Still weatherbound

We are now weatherbound at Marsden Cove with persistent and very strong NW winds which are proving very intractable. Feeling very frustrated!! Marsden Cove is very windswept and quite depressing as there is still very little development and all the surrounding land is flat which makes it susceptible to any wind going. It is just up harbour from the Marsden Point oil refinery and port. We have doubled up our mooring lines and are riding out the wind and rain. Still, better here than out off the coast where a gale warning is in force. We have to be here as it's the only Customs port (apart from Marsden Point itself); otherwise we could go to the Bay of Islands and clear out of there. There are about half a dozen yachts berthed near us and all are waiting to depart. There's an English couple with their 4 children, a Polish/German couple, a French couple from Koumac, New Caledonia, a Swiss yacht and an American one. Very international!!
We had lunch at the marina cafe which was OK (don't know how they stay alive economically) and then went for a walk around the residential parts of the marina. There are a few houses on canals with mooring pontoons - all very boring and most appear to have been built as spec. houses - very risky we would have thought in this economic climate. But most waterfront sites are unsold and the pontoons mostly empty except for some that are probably just rented in the meantime.
All in all not the place one wishes to spend any enforced time. Jean has just gone ashore for a shower which is quite a route march and in this weather potentially quite wet!
We have advised Customs that we are looking at Wednesday to leave; hopefully by then the weather will be somewhere near acceptable. We'll keep you updated.
Cheers............

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