Logbooks:
NZ 2014 Part 2: North Island
Port Taranaki to Bay of Islands, 16-28th May 2014.
| Date: | May 29, 2014, 2:39 a.m. |
| Position: | 35 18.83 S, 174 7.30 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Past time to start Part 2: North Island. Apologies for the recap on some passages but this info belongs here.
We had such a great run of weather coming up the West Coast of NZ that instead of resting up the top of the South Is we decided to keep going. Unfortunately completely glassily conditions across the Cook Strait (who ever herd of that happening!?!) whilst very pleasant and enabling us to have a roast dinner one night, meant that we needed to refuel.
Port Taranaki, 16-17th May:
Despite all the internet forum warnings not to, we decided to stop in Port Taranaki, New Plymouth. Mount Egmont was a spectacular sight rising out of the Ocean as our first sighting of the North Is. It had snowed the night before and was blushing prettily with the Dawn light, every bit as picturesque as Mt Fuji. Everything that is said about PT being a terrible place for cruising yachts is true however they are not taking into account the friendly nature of the locals and their determination to make you welcome and help you in spite of their limited facilities. The awesome crew at the harbour watch-house set us up in the small area of the wharfs set aside for the local fishing boat fleet on the North breakwater arm. The swell comes right in so you don't want to be there overnight but in settled conditions it is fine as you refuel. For those considering this, you need to call ahead to arrange the fuel truck to come out, Cash or Cheque only but rates are reasonable. Then we headed off to 'The Paddock' which seems to be the local term for everything to the South of the Red Sticks which mark the tanker turning zone. Is is a rocky bottom and we were struggling to get the anchor to hold when the crew from the port got back to us and very kindly offered us one of their moorings, they only have a couple but seem happy enough to have us on there as they were not busy. Alternatively the local yacht club might be a good place to inquire in advance but I could not find any info about anyone hiring them out. Apparently many yachts sit comfortably on the pick in the lead up to the trans Tasman solo race but we did not try the Western end which may be better holding. Is is a very rocky bottom, they pop up right next to jetties and moorings so do not venture in too far as we did, especially at low tide. Thankfully we were going quite slowly so we only added a warstripe to our underwater paintwork. The other bonus for us was that Mark has some (very) distant but (very) awesome relatives who live there, not only did we get a great tour of the area, lunch and dinner but a provisioning trip - straight to Spuds for the best fruit & veg which would have been a bit of a hike otherwise! Such a nice area and very tempting to stay and explore longer, particularly some of those attractive surf breaks but the weather window coming up was too good to miss.
Cape Reinga, 20th May:
Mark planned the trip and moderated our speed so that we rounded the Cape at slack water during daylight. We really enjoyed some terrific sailing conditions not to mention the view past epic ninety mile beach. Trolling a pair of squid lures landed some small tuna, Kingfish and a Mako shark who happily got himself off the hook when brought alongside! Magnificent creature but very glad not to have that mess of teeth aboard. Conditions were suitable and pleasant when we rounded the cape so we decided to overnight in Tom Bowling bay. We got up early (for us anyway, the commercial fishing boat was already gone) with the anticipated swell and got on our way. The rolly greenness of the landscape with it's brilliant white sand dunes and aqua water surrounds make for a pretty postcard view and the Kingfish (albeit just undersized) kept us well entertained. We had some good sailing conditions again as the wind had very politely swung North for us, and of course the fish like to bite best when you are raising a sail.
Houhora, 21-22nd May:
This is a truly beautiful place with good basic facilities, however even with our big anchor set up the flooding tide that rips in was wiggling our anchor loose and we were very slowly hopping further into the bay. Otherwise I think we'd have stayed a week. We met some really friendly locals and travellers at the caravan park whilst catching up on laundry but decided to head further South in search of a full nights sleep to recover from the West Coast passaging.
