Day tripping with Kirsty and Paul + Maiya

Yet another day trip, this time we booked in Kirsty and Paul, who live out in Titirangi, so they are a fair way from the Hauraki gulf.  We didn't know how well 3 year old Maiya would manage a day out on the boat, but it turned out we didn't need to worry!
Fishing was best thing to do on the still morning, and with plenty of time to kill, we beached the boat at Motuihe for lunch, and killed some time.  The wind still hadn't turned up at 2, so we went out on the boat again, to try a different spot, and got the paddleboard out, and did some tow surfing ! I had to demonstrate how you do it, but then Kirsty was keen as to give it a go too.  Great fun. 

Soon after, the wind showed up, and we set sail in good 12-13 knots, and had a comfortable sail back to Half moon bay.  We cruised up the estuary, with a couple of J24's (24 foot One design racing keelers), and was very suprised that they couldn't keep up with Goldie, upwind! We couldn't point quite as high, in fact I reckon they were pinching a bit, but we put in only one extra tack, and they continued to lose ground to us until we dropped our sails.  Very satisfying.

 

 

"I want lots of snapper !"

 

 

 

"Daddy, I don't want the snapper, urgh take it away!"

 

Goldie, out of the water for winter

 

 

 

Day tripping - Rakino with Jess and Chris

Early start today, 8.30am, but no wind yet... Chris was keen, brought fishing gear, a wetsuit, dive belt, and spear gun in anticipation!
Motored out to the Motuihe channel, and fished for a while, then with promise of a light northerly, set sail for Rakino.  Reaching at 4.5 knots, we got there for a late lunch, and anchored in 18m of water, for some fishing. Chris went diving with his spear gun on the nearby islet reef.
We caught a heap of fish, including a couple of legal size snapper, almost a John Dory, and a bunch of smaller snapper, one on every drop of the lure!

We left Rakino late in the afternoon, 4pm, and set sail, in very light conditions (5-8 knots), no whitecaps, and once we lined up with Browns island, set the spinnaker, and ran all the way home, under spinnaker, all the way up Tamaki estuary, only dropping the spinnaker at the ramp. Epic day..

 

My friends on the helm, me on the bow...

 

The huge spinnaker run home

 

 

Snapper for a late dinner !

Day tripping - with old friend Mel



Pretty good day for fishing behind Motuhe, caught quite a few snapper with my slow jig jitterbug and squid bait!

New boom, new reefing setup..

The girls sailing the boat for me..

Coming up the Tamaki estuary in 12-14 knots, we totally smoked the other keelers which were lazily motoring up the channel, even though we were sailing upwind, and tacking.  Hit 6 knots reaching..Goldie was going well with perfect trim.. there were a couple of J24 boats following us up to Half moon bay, but they could not touch us for upwind or speed!

Back on the water - Day tripping - With my sister !

Chose the windiest day of the weekend, as that's when my sis could come out, did a Motuihe round trip, and stopped for some fishing at lunch, caught not much.  Sarah supplied a great healthy lunch !

Had a epic sail back. We prepared while still in the sheltered bay, and two reefs and storm jib got setup.  First time testing the new boom and reefing setup after we broke the old one.  The boom took a few weeks to get sorted, with new fittings, an internal 4:1 outhaul, and 2 reefing cheek blocks, and cleats at mast end of the boom.

Test reef on land.

Checking the length of the reefing line

 

Added the second reef line, ready to go. 7.5m of spectra used !

Added some flat s/s saddles which I carefully bent and twisted to enable them to be rivetted flat onto the boom.
They keep the reef lines in place.

We charged the channel, and Goldie was pointing super high upwind, with 25 knots of SW on the nose, and short waves washing over the bow of the boat ! Had a bit of water inside as the front hatch was not secure, but Goldie handled it really well, and was shooting upwind. made it back to the ramp in good time, even though the wind abated a little and we were slightly underpowered in the late arvo. A great day.