Day 4 - Bay of Islands

The following day, in zero wind, and lots of sun, we decided to head to Urapukupku island, just a short motor away.  We pulled in to Paradise bay, which as the name would suggest, is another jewel in the Bay of islands. Hot and sunny, by the time we got there, it was good to go for another swim, pump up the paddleboard, and go exploring.

There were a good couple of mini islands and reef at the north end, so stroked my way over there, and checked it out, before heading back for lunch.  By mid afternoon, we had the first signs of some wind, so we setup, and sailed out, heading back to Russell for supplies and water, and New years eve. An easy 2 hour sail, reaching downwind, full main and jib in 15 knots, still with a easterly swell to our stern. When we arrived Russell was packed with boats.  We checked out the bay around the corner, also packed with boats, tenders everywhere, then decided to go an find a spot super close to the beach and pub.  We found a spot next to another trailer sailer (a Merlin 20) , and right in front of the Duke of Marlbrough pub !

The beach bottom was unfortunately loose pebbles, so our anchor did not hold very well, and after 3 attempts, and drifting close to other moorings, someone on the beach saw our plight, and offered us their mooring for the night which happened to be right next to us!

Now we could relax, and enjoy the evening, dinner, and some alcohol from the local 4 square, delivered by myself via our paddleboard tender!
Didn't quite make it to midnight, due to exhaustion, but Eileen woke me up in time..!

Day 3 - Bay of Islands

Next day, we sailed on a reach, downwind across open water, 1 metre swell across our sides, and throught gap between Moutrua and Motukiekie islands. Full sail and normal jib were the call. The wind went from 10 knots, from a NW direction, to 20 by the time we were half way across the stretch of water. By the time we reached the gap in the rocks between the islands, we were sailing at 6.5 knots, surfing up to 8.5 knots ! Not a bad turn of speed for a old trailer sailer, without a spinnaker up !

We pulled into Waiwhapuku bay, and decided it was a great spot to spend the night.Amazingly clear water, could see the anchor and chain on the bottom in 3m of water, approx 10m visibility when I went for a snorkle ! Lunch, a walk up to the top to take a couple of pictures, then an evening of reading and sleep.

 

 

 

Day 2 - Bay of islands adventure

Sailed back to Russell for supplies. Hot and sunny..

Was to be an easy day today, sailing up to Moturoa island, and through Kent passage from Russell. We had a good run, but with increasing wind on the nose, we were forced to pull into a very nice bay on the western side of Kents passage, and reef the sails. We decided it had picked up enough to have two reefs and the storm jib up.  Once we were sailing through the passage, we found it perfect, as we trucked upwind and once out of the passage, found we had good 5 knots of speed upwind, and as we got further up towards Purerua Peninsula, we could see the bay where Kerikeri cruising club is to the west and Wairoa bay to the right.  We stayed in Wairoa for the night, around 10 other boats.

Day 1 - Bay of Islands adventure

We packed up the boat, and trailered it up to Opua, Bay of islands on the 28th December.  We arrived in the evening around 6pm after battling holiday traffic, and taking the less hilly route, via Mangawhai and Waipu cove. Approx 260km, with a fuel economy of a miserable 15mpg !!

Opua Marina, in the early evening

Looking across Opua from the Opua cruising club.

We refuelled at Piahia, filled up both our petrol tanks for the outboard, and then headed back to Opua for a fantastically huge meal at the Opua cruising club, overlooking the water, and then slept on the boat, while on the trailer. Next morning was a super sunny day, and we wasted no time finishing rigging up and getting going.  The tide was dropping, and the forecast was for a stormy night..

We motored over to Piahia, then after studying our map, set sail, in increasing rain, for Motuarohia island (Robertson island).  The rain soon cleared, and then it was super sunny and humid again. We checked out Lagoon bay, but motored back to stay in Cooks cove for the afternoon, but it was very wavey, and had frequent visits by tour boats.  Not recommended as an anchorage ! We stayed in Cook cove till after dark, and just about asleep, but rocking around, possibly due to swell refracting around the island.  I took the brave/stupid move of pulling anchor, and motoring around to Lagoon bay navigating by GPS in the darkness.  What followed was a drama which started at midnight, with us dragging our anchor, and drifting out of the bay at almost 3 knots towing our anchor. Made a VHF call to the coast guard to discuss our dilemma, (not a mayday but a securite call) and I pulled the anchor up and motored back into the bay, with very poor visibility, trying not to hit any boats. My fears relayed to the coastguard came true, after reanchoring, we dragged again, this time out the other side of the bay. We had plenty of scope but the anchor would not bite. After another call to the coastguard, and listening on channel 16 and hearing of another yacht that had broke anchor and hit another boat, we realised we were not the only ones in trouble. Another call to Coastguard reported a ferry had broken away from it mooring too ! The final suggestion from the coastguard was to beach our boat, which we tried, motoring at 5 knots on to the beach with the keel and rudder up, but the wind blew us straight back out into the water, and almost quicker than I could let out the anchor and tie it off.  On the second attempt to beach the boat, I noticed a rock wedged in the flukes of our danforth anchor. This was stopping it from opening and biting properly ! Finally, after a tense half hour, we held, and I fell asleep with exhaustion.  Coastguard showed up at 3am, to check on us, in howling wind, and rain. We woke in the morning to a perfect sunny day, anchored 3m off the beach, as seen in the photo below.
The learnings from this were : a 8S danforth anchor even with 6m of chain and heaps of rode was not suitable for 30 knots of wind with a 6m boat. It is only a 4kg anchor, and as discussed in this article , the catenary effect drops away in strong wind, and you rely completely of the angle of the scope, and the anchor design. The danforth anchor is only effective when the angle is low, and once the chain is tight, it can pull out, and does not reset like newer designs like the Rocna. In hindsight, a 6kg Rocna or Sarca type anchor would have given us a much better hold.

Weekend day trip

Weather forecast was looking great for the weekend, so went for a day sail with friends Chris and Sanya. Forecast was 15 -20 knot NW possible rain showers.  Sounded ok ...
We sailed upwind over to Motuihe and tacked up the channel in about 15 knots, full main and jib, sailing well.  Had a rain squall around 11am, then the wind died and we were bobbing around the back of Motuihe.  Once the wind resumed, we flew a little spinnaker for fun, and took off down the back of Motuihe, and Sanya served apptizers while we sailed downwind.  We stopped in Calypso bay for lunch, bit of sun, and after lunch everyone had a bit of a snooze on the boat !
There was a rain squall or two while we had lunch, but thought nothing of it in our calm peaceful bay. Once we decided to head out, with a reef in the sail, just with the jib up we found out how windy it was outside the bay... 30 knots? After a bit of indecision, and the boat being blown downwind, I gave up and motored us back to the shelter of land. The consensus was to head back, but just the storm jib up, and motor running.
This ended up being the perfect setup, to make headway up wind, and as comfortable as possible.
A relative term it seems, as that NW blowing down the harbour was causing some 1.5m rolling waves !
Super wet ride back, everyone drenched, I had to put the storm boards in to stop the boat filling with water! I'm sure Chris got some photos, but it was a pretty wild ride ! It took some 2-3 hours to motor all the way, the other boat in the gulf seemed to have about the same amount of difficulty out there, seriously pounding through waves!. Made if back to the estuary and Half moon bay, against a very strong outgoing tidal stream..