Manganoui, 23rd May:
Every person we mentioned Monganoui to, spoke of the 'world famous' Fish and Chip shop! Have to admit it was pretty good even if it is more for the tourists these days as the locals moaned. We were very kindly offered a mooring as there was some heavy swell due in and we were very glad for that when it did. We also got lucky with our timing and a chance meeting with some local sailors led us to the Sailing Club in Mill Bay for a drink and a chat during their weekly meet up (Fridays 6 to 8pm-ish, book ahead for dinner). Genuine 1974 prices, and a refreshingly genuine, community focused club, full of friendly faces. An experience I would highly recommend if up this way. I am looking forward to their new facility which will NOT house a franchised restaurant or kick out scruffy yachties who's race-weary appearance offends delicate wedding guests!
Whangaroa, 24-27th May:
A break in the weather on Saturday morning gave us a nice sail and fish down to Whangaroa, a stunning spot with a spoiling of good sheltered anchorages. We barely noticed the strong winds reported outside and enjoyed a few very relaxing sunny days and are finally feeling fully refreshed and recovered. There were several other boats there and it was starting to feel like we were getting back to the real world, (except for the lack of phone coverage... heaven really.) We tinkered with a few niggling maintenance items on the boat but in a chilled out manner which excluded swearing at inanimate objects, most unlike us.
Bay of Islands - 28th May:
A glassy calm day and the need to charge the batteries anyway took us down to the Bay of Islands. We took our time and fished off a few shoals but didn't land anything of size. We are currently sitting on the pick in Orongo Bay, South of Russell and have been making a start on the long list of maintenance items for both boat and crew...
Anchored in Whangaroa, Waitapu Bay
| Date: | May 26, 2014, 1:09 a.m. |
| Position: | 35 2.39 S, 173 45.32 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Anchored in Whangaroa, Waitapu Bay
Anchored in Whangaroa, Waihi Bay
| Date: | May 24, 2014, 1:04 a.m. |
| Position: | 35 1.20 S, 173 44.68 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
A break in the weather on Saturday morning gave us a nice sail and fish down to Whangaroa, a stunning spot with a spoiling of good sheltered anchorages. We barely noticed the strong winds reported outside and enjoyed a few very relaxing sunny days and are finally feeling fully refreshed and recovered. There were several other boats there and it was starting to feel like we were getting back to the real world, (except for the lack of phone coverage... heaven really.) We tinkered with a few niggling maintenance items on the boat but in a chilled out manner which excluded swearing at inanimate objects, most unlike us.
Moored in Monganoui
| Date: | May 23, 2014, 10:58 a.m. |
| Position: | 34 59.25 S, 173 31.97 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
Every person we mentioned Monganoui to, spoke of the 'world famous' Fish and Chip shop! Have to admit it was pretty good even if it is more for the tourists these days as the locals moaned. We were very kindly offered a mooring as there was some heavy swell due in and we were very glad for that when it did. We also got lucky with our timing and a chance meeting with some local sailors led us to the Sailing Club in Mill Bay for a drink and a chat during their weekly meet up (Fridays 6 to 8pm-ish, book ahead for dinner). Genuine 1974 prices, and a refreshingly genuine, community focused club, full of friendly faces. An experience I would highly recommend if up this way. I am looking forward to their new facility which will NOT house a franchised restaurant or kick out scruffy yachties who's race-weary appearance offends delicate wedding guests!
21 May 0100UTC Anchored in Houhora Inlet (34:49S/173:08E)
| Date: | May 21, 2014, 11:43 p.m. |
| Position: | 34 49.00 S, 173 8.00 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
We woke up early at 6am this morning in Tom Bowling Bay and weighed anchor to head south along the coast to Houhora Inlet. We had a fantastic sail down this stretch of coast where the westerly winds blow largely unobstructed across the low-lying land and into Great Exhibition Bay. We had glassy conditions and about 12-15 knots of wind so we were able to sail along with full rig at about 6 knots.
By just after lunchtime we were anchored in Houhora Inlet just to the west of Tokoroa Islet. The current really rips through here fast enough that you can troll a lure off the boat (about 4knots). However fortunately there is a camping ground on the southern bank (only about 100m away) where we can go ashore and do laundry and they have wifi which we can pick up with our long-range wifi receiver.
