We have been busy

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Sunday 12th

By the time we have dinghied ashore and either gone to the supermarket or hardware store, the day has gone by the time we return to Imagine. After several trips and having purchased a lot of things for the boat we have now started to work on Imagine. We have painted and relined the Vberth. B has sanded and painted the storage chests on the foredeck and sanded and painted part of the toe rail. I have emptied the chain locker, sanded and painted it and I mounted cleats in the chain locker to make it easier to get the mooring lines out.  B cleaned the fenders. The old vent horns have been replaced with new ones on the fore deck. The stove has a new aluminum surround.
We have been busy and there’s more to do.

We have been lazy

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it’s been 6 days since we have posted a blog, sorry.

We only spent a day in Deep Water before the wind changed and we could head south. We sailed as far as Whangarei where we spent the night. The next day we sailed all the way to Whanaparaoa, seeing dolphins on the way.

On Wednesday we fueled up in Gulf Harbour before sailing around to Tindalls Bay. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday we borrowed a car from my brother and did some shopping for groceries and parts for the boat.

As there is a big storm coming on Friday we sailed across to Kawau Island. We anchored in Two House Bay next to Mansion House Bay. We weren’t here long before two other boats anchored in Mansion House and a third joined us this morning. All three are the same boats that we sheltered with back in February when the cyclone hit Auckland.

Today we have been busy fitting new parts to Imagine. Replacing the Vberth vents with sealeable ones. Replaced the Vberth hatch, as the old one leaked. B was busy cleaning the ceiling panels and cleaning up the mess as I was working.

Everything is calm and silent. The calm before the storm.

Race weekend

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Saturday 21st

We moved frm Opua to Russell where it was more sheltered in the quiet bay with only 20 boats. We didn’t know the Auckland to Russell boat race had started. It was about midnight when the first of the boats pulled into the Bay cheering and celebrating as they dropped anchor. Over the course of the night and into the morning the others arrived and shouting out to each other. By daybreak there were over 100 boats in the Bay. We could see it was going to be a party weekend, so we hauled anchor and zig zaged our way out of the bay. As we are going to head south when the wind changes on Tuesday, we started heading out of the bay of Islands. We ended up anchoring in Deep Water bay (the last bay in BOI before rounding Cape Brett for us to head South). This would give us shelter and a good head start on Tuesday.

It was only 2pm when we anchored, finally cheered up by the sun (after a week of grey sky and rain) and despite the 12 degrees water temperature on the intruments B couldn’t resist having a deep in the clear blue water (Anchoring in 8m depth water and we can still see the bottom). That was refreshing she said!

The rest of the day was as usual relaxing, playing cards and discussing what next need doing on the boat.

Still no fuel

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The fuel pump at Opua has been out of order since we got here, so we have been busy, doing the laundry, buying boat parts and fitting new main halyard. We checked again today and it’s still out of order and we have been told that we may have to wait next week  for reopening. The anchorage in Opua is not very comfortable (particularly when the tide is against the wind, being in the middle of the river channel), so we hauled anchor and moved to Russell. We aren’t able to get Imagine into the fuel dock here, instead we have reverted to filling our 20ltr jerrycan. We have already done several trips back and forth with the dinghy today and we will do more tomorrow. We only need 750ltrs to fill up Hahaha… We will only put a little more fuel in and fill up when we get to Auckland.
The weather looks like we will be able to head to Auckland on Tuesday.

Auf wiedersehen and goodbye

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We all got up late again this morning. It has been an overcast day with a northerly breeze. After breakfast we hauled anchor and headed to Paihia. Julia and Austin packed their bags ready to leave us. We all went ashore at Paihia and had fish and chips for lunch. After a short walk around town Julia headed off to the hotel (her last night in NZ) and Austin caught the bus to Auckland.

That left the two of us to do some shopping and go back to Imagine. We moved from Paihia back to Opua to get better shelter out of the wind. The rest of the afternoon we played cards and chilled.

No fuel

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Monday 16th

We had big ideas of getting up early and going across to Russel and do some shopping before going back to Opua and fuel up. Nobody woke up early. When we awoke the water was like glass, not even a whisper of wind. We had breakfast in the cockpit then hauled anchor and headed to Opua while there was no wind.

We had to wait a few minutes outside the marina for a boat to move off the fuel dock. Then we glided in and tied off Imagine. Thats when we discovered a sign on the pump saying out of order. We had waisted time and fuel motoring back to Opua to find we can’t fill up.

We pulled out of the marina and motored across to Robertson island. During the day there was a few tourist boats came and went leaving us the bay/island to ourselves. We went ashore to walk the beach and climb to the lookout before returning to Imagine to do a little fishing, play cards and watch a movie.

We made it

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We tied up on the customs wharf at 6am. It was a little stressful as it was pitch black sky and no lights on the wharf. The tide was rushing at a couple of knots with us, which meant we have to be motoring at 4 knots to retain steering. Once along side the wharf, B (at the helm) put Imagine in reverse to try and stop us. I managed to get a mooring line onto a cleat on the wharf and tie off the bow. This kicked the back of Imagine out a little and that was all the tide needed to pull us around. We had no control as the tide turned us 180 degrees. At least now we were facing the tide and could control the boat. We were then able to get three other lines to the wharf and secure Imagine.
We didn’t get any sleep just cleaned up the boat, had breakfast and got ready for Customs. We waited and waited. Eventually they turned up at 1pm. It didnt take  long, but they did take all our meat and the remainder of our fresh fruit and veggies.
After we were officially in New Zealand, we left the wharf and anchored across at Russell. Julia was craving a beer, so we headed to the Duke of Marlborourgh hotel were we all enjoyed a cool drink. We strolled around Russell before having dinner at the Thai Restaurant. We returned to Imagine to enjoy the sunset.

Day 9

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Almost there! Sixty nautical miles to go! We should arrive in Opua about 4am.

Today was a great day for blue water sailing. A gentle 1m swell, with 15kts of wind off the beam. It’s not very often that you would get these conditions out here. It has been the same as usual, doing your shift, eating and sleeping. B did say she saw dolphins off in the distance, but no body else saw them. Tonight’s dinner is using up all the left over food that Customs will want to confiscate tomorrow.