Home again

We are now back in the Town Basin and are berthed on a fixed jetty (because it's substantially cheaper!!). However, that means that we have to get on and off the boat at the bow and when the tide is out it's an awkward climb up a small vertical steel ladder. Still, we haven't fallen in yet!
We are getting ready to leave on our land based trip at the end of the week and looking forward to getting away for a while. We'll let you know how we go.
Cheers,
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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(no subject)

Well we did intend to get as far as Urquarts tonight but had a slow start with almost no wind and then it did start but very light. Consequently we were well behind schedule when the wind did finally start in any significant strength after we had finally passed Rimariki Is. We then polled the genoa out and prevented the main from gybing and sailed wing and wing with the wind dead astern. An uncomfortable point of sailing because it requires more than the normal amount of concentration and Mrs. Fleming wasn't capable of anticipating quickly enough so it required hand steering which gets a bit tedious after a few hours. Then the wind came up well beyond what had been forecast (25-30 knots) and we had to retrieve the pole and get the boat snugged down in a gale of wind with yours truly on the foredeck and the crew steering and obeying the occasional yelled command!! We were almost off Tutukaka at that stage so decided to call it a day and headed in through the entrance to drop anchor in calm water and have a well deserved cup of tea!! The weather forecast for tomorrow is foul but tonight it's a clear sky although clouding over a bit now (2100) and hopefully early in the morning we might have a reasonable passage to Bream Head and up the harbour to the Town Basin. Total of just over 30 miles and at our normal cruising speed that will take about 6 hours. Hard to imagine such snail like progress in today's frenetic lifestyle. We are glad we are old enough to remember and appreciate it!
More fascinating accounts of our voyaging tomorrow!!
Cheers,
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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Homeward bound

We are tonight anchored in Whangamumu; a slight roll coming in but otherwise beautiful and tranquil. Position latitude 35 degrees 14.971 minutes south longitude 174 degrees 17.889 minutes east. We are anchored off the old whaling station but didn't go ashore for a haircut this time!! Met a guy sailing on his own up from Auckland who turned out to be an old Cape Horner. What an acheivement to have on one's CV! We didn't get very far today because the winds were very light and against us but we are hopeful that tomorrow the winds will be behind us and we should get down to Urquarts Bay inside Whangarei Heads in reasonable time. As always it's impressive coming around Cape Brett with Piercy Island and the massive rock formations. We came through the gap between Piercy and Brett this time in contrast to our earlier sail north when we were some miles off.
Yesterday, while in Opunga we went ashore and discovered a track through beautiful native bush to the top of a nearby hill - great to get off the boat for a while. Then wandered around the old Frater cottages which probably are still the same as they were getting on for 80 years ago - possibly even older. Not sure whether they're still owned by the Frater family now but it's certainly nostalgic to see them so well preserved in their original state.
We are looking forward to a good sail tomorrow and will be leaving fairly early to take advantage of the northerlies that are supposed to be starting.
Cheers,
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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(no subject)

Well, it's been a miserable few days with gale force SE winds and rain - and cold!! We have been swinging around the anchor in Opunga Cove which is one of the few good anchorages in SE conditions. This was where the Fraters and Newcombes had baches for many years and where the RNZYS had their annual New Years Eve parties on the beach with a bonfire in the 50's and 60's. We always came down from Paroa Bay in "Jado" at New Year to celebrate with the Newcs!
Anyway, enough of the nostalgia. This morning the wind is negligible and is forecast to go to the SW later which will suit us for getting back down the coast. So, at this stage the plan is to leave early tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll be back in Whangarei by Sunday. We've been listening on the SSB to boats coming back down to NZ and they have been having a fair old time of it. At least one (a catamaran) has deployed a drogue and is being steadily blown back north by all these strong southerlies. They're all reporting 30-40 knots which is absolutely no fun at all if you trying to beat into it. One boat still in Noumea reported 35 knot south easterlies there! All generated by a huge high in the north Tasman which together with a low off the North Island E coast is squeezing the isobars tightly thus generating the winds. To have endured all that for the sake of 2-3 weeks in NC wasn't sensible and we are pleased we followed our instincts and abandoned our voyage.
We are looking forward to planning for April next year when we won't be constrained by any time considerations. In the meantime we are intending after our arrival in Whangarei to take an overland tour and get away from boating and boats for a while. We are thinking of heading south and maybe staying with Jean's relatives at National Park and then returning via Wanganui (note no "h"!!) and Taranaki. Then it will be into re-caulking the decks, hauling out for anti-fouling and generally getting ready. At least we have goals!
Hoping all is well as always,
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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Weather

