09/11/2007, Bay of Islands
This is the most rain we've had for 1˝ yrs and we have our first lot of visitors on board Volaré who aren't family since we took delivery of the boat. Alan and Robyn Seale are our neighbours from Drummoyne, Sydney, both sailors, so they know what it's all about. They really wanted to come to the Bay of Islands as they'd been here over 20 years ago and had loved it. Robyn said she re read her diary recently about that previous trip and her comment then was that they'd love to come back again to the area but do it on a yacht, and here they are.
The only problem is the rain started the morning Alan and Robyn arrived and really hasn't stopped since. It hasn't stopped us getting out into the Bay and going to some of the really spectacular anchorages and seeing the very pretty countryside along the way. Lots of rolling green hills that you could feel you could walk forever (except it's raining), tracks to spectacular lookouts over the Bay and the surrounding areas (except its pouring).
First day we headed over to explore the quaint little town of Russell and had breakfast ashore in a little seaside café. After a rainy night on board, where we were all cosy inside with candles keeping us warm, we headed out to Roberton Island. After overnighting there, we decided with the rain we needed a diversion (ie. shops) so headed across towards Kerikeri.
We pulled into Kerikeri Marina and decided to stay the night, as the yacht club was serving dinner that night and chef Debbie wouldn't have to cook. After tying up in the pouring rain, we all ventured to the Marina office and booked a taxi to take us into the little town of Kerikeri. The Taxi driver was an ex-cruiser who had ended up his cruising life in the area and just fell in love with it as you would. It is just so pretty. On the way into town we passed the oldest standing house in New Zealand and the Stone Store, The house was established in 1819 by the Church Missionary Society and was the sole survivor of the Musket Wars of the 1820's. The house and the nearby Stone Store were built to house the Rev John Butler in 1821-1822. Both right built beside the waters edge, so a very pretty setting.
Wednesday, Nov 7th: Hurrah, the sun is shining, we are sailing in a very pleasant 10 knots of breeze through the Bay to we don't know where and at last some nice weather for Alan and Robyn's last two days on the boat.
Whilst heading down the bay, trying to look for an anchorage in southerly winds, we had a call from friends on their charter yacht Phantom saying they were in a bay behind Moturoa and it was a great southerly anchorage. If we got there in the next hour before they left, they would pass over a bucket of fresh green lipped mussels. Without delay we changed course and headed there. Fascinating anchorage, quite different scenery to what we had been used to around the Bay because of these black rocks circling the anchorage. Phantom guided us in between the scary looking black rocks and we anchored in this very protected bay. Rick was over in the next few minutes with our bucket of mussels. Last night with the bay all to ourselves, we feasted on a fantastic meal of spicy seafood bouillabaisse, which I served with freshly baked bread, straight out of the oven. Yum!!!!
This morning (Friday Nov 9th), it was a walk ashore with all the sheep, then we tried to collect more mussels, but failed dismally. Rick had the touch. Now as we head back to Opua, we feel the week has gone too quickly, Alan and Robyn leave tomorrow to Auckland then back to Sydney on Sunday, having the boating experience on the Bay that they had pictured 20 years before.
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20/10/2007
LOOK IN THE PHOTO GALLERY UNDER MUSKET COVE AND FIJI TO NEW ZEALAND PASSAGE FOR UPDATED PHOTOS!!
Zoom in on google earth and see this very picturesque area. We're here safe and sound but at the end of the trip we were out there in a gale warning, rushing in before a big southerley hit. Our other friends are out there in it BUT we spoke to them on the radio last night and all is well on board their boats.
It's freezing,here in Opua, New Zealand 5.2 deg outside and 11.5 deg inside the boat at 5:30am, the day yesterday was glorious though AND it's absolutely wonderful to be here. It's a long weekend in New Zealand AND it's "The Coastal Classic Yacht Race" from Auckland to Russell, so a couple of hundred boats are going to converge on the area.
We arrived Thursday night at 10pm, spot on Greg's ETA he set 2 days before, but have been a bit too busy getting the lay of the land to write. what we've seen so far of the Bay of Islands is simply stunning, so looking forward to exploring more.
