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| Auckland in sight |
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| Rangitoto |
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| Couldn't ask for a better sunset on a journey |
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Last Leg
Tuesday 05/07 – Tuesday 12/07/2011
Over the last week we have been quite happy to be stuck in port with strong westerly and north westerly winds and lots of bouts of heavy rain showers. The whole country has been experiencing this horrible weather and the weather maps are quite a sight with isobars packed closely together and weather systems that wont move away.
We have not been bored as we have had a number of visitors. We have enjoyed catching up again with the Gwillam family who we first met in Whakatane and whose family had owned Gunner in her days as a fishing vessel. It has been great to hear of the various stories remembered by Jenny, her sister in law Pam who was Noel’s daughter through to his granddaughter and grandson. Pam used to go out on Gunner on fishing trips with her dad so had very vivid and happy memories of these times. Someone else remembered the story of a flying fish coming in through a porthole and landing up in the frying pan where dinner was being fried up.
We have also been well looked after by the Horns who have lent us a car. We enjoyed a night at their home on Friday along with Ron and Linda.
Sunday 17/07/2011
Eventually we are on our way home after twelve days of atrocious weather which we sat out in Tauranga. We kept ourselves amused with drives around the area thanks to Martins car, visited a museum with a lot of vintage and interesting old airplanes and on Friday drove up to Rotorua for a visit to the Patchell offices.
Saturday was looking good for departure and after going out for breakfast with Ian and Caroline and then dropping the car back to Martin and Cec’s we packed all the loose stuff away that gets scattered around in port, filled the water tanks and left the marina at midday.
We could not have picked a better day with a calm sea and light breeze. By the time we were half way up Matakana Island we had the mainsail up and the breeze strengthened to about 20 knots of south westerly which was fine as it was on our stern quarter. We put the anchor down in Boat Harbour just after dark and spent a calm night in this picturesque bay.
We woke up early this morning to a stunning sunrise and a flat sea. Today was even better than yesterday and we didn’t get very far before we decided to do a spot of fishing. The fishing is not as good as Fiordland but we managed to get a couple of snapper for our dinner before moving on. We chugged slowly northwards past Hot Water Beach – an interesting beach where hordes of people bathe in any weather by digging holes in the sand which fill up with hot thermal water.
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Crossing Mercury Bay we were visited by five or so dolphins that cruised alongside and at our bow for a quarter hour in clear blue water and welcome sunshine.
We tried fishing again around the area known as Hole in the Wall with no luck and then continued up the Coromandel Peninsula as far as Port Charles. As it has been such a stunning day we didn’t feel like rushing back to Auckland and why hurry at this stage!
We are anchored for probably our final night of this seven month voyage in a beautiful spot with magnificent views out to Great Barrier Island. At 8.30pm we tuned in to Bluff Fishermans Radio and spoke to Meri for the last time to thank her for the wonderful attention and service she has provided us, keeping us in touch with the weather and making sure we were safe.
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It is not a bad way to end what has been an awesome, exciting, at times scary and always fascinating adventure.
Monday 18/07/2011
1200 - Cape Colville
This is it - the final run to home.
Tune in another day when we will give you some facts and figures from the trip and will load a whole lot more photos when we have a decent broadband connection again.
Over the last week we have been quite happy to be stuck in port with strong westerly and north westerly winds and lots of bouts of heavy rain showers. The whole country has been experiencing this horrible weather and the weather maps are quite a sight with isobars packed closely together and weather systems that wont move away.
We have not been bored as we have had a number of visitors. We have enjoyed catching up again with the Gwillam family who we first met in Whakatane and whose family had owned Gunner in her days as a fishing vessel. It has been great to hear of the various stories remembered by Jenny, her sister in law Pam who was Noel’s daughter through to his granddaughter and grandson. Pam used to go out on Gunner on fishing trips with her dad so had very vivid and happy memories of these times. Someone else remembered the story of a flying fish coming in through a porthole and landing up in the frying pan where dinner was being fried up.
We have also been well looked after by the Horns who have lent us a car. We enjoyed a night at their home on Friday along with Ron and Linda.
Sunday 17/07/2011
Eventually we are on our way home after twelve days of atrocious weather which we sat out in Tauranga. We kept ourselves amused with drives around the area thanks to Martins car, visited a museum with a lot of vintage and interesting old airplanes and on Friday drove up to Rotorua for a visit to the Patchell offices.
Saturday was looking good for departure and after going out for breakfast with Ian and Caroline and then dropping the car back to Martin and Cec’s we packed all the loose stuff away that gets scattered around in port, filled the water tanks and left the marina at midday.
