safe and sound in opua

Bandit
David Morgan and Brenda Webb
Sun 12 Oct 2014 05:18
35:55S 174:17E
 
We made it.  Yeap, dear old Bandit battled her way through pretty scruffy conditions east of North Cape down to the Bay of Islands and we’re now tied up at Opua Marina enjoying a well deserved rum.  Conditions yesterday afternoon deteriorated – the first front went through and we thought that was it.....but another came and for a while it was fairly awful.  We blew out our mainsail mid afternoon in a huge gust (Alastair reckoned we had 50knots plus – we couldn’t tell as we lost all our instruments as well) and so had to motorsail with our staysail.   The boys wouldn’t let me go on deck to stand watch as it was really ghastly out there – Bandit was constantly taking on huge waves.  I was quite happy to stay down below and keep them as well fed and watered as I could in the conditions.
 
We arrived off Opua after midnight and, exhausted we tied up to the quarantine dock and went below for a large rum before collapsing into bed at 2am.
 
This morning we had customs and quarantine on board – both very professional and the whole exercise was very painless.  We came into the marina at 10am and while I took all the washing to the laundromat David and Alastair hosed the salt off Bandit.   She is now looking fantastic again – the single malt and rum is on the table and we’re about to go to the Opua Cruising Club for a roast meal.
 
It’s wonderful to have made it and all thanks to Bandit for looking after us once again!   What a boat!