At 0805 I had the anchor and mainsail up, and the jib set once we had gybed round onto an E’ly heading to make our way out of Tutukaka’s narrow entrance. Once clear of Red Rock (and I did notice a red tinge to the rock above the high-water mark in the morning sun), we turned to the SE to open the coast for some clear air before altering course to the SSE.

We spent about twenty minutes in the light fluky airs of the Cape’s wind shadow, but at 1110 we suddenly broke free and were once more back in clear air. Now we had to come close-hauled onto the wind as the entrance to Whangarei Harbour lay three miles to the west, tucked in behind Bream Head’s steep cliffs. We tacked at midday and I was pleased to see that with the assistance of a south setting current and the flooding tide, we were going to easily lay the entrance to the Harbour.

At 1300 we were passing Marsden Point and entered the sheltered waters of the Harbour. We continued in through an unmarked channel between two extensive sand banks which were covered at this time as it was going on high water. As the channel was not marked I was relying on GPS and the depth sounder to navigate the shallow waters to our destination for the night, “The Nook’ in Parua Bay.

The entrance to Parua Bay is also narrow, only 200 meters wide, but it is easy to identify. At 1326 I rolled up the jib and ten minutes later started the engine as we approached Reserve Point, the right hand side of the entrance which holds the deeper water. We bore away to the east as we rounded the point into the pool of water that is known as “The Nook”. At 1341 I turned into the wind and dropped the mainsail then manoeuvred under motor to find a good spot to drop the anchor in the SE corner of the pool so as to gain shelter from the SW breeze. At 1350 I let go the anchor in five meters of water.

Departing Tutukaka Harbour:

Red Rock in the morning sun:

Some boats going the other way:

Bream Head (Bream Island in foreground):