Last Sail - Parua Bay, Whangarei Harbour, New Zealand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 7 Nov 2008 01:36
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35:46.798S 174:27.125E
On Halloween (we didn't realize it was Halloween
until the next day, and no, no one came to the boat to trick-or-treat) we
completed our final sail from Tutukaka to Whangarei. It was a cloudy day
(surprise!), but the wind was brisk, the seas flat and the sailing good.
We sailed the entire 45 miles and enjoyed it thoroughly - even the part at the
end when we had to tack three times in order to zig-zag our way into the
Whangarei Harbour channel against the wind. Lady Kay was nearby the whole
way and Michael took this lovely picture of us as we sailed past him doing
8 knots (Lady Kay purposely slowed down so Michael could get some good shots of
us under sail....or so they say).
Once in Whangarei Harbour, we brought the sails in
and motor-crawled our way through the extremely shallow channel to our last
anchorage of the season in Parua Bay. We knew going in that it would be
shallow and we also knew that we were going in as the tide was going out (not
necessarily the best tactic). We led the way through the
shallows while Lady Kay followed. Just as I was pointing out to
Michael on the radio that for once Harmonie was leading the way.....Glug!
Not a boom or a smack or a slam or a bam - just a sudden absence of motion as we
instanteously went from a speed of 4 knots to zero. A glug. We
were aground in the mud. Oops. The lying chart said we were in 4
meters of water. Apparently not so. Captain Don slammed the boat
into reverse and after a tense minute or two, lots of reverse
rpm's and clouds of churned up mud in the water, Harmonie
escaped. Shew! After that Lady Kay led the way with Michael on the
radio calling out water depths to us. So much for Harmonie leading the
way.
We spent our last evening at anchor on Lady Kay and
the remainder of the quiet night on Harmonie with our keel nearly touching
ground at low tide in our shallow anchorage. The next morning was to be
another early start as we planned to ride the incoming tide the rest of the way
up the river to Harmonie's home at Riverside Drive Marina in
Whangarei.
Anne |