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16/10/2007
It's 4am and it's my watch. Watch systems are very nice at night with three of us on board, doing 3 hours each.
Jim's daughter Alana - 13 years old, sent an email as she was so excited when she got home yesterday, read our email, went into Google earth, phoned her Mum and said I've worked it all out and they've landed. Sadly we had to email back and say not quite and that we were at that stage still far away from New Zealand, and that maybe it looked closer to her on Google earth and the map on our blog. At that stage we still had 288 miles to go to Opua NZ.
We expect to get in early hours on Friday 19th. We have to all stay on board till Customs. Immigration and Quarantine check the yacht and throw out all the food that we should have eaten. This is the most thorough going over we will have had on our whole trip. We're trying to eat it all but brother Jim is a really light eater, so not sure we'll get it all eaten. We may have to throw out quite a bit in the way of pasta, lentils, rice, a little bit of left over frozen meat (we will endeavor to eat it). Incredible, even though, we haven't lived together for many years, brother Jim and myself I mean, I have managed to provision for and have cooked some of Jim's favourite meals (or so he says). Hot corned beef with white spicy sauce, spaghetti (although it's been macaroni as it's easier to eat with just a spoon on board) and meat sauce. Yesterday we had fried rice for lunch with pappadams. Greg's request, made with the stock of the corned beef I made. I put spicy chorizo sausages in the fried rice, so it was a Debbie special, nice and spicy. Tonight Crumbed Chicken, home made with spicy mashed potatoes and sweet and sour cabbage. As well as hot crusty bread made from scratch, fruit cake and banana cake. So we're eating very well, I must say. The boats behind us will have probably lost weight as some of the crews have been suffering from mal de mer.
We've been in contact with and checked in with Russell Radio NZ the whole trip in the mornings and the early evening as well as talking twice a day with our other cruising friends out here on "Southern Star", "Pina Colada" and "Adelia" has checked in once. They're all about 500 miles behind us as they left after us. There are a few other boats out here closer to us that check in with Russell Radio but we don't really know them, we just saw them on departure. So that's all very nice to chat to others whilst you're out here and make sure people know where we are. There's also a few of our pals still left in Fiji that call us to check on us as well. Also they are getting ready to leave themselves so are keen to know our conditions. This is supposed to be the worst or most difficult passage of our whole trip BUT I shouldn't speak to soon, so far so good. Apparently there is a southerly to hit on the 18th though of between 25 - 30 knots, so we'll see if we hove too or if "Volare" can handle that and we're sure she can we'll just keep going. (THE ABOVE PIC WAS ADDED AFTER OUR ARRIVAL IN NZ, AND AFTER THE SOUTHERLY HIT - WE PUNCHED INTO THIS FOR THE REMAINING 24 HOURS INTO OPUA)
The temperature is now down to 17 deg but it was 16 deg at the coldest yesterday. Greg and I are feeling it more than Jim, of course and we're all rugged up. I must say it does feel strange having clothes on after all the tropical weather we've had. Nice not to feel sweaty actually.
The night moves on, it's Midnight start of Oct 17th; and we have absolutely no wind out here. We didn't expect this and have been motoring for quite a few hours and don't have enough diesel to keep motoring. Earlier in the trip we were motoring, of course to charge the batteries and heat up the water tank but also, to get us back on course as we were too far west.. So just a wee mistake, we should have put more diesel on board but we really didn't think we needed it because we thought that we'd get too much wind, therefore no need to motor, only for charging purposes.
UPDATE: It's 4am early hours of Wed 17th and we have wind again, wind came up again about 2:30am just a couple of hours before the weather grib files said it would. They've been pretty spot on actually. Now wind is WSW about 13 knots true, very nice and flat seas, we're doing a very pleasant 5.5 to 6+ knots. The wind vane is steering us, so we're not using any power, I'm still on watch, well that's why I'm sitting here writing this blog. Boys are sound asleep and the waves are lapping on the side of the boat and my little timer says I have 10 more minutes till it buzzes me and tells me I have to go up in the cold and check on everything that's happening with "Volare".........255 more miles to go!!!!!
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