What a great country for sailing. The winds blow here. The eastern coast of New Zealand is just like the Gulf Islands if they had the Pacific Ocean shores instead of being sheltered by Vancouver Island. Except that it's 10 degrees warmer, the water is warm enough to swim in, there are fish to catch, and the wind blows all the time. Up and down the eastern coast, quite often right off the coast, and hard sometimes.
Right now I'm in Tryphena Harbour on Great Barrier Island, and you would swear to goodness gracious I was anchored in Ganges Harbour. Maybe the town is a bit less, just a store and a couple of bars, three if you count the picnic tables, at the store doors. You can drink storebought coldies minimum of 12 feet away from the door. Many do, on the many picnic tables. Easiest way to meet a natural Kiwi, say hello to him/her over a storebought, they are really friendly.
I picked up the crew in Tutukaka, the harbour for the Poor Knights Islands. Fay, francaise, had an ad on the Whangarei Yacht Club and she showed up after emails, with her friend and a young girl. Simon, British had been having a beer or two with me last night and I offered to take him sailing with the girls. We all met at 9 AM and were away by 10. Fay took the first turn at the wheel and from the first turn to get on course, she handled the wheel pretty good. At the Poor Knights, we saw those schools of trevally on the surface again, so we dove with them and amazing being on the very wall of fish, packed like bricks, swimming like one. Alas I have no photo, I have not been able to procure an underwater camera.
We had a great broad reach back to Tutukaka, and Fay signed on as crew and stayed aboard. Simon was let go onshore, and after the night of consultation, the next morning we met at 0900 to sign Simon onto the crew. We set sail for the Poor Knights, but the wind was right on the nose, so turn south on a broad reach for Great Barrier Island. That was an exciting sail, lots of wind and everyone took turns steering. Simon was relaxing on the lower side when a wave smacked him proper and he jumped up exclaiming, "Jes*s!", that became his nickname. We anchored at Nagel Cove that night. Next morning into Port FitzRoy, a nice port with a store and some of the many great walks, up to waterfalls, through the forest, to the hotsprings.
Smokehouse Bay is one of the many fingers of Port FitzRoy, very well protected, secure anchorage on Great Barrier Island. So ashore with the crew and we found two tubs and a hot water boiler. Lots of wood, and apparently unlimited quantities of clean fresh gravity feed water. A bar-be-que pit, of course, and a big smoker for smoking the big fish. So we set up at the Smokehouse Bay and drank some port as the hot tubs filled. Then it was a long soak to get rid of the last 3 or 4 days of snorkelling. Drinking port, in the hot tub, whilst the kids (as I began to call them) made supper and went fishing. Simon was amazed to catch fish on the tiny little flies jigged up and down, but he did catch 4. Not legal, released live. Supper was superb, Simon elected the chef. Fay enjoyed her bath, the inside private tub. She pronounced such is what a princess deserves, and her nickname became princess.
Fay continued to hog the wheel, but she was actually a natural french sailor lady with a little bit of, I don't know, un petit peu de je ne sais quoi. Some of the best sailors in the world are French. We got the good fishing advice from the ice and tackle vendor and so we went to a nearby mussel farm. Some of the rows of floats are high, those mussels are harvested, some are low, those are full of mussels and the snapper come to eat there. we drifted down the rows in the zodiac, princess rowing, me and Simon fishing. I got 5 hits on the bait, missed them all, Simon got one and he landed a legal snapper. As well, the mussels on the bottom of the floats are left to die as the floats come up when the longlines are harvested, so we gathered a bunch. Another good night at Smokehouse Bay, we had hot tubs, we had bar-be-qued snapper and mussels, we had midnight swims in the bio-luminescence. We had some rum, we were up for many hours carrying on, finally I got the crew under control and back to the boat safe and sound apres 0300.
We sailed to Whangaparapara. The Kiwis pronounce the 'Wh...' as an 'F'. So that place is called Fangaparapara. It has a wharf, or farf in Kiwi. The walking on the Great Barrier is great, long trails through the Kiwi forest, a dip in the hot creek pools in the rain forest, and then another great forest trail home to the Whangaparapara estuary and anchorage. Next morning, the crew was got up at dawn since the wind was blowing into the bay and it was getting rough. We tacked out, and the crew was once again tested with tough winds, they did well. The winds fizzled on the way to the port of Tryphena. I was flying that old genaker, that had been repaired twice already, and a gust came up and blew it apart. So I get a new, tougher genakker for my christmas present. It was a great sail and I'll miss it. Fay was asked to give Simon the wheel for a while, who did a fine job, and Fay tried the sails. Once she was told she was neither weak nor sick, just a princess, she knuckled down and did fine, quickly learning how to winch, brake, and knot.
