New Zealand « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

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.

Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island

by steve, on March 16th, 2012 (New Zealand)

Waking up to the sound of the starboard bilge going off I came to an immediate and, as it turned out, accurate guess as to the cause of our occasional water pressure pump activations. It was the deck shower dripping into the the stern compartment. With a small drip it takes a day or two to fill the floor then to spill into the bilge. I confirmed the shower head was dripping and simply turned off the tap. We’ve had this before a couple of years ago but it took a while for the possibility to click. I think it was the water underneath the immersion tank that was the distraction. That hasn’t come back so I’m putting it down to the pressure of the town water tripping the pressure release valve on the tank.

The winds were light but we were keen to head on so we fired up the motors and left our anchorage before 8am. Once clear of the anchorage I shut down the port motor as it is more efficient to run on one motor. Also, as the engines still have less than 10 hours on them we need to keep the revs at around 70% of maximum to break them in. In the river we didn’t have much of a chance to do this so I was keen to make up lost ground.

The wind was very fickle and for the first couple of hours we simply motored towards out destination. After a while I presume the land breeze stopped cancelling the light easterlies and we had enough of an angle on the breeze to motor sail. We raised both main and headsail gaining about a knot.

When the starboard motor hit it’s 10 hours I switched over to the port motor. The port motor is also heats up our immersion tank. I calculated the changeover so that the starboard engine got more time. That means if we do a short hop soon we can use the port motor and get more hot water. It’s delightful having a nice hot shower in these climes.

I had the fishing line out but had the most typical result of no fish. We did see plenty of sea birds including a few of the tiny blue penguins that frequent these waters.

We arrived at our intended destination, Mansion House Bay in Kawau Island, by mid afternoon. Although we’d motored all the way it was very pleasant with slight seas and sunshine all the way. Kawau Island is very pretty and made for a nice arrival.

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When we dropped the sails Helen noticed they were damaged where the batons occasionally rub against the shroud. Alarmingly so. This will ultimately need a proper repair but for now we’ve put two layers of sail patch over the problem areas. Our starboard shroud cover has some rough patches which may be the cause so I’m going to have to go up in the bosun’s chair and cut those sections out. Bit of a bummer as I’d hoped we got all the repairs behind us now. Looking back I now wish we’d inspected our sails much sooner and had the sails sorted out while we were in Whangarei. All lessons learned.

Today we plan to visit the Mansion we’re anchored off and go for a walk along the DOC administered walking trails here.

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The Hauraki Gulf

Providence

Race Day

A nice hike on Kawau Island

Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island