Single Handing from Maitai Bay to Whangarei Heads

Single handed coastal sailing provides plenty of challenge and interesting experiences. This three day cruise from Maitai Bay down to Whangarei Heads (Mcleod Bay) was no exception. The trip began in very light airs. I hoisted the anchor early Saturday and drifted slowly out close hauled with a light ebb tide helping. Melody followed and together we used the faint and shifting breezes to find our way to the mouth of the bay and around the corner into open water.

I said farewell to Melody via VHF radio and laid a course down the coast that would take me just outside the Cavalli Islands. The winds remained light, freshening to near 10 knots for a while but dying away entirely toward midnight. I took advantage of the peaceful motion to work on re-stitching the small jib.

Sailing off the anchor - photo taken by Roz (sv Melody)

Near midnight, I leaned over the side with a flashlight and watched in fascination as thousands of jelly fish and other strange globules and strings of jelly drifted past. At times the jelly fish, mostly about 6-10 cms wide, were so closely packed, there was barely space between them. That night the wind was shifty and irregular. I slept for 15-30 minutes at a time, setting a timer to wake me and leaving the AIS alarm on.

The next morning, the wind returned and I was soon bowling along with a reefed main and a partially furled jib. The seas were smooth so I took the opportunity to scrape and sand the teak cap rails and to lay a coat of Cetol on the windward rail. Near noon the wind died. In the silence, broken only by the light gurgle of the bow wave, I was startled by what sounded like someone letting the air out of a huge balloon. I rushed on deck in time to see the fin of a large whale disappearing into the black water. Half a minute later the whale breathed again and I saw it was a mature humpback on a reciprocal course to Ladybug.

By mid-afternoon it was clear I would not make it to Whangarei Heads before dark and that there would be a rapidly ebbing tide to block my entry into the estuary. I gybed and ran in toward Tutukaka. I have wanted to visit Tutukaka for more than a year - the name alone enticing me. However, the entrance to this bay is very narrow and I had been warned that there is not much room to anchor inside because of moored boats and a marina. I ran in under full main and jib, carefully lining myself up with the 100 meter wide entrance. Three power boats came zooming past just as I reached the narrows, tossing Ladybug in their wakes.

To a car driver, 100 meters may seem like a parking lot, but when you are running in under sail with tidal currents and wakes tossing you around and surf breaking on the rocks on both sides, 100 meters feels like you are squeezing through a doorway. As a single hander, you need to be in three places at once - on the bow watching for rocks, at the helm steering, and down below looking at the chart. I do enjoy a challenge, but there was more than once on this trip when I wished I had Rani with me!

I made it through the gap without a problem and found that the anchorage inside already had a half dozen boats anchored just outside a line of moored boats. I rounded up into the wind and dropped the hook so that I would fall back well clear of the anchored boats, backing the mainsail to help bury the anchor. The maneuver went without a hitch for a change. I made a light supper and dropped off to an early sleep.

This morning the weather forecast promised a nice offshore westerly breeze and I left the anchorage downwind under sail with full main and a little jib. My single handing skills were tested again just after I cleared the narrow entrance. I was sweeping up from yesterday's teak scraping when I dropped the plastic dustpan over the side. Great - a chance to practice my 'pan overboard' maneuver. I rolled in the jib, gybed the main and ran downwind on the bobbing pan. As the pan reached the bows, I left the tiller to look after itself and was just able to lean over the side and grab the pan as it went by, legs wrapped around a stanchion and narrowly avoiding falling over the side. I let out a victory giggle and inwardly admonished myself for risking the boat to save a $3 dustpan. If I had fallen over, the boat would likely have continued onto the rocks, which lay only a few hundred meters downwind.

The wind gradually gathered strength as I reached down the beach-lined coast toward Bream Head. By the time I was off Ocean Beach it was coming in gusts of 15-20 knots and I had two reefs in the main and half the jib put away. I cleared Bream Head and found a nasty chop on the other side - typical conditions for this entrance. Sand banks line the approaches and the wind howls across the low land at the estuary mouth.

Beating across the bay, I tacked and ran directly up the channel, taking the occasional wave over the bow. An oil tanker with accompanying tug came around the corner, having just left the refinery that lies across the river from Mcleod Bay. I turned and ran outside the marked channel, passing the tanker just as the tug was pushing its stern over to make a last turn out of the narrow fairway. Only a few small fishing boats were out in the estuary mouth as I beat the last mile up to Mcleod Bay, coming to anchor off the public jetty.

I plan to stay here a week and help my friends Jo and Rob with their house projects before heading out again, possibly to Great Barrier Island.

Communications on a Cruising Sailboat

One of the biggest changes since many how-to cruising books were written is the communications revolution brought about by wireless networks, satellite phones, and the Internet. Single side band radio, long distance telephone calls, and post restante mail pick-up used to be the only options for long range communications. Now we have satellite phones that provide voice calls and internet access anywhere on the globe (at a price). SSB radio can be used with a special modem or most recently with modem emulation in software to send and receive emails. This works within a few thousand miles of a base station, so while coverage is not worldwide it is pretty good. Access is free for HAM operators and nominal (via Sailmail) for non-HAMs and we use this method of email access, to post blog entries, and stay in touch in case of urgent messages from our families.

