Shopping Triathlon

Living on board an ocean going sailboat at a mooring and going to 'work' every morning is loses some of its novelty after the first few weeks. It feels slightly wrong to stay in one place on a boat that is used to seeing different pastures every week or two. So, rather than do the sensible thing and cadge a ride into Whangarei to do my grocery shopping, I decided to take Ladybug out for a little exercise and sail up the river. The rains had finally let off by early Saturday morning but a thick mist hung over the mountains and the other side of the estuary was but a faint outline.

A tiny breeze filled in around 8 am, so I peeled off the sodden sail cover and hoisted the full main. Of course the wind then went elsewhere, so I made breakfast and waited 'sailing' at the mooring. Around 9, I gave up and turned on the engine, dropped the mooring line and motored past a steel schooner which had just arrived in the bay.

The navigation at the mouth of McLeod Bay is tricky - a sandbar fills much of the bay and then, if you head straight for the channel, another one lies in wait in what looks like perfectly clear water. I checked the chart and ran between the two bars, passing a succession of small fishing boats out for their weekend session.

A very faint waft of SW wind filled in and I optimistically unfurled the jib, but the breeze when elsewhere and half an hour later I resorted to the engine, which got a good run on the trip up to Onerahi. I had intended to anchor further upstream, but the anchorage off Limestone Island looked interesting, especially when a scan with the binoculars revealed it was a DOC park.

The second leg of the triathlon was a row across the river, being pulled gently upstream by the tide. I hauled out Ladybug on a rocky shelf just above the tide line and tied her off to a post. Hoisting a a backpack full of shopping bags and consulting a sketch I had drawn of the roads into central Onerahi, I began the third leg of my triathlon, walking the mile or two up the hill to the town. Much of Onerahi is populated by native (Mauri) - the first place in New Zealand where I have walked through such a community. I was reminded of the south sea islands we had visited when I passed yards full of several families exuberantly sharing a meal on the front lawn and spreading out into the street.

One thing I used to do when I lived a more regulated life was to try to see something unusual and noteworthy each day on my trips back and forth to work. I thought of this on the walk into town and found my noteworthy items in a graveyard. Several graves were in the form of the most beautiful sculptures. One sandstone carving depicted a mother lovingly embracing her boy child - echoes of Madonna and Christ - over the grave of a boy who had died as a teenager.

I picked up some sticky black tape to make a temporary fix to the hatch drip and filled a small cart at the New World, being careful to buy only as much as I wanted to carry back down the hill. The humidity was high and it was sunny and about 28 degrees as I sweated my way back to the dinghy. The waterfront was now full of swimmers and picnicking Maori families. A big fellow swimming off where I had hauled up the dinghy offered to help me put her back in the water, and despite a shoreline of sharp rocks climbed out of the water and lifted in one end of the boat. The kindness of strangers can make life so much easier - it had been a real struggle to get the boat out onto the ledge and the tide had gone out since then.

It rained heavily last night, and the new sticky tape was given a good test. With any luck the hatch will remain water tight until I replace or re-seal it. Today I plan to visit Limestone Island. I will bring a camera and post something on this later.

Wet Times in Port Fitzroy

We have had two days of rainy weather - the first very windy also and the second very wet. I managed a quick walk ashore on the first day, hiking the Warrens Track to some small but pretty waterfalls. This can be done as a round trip using the road to Port Fitzroy from the campground. I approached the falls from above (the route from the village of Port Fitzroy) and missed the round trip aspect of this, which requires that you walk down the stream bed for a ways before finding the trail again. So I walked in again the other way from the campground so as to see the whole loop. A recommended hike if you want something less strenuous than the typical Great Barrier tracks that always seem to climb serious hills

I did not think to lower our solar panels despite the gale force winds forecast. The wind was so gusty where I was hiding under the lee of a high hill that one gust broke the plastic clip I use to suspend a panel. Another gust actually bent the aluminum cross bar that secures the panel to the stanchion rail. I bent it back today, so no harm done, but next time I will bring the panels down and tie them off.

