Land of the long white cloud 35:19S 174:07E
Seaflute
Tue 29 Jan 2019 14:03
A week after the big Pedley family wedding in the UK, Tom and I returned to
Gulf Harbour, New Zealand to prepare Sea Flute for the second half of the
Rally. 'Second Half' is a bit of a misnomer as the next three legs
constituted more than two thirds of the total sea miles and certainly some
of the most challenging conditions.
Lindy had elected to stay home whilst the maintenance work was underway and
take the opportunity for extra family time, especially with our new grandson
Charlie. The plan was for Lindy to fly directly up to Opua in the North of
New Zealand where we had originally made land fall and from where would be
departing for Vanuatu in April.
We landed in Auckland and immediately took the ferry to Gulf Harbour, thirty
miles to the North. The following morning, we moved Sea Flute to the travel
lift and prepared her to be lifted onto the hard where she 'should' be for
just a week. Anyone who has stayed on a boat whilst it's propped up onshore
will know what a prize pain in the backside it is having to climb up and
down a vertical ladder each time you board. Nothing can be discharged from
the boat, for obvious reasons, you certainly wouldn't want to be the
unfortunate person walking beneath a yacht when someone failed to comply! As
our tenure on the hard was to be for just a week, Tom and I decided we could
rough it and put up with the ladder rather than organize some accommodation
elsewhere. The week became two and a half, but we should have anticipated
this given all things in the Marine industry end up taking twice as long as
planned.
The main jobs to be completed whilst she was out of the water were: thorough
hull clean, replace antifoul at waterline, replace all the sacrificial
anodes, polish the stern gear and coat with a magical product called
'Propspeed'. Then the most difficult job was to replace the worn out cutlass
bearing. The cutlass bearing is a bronze bush the propeller shaft runs
through and is retained in the pea bracket which supports the shaft, just in
front of the rudder. To replace this, the prop shaft must be completely
removed from the yacht and to do this, the folding propeller assembly needs
to be taken off. It did turn out to be quite an arduous process but the
before and after shots show that the result was a remarkable transformation.
As it became obvious we would be in our tree house for some time, I took the
lazy option of getting the yard boys to cut and polish the top sides and
superstructure. Tom and I concentrated our time on servicing the engine,
generator, water maker and all the major systems on Sea Flute. The
Chandlery's in Auckland are very well stocked so there wasn't much we
couldn't get locally. Eventually after lots of chasing, we were relaunched
and returned to our berth in the Marina. Ironically the cost of storage on
the hard is twice the rate of the marina berth, but guess what, you have to
pay for that time as well, even though you weren't in it!
I'd offered my mate Cliff from Napier the opportunity to sail with Tom and I
back up to Opua. Our plan was to take our time, taking in the Islands of the
Huraki Gulf, The Coromandel Peninsular and then on north up to the Bay of
Islands, arriving three weeks later in Opua. Cliff is a very keen fisherman
and having read much about the fishing prospects in this area was very
excited to be joining us.
One more short delay waiting for our sails to be delivered back gave us the
opportunity to show Cliff around Whangerai and to explain to him the
subtleties of living aboard a sailing boat. Cliff has owned a fishing boat
for many years so was pretty au fait with basic boat handling and
terminology.
The next three weeks were a heady mixture of the best New Zealand has to
offer. Sublime sailing conditions in what must be some of the best cruising
grounds in the world. Feasts of freshly caught scallops and crayfish
barbequed on our aft deck and sundowners in the most tranquil and beautiful
anchorages. One highlight for me was a stop in Tutukaka Bay and a visit to
Tutukaka fishing club which is the Marlin capital of New Zealand and the
waters off this coast are home to some of the biggest Blue Marlin in the
world. We sat on the deck in the evenings and watched as the days catch was
craned off the boats and officially weighed. It was a bitter sweet
experience seeing so many of these magnificent fish having met their end in
this way. The club house was full of trophies for world records in all sorts
of categories. The other great opportunity in Tutukaka for Tom and I was to
take a dive trip from here out to the Poor Nights Islands, some fifty miles
offshore. Poor Knights is reputed to be the best dive site in NZ and in the
top fifty for the world. It was certainly very different from most of the
diving we've done on the trip. The water was obviously very cold but
beautifully clear. The steeply shelving rocky outcrops are a maze of
underwater canyons and caves. The rock walls are covered in tall kelp waving
in the surge. The area has been a protected marine reserve for over fifty
years and the result is that the plentiful fish here were completely unfazed
by our presence. Consequently, the giant trevally that patrol these rocks
had no hesitation in darting in to take fish right in front of us which was
mildly disconcerting. It's not uncommon to see Giant Orca on this site, we
were unlucky on this occasion and the dive leader said they hadn't arrived
yet and would only appear when the migrating Sting rays arrived. These rays
are one of the Orcas favorite snack and during this migration time,
carcasses of rays are found all over the marine reserve with their wings
bitten off. Apparently, the Orca are very curious of the divers and will go
well out of their way to come and have close look at you!
The sail up through the bay of Islands was glorious and despite a few
overnight stops we listed the places we would return to visit properly on a
future occasion. This would be an amazing location for a three-month sailing
holiday, taking in a city break in Auckland.
Nestled back in Opua Marina, we prepared Sea Flute for the return of the
Admiral from the UK in a few days' time. Cliff was keen to visit the Treaty
Grounds just outside the neighboring town of Paihia. This site is where the
English signed a treaty with the Maori Chieftains, to pretty much exchange
the North Island of New Zealand for a few blankets and some bales of
tobacco! The alternative, in true English style of the day was that we would
take it anyway and kill all the natives in the process.
Cliff's holiday came to an end and he headed back home to the lovely city of
Napier to start a new job. I don't think the fishing quite lived up to his
expectations but I'm certain we awoke the inner mariner in him and Tom and I
certainly enjoyed his company.
A week later, Lindy arrived back from the UK and we had just a few days of
leisure time before setting off to Vanuatu. We had organized amongst
ourselves a departure party at the Opua Yacht Club and were honored by the
appearance of Paul Adamson the Operations Director of the New Oyster
company. The poor devil had missed a connecting flight to Auckland and had
literally arrived an hour before our party after thirty-six hours travel
from the UK. He managed a stirring speech congratulating us on having got
ourselves half way round the world and assuring us of Oysters continued
support. More importantly he picked up the bar tab for the night which is a
brave shout indeed with this gang.
The following evening, we had a briefing on 'Cruising Indonesia' from a
couple who had been engaged by the Group to advise on routing and to assist
with the documentation required to obtain a cruising permit for Indo. As it
turned out, we could have learned more from reading any cruising guide and
the information for several our yachts submissions (including ours) was
incorrect and that took longer to unravel than it would to have done it
ourselves in the first place. Indonesia was to turn out to become one of the
biggest admin challenges of the whole rally, but that's for a later blog.
Sea Flute was made ready for the next Ocean passage and after a very
straightforward clearing out process, which goes to prove the Kiwis re
happier to see you leave than arrive, and who can blame them, we departed
for Vanuatu in convoy with the rest of the OWR Fleet.
That's all for now
Captain Pedders and the crew of Sea Flute
