help out Tom with some stuff on his laptop. In the end it took a while as things were either old or not working (except his laptop itself which ran fine). We made some progress but not everything is fixed.

    I spoke to Whangarei marina this morning and we definitely have pilings for Xmas and probably have room on the dock. We’ll be heading in on the 19th ready for Sam’s arrival on the 21st. We’ll stay there through Xmas.

    Helen and I went for a walk this afternoon out to the point. It involved a little wading as it was close to high tide. We’re used to this. Sadly we saw three dead penguins washed up. No idea how they died or why they ended up here. Perhaps it’s just the currents and normal mortality. On the way back we picked up a few provisions to last us until Whangarei. I also bought some squid for bait so while we’re out we can try and catch some snapper which can eat and use the frames (I’ve learned a new word) for crayfish bait.

    We’ll probably leave here tomorrow morning after picking up bread.

  • Tutukaka

    We set off from Whangamumu fairly early with the intent of reaching Whangaruru before the tide turned allowing us the possibility of taking the dinghy up the nearby river. As we sailed down we changed our minds about the river trip and headed instead for the anchorage at Matapouri Bay quite a bit further south. Some strong northerlies were predicted and we wanted somewhere with protection from that direction. Keeping consistent we changed our minds again and eventually ended up in Tutukaka.

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    The allure of being reconnected to the internet drew us in and the mountain of stuff to deal with had certainly piled up. Ben needed to make some changes to his website as it has compatibility issues with some browsers. He is getting some interest and needs to get everything properly working.

    In the afternoon we went ashore to look around the marina area to see if this is a possible stop for Xmas. Thumbs are down on that front but it was pleasant enough. We found a store and picked up some essentials (bread, custard and ice cream) before returning.

    On the way back to the boat we stopped by Emily Grace who are anchored here too. They’d just returned from a day out to Whangarei which is not too far from here. We ended up aboard chatting for a while. As it often does, the conversation came round to boat projects, issues. Tom talked about a chain of issues plaguing is water maker. It all started with an end cap failure like the one we suffered coming out of French Polynesia. In his case the water drenched the control board which suffered some nasty corrosion. Even though the control board has been replaced on warranty and with two days of help from another cruiser, his water maker still wasn’t working. With some experience in these matters I listened to his story and in particular to the history of symptoms. I asked his permission to try something out. With the wooden end of his hammer I tapped the feeder pump. We turned it on and all was working. My suspicion was correct. The sounds he described were just like those when our brushes began to fail. With the unit sitting for a few weeks not doing anything I felt there was a strong chance a tap would do the trick. It did. Tom was happy. I earned a smug grin for the rest of the day. Seriously though. After the hours of cursing and swearing dismantling my assembly and reassembling it, twice, I’m glad someone’s got the benefit of my knowledge learned the hard way.

    This morning (and much of this afternoon) I’ve finally done my UK tax return. This has taken some heroic prevarication to get to this point plus a certain amount of long term catch up on vastly distributed paperwork. I’m pleased it’s done.

    I’ve also managed to upload all our recent photos so the last few entries have been updated. I also updated yesterday’s text as I forgot to mention our afternoon encounters with the dolphins. That’s now in.

    And. I guess you want to know if we caught any lobsters. I can confidently say that I won’t be saying “We caught no lobsters” this time. This is because what I’m going to say “We caught no crayfish” because that’s what they call them here. When in Rome …

  • Waiwhapuku Bay, Moturoa Island

    Shortly after writing the last blog Ben and I dinghied over to our float to raise the lobster trap. While the decomposing bag of meat at the bottom had attracted a few whelks, no lobsters had made there way into the trap. We knew the site wasn’t that good but it was worth a go. We brought the trap back to Dignity as we knew we were moving.

    New Zealand has fairly thorough reporting of the local marine weather on the VHF. Here in the Bay of Islands there is a continuous loop on VHF 21 lasting about 5-10 minutes giving records of wind readings around the area plus a near / medium term forecast. Yesterday morning the forecast was predicting 25 knots from the south to south west gusting up to 35. That didn’t seem too nice so we headed for Putakokotoa Bay which didn’t have a great deal to offer bar good protection from the south. With a westerly wind we flew the job and gently sailed all the way there using the electric motors at the beginning and end. There we had our lunch.