Until last year, we had always used wifi access (802.11) for all our internet and email access when coastal cruising or in harbours . This changed in Fiji where we found wifi coverage to be poor and discovered that access via cellphone networks was actually quite reasonable and fast. In Fiji, a Vodaphone dongle and 1 GB of access cost us only about $20 Canadian. In New Zealand the same thing came to twice that with data top-ups costing at least twice as much as in Fiji, too. Despite the higher prices, 3G cellular access for web browsing and email makes sense for a cruiser. Here in New Zealand, the cost per month amounts to about $15-20 Canadian for 1.5 GBs - enough to provide daily email access, some light web surfing, and a couple of skype calls a week. I am currently sailing along 8 miles offshore and can still access a signal while underway to post this blog entry. Magic! 

Sailing to Maitai Bay

My friends on Melody proposed a 20 mile sail to Maitai Bay - a scenic beach-lined cove well to the north of Whangaroa. The wind was light and fluky as I pulled up anchor and I ghosted out under main alone, gybing several times as the wind deflected among the hills that hem in this anchorage. Squally black clouds had me tucking in an extra reef, but I had to pull this out in order to slip out the pass against a flooding tide. Once outside the wind filled in and I was just able to point for my destination up the coast.

An hour later the scene had changed completely. The wind began to rise steadily to 10 then 15 then 20 knots. I furled in 4 rolls of jib and still the wind rose to 25 gusting at times to 35 and more. This was some of the heaviest upwind sailing I have experienced (as cruisers we usually try to avoid strong headwinds). I had to run off to roll in more jib and then set the wind vane to steer 10 degrees off a close haul to reduce the pounding.

Passing Doubtless Bay the waves began to build and an odd one would wash over the deck and cover the spray hood. Melody had tacked earlier and was running freer and closer to the coast and I envied their position. I hurriedly placed an old towel under the spray hood to soak up water that leaks through under the hood coaming when the going gets this rough. Now I was helping the windvane in the gusts, steering with the tiller between my legs and taking cover behind the spray hood. An occasional gust would lay Ladybug on her side, submerging the decks in running green water. The worst of these had water pouring out of the kitchen sink faucet because the water tank under the settee was higher than the counter for a few seconds.

I overshot Maitai in order to lay the bay on the next tack. Coming up to a mile off Cape Karikari, I went about and bore away south down the peninsula. Close in to the land the waves were less, but the wind was even more erratic, howling over the headlands and sweeping through the low spots. I took great care to avoid a rock that lies in isolation on the approaches and furled in the jib just off Maitai Bay. I was tempted to sail in, completing what would have been my 11th straight passage under sail, but I wimped out when I thought of beating back and forth into the rock lined bay in which three boats were already anchored. I started the motor. The wind was so strong that while I was furling in the last of the jib, the old stitching tore loose along about two meters of the UV protection strip (I am procrastinating by writing this blog entry - restitching the sail by hand is a job I dislike).

I will stay here a couple of days before returning south to Whangarei where I have promised my friends Jo and Rob that I will help out with finishing their new house/B & B/spa.

Back in Russell

There is a tall ships race in Russell each year and this year everyone was allowed to race. I tagged along on the side lines and took a couple of pictures. Fantail is Annie Hill's little junk rigged boat and she was neck and neck with Dolphin of Leith, a tiny century old gaff cutter that just crossed the Pacific. For those of you thinking of sailing off across oceans but a little short on cash - Annie Hill's book, Voyaging on a Small Income, although a little dated is good reading. You can find out more at her blog. For info on Dolphin of Leith, another inspiring story of voyaging on a shoestring, you can visit their facebook page. Dolphin was on passage from Tonga while we were crossing from Fiji but had a more benign crossing. And yes - she could do with, and is going to get, a new mainsail in New Zealand.

Fantail and Dolphin beat into a choppy sea off Russell

I was interested to watch the junk rigged boats in this race because I am attracted by the rig's practicality and have considered using this rig on a future boat. Less than stellar upwind performance is something often mentioned by critics and I am afraid that this is a legitimate issue based on watching the three junk rigged boats in this race. However, they seemed to be able to hold their own with the traditional gaff rigged boats and are good performers off the wind.

Our friend Mike from Picara has spent the last several months working on the classic motor cruiser - Lady Crossley. She was one of the finish line vessels for the race and is shown below getting in position as the first boats approach.

Lady Crossley - acres of gleaming varnish and a mirror finish on her hull.

New Years Day Sail

This lovely small wooden cutter sailed in to the anchorage late yesterday with one older man on deck. I caught these as she ghosted out this new year's morning, with hardly a whisper of wind to push her along.

The Duke's Nose is clear in the upper left corner. The bay around the corner to the right is where the DOC hut and several bach's (cottages) can be found.

She is about 30 feet long. To my eye, this is what a sailboat should look like with a jaunty sheer, bowsprit, and traditional gaff rig - lovely!