We'll probably be here for all day tomorrow as southerlies are forecast. We'll then head around to Mangonui harbour on Friday.
20 May 0800UTC Anchored in Tom Bowling Bay (34:25S/172:57E)
| Date: | May 20, 2014, 9:43 a.m. |
| Position: | 34 25.00 S, 172 57.00 E |
| Track to here: | Download |
We ended up motoring all last night in order to maintain a 6kt average speed which saw us rounding Cape Reinga at slack water at 0730 this morning. We dropped anchor at around 1200 on the western end of Tom Bowling Bay and enjoyed a nice roast wild duck (courtesy of Ken Bradley's marksmanship) on the webber for dinner and a good rest.
19 May 0530UTC 36:02S/173:05E
| Date: | May 19, 2014, 5:57 a.m. |
| Position: | 36 2.00 S, 173 5.00 E |
We managed to continue sailing with the hydrovane all throughout the night up to lunchtime today with a very steady 12knots or so of SW wind and we were making 5.5kts on average. After lunch the wind swung to the south and started dropping a bit so we played with the rig but could only get 4.5kts of speed. We turned the motor on and motor-sailed for a while but just recently had to pull the genoa in as it was flogging too much. We are motoring now about 6.5kts as I am keen to get to Cape Reinga around slack water tomorrow morning.
18 May 0640UTC 38:10S/173:45E
| Date: | May 18, 2014, 6:52 a.m. |
| Position: | 38 10.00 S, 173 45.00 E |
We left Port Taranaki this morning around 0930NZDT after a very nice 36-= hour stop which was made really special by being able to catch up with distant relations Ian and Mary Ternouth. They showed us around and we had lunch and dinner with them. I had a dive on the boat and cleaned the bottom although it didn't really need it. It turns out that what we hit the other day in Port Taranaki was something quite solid probably a rock. It has left a bit of a scratch down the keel where it has taken a bit of antifouling off but the epoxy coating is only chipped off in a very small area about the size of a thumb on the bottom of the keel. The glass below isn't damaged at all so we'll just keep an eye on it and keep it clean. We had to motor for the first 3 hours or so until we were out of the lee of Mt Egmont before we had perfect 15-knot SW winds. We were able to put all our sails up and set the hydrovane and had probably the best day of ocean sailing in NZ so far making about 6-7kts in very flat seas. The wind has now dropped off to around 10kts and we are only doing a touch above 5kts. If it drops off any further then we'll probably have to start motor-sailing... but at least there is some wind!
16 May 0445UTC Moored in Port Taranaki
| Date: | May 16, 2014, 5:31 a.m. |
| Position: | 39 3.37 S, 174 2.63 E |
We finally got some SW winds throughout the middle of the night about half-= way across the strait. As is normal here it started out quite nice and we sailed with full rig under a full moon for about 30 minutes before it built to a fresh 30kts and we end up running down with a double reef in the main and genoa. We had good reefing technique last night and we were able to smoothly reduce sail and maintain a comfy 6kts of boat speed all along. All the guides and blogs say that Port Taranaki is terrible for yachts... and they are correct. Its really terrible. At least the port staff are very friendly and helpful. There is no dockside fuel and we have to organize to have a truck come down (should be coming tomorrow). The wharf is built for massive ships so after you have attempted to come alongside there is still about a 2 meter leap that you have to make to get across the commercial fenders and other gear to the dock. And to cap it off the harbor itself is rock and/or debris-strewn. We couldn't get the anchor to hold on the bottom. And then while we were motoring around the mooring area behind the eastern breakwater something hit us with a dull thud and lifted the boat. We couldn't see what it was but it didn't seem to be a rock because the impact was quite dull and didn't scrape along the boat. It sounded like a mooring buoy running along the hull. I presume it was some sunken debris (maybe a small boat?!) or a sunken mooring and/or mooring buoy. I don't think there is any damage but I'll have a swim over the side tomorrow morning to have a look anyway. The only upside to this terrible port is that you get a nice view of Mt Egmont from it. Hopefully we'll be able to get our fuel and go for a swim tomorrow before heading off for Cape Reinga.