    I normally leave the VHF scanning a few channels, including the local coast guard channel. Here we heard someone asking the coast guard if 21 was the correct channel for the local area as it appeared the looped forecast was for somewhere else. It does appear to have been the wrong one because soon after the forecast changed to something more consistent to the previous days with winds forecast to be lighter and from the west/south west.

    Rather than stay where we had nothing to do and (more importantly) nowhere decent to drop the lobster trap, we moved on again, this time to Waiwhapuku Bay on Moturoa Island. As well as a couple of day trip boats we found the Jacksters here and were soon waving at each other. It was another very pleasant anchorage and well protected with waters like a pond. There is a walk around the island which we intend to do. Helen wanted a rest however and I wanted to get on with changing the brushes on the watermaker feeder pump. This goes back to occasional issues we’ve been having all the way back to the Marquesas. Every now and then (more frequently recently) the feeder pump loses power. A quick tap on the back with a spanner causes the errant brushes to reseat and all is well. It gets us by but it’s no real solution.

    So that was my afternoon’s project. And a pain in the arse it was. I think I’ve ranted about this before but I’ll rant again. The only piece of good news is that the motor has two easy inspection openings that permit access to and the replacement of the brushes and their springs. This good news is rendered worthless as one of the openings is inaccessible due to the way in which the motor is housed on it’s mount. So the motor has to be removed from it’s mount. To remove the motor from the mount, the mount has to be removed from the bulkhead. Once all this was done I needed to raise the whole assembly into the bathroom so I could do the delicate brush replacement work. I couldn’t raise the assembly as the raw water hose into the A/C coolant circuit looped past some of the wires going into the control box on the assembly. It seemed the easiest way to resolve this was to remove this hose which is never easy at the best of times. Swearing and cursing I tried to remove the pipe from the copper nipple. The nipple broke. That wasn’t right. Copper shouldn’t break like that. At least the pipe was off and I could raise the pump/control assembly and do the brush replacement work.

    I was able to replace the brushes without too much difficulty. Then came the task of reattaching the pump to it’s assembly which involved replacing 4 bolts, 4 nylon washers, 4 stainless steel washer and locking nuts. Two of these were easy to get to. Two weren’t. I’d forgotten how hard this was to do when we last did this back in the Marquesas. Defeat was not an option and eventually I managed, with a lot of help from Ben, to get it all together.

    Before putting the assembly back on the wall I turned my attention back to the broken nipple still stuck in the end of the A/C hose. With my pliers I found the stub of the nipple was quite brittle and broke inside the pipe. This allowed me to remove it quite easily but poses broader worries. We’ve known for some time there may be an issue in that the through hulls aren’t bonded. Why, I don’t know. I don’t really know enough about the pros and cons to have a strong opinion bar the fact it looks like we’re now looking at strong evidence as supporting the need for it. I’ve kept all the pieces so I can show them to a metallurgist (or someone closely resembling one) and get a better opinion.

    Putting the assembly back on the wall and tidying up completed the job. The motor tested fine albeit with a slight whine which I put down to the brushes settling in.

    On a complete aside, one thrill of the afternoon was having a tiny little penguin swim by. We knew there was some history of them in the area but hadn’t expected to see one. We took a few pictures which we’ll post when we’re back connected.

    Dave and Jackie popped by after a walk around the island. We soon had them invited over for a bevvie and catch up later in the evening. They mentioned there was a good mussel bed around the corner and asked if we’d like a few as they were going. We agreed to just a few as we’ve had a varied history with them sometimes getting very sick. We went out with them but in our case to drop the lobster pot on the ocean side of the island.

    Back on Dignity Ben and I fished for better bait for the lobster trap and succeeded in catching two fish which we left outside to rot. Turns out lobsters are garbage eaters and like nothing better than something that gone off.

    After dinner Jacksters came over full of mussels. We’d eaten the few they dropped by after our own dinner. We’d enjoyed them but weren’t eager fans. We had a good evening together and caught up on a few things. We remarked on how incredible it all is that we first bumped into them in a bar in Grenada and here we are bumping into each other, yet again, this time in New Zealand.

    Today we may just hand around another day. We’ll certainly check the lobster trap and put the fish in. We’ll also go for the walk around the island.