Whangarei Town Basin Marina

We’re back in town. Low tide was at noon so we waited until nearly 2pm before leaving our cold anchorage at the head of the river. This meant we had the advantage of the incoming tide to help us up the river. It also meant we might just have the clearance over the mud on the side of the river by the dock. As we squeezed into the dock we did get stuck in the mud right by ‘Let It Be’, the Belgian boat that has been here since last year. We ended up chatting while we wait for the river to float us off the mud.

Docking was a breeze – literally as the 10 knot breeze pushed us sideways onto the dock with very little effort. We had a few helpers catch lines for us and soon we were tied. Brian, the marina manager, was soon over and warmly welcoming us back to Whangarei. He helped us move the boat forward a little before we fully secured our lines so that another boat could squeeze in behind us later on.

We soon bumped into Amy, Dan and the kids from Division II who we’d completely managed to miss in Fiji bar one radio contact as they left. Eager to catch up we stood around in the cold chatting before arranging dinner together on Wednesday.

Being in town we decided to eat out. We ended up at the Aroma Indian restaurant and stuffed ourselves. I was filled with that odd sensation of totally knowing my way around, something that we’re just not used to after 3 years of travel.

We now have 9 days in Whangarei before we come out of the water. We need some exercise so I reckon we’re going to be up and down the hill a few times.