The rain yesterday was impressive and filled the dinghy to the brim. I baled her out around 11 pm and then noted the leak I had been chasing for a while had made its appearance again - dribbling water into one of our clothes closets. We had noted this problem on only one or two other occasions and always after the fact. This time I was able to watch things in action and learned by removing ceiling panels and trim that the leak is the same one I have on my list to fix in the seal around the hatch acrylic lens that is over the passage to the v-berth. The hatches on Ladybug are are good quality (but probably original) Lewmar Ocean Series and the seal has dried out on one. I will see if I can re-bed this before I leave Ladybug. If not, it will be a tape and tarp solution until we get back.

Today the rain and mist cleared and I did a wash to make use of the fresh water. I also hiked to what I thought by its name would be an easy track - the Old Lady Track. Well because of the rain, the streams it crossed required nimble feet and some cunning to stay dry and upright. It also climbed a goodly hill and I took the easy way out on the return trip and walked down the lovely winding road back to Fitzroy.

Panorama from Lookout Rock over Port Fitzroy

Port Fitzroy harbour. Ladybug is just out of sight to the left.

Lovely lush vegetation -  I can see why, with all the rain they get here!

Hike to Hirakimata

Hirakimata as the Maoris call it or Mt Hobson by its English name is the highest peak on Great Barrier Island. A nice day hike can be had from the anchorage in Kairara Bay by landing at Bush Beach and walking in to the Kaiarara Hut and thence up to the Kauri Dams.

Tree Ferns and Tea Trees dominate the lower elevations

Remains of a Kauri Dam. The rivers were dammed to make it easier to transport logs to the sea. The logs filled the dammed pools and were released when there was plenty of water. The resulting cascade was apparently terrifying to behold.

Historical photo of this dam

From the dams you proceed up endless flights of beautifully built stairs until you reach a small viewing platform at the top.

View out over the bays of Port Fitzroy with Little Barrier Island in the distance. Ladybug is somewhere in the center bay.

Wider panorama shows the lush green estuary lands on the other side of the island. There are also impressive beaches on this side. 

This time of year is the season for cicadas to make a real din. I suspect they are mating. The noise is almost deafening in places - a shrill pitched chirp combined with clacking multiplied thousands of times.

Cicada

Kaka - native brown parrot eating insects.

Same kaka. Sorry for the quality of pics - these were the best of about 50 shots if you can believe that.

Coming down I took the gentler route via the South Fork track - longer and still heaps of stairs, but most of the stairs are over quickly (by the time you reach the hut that lies at the head of the valley) The trail then follows the rim of an ancient volcano before joining Forest Road and returning to the Kaiarara hut.

I have been working on re-bedding windows on Ladybug. It takes about three hours for each window and I did the hike today because my hands were so sore from doing two yesterday. I finished another one just after sunset tonight. Only 8 to go.

Picture of Kairara Bay

I have not put up any pictures in a while, so here is one of a tiny Ladybug anchored in Kairara Bay taken from the road into Port Fitzroy. Note the lovely big tree fern to the right. There are several cottages and a few full time off-grid homes on this stretch of road, just outside the park boundary.

Sailing to Great Barrier Island

Non-boaters probably don't appreciate how much of a transition it is from living on board in one place to going off for even a short cruise. On the mooring Ladybug had accumulated a spectacular growth of slime, barnacles, and thousands upon thousands of tiny shrimp, presumably feeding on the slime. I was in the water for about an hour on Saturday and made only a modest dent in the accumulation. I did manage to bring into the cockpit, attached to my wet suit and hoody, enough tiny wriggling shrimp to feed a small family.

In addition to the boat's unpreparedness to go anywhere, I had also settled into a shore-oriented routine and it took an hour or two to stow and organize the things that would otherwise go bouncing on the passage. I now have a fine collection of abalone shells, Fiji bowls and a cannibal fork that all have to find places, plus a lovely glass fishing float ornament that otherwise swings alarmingly in your face on passage.

By 9 am on Sunday I had the boat squared away, the dinghy hoisted on deck, and the navigation computer hooked up to its puck GPS. 'Chapter 2' who had been anchored beside me for the night had left earlier to run up the river to Whangarei on the last of the flood and 'La Fiesta' had just departed for Opua, where David and Angelina return to jobs and Natalie to school. I slipped the mooring and hoisted full sail. The last of the flood was still running in the main channel and a 10 knot breeze kicked up a small chop.

