Day 8 & 9 - Safe Arrival in Opua

We sailed on a broad reach for the last couple of days of our passage, arriving off the Bay of Islands early on Saturday morning. In the pitch black we motored up the channel to opua, following the excellent New Zealand charts on our computer with me on the bow as a lookout with a bright headlamp. Despite a slight current against us, we had no problem maintaining 3-4 knots of boat speed.

We arrived around 4 am and had a little difficulty coming alongside with a strong current setting Ladybug away from the dock such that I required Rani's help to get her lines on the dock cleats. We had no problems with our kava bowls and baskets and gave up only a few veggies and 1 apple.

We are now anchored up in Russell visiting our friends Holger and Roz who moor their boat here and work as painters in this lovely community. The back bay away from the ferry wharf is a lovely anchorage and very secure. We plan to go down back to Opua on Monday to meet up with our friend on 'Slip Away' and 'Gato Go' who are just coming in from their passage and to visit other cruising friends who now live and work in the area.