Getting Back To Normal

Whatever normal is, that is to say.
Here we are past the middle of February already and it feels like we have only just got back to Tutukaka It has taken us quite a long time to settle down and get into projects again. This may have something to do with the weather which has been HOT with awful humidity. It is best to get the walks done early in the morning now. Today it rained - that slow misty drizzly rain. It looks so refreshing but it is only increasing the humidity.
The schoolchildren are back at school but the holiday-makers are still around. the marina is quite full and there are usually campervans in the carpark. The local camping ground seems to be still busy, too.

The anchor winch was hard to get out ( see last posting "Bay of Islands" ) and there is now a hole in the nicely refurbished wood in the forward cabin - but that too is fixable. The winch went to Auckland and there were parts that had to be ordered for it. So, many dollars later, it was put back but failed to work so it had to go back to Auckland. We now have it back and reinstalled and it is working perfectly. The person who fixed said it will be good for another 25 years now - that's good - it will be nice if we are still doing this when we are ninety.

John is being kept busy with his new responsibilty as Chairman of the Tutukaka Marina Trust.

I have been out walking since we have been back in order to do some "damage-control" after all the holiday festivities. I go early before the sun gets much of a chance and I usually walk the ridge above the marina. The views are great and the sea never seems to be the same. I took my new camera (Christmas present from Santa) with me last week and here are a couple of photos near the end of the ridge.


Here are some boats coming through the Tutukaka heads. Yes, it is a fairly narrow passage and there are days when the sea is too rough. Plenty of "bricks!" It is too dangerous to go on the other side.

That's the Hen andChicks out on the horizon.









And this is slightly further along looking across the entrance. The oblong building is part of the "Pacific Rendezvous" holiday motels where Zane and Ange and Liam stayed for part of their time here the year before last.

In the distance that almost conical shape is Bream Head which marks the entrance to Whangarei.








The weekend before last was a busy time for Tutukaka. There was a big game fishing competition on all weekend and on the Sunday night the Village Green in front of the hotel was the venue for the "Wine Tour" concert featuring Dave Dobbyn and Tim Finn on stage together, plus others who seem to be famous but I didn't recognise the names. I was a bit bemused because we are a marina and not a vineyard - but there are a couple of vineyards somewhere in Tutukaka so I suppose that made it all right.
There was no point trying to sleep until the concert was over so we all sat on our boats listening. They had to finish by 10pm. Ticket-holders were admitted into a closed off area which was all set up with stands providing all sorts of meals and bar facilities so it was no small job getting it set up.


Somebody caught a marlin. It did not count because it was Ladies' Day and they didn't even have a female on board. However, it is here to be weighed and photographed with the angler.

These fish usually go away to be smoked which seems to be the preferred way to eat them. We have tried it - it is quite delicious.








Talking about fishing - John and Ken go out as often as possible usually taking other guests on Ken's boat. They have not caught any marlin or anything like that (yet) but now and then they do get a large one.

Here Ken is struggling to hold this Hapuka. It was part fileted and part cut into steaks after the photo was taken


Look at those big chunky steaks.

All this was watched by the other residents of E pier and after all the cleaning up was done Ken very generously offered it to feed everyone for dinner. After a mad flurry by all the women to provide salads etc we all sat out on the pier where the fish was cooked on the back of "Seaforth II" and then enjoyed the communal dinner. The photo is taken from the deck of "Irrepressible."

Bay of Islands

After our time in Whangaroa Harbour we pointed the good ship "Irrepressible" southward intending to go back to Tutukaka but stopped for a night in Whangamumu where we stayed on the way up. We knew that our Tutukaka 'E' Street neighbors and friends were there and that Ken was going back the next day as was our intention. However, came the morning Ken got away and 'Fred and Nigel were all set to go up to the Bay of Islands and were quite persuasive about why we should go too. Every time we had been there in the past the weather was not the best so we had decided that we did not like the Bay of Islands but ended up agreeing to give it another chance. So glad we did because the weather was lovely all the time we were there and it made all the difference. The whole Bay was full of boats but apart from the hoons that sped around everywhere making rough wake for everyone else and endangering people trying to dive or swim or kayak it was all very tranquil and pretty.