The river mouth at Whangarei Heads is often an area of ugly sharp seas. 'Chapter 2' had reported close spaced 3 meter seas when they arrived the day before. Today things were more benign with the usual crowd of fishing 'tinnies' (open aluminum power boats) anchored or drifting in the fairway. The channel here is dredged and takes a dog leg to avoid shoals off Marsden Point. The oil refinery, while a relatively clean operation, permeated the air with fumes and I wondered how the fishermen could stand it for hours on end.

The wind was dead against us but it was near high tide, and a large 3 meter tide at that, so I was able to extend Ladybug's tacks, sailing right over what would normally be 2 meter deep banks at Calliope Bay. Around 10:30, as predicted in the tables, the tide altered and began to run out and we were just able to lay a line down the banks of Marsden Point, clearing the last of the anchored fishing skiffs.

We sailed all the way across shallow Bream Bay on one tack, from Bream Head to Bream Tail and then tacked out toward Sail Rock - which looks more like a giant shark tooth from the land side. The great sand beaches of Bream Bay stretched for miles to starboard, the low land in stark contrast to steep volcanic islands to seaward.

The wind veered into the NE and I brought Ladybug onto port tack, set the wind vane steering and  headed for Little Barrier Island, which we reached almost 8 hours later at sunset. An hour later the wind vanished and with about 8 miles to go I put on the diesel and furled the jib, setting a way point for the entrance to Man of War passage. The approaches to the south end of Port Fitzroy are well charted but require careful navigation between the scattered islands and rocks. I would never have dared this on a dark night without the chart software and excellent recent raster charts. Even so, I decided not to attempt the very narrow last gap into Port Fitzroy, but dropped the hook in Red Cliff Bay just after midnight. The bay was completely still, lit only by the firefly lights of a dozen anchored boats and the flashing beacons of a fish farm. 

Today I will explore this bay and hopefully locate a fresh water stream to top up our water.

A house, a dog, and a job (sort of)

Ladybug is secured to her new mooring, kindly lent to us by friends of Jo and Rob. She is very close to the mooring we used last year and is right in Mcleod Bay in front of Jo and Rob's house.

Last week after the tropical depression had passed, Jos and Logan who live up the hill from Jo and Rob asked me to house and dog sit while they went down to Auckland to buy a sailboat. So for an evening I had the use of a large house and the responsibility of looking after Max - an affectionate shaggy dog. I have been working with Rob now for a few weeks on their house/B&B - tiling, putting up deck railings, painting, and installing flooring, and putting in a kitchen. It occurred to me last week that I have gone in one stroke from being a carefree 'bachelor' sailor  to having a house, a dog, and a job.

Next week I plan to go for a last sail out to Great Barrier Island to stretch my legs and work on the mandatory stuff that needs doing to Ladybug before we leave her for 9 months. The main project is to rebed the windows. This was last done in Mexico when we bought the boat and this time I plan to remove the windows completely to ensure a perfect seal. 

Ex-Cyclone June

When they downgrade a cyclone to a tropical depression, it does not sound too bad, right? The remains of a cyclone June are currently passing over the north island and I must say I am still pretty impressed by the wind strength. Yesterday we had near gale force winds and gusts into the 40's due to funneling of the wind through a mountain gap nearby. I was firmly attached to a mooring with little fetch for the waves to build in, but even so 10 ton Ladybug was tossed on her ear a few times and the wind was strong enough to tear the tops off the waves and flatten everything out into a sheet of horizontal foam.

Today the eye passed over and it was calm with a few patches of blue sky. The NZ met service however was warning of 45 knot winds with higher gusts possible from the North and West, so I motored across to Munro  Bay, which Rob had assured me would have OK shelter in these directions. Well the wind has arrived and is bending around the corner from the SW with a sloppy swell to match. I just popped up on deck with my little anemometer and measured a higher speed than I have ever seen on this instrument - 44 knots in one gust with sustained 35 knots for a while. And I am out of the worst of it!

Sometimes I wish I had a nice little house, well anchored to a piece of dirt, preferably inland.

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.