We could not have picked a better day with a calm sea and light breeze. By the time we were half way up Matakana Island we had the mainsail up and the breeze strengthened to about 20 knots of south westerly which was fine as it was on our stern quarter. We put the anchor down in Boat Harbour just after dark and spent a calm night in this picturesque bay.
We woke up early this morning to a stunning sunrise and a flat sea. Today was even better than yesterday and we didn’t get very far before we decided to do a spot of fishing. The fishing is not as good as Fiordland but we managed to get a couple of snapper for our dinner before moving on. We chugged slowly northwards past Hot Water Beach – an interesting beach where hordes of people bathe in any weather by digging holes in the sand which fill up with hot thermal water.
We tried fishing again around the area known as Hole in the Wall with no luck and then continued up the Coromandel Peninsula as far as Port Charles. As it has been such a stunning day we didn’t feel like rushing back to Auckland and why hurry at this stage!
We are anchored for probably our final night of this seven month voyage in a beautiful spot with magnificent views out to Great Barrier Island. At 8.30pm we tuned in to Bluff Fishermans Radio and spoke to Meri for the last time to thank her for the wonderful attention and service she has provided us, keeping us in touch with the weather and making sure we were safe.
Monday 18/07/2011
1200 - Cape Colville
This is it - the final run to home.
Tune in another day when we will give you some facts and figures from the trip and will load a whole lot more photos when we have a decent broadband connection again.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Gisborne to Tauranga
Saturday 02/07/2011
The wind howled all last night from the south and was still blowing well this morning so we went for a walk up town, had some lunch, listened to the forecast, went for another walk and decided the best time to leave would be around 4 in the morning so that we reach East Cape in daylight (much nicer if you can see where the waves are coming from) and reach Tauranga on Monday morning before more high winds reach the area on Monday night.
On our walk along the wharf area we found another monument which is at the spot where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand on 8 October 1769. You cannot go far in this country without finding some place that has historical reference to Cook.
Having had an early Chinese take-away meal we will have an early night in preparation for the start at some ungodly hour.
Sunday 03/07 – Monday 04/07/2011
Awake at 3am and out of the harbour by 4.15 we were pleased to find that the swell in the bay had died down considerably and we along with a couple of fishing boats headed out into the darkness. We were soon on our own as the fishing boats were heading out further offshore while we made our way around the shallow areas at the northern end of Poverty Bay before turning north.
As we neared the Cape there was a distinct line of change in the colour of the sea from deep blue to a milky green around the Cape which we had also noticed on the way south. By 3.30 we were heading westward into the first spot of sunlight seen that day but it was short lived and the swell from the south east on this leg of the journey got larger along with a strengthening easterly wind.
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The night was unbroken by any moonlight and seemed to stretch on forever like this stretch of water across the Bay of Plenty. Around 1.30 in the morning we were abeam White Island, an active volcano which is constantly emitting steam, but the pitch black night didn’t offer us even an outline of the 320 metre high island from a couple of miles off although I think I got a whiff or two of its sulphurous breath.
The wind howled all last night from the south and was still blowing well this morning so we went for a walk up town, had some lunch, listened to the forecast, went for another walk and decided the best time to leave would be around 4 in the morning so that we reach East Cape in daylight (much nicer if you can see where the waves are coming from) and reach Tauranga on Monday morning before more high winds reach the area on Monday night.
On our walk along the wharf area we found another monument which is at the spot where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand on 8 October 1769. You cannot go far in this country without finding some place that has historical reference to Cook.
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| Peter and James (Cook) |
Sunday 03/07 – Monday 04/07/2011
Awake at 3am and out of the harbour by 4.15 we were pleased to find that the swell in the bay had died down considerably and we along with a couple of fishing boats headed out into the darkness. We were soon on our own as the fishing boats were heading out further offshore while we made our way around the shallow areas at the northern end of Poverty Bay before turning north.
A very grey dawn appeared before we reached Gable End foreland which is an impressive white cliff face. It appears that the end of the cliff has been sheared off and fallen into the sea leaving a grassy top and white limestone face. A south easterly swell gave us a reasonably comfortable ride up to East Cape which we rounded at about 3pm.
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| East Cape and East Island |
As we neared the Cape there was a distinct line of change in the colour of the sea from deep blue to a milky green around the Cape which we had also noticed on the way south. By 3.30 we were heading westward into the first spot of sunlight seen that day but it was short lived and the swell from the south east on this leg of the journey got larger along with a strengthening easterly wind.