And would you know it - lots of boats from E-Street there so it was sort of home away from home.
We gathered most nights on Nigel and Fred's boat "Seaforth II" because it is the biggest (see photo). One evening there were about 15 of us gathered and we ended up having a communal BBQ dinner (mostly sausages and bread with tomato sauce!) and then nobody wanted to go back to their own boats. A BeeJees video went on and so the evening turned into a dance party. I felt a bit sorry for 'Fred and Nigel but on reflection I think they love to be the hosts of a successful gathering.
We got together again on another night because somebody
had a birthday and the spouse had cooked a cake and wanted everyone to be there.

We went into Russell a couple of times. In colonial days it was dubbed "The Hell-hole of the Pacific" and was not a safe place to be in but now it is a very charming and picturesque seaside village. There are a couple of 4-Square supermarkets there so we were able to keep up supplies of fresh goods. There is also a very good museum and lots of arty sort of shops, lovely old colonial buildings and good eating venues - not to mention the coffee.

The annual Tall Ships Race took place while we were there which is rather fun. It is a sail boat race and it attracts really old boats and interesting boats. This event is always followed at the end of the day with a "Hangi" in the next cove. Sandra and Graham usually go to that.

Erin and Ivan sailed down from Whangaroa for a couple of nights before we left and we cooked a roast on our boat one night for them and Sandra and Graham.

Out anchor winch developed odd noises which caused us to make the decision to head off home. We were afraid that using it any more than we had to might make whatever was wrong worse and we did not fancy hauling up the anchor by hand if it failed altogether. 'Fred and Nigel decided to head homeward too and we risked using the anchor again in Whangamumu (hoping the winch would get it up one more time) for another night.
The offending winch did get the anchor up all right the next morning ( but the noise was a worry!) and we got back to Tutukaka at a good time to tidy up the boat a bit and do some washing.
The electric appliances came out and the whistleing kettle and camp toast maker went away until next time. We collected our mail and plugged in the TV and now we are caught up with the rest of world.

CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR 2009 - 2010

Cooling off on the public wharf after the shopping trip in Kaeo.

We went north again this Christmas in the boat in order to spend Christmas with Erin and Ivan who are on their boat in Whangaroa - including Tom who was staying with them.
We took the trip over 2 days dropping the anchor in a lovely little bay called Whangamumu which is just south of Cape Brett and is a favourite with boaties who want to break their journeys. Next day we went round Cape Brett and passed the entrance to the Bay of Islands and headed straight for Whangaroa via the Cavalli Islands. The wind came up from a perfect direction and we had a great sail and arrived ahead of schedule.
We had a great time with Erin and Ivan - didn't do much except eat and drink interspersed with fishing , sailing and wandering around ashore. Erin and Ivan have got Dad's old flounder net and a lot flounder were caught and frozen for Tom to take back with him when he left and we were able to freeze some to take home as well. Yum.

We took a few trips into the township ( a pub, a motel, a small marina, a game-fishing club, and a small store where emergemcy stuff MIGHT be available) . One time we left Ivan & Erin's boat on the public wharf and we went into Kaeo in their car to do some more serious shopping at the 4-Square store there. Normally Ivan and Erin like to go into Kerikeri once a month to stock up at the bigger supermarkets

When there is a dog on board these shore trips need to happen reasonably often. This is Maisie - Tom's mates bought her for him after his lovely big black cat died.

Terry and Cathie drove up from
Auckland and stayed with Erin and Ivan. We rafted both the boats together on New Year's Eve so we could move back and forwards easily
without having to worry about using the dingy.

Here we all are inside "Masada" with
the camera set to take us all. Tom had left by this time.

We all parted company after New Year. Terry and Cathie drove back to Auckland and we headed off south towards Tutukaka.

Tsunami

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week you would have seen the news of the earthquake near Samoa and the subsequent tsunami. Thank you all for your concerned phone calls (I think someone rang) and I can assure you all that we survived it and are both still alive and well and spending the kids inheritance as fast as we can.

It was, however, an interesting experience and in spite of the pathetic TV news coverage of it in NZ, we did actually get quite a large wave at Tutukaka.

The radio had been reporting the earthquake and tsunami all morning, forecasting that it would hit East Cape and Gisborne first at about 9.45am, arriving at Auckland about 10.30am. In actual fact, nothing happened at East Cape and they ended up canceling the warning around 10.30am. A few minutes later they reactivated the warning and said it would arrive at Auckland around midday.

