Back on the Hook

We are back where we should be – on the hook as we explore anchorages in New Zealand. What a transition to go from the yard, to Town Basin Marina, to a relatively busy though beautifully quiet anchorage. As we made our way out of town, cruising friends came out to wave from their boats, wishing us well. Approaching the mouth of the river we passed a commercial fishing boat we knew from our time in the yard. They remembered us too and opened the wheelhouse door to wave as we passed on the river. Our first night at anchor we spent in Urquharts Bay, at the mouth of the Hatea River approximately 20 nautical miles down river from Whangarei. We both kept whispering to each other “it’s so quiet here.” We had favorable wind conditions to sail north over the next two days. Seas were a bit rough our first day out – though I expect any seas would have felt rough given how accustomed we had become to dock life. We bounced north under jib only with the waves crashing on the beam to anchor in Mimiwhangata Bay. We had anchored there for a few nights back in November on our cruise south. It’s a large crescent bay with a beautiful sandy beach. We had the place to ourselves. The next day we set out to round Cape Brett and return to the Bay of Islands. Seas had calmed a bit and winds had died down. We had a fast and fun sail under genoa only – the first time flying our new 145% lighter-weight genoa. It preformed great! We had a few moments of excitement when a squall caught us, right as we were squeezing between Cape Brett and the Hole in the Rock island. Winds gusted to at least 32 knots (up from about 15) as we battled to reef the genoa as fast as possible. Talk about knocking off the cobwebs and remembering how to sail!

We anchored in Deep Water Cove – a place we had anchored a few times before with friends aboard and on our own. Time to knock off more cobwebs by diving again! We returned to the Canterbury Wreck dive site, pulling out our dive gear for the first time since having it all serviced back in February. We wanted to be sure to get at least one more dive in here in NZ just in case there were any problems with the gear post-servicing. This can happen and we wanted to find out now where it is easier to get things fixed than out off some remote tropical island. Good news, gear was all working great, and the wreck was fantastic. The wreck is dotted with bright orange and purple cup corals. We spotted a group of packhorse lobster (the largest lobster in the world) hanging around the stern, plus snapper, scorpionfish, bigeyes, red moki, and leatherjackets. We were able to enter the wheelhouse and various other cavities cut out specifically for divers to explore. It was a short dive, given our maximum depth of around 90 feet, but well worth the effort. It wasn’t particularly cold, but also not particularly warm (18C/65F). It will be nice to shed some neoprene layers once we get back up to the tropics!

Over the past few weeks we’ve been visiting some new anchorages here in the Bay and returning to some old favorites. We visited Motuarohia again and hiked the short trail to the lookout, and spent time visiting Pahia and Kokorareka (Russell) again. There are so many nice restaurants and historic sites in these towns. We visited the old Catholic mission with the oldest printing press on the island that has printed exclusively in the Maori language. They still bind notebooks there, using the old leather making techniques, but no longer print Catholic books since it is no longer a mission (they don’t have the copyrights as a result). We spent a few nights anchored off Moturua Island, a new favorite for us. We hiked the trail around the island and ran into some Department of Conservation workers collecting data. There has been a long, ongoing effort, to make the Bay of Islands pest free to protect birds. About a month prior, they caught a rat in one of the traps on the island. As a result, they conduct more frequent monitoring to ensure that the one rat was not part of a group. They showed us an ink tracker they use as one of their tools. It’s a long piece of sturdy white paper with a large black ink block in the middle. They put a dab of peanut butter in the middle of the ink and leave the paper out in the forest. Anything that goes in for a bite of peanut butter gets marked with ink and as it walks away it leaves its prints behind on the white paper. The ink tracker below shows tiny skink footprints as well as the thin line left by the skink’s tail. Skinks are a natural part of the island ecosystem and not a threat to the birds at all. We spotted endemic tui and fantails, and multiple rare threatened North Island saddelbacks. The saddlebacks were nearly extinct due primarily to predators such as rats, and were reintroduced to the island in 2015. The DOC staff also told us that it is kiwi mating season, meaning they are particularly loud at night as they call out for a mate. We sat in the cockpit about an hour after sunset and listened to the kiwis calling each other. It’s a particularly loud shrill call, and it was enchanting. Moturua Island was also home to Maoris for a very long time. Significant cultural and historical artifacts have been found and are still found as shorelines shift and hills erode. In recognition of this history, a carved pole was erected on the beach where the primary settlement was located.