Well we've been getting our share of all sorts lately. Yesterday was quite benign and we went ashore at Te Ti Bay, Paihia to stock up at Countdown which is just across the waterfront road. It's really only possible when the wind's offshore as it's an open rolly anchorage and quite shallow with indifferent holding and landing on the beach in a small inflatable would test anyone's skills except when it's calm. Because it's shallow, we have to anchor at least 200 metres off the beach and even then at low tide we'd only have about 2' under the keel. Anyway, using backpacks and carrying the maximum that we could we made it back to the beach and then back out to the yacht. Then we went up to Doves Bay Marina at the entrance to the Kerikeri river to refuel and were pleasantly surprised that we had only used 89 litres of diesel. This had included some hours motoring away from Whangarei in windless conditions when we left for New Caledonia and then later when we turned around east of North Cape we motorsailed back to the Bay of Islands for about 14 hours in fairly bad conditions before we arrived at Opua. Then there has also been a bit of motoring around here so we didn't do too badly.
Later yesterday a fresh NW started and so we decided to sail from Doves Bay down to Waipiro Bay as it turned out because on the way we heard a new forecast talking about SE up to 40 knots over the next few days and Waipiro offered good protection. We had a very pleasant sail down with the wind just aft of the beam. We had started to think that maybe this is what it would be like from now on but no - in the early hours of this morning as forecast we had 20 - 30 knots in the anchorage and then after daylight even a hail storm! We were getting a bit stir crazy by then so decided to come back up to Paroa Bay. We battled mostly 35 knot headwinds all the way and are pleased to be here in sheltered water. Had another hail storm this afternoon!! Just heard the latest forecast talking about 55 knots from the SE! Have just let out another 20 metres of chain so now have 150' feet of chain deployed in only 12' of water.
There is one thing we can definitely say though and that's how pleased we are with our Rocna anchor. When anchoring and going astern to dig it in it pulls the boat up like it was chained to a building and then when getting underway again it comes up with half the bay on itself so it gets well and truly dug in. We'll be leaving holes the size of India all over the place! And the last 24 hours have been a good test.
Hope all is well and looking forward to your news.
Jim and Gina

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Paroa Bay

Hi
Just a short blog - we are tonight anchored in Paroa Bay (BOI) where Jim's family owned a property for 40 years and today went ashore and had a pleasant time with their old neighbours the Solomons ("young" Charlie and Pam) who are still living here. Lots of nostalgia and childhood memories. Also talking with Charlie and Pam about their children who used to play with Jim's children all those years ago. Where has the time gone?!!
The association with the Solomons goes back to 1943 when Jim's grandfather originally bought the property. Then a couple of years later he had a heart attack one night and in those days there was no means of communication - no email, radio or cellphone and the landline didn't operate either because the exchange in Russell which was a manual party line system was switched off at 6 pm. Mrs. Solomon Snr. rowed their dinghy about 2 miles along the coast to Long Beach in the early hours of the morning and walked over the hill to Russell to fetch the doctor. She rowed him back to Paroa Bay but it was too late and grandfather had passed away - before yours truly was born! Jim's father never forgot those heroic efforts and the Solomons always occupied a special place in our affections.
We are thinking we may sail up to Whangaroa in the next day or two and then by degrees back to Whangarei - maybe via the Barrier. After that we would like to forget about boats and boating for a while and are intending to take a land trip south and see how the other half lives! Then it will be back to Whangarei and re-caulking the teak decks. All with a view to a leisurely cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia commencing in April 2011.
But right now it's bedtime. We are perfectly sheltered here in a light SW breeze and the yacht is moving almost imperceptibly - just right for a gentle rocking to sleep!! This is what makes cruising all worthwhile.
Cheers,
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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(no subject)