At 12.05pm the tide level in Tutukaka dropped about a meter over a five minute period and then a few minutes later a rush of water hit the entrance to the marina and the tide level rose a meter in a few minutes. The best way to describe it was that it was like being on the Mississippi River in a raging flood with the tide coming in at close to 15 knots. This was followed a few minutes later with the tide going out just as quickly as it had come in. This happened at about half hourly intervals throughout the afternoon. There is a video clip of the tide going out on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIhOcrzFqw.

I had managed to get some quite good film of it all on the camcorder and rang TV One to see if they were interested in it and they sent a cameraman up from Whangarei to get it from me. He arrived about 3pm and was interviewing me on the jetty when all of a sudden there was a wall of white water racing in the entrance and all hell broke loose. A dinghy and 40hp outboard on the boat next to us was completely swamped and disappeared under the water and then one of the mooring piles along from us was broken off at seabed level and a 45 foot yacht on it was rolled over onto its side and was lucky not to have sunk. This was about the seventh surge since it all started and was by far the biggest one being at least a meter high. I hadn't really thought about it much before but I now know that a tsunami isn't just a moving wave on top of the water but the complete volume of water from the seabed up all moving at about 15 knots. Luckily it was low tide when it happened otherwise the damage would have been considerably worse. The surges gradually got smaller and weaker but were still occuring on a small scale the following morning.

Unfortunately I haven't got any still photos of it but I'm not sure they would have really given an idea of what it was like anyway.

So that was the week's excitement. The weather has been cold, wet and windy for the last couple of weeks so there hasn't been any fishing or much of anything happening for that matter.

We're looking forward to getting to Brisbane and some warmth and sun next week.

September already!

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It only seems like yesterday that Doreen did the June update. In fact it's so long ago I can't really remember what we've been doing since then so I'll stick to the few bits I can remember.

There have been several fairly major projects under way since the last report, some of them finished, some still work in progress. The one finished project is the conversion of the starboard quarter berth area into a utility room with storage for all the food and most of the utensils.

As the photo shows, we've built a cupboard with sliding doors and a few shelves. It doesn't look much but it was actually quite a challenging job but one that has made a huge difference to our comfort on the boat.

The other major project of mine has been laying a new floor after the damage caused by replacing the fuel tanks. This job is still ongoing but starting to look as if it will turn out quite well.


The new floor is oak veneer over tongue and groove pine planks and is quite difficult to get cut out neatly given that there are no right angle corners or straight lines on a boat. Nothing that filler can't hide though.

The last project and probably the biggest and hardest one has fallen fairly and squarely into Doreen's lap and that is the recovering of all the squabs throughout the boat. It would be a big enough challenge doing it in a house where there's plenty of room let alone trying to do it on the saloon table! Having said that, the parts that have been finished are looking really good and when the whole boat has been done it will look fantastic.



The photo at right is obviously the forward cabin and those of you that have seen the boat or remembered from previous photos will note that I have rebuilt the port side bunk. Before, it was about 300mm higher and extended over the 'thwartships (crossways) squab. Now there is a large storage area under the bunk and all (well, most) of my tools are stored there.

The saloon squabs are still WIP but are starting to shape up nicely.




And the final project was the delivery trip I did last week bringing our neighbour's new boat up here from Picton. Our friends Nigel and Fred (Winifred) recently sold their yacht Holo Malano (see Easter blog and trip to Great Barrier) and bought a 58 foot motor launch which was based in Picton. The Tutukaka Thinking Mans Drinking Club (Dad's Army) was appointed to bring the new boat back to Tutukaka and duly set off by road for Wellington at 3.15am Tuesday week ago. The trip down was reasonably uneventful and we arrived at the Ferry Terminal at about 4pm (co-incidently, about the same time as the normal nightly meetings start) and so set up temporary clubrooms under the overpass and prepared for the Cook Strait crossing due to leave at 6.25pm. The crossing got away on time and was reasonably smooth and comfortable and we finally got to the boat at 9.30pm.

Wednesday we went into Blenheim and bought food and liquid refreshments for the trip before going back to the boat for an afternoon nap. The weather was fine but very cold and noticeably colder than up north.

