Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

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.

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.

Shortly after our successful sea (river) trial David and Marian from Kilkea showed up for a brief visit. We decided to eat lunch at Reva’s overlooking the river. Having overfed ourselves to only option was to walk it all off so we decided to take the river hike up to Whangarei Falls.

The weather was very pleasant as was the company. We always enjoy the David and Marian’s company. They’re leaving for Australia within the next few months and this may be our last meeting for a while. There is a possibility we’ll get together for the departure of the Volvo round the world ocean race departure on the 18th. We have to get our heads around finishing off our work and getting out of here first.

On the walk back David and I opted for the diversion to the top of the 787ft hill overlooking the town and river. The ladies shirked out of this minor exercise heading straight for the boat and a cold bottle of wine. In the end David and I were not far behind and nor were the cold beers which were well earned.

Beating the Sunday night special offer turnover we paid a visit to the local supermarket to add to our growing supplies of wine for our cruise up to the islands.

Helen wanted to finish off watching the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. Not my thing so it was back to the XBox for me for a couple of hours diversion.

We finished the day having hot showers aboard using the water heated up via the heat exchanger from the port engine. Nice.

It’s now Monday and the weekend is over. Back to work for us. It’s still early and cold outside so we have the generator on to do a wash and have the A/C set to provide warmth.

I for one am looking forward to our return to Fiji.