Happy New Year!

Best wishes to everyone who is reading our blog for a healthy and prosperous 2014!

On New Years eve, I rigged the little sailing dinghy and went for a voyage around the two local bays. I counted around 60 boats in the bays and more people in the 'bach's' (summer camps) that huddle under the shadow of the hill one bay over. Ironically, our friends sailing in the Bay of Islands tell me that the crowds we sought to escape did not materialize. Perhaps everyone came up here instead.

Natalie and Angelina look out toward our anchorage in Whangaroa Harbour

 After the sail, I picked up Angelina and Natalie from 'La Fiesta' while David relaxed, after scrubbing their boat's bottom, by assisting another cruiser with engine troubles. We landed on a sand beach at the head of the bay and followed a lightly used trail to a rocky lookoff.

Natalie and Angelina 

I did not bring the camera to the New Years eve celebrations that we held on the beach and then later on board Kamali'i (pictured below). All my friends from the boats around showed up and we saw in the New Year with NZ bubbly courtesy of Matthew on 'Rock and Roll Star'. Kamali'i is a Philip Rhodes design built, for the grandson of an oil baron. She was constructed to the highest standards and, being 75 feet long and weighing as many tons, is more a ship than a boat. I have a great deal of respect for the new owners who rescued her from an early retirement in California. She makes a lovely addition to any anchorage and apparently sails along very comfortably at 10 knots. Her owners, James and Sharon are also friends with our friends Rob and Jo from 'Blue Moon', so we will probably sail south together to meet Blue Moon in the Bay of Islands.

Kamali'i raising anchor. Note it takes two people on the bow to do this, using a gigantic electric windlass and a small crane (in place of a bow roller). It took 3 months of labour to prepare her lovely wooden spars and standing rigging for the Pacific crossing.

Hiking the Duke's Nose

I have been up and down the 'Nose' three times - once on my own, once with Angelina, David, and Natalie from La Fiesta, and once with Jan and Rich from Slip Away. The trail is steep and eroded and there are chains at the top to make ascending the last piece of rock face simpler. A few pictures follow.

Natalie in the lead on the steep trek to the Duke's Nose

David huffing up behind

And Angelina looking like she is out for a stroll in the park.

Chris climbing down from the Nose itself (the best views are from the top of the 'Head'

Today I climbed up again with Jan and Rich

Rich standing on the Nose with the the anchorage spread out below. 

A Few Boat Pictures

Ladybug is still anchored in Whangaroa where we have had a day of rain (I have newly laundered clothes to prove this) and some gusty winds that saw several boats drag and re-anchor last night.

On Christmas day, another Coast 34 - style boat (actually a custom built version called the Roberts 341) anchored next to Ladybug. Jason and Maria are about to embark on an extended voyage with their two boys Luke (9) and George (11) on "Allure of New Zealand". The boat was 27 years in the making. A previous owner built the hull and partially fitted out the interior starting in 1985 and spanning 20 years. Jason has spent a good part of the last seven years finishing off the interior with a diesel engine from a tractor, drawers and cupboards, a liner for the ceiling, and electronics and electrical systems. He has also welded up all the metalwork on the exterior and rigged her as a cutter. She is lovely inside, finished in various blonde NZ woods and teak with a very nicely built hull. Even though her original construction dates from when Ladybug was born, she was launched last year and looks brand new.

Allure of New Zealand anchored at Whangaroa

I also came across this lovely wooden schooner while on passage to Whangaroa. I believe she does day charters out of Paihia.

A Great Blog

Merry Christmas everyone!

I just received a Christmas email from friends on the big aluminum sailing boat, Papillon (butterfly in French). We first met these folks in Tonga and again in New Caledonia where Erik helped us re-rig our forestay and repair our roller furler. In their email, Papillon included a link to their blog, which is both very funny and insightful. Erik and Amy cruise with their two lovely children, Audrey and Martha. Check out their blog at http://sailingawayonpapillon.blogspot.co.nz.

Hiking on Motukawanui

After swimming three times with the dolphins, I was chilled through and through, so what better way to warm up than to row ashore, lug the dinghy up the beach and walk across the biggest of the Cavalli Islands. The trail ran from the beach northeast of North Bay, climbed up through some grasslands and then followed a ridge before plunging into a forested valley. In the trees, the trail crossed a couple of small streams before rising again to another ridge with views to the north and out over several valleys that converge in the center of the island. The terrain is rugged on this trail and I cursed the trail makers for not keeping the trail high and following a single contour along the hillside.

The views into the center of the island are particularly lovely with little noise from the outside world to compete with birdsong and insect calls. The views along the ridge of the other Cavalli islands are also worth the climb.

View from the look-out looking northeast - click for larger version.

At the other end, one descends to a hut that can be reserved through the DOC office in Kirikiri. The hut enjoys views out over an expansive beach to the mainland hills. I traipsed the beaches on the inland side of the island, finding a few abalone shells scattered at the high tide mark. On the return trip, I took a side trail to a look-out at the highest point on the island before retracing my steps to the dinghy.

View looking north - click for larger version.