Well we have been exhausted since we returned from our abortive foray northwards and on reflection feel that this just shows that we were not really ready to set out. There is no doubt that the boat was and the provisioning and meticulous attention to detail on Gina's part was great. We've swung around our anchor for the last 24 hours sleeping like there was no tomorrow but today had a boisterous sail down to the eastern end of the BOI from where we plan to leave tomorrow for Whangaroa. We're feeling a bit like sailors again!!
Still one or two little teething troubles with the boat but nothing serious. The main thing is that "Mrs. Fleming", our wind vane self steering has worked flawlessly which is very satisfying. She does what she is told, doesn't need feeding and doesn't answer back. What more could you ask!!! Even off the wind as we were the other night on our passage up the coast to North Cape there was no problem. This is the same system that Jessica Watson used on her recent circumnavigation so that is very reassuring.
We'll let you know how we get on as the days go by.
Love
J & J(G)

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(no subject)

Well it is with sadness that we have to report that for a number of reasons we have decided to abort our planned voyage to New Caledonia. We are now at Opua having cleared back in here late this morning.
We left Whangarei Harbour at 1230 on Friday the 1st. and had virtually no wind for a while. We motorsailed as far as Ngunururu when a reasonable south westerly kicked in. We then had some very enjoyable sailing and passed Cape Brett at 1 the following morning. All was well and we continued to make good progress on our journey north. It had started to feel that we were going to make a fast passage although it's always dangerous to make these sorts of predictions too early! Peter Blake used to say that the race isn't won until it's finished.
Then it got close to midday on Saturday when the wind started failing as we were just at the latitude of North Cape. We were concerned, but not too much so at that stage. However, time was important to us. After all the delays we had had this year including probably 2 months of waiting for a favourable weather window we had finally identified such a window and decided to go. But, in retrospect we probably should have flagged it altogether because leaving early in October means that we would only have had about 3 weeks in NC before having to leave again to avoid the cyclone season which means the possibility of cyclones increases incrementally from then on. It was always going to be pressured because of that and pressure of dates and boating can be a dangerous combination. However, we did decide to go and there we are.
After being becalmed for some hours (which is quite unpleasant in an ocean swell with no wind) the wind then started from the north! Exactly what we didn't want and thought we had avoided. Our spirits were not at their best at that moment. Anyway we decided to make the best of it and started motoring again but things didn't change. We then made the fateful decision to turn around and make back for NZ with these time limitations looming large in our minds. If time hadn't been a consideration we would have just persevered but we felt we couldn't take the risk of a slow passage. For 2 hours our decision seemed vindicated and then wammo - at about 8 last night we were hit with a SE blast which by then was straight on the nose. Exactly as forecast! However, we felt committed by now and ploughed on. It was a slow rough and wet trip back - and very cold. Things improved slowly as we moved further into the lee of NZ though and we arrived off the Cavallis just north of the Bay of Islands at 5 this morning. We then proceeded to Opua where we cleared back in. We are feeling quite let down and disappointed but we also feel that overall we made the correct decision all things considered.
Our plans now are first to catch up on sleep and then to cruise up here for a time and maybe again a longer passage to the Barrier. All good practice. Then back to Whangarei in late November/December followed by the deck caulking job. Then next year we will go at the right time (end of April) and visit Vanuatu and New Caledonia with next to no time pressures.
As always we will keep you posted!
Love
Jim and Jean (Gina)

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(no subject)

Hi, A quick update. We have been having a good run - now almost up to North Cape. Position Lat S 34 degrees 38 Long E 173 degrees 48. Time now 1048 NZST. Were visited by dolphins several times last night; they looked amazing with their phosphorescent trails in the water - just like someone was firing torpedoes at us!! Bit tired today but settling into the routine. All's well and hope same with you.
Cheers,
J & G

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