Dave, Bev and Kelly visited us in the evening for a few quiet drinks before we all (minus Kelly) headed into town for dinner at the local curry house. As it turned out Kelly and her boyfriend live in a flat not more than a hundred meters from where the boat was moored.



Sorry about the photo Dave, it looks like you may have drunk something that didn't agree with you but unfortunately it was the only one I took.

Thursday, the weather forecast wasn't great so we delayed our departure a day and went for a short shakedown cruise along Queen Charlotte Sound before another afternoon nap.

Friday, the forecast wasn't too bad so we set off at 8.30am for the 690 nm trip to Tutukaka.

Rather than bore everyone with the full details of the trip I'll stick to a brief summary.

Departed Picton Friday 8.30am - arrived Napier Saturday 9.45am. Refuelled at Napier (1100 litres)
Departed Napier Sunday 9.00am - arrived and anchored Tolaga Bay 10.00pm
Departed Tolaga Bay Monday 3.30am - arrived and anchored Cape Runaway 7.00pm
Departed Cape Runaway Tuesday 4.30am - arrived Whitianga 4.30pm. Refuelled at Whitianga (1100 litres) and anchored overnight at Great Mercury Island about 20 miles from Whitianga.
Departed Great Mercury Wednesday 4.30am - arrived Tutukaka 4.00pm.

Seaforth II

The weather throughout the trip ranged from crap (5m swells between Napier and East Cape) to perfect (flat calm across the Bay of Plenty). For the interest of anyone who cares, we used about 2700 litres of diesel and averaged about 9.5 knots over the whole journey. Oh, and in case anyone does actually care, we stopped for a fish on the Ranfurly Banks (about 12 nm off East Cape) and I caught two Kingfish.


And that brings us up to the present time, snugly in our berth at Tutukaka wondering what to do next. The squabs and the flooring projects need to be finished before we go summer cruising as does the painting of the back of the boat and the relocating of the boarding platform. We also would like to fit in a trip to Oz but at the moment it's raining and it all seems too hard so I might just take my book up to forward cabin and have a nap.

JUNE REPORT

I thought I had better hurry up and make a posting for June seeing it will soon be time to do one for July.

It has been quite a busy time since Easter and we have managed to get a lot done on the boat making the changes that need to change and fixing whatever needs fixing.

The biggest job was the diesel tank replacement. There were 2 tanks which carried far more fuel than we would ever need and they both had leaks starting. It was not worth trying to weld up old tanks so they had to come out which meant ripping up the galley floor but luckily the people doing the job managed to cut the tanks out to avoid having to take the whole galley out. We replace them with one new tank which will more than adequately do.
The first picture is looking right into the bilges with the galley floor all taken out and the old tanks gone. The steps from the cockpit are also gone so we had to climb in and out of the boat like monkeys getting a handhold and foothold where we could. The boat was in quite a mess for a while but we managed to cook, eat and sleep all right so there was no need to look for accommodation elsewhere. It seemed to drag on a bit because we had to wait for the new tank to be made and for the people doing the job to fit us in when they could.
The second picture shows the new tank arriving (mind the herb garden!)
Needless to say, this was all an unwanted expense and inconvenience but it is all done now and there are no more horrible diesel smells emanating from the bilge. It seems to go through everything!
Another bonus is that the new floor in the galley is much better - it is level and does no squeak and a cabinet was made slightly narrower when put back which meant a door could open properly at last.
While all this was going on the people who supplied us with and installed a new radar (over a year ago) finally got around to coming out and finding why it didn't work properly - turned out to be faulty cable running down from the unit on the mizzen mast. It was out of the guarantee period date but they accepted the responsibility about that.

After discovering there was no plug for the new tank ( and consequently having one more last diesel smell in the bilge when we tried putting some diesel in for the first time) we managed to procure one - the next challenge was getting the motor started again with the need to bleed the new fuel lines but that was not too much of a drama and it was good to hear it functioning again - music the ears, in fact.
We almost slipped the ropes and took off to Whangaroa just to enjoy the boat for a week or two and catch up with Erin and Ivan but there were too many appointments and social obligations coming up that we did not miss. Besides, the weather was going through a cool snap so we stayed put.
It is just as well we didn't go away because John discovered that a wound on his leg was inflamed and not healing. This happened while he was out fishing on Ken's boat "Aquadash" a while back when he was hurrying to help someone land a good-sized fish. The doc. prescribed antibiotics to get rid of the infection but it has become ulcerated so it could take some time getting better. He is visiting the doc. every two or three days now.