From Great Barrier Island, down the coast to the SE is Whitianga, (pronounced Fittyanga) a great marina exactly downtown with easy shopping, internet and a haulout as well. I made the kids do the sailing, I tried to write and clean the boat. But the wind let us down, first time that has happened to me in New Zealand. So we motored and did some fishing along the way. Rien du tout.
We left Whitianga for Great Barrier Island, but the wind and tides were against us and we turned south to anchor in Boat Harbour. This is a very forgotten bay, no roads no wharfs (farfs in New Zealand). There are lots of bird nests and chicks running around, the parents are pretty angry at us walking on the beach. Kiwis live here so there are lots of notices about all the poison spread around to keep the vermin and the dogs dead. Dogs have killed hundreds of kiwis in a few nights near Waitangi. So dogs have to be on the leash. The small river has the most nesting birds. The rocks are covered with a million little rock oysters, but no mussels to be found.
Next day we got into Tryphena and have been sailing every day since to some great spots all around the Great Barrier Island and the wind has been great. Last night the wind was too great and it further misbehaved by switching sides. I found myself dragging anchor and I dragged into the moored sailboats and shallow water at the head of the bay. Of course it was midnight, very black, windy and raining hard. Fay steered a fine course out into the dark, and I pulled that anchor up pretty damn fast. So tonight it's Smokehouse Bay again, a fine SW wind is keeping us off the beach and it feels pretty good, Christmas Eve Day, hot showers on the beach, and a fine anchorage in the sunshine.
Christmas greetings from Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier Island, Pacific Ocean.
At this time of year, it's so natural to think of friends and family, if they are nice and close and warm inside sheltered from the Canadian winter. This year, I find myself outside that traditional Canadian Christmas. I'm here in the sunshine and the warm waters, I'm eating well and my crew, Fay la Francaise, is cooking a lovely stuffed pumpkin in the oven. Later today we will go to another boat for Christmas lunch and after that ashore for a bit of hiking, swimming and hot tubbing. This is a great Christmas for me, I've often dreamed of a simple Christmas in the sunshine and here I have it.
Fay has been great crew, she can really sail well, it must be a natural thing. She handles the boat very well and just the other night was well tested when she had to steer us up the dragging anchor line, as the wind and wind squalls blew us into the moored boats nearby, as the rain pelted down, in the pitch dark. I was pretty glad that she did a fine job and that she knew how fast to drive Prism, because the anchor rope I got in Fiji is pretty much junk, it twists and kinks all the time and jams the power gypsy. So to preclude the lengthy delays that jamming the gypsy gives, I was using adrenaline to hand bomb the chain and anchor aboard. Lucky me, Fay matched the speed and course of my hand bombing almost perfectly.
We had a great sail out from Tryphena the other day, she was sailing into 20 knots of wind with a reefed main and a small genoa. 'What if somebody went overboard', she asked. That is very valid question, because if she went over I am supposed to be able to get her, but if I went over, she had to be trained. So I threw the man overboard pole overboard. 'Heave-to!' and she did. 'Gybe!' 'Throw out the Rescue Collar!'. In very short order she had the boat gybed around the pole three times and the rescue collar even touched the pole. 'Swim, Simon, grab that pole and save yourself!'. On the fourth pass Fay sailed a fast close reach and I victoriously snatched that pole.
We had another sail out of Tryphena, this time the wind was a bit more, maybe up to 30. We had two reefs in the main and a reef in the small genoa. Once again, I couldn't get the helm from Fay, and she got soaked for her troubles, waves coming over the bow very regular. But it's like 25 degrees in the sun, and the wind is warm and even the waves are warm, so it's all good, or as the Kiwis say 'Sweet As'. When she finally got cold we hove-to and enjoyed the sun, wind and waves, as well as some fine Australian red and Cadbury chocolate. I felt decadent. Fay was soaked wet, very excited and didn't seem to realize the wet t-shirt effect.
When we sailed from Port Charles to Whangaparapara a few days back, I saw a big whale. You could tell it was big by the size of the blow, but it didn't show much so I have surmised that it was a fin whale. In addition I have surmised that it was the second largest whale I have seen, after the Blue Whale seen from the helicopter over the Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, Arctic Ocean. Both whales were a little boring though, one seen from high, fleetingly, the other seen from above, fleetingly.
Today, Christmas Day in New Zealand, I am well found. Prism is gently at anchor in the beautiful Smokehouse Bay, the sun is shining, Santa Claus is visiting all the many yachts at anchor here. He brought Fay a chocolate bar and received some of the Canadian Club being served today. Fay has a stuffed pumpkin in the oven, it smells great and we are off to a pot luck Christmas lunch at the yacht from Wellington, just to the windward of Prism.
