Goodbye, Hello

On Sunday we got to say goodbye to some friends and hello to friends we’ve recently shared last and final farewells.

The goodbyes went to Imagine, Passages and Boree who were among a number of boats who made the decision to head north yesterday.  When I’d looked at my sources of weather information all I saw was two days of motoring followed by winds on the nose.  The problem is there is more than one source for the weather and certainly more than one brain looking and interpreting them.  We all have different needs, boats and preferences and all this adds up to a decision to stay or go.  A bit of the radio chatter as the boats left made it sound like they were riding off into a rough ride.  I hope, for their sake, they’re not.  But sooner or later we all go.

Paul made his planned return to Auckland.  We walked with him to the bus stop and waited with him.  Once he’d left we wandered around the hilltop roads and made our way down to the coast path that connects Pahia to Opua.  We soon ran into David and Marian from Kilkea and stopped to chat with them.  Sooner after that we ran into the Blue Penguins who we’d recently said our final, final last goodbyes to as they were headed to New Caledonia.  They were going our way so we walked with them back to Opua.  Ben, like me, is fascinated with the whole mentality of the departure decision and wants to write something up on it.

In the evening we had David and Katie from Troutbridge, Kay and Fergus from Paleides (another recent last, final, never again farewell) and Mike and Ann from Callisto over for curry and a few drops of wine.  It ended up being a late one for all and, as ever, a good time was had by all.  And guess what the recurring theme was last night.

The weather.

So what’s it looking like for us now.

The Thursday/Friday opportunity still stands and is now favouring a Thursday afternoon departure.  There’s a trough/front coming over and we simply take off right behind it where we can expect northwesterlies or even westerly winds for a few days.  I’ve morbidly played around with a possible departure tomorrow (Tuesday) riding the northeasterlies up to the north of New Zealand and then sail the following northerlies eastward.  We’d then have to take the coming front out at sea.  I would probably lose favours with the Admiral if I chose that path.

Fiji-itus should be a recognized disease.  Sooner or later the prospect of another day in Opua basin crushes the spirit and the pull of the islands overcomes every other need of mind and body.  I suspect we saw an outbreak yesterday.  But I can feel it in my fingers (they’re cold).  I may be going down with it too.