John's latest project is turning the quarter-berth off the galley into a sort of utility/pantry room. The fridge and freezer were already there and as you can see there are some nice new cupboards. Not finished yet - the top shelf needs railing and all needs varnishing.
We should have done this ages ago it is so much easier finding things now.
The plastic container is where we hide the washing up until it gets full or we feel like doing it.
I hate doing it when I am feeling settled after dinner or there is something good on T.V.

John has finished in the forward cabin now after making the toilet enclosure and lowering the bunk on the left side to make it even with the right - so much better and more inviting as a bedroom. He also fixed the wooded areas and I took all the old dark green front-runner down (felt "wallpaper" fabric - used to line the hull for insulation and looks) and replaced it with a fresh new lighter colour. The left squab had to be re-cut and rather than fix up the old red covers we have decided to make new blue covers as per the fabric sample in the photo.

I think that is about it for now.
The winter has not made us suffer so far - it is easy to keep the boat warm while we have the use of electricity and the sun is still warming. I rather like the fine clear winter days.

May Update

Well it's May already and another year is almost half gone. The time seems to race past the older one gets!

Quite a lot has happened since the last update which I seem to remember finished with us getting ready to go away with our friends on their 50 foot launch Holo Malana, shown on the left anchored in Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island where we spent a few days. But more of that later.



We left Tutukaka early on the morning of Good Friday and headed off for Great Barrier expecting a good sail but as is so often the case on this coast, the wind was right on the nose, the sea quite snotty and we ended up motoring the whole 52 miles. Seven and a half hours later we arrived just as the sea flattened out, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. And that's pretty much how it stayed the whole 10 days we were away. We spent a few days in Fitzroy harbour at the northern end of the island fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping (all in about equal quantities) before we got sick of all the excitement and motored down to Tryphena, about 15 miles down towards the bottom end of the island.

The fishing was pretty good at Fitzroy, we caught quite a few snapper and Doreen took the prize for the best fish...a nice sized John Dory. She had actually hooked a small undersize snapper (about 10cm.) and the John Dory thought it looked like a tasty morsel wriggling round on the end of the line and came along and took it hook, line and snapper!

For anyone who hasn't been there and is even remotely interested, Great Barrier Island is about 20 miles from top to bottom, 5 miles across and is a typical volcanic island ie. hilly and covered in native forest. The permanent population is around 700 people living mainly in Fitzroy in the north, Claris in the middle and Tryphena in the south. It's situated about 25 miles off the coast midway between Auckland and Whangarei.

Anyway, back to the story. We were lucky enough to be able to use a friend's mooring right by the wharf in Tryphena so had a good safe spot and felt comfortable leaving the boat and going ashore for extended periods. One day we borrowed a friend's car and drove the length of the island stopping in for a couple of hours at an old school friend of Doreen's who has a farm right on the water's edge half way down the island. That night was my birthday (thank you all for your cards, phone calls and emails) and we all went ashore and had dinner in one of the two restaurants in the area.

After a few days at Tryphena we got restless again and hauled up the anchor and motored down to Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf. We anchored in Mansion House Bay right opposite Governor Grey's house (The Mansion) where we spent a couple of very pleasant days going ashore for short walks (the men) and long walks (the women).

The picture on left shows Doreen and our friends coming back to the boat after a walk ashore.

By now we were running out of space to put all the empty bottles. An average morning while we were away saw about five empty wine bottles and one rum bottle needing to be disposed of plus our friends had to go back to work so we reluctantly up-anchored and sailed back up the coast to Tutukaka, about 8 hours away.


While we were away our boat builder had been on our boat and removed the two fuel tanks that needed replacing so we arrived back to find a temporary floor with a big hole under it! They ended up having to cut the tanks up to get them out otherwise they would have had to do some serious damage to the galley and navigation area and rather than replace them as they were we've had one big tank made that will be easily accessed in the event it ever needs attention. At the moment the new tank has been built and we're just waiting for the boat builder to come back and fit it in.

After the beautiful weather we had at Easter, the last couple of weeks have been awful with strong winds and a lot of rain and right now a major low pressure area the size of Australia with a centre of 960 hps is due to descend on us. Should be fun!

Until next time...............