Heading south

Hi,
We are now back in the Bay of Islands after a scrappy sail from Whangaroa. Think we'll have to start being a bit more pro-active in waiting for or seeking suitable wind directions. The wind or what there was of it was SE and on the nose and it didn't matter what tactics we tried - that was the situation! So we motorsailed all the way. Struck a very unpleasant sloppy sea with a big leftover swell off the Ninepin and almost no wind to steady us so were quite glad to get into calmer water. We met a refrigeration technician at Doves Bay and he tells us we need to install a rack in the bottom of the freezer to allow air circulation and that will cure our problems. Pity we weren't told that in the first place when the thing was first built and installed but it's been typical of almost everything that was done during the first refit at Kerikeri. It was not a happy experience but we are very pleased with everything that has been done subsequently in Whangarei.
We are intending to stay here for a couple of days re-provisioning. There's a reasonably good supermarket at Paihia - and they have Kransky's!!! Then, assuming the forecast W/SW winds stay around, we will head down the coast with a first Hauraki Gulf stop at Kawau. So, Mark hope to see you around the 14th.-16th. Then around the Gulf then the Barrier and then back to Whangarei where we have a schedule of things to be done before leaving NZ at the end of April. We are gong to be busy once we have hauled out mid March. So we had better enjoy this cruising life while we can!!
Hope all is well
Cheers again,
J & J(G)

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