To add to the enjoyment of being tossed around in a washing machine sea for endless hours, at about 3am we had the fun of realising that the automatic bilge pumps had stopped working and an inspection of the rear bilge caused a moments panic. Water was up to the floorboards and Pete was quickly at work with the manual pump. It took about 10 minutes of pumping to empty the bilge and then an anxious watch through the rest of the night to see if the water was continuing to come in. It turned out that water was coming through the rudder shaft seal and as there was no way to fix it while underway we had to manually pump the bilge every half hour for the rest of the trip. Thank goodness for a manual back up system otherwise we could have been calling for help!
It was 7 in the morning before daylight set in and we were very happy to reach the Bridge Marina by 9.30 and fall into a shower and then have a good sleep.
We were definitely feeling better when Ian and Caroline arrived at the boat later in the afternoon with a couple of bottles of red wine and then took us out for a tasty Thai dinner.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Napier and Gisborne
Thursday 23/06 – Sunday 26/06/2011
So far we have enjoyed being in Napier again but it looks like we will be stuck for a few more days to come. The forecast is all over the place but with anything from 35 to 50 knots of Southwesterlies we will wait here a little longer.
Having found out that a friend who we had not seen since our days living in Wellington was now living just outside of Napier we made contact and enjoyed catching up on about 10 years of news. Charmayne is an artist and she took us to see her home/studio/workshop where she creates wonderful jewellery as well as holding classes. We enjoyed a drive around the bay towards Cape Kidnappers and lunch of magnificent seafood chowder at the Clifton café on the beach.
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Monday 27/06 – Tuesday 27/06/2011
After lunch we fuelled up the boat and headed out of Napier harbour into Hawke Bay. This is an enormous bay and it took about 7 hours to arrive at the northern entrance to the bay. The swells rolling across the bay were large but there was little wind so the sea conditions were fair. We rounded Portland Island off Mahia Peninsula at dark and had an reasonably good trip up the coast to Poverty Bay, Gisborne where we made the decision to go into Gisborne rather than try to reach East Cape before a forecasted Sou-easterly front that would make rounding the Cape unpleasant the next day.
We punched into a 20knot head wind across Poverty Bay and arrived into Gisborne harbour at around 3am and found our way into a vacant berth at the marina for some sleep. We have found that these single overnight legs of the voyage seem to take more out of us, probably because we don’t get into a set watch rhythm and just take snatches of sleep during the night.
Wednesday 28/06 – Friday 01/07/2011
In between bouts of showers and the strong winds that have prevailed over the last few days, we have walked the streets and shops of Gisborne. During a walk along the waterfront where the swells were smashing over the harbour seawall and up the beach, we were glad that we had made the decision to come into the port rather than battle the big seas up the East coast.
We have decided that it is looking okay for leaving tomorrow although there could still be quite large swells evidenced by the fact that a large log carrier ship postponed their departure out of the harbour at the last minute by 24 hours due to high swells still running.
Next stop Tauranga.
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| Gunner at the Napier Sailing Club |
Having found out that a friend who we had not seen since our days living in Wellington was now living just outside of Napier we made contact and enjoyed catching up on about 10 years of news. Charmayne is an artist and she took us to see her home/studio/workshop where she creates wonderful jewellery as well as holding classes. We enjoyed a drive around the bay towards Cape Kidnappers and lunch of magnificent seafood chowder at the Clifton café on the beach.
Monday 27/06 – Tuesday 27/06/2011
After lunch we fuelled up the boat and headed out of Napier harbour into Hawke Bay. This is an enormous bay and it took about 7 hours to arrive at the northern entrance to the bay. The swells rolling across the bay were large but there was little wind so the sea conditions were fair. We rounded Portland Island off Mahia Peninsula at dark and had an reasonably good trip up the coast to Poverty Bay, Gisborne where we made the decision to go into Gisborne rather than try to reach East Cape before a forecasted Sou-easterly front that would make rounding the Cape unpleasant the next day.
We punched into a 20knot head wind across Poverty Bay and arrived into Gisborne harbour at around 3am and found our way into a vacant berth at the marina for some sleep. We have found that these single overnight legs of the voyage seem to take more out of us, probably because we don’t get into a set watch rhythm and just take snatches of sleep during the night.
Wednesday 28/06 – Friday 01/07/2011
In between bouts of showers and the strong winds that have prevailed over the last few days, we have walked the streets and shops of Gisborne. During a walk along the waterfront where the swells were smashing over the harbour seawall and up the beach, we were glad that we had made the decision to come into the port rather than battle the big seas up the East coast.
We have decided that it is looking okay for leaving tomorrow although there could still be quite large swells evidenced by the fact that a large log carrier ship postponed their departure out of the harbour at the last minute by 24 hours due to high swells still running.
Next stop Tauranga.
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