Our timing in the Bay of Islands lined up perfectly with an exciting international sailing event. The Solo Trans-Tasman Race started in Opua at noon on May 30th. The Tasman Sea is renowned as one of the roughest patches of ocean out there. The skippers in this race are alone on their boats, dealing with whatever weather and boat mishaps that may hit them along the roughly 1200 nautical mile course from Opua, New Zealand to Southport, Australia. We hopped into our dinghy and floated around the edge of the channel as the racers sped by a few miles after the starting line. It was a gloriously warm day with good headwinds. The first out of the gate was a trimaran, speeding so far ahead of the others that we wondered if anyone else was still in the race. The multihulls started the race 6 minutes before the monohulls. Shortly after the tri and catamaran passed us, we saw the crowd of 15 monohulls. Cheering for all 17 boats with solo skippers as they headed out to sea was really fun, and has us excited to head out ourselves. Already, only 3 days into the race, 3 boats have turned around due to taking on water, exhaustion in rough conditions, and engine and sail failures. If you’re interested, you can follow the remaining 14 racers and read updates here: https://www.boatingnz.co.nz/category/sport/sailing-sport/solo-trans-tasman-yacht-challenge/

We’re appreciative for the extra time in New Zealand as we wait for a weather window. It has been good to sail and anchor again. We’ve figured out little mistakes we made or things we forgot when we put the boat back together after all the projects. One important thing we’ve worked through is how to position the dinghy davit with the hydrovane installed. The big red vane needs space to sway in order to steer the boat and the davit blocks it. At anchor, we had time to sort out an adjustment to the davit position so we can use our hydrovane if needed. We rarely use it, mostly just for practice so we know how to use it if needed. However we still consider the hydrovane to be a vital piece of offshore equipment. If our electric autopilot fails (and it has before) or something goes wrong with the whole electric system, we have this power-free mechanical autopilot that uses the power of the wind to steer the boat. We have friends who conserve energy and use their hydrovane almost exclusively for offshore passages. A few random things broke, such as a knob falling off the oven gimble lock, and the center mesh strainer bits falling out of the galley sink faucet. After finding the oven knob on the ground, we first had to figure out what it was. Once we crossed that hurdle it was easy to reinstall and tighten so it doesn’t happen again. As the sink faucet slowly dropped pieces into the sink we looked at options for replacements. At one point, the water was shooting out sideways. Finally, once all the center pieces completely fell out, the water flowed normally again straight down. For now, the faucet has fixed itself. Perhaps in a year or so we’ll look into replacing it. We used the indoor shower for the first time in over a year, and Kris found a spider in the teak floor drain, clearly unhappy that we were using the shower again. We’ve also been keeping a close eye on our engine. It’s working fine, however some days it appears we have a coolant leak. We have not seen any drips or other external indications of a leak. However the translucent expansion tank shows that some days after motoring the coolant level is lower than other days. We’re trying to sort out whether this was simply from air in the system after changing the coolant slowly working its way out, or due to different ambient temperatures impacting the volume of coolant, or from a leak. We’re leaning towards thinking its air in the system and changing ambient temperatures, but it’s hard to be certain. We’ll continue to keep an eye on it. We also had an interesting event occur with the watermaker. We managed to pop off the overpressure valve! We were increasing the water flow pressure within the system when we heard a pop, and then found water flowing into our bilge. Thankfully it was an easy fix. All we needed to do was re-tighten a bolt. Back in business making water and sending it to the water tanks instead of the bilge. It’s nice when problems have easy solutions. While in Deep Water Cove and already dressed in our thick wetsuits, we snorkelled the hull to check out our Copper Coat. We were astonished at how well it works. We sat still at the marina in Whangarei for nearly 4 weeks, which is a perfect recipe for bottom growth. We had none. Our hull is just as smooth and copper-y as when we were sitting high and dry in the yard. It feels really good to have our hard work and large financial investment paying off. We’ll obviously keep monitoring and get some pictures to share on a future snorkel. From a physical perspective, it feels very good to be on a moving boat again. Getting used to moving around the boat while everything else is moving around is important. We will be much more able to function when we head out to sea than if we had motored out of the river, departed NZ, and sailed directly into 2-3 meter seas for a week-long passage. Its great to get the sea legs back and in such a beautiful place.

Next Stops: Checking out of the country in Opua (maybe soon), then Minerva Reef (if weather allows), then Fiji!