Auckland to Tauranga shakedown trip (part 2)
Monday morning bright and earlyish, Chris Joe and Niko arrived at Kennedy Point on Waiheke Island to collect me, the 4th member of the crew.
After we all said our goodbyes to the people staying behind — me to Kim and Mos — we sailed off into a beautiful, breezy afternoon out across the Hauraki Gulf and around the Coromandel Peninsula.
We sailed inside Channel Island rather than around the outside of it, despite the advice of the Coastal Cruising Guide. There was a sizeable swell, but the wind and tide directions were in our favour. Ohana handled the conditions very well and we were soon around Cape Coalville and sailing south for Tauranga. That said, I wouldn’t like to attempt such a close rounding of the peninsula in any conditions other than the almost perfect ones we had, it seemed like it could turn pretty wild pretty quickly around there.
I did a 3pm to 6pm watch, then midnight to 3am. There was a fat crescent moon shining through the clouds over Mayor Island on the approach to Tauranga, and after that I slept until we were motoring into the harbour after 6am on Tuesday morning.
We found our way into the marina Chris had booked — the Tauranga Bridge Marina — and spent the day working on odd jobs around the boat and around the town that had to be done before we went offshore.
It was a bit of a jolt really to land into work mode so quickly after starting to sail. Although going away on a trip like this is quite the adventure, it definitely hasn’t been a holiday in the ‘relax and do nothing much’ sense. One of the tasks I got was to restring that trampolines that are at the front of the catamaran. They will be the perfect place to relax in the sun when we get to some tropical islands, but initially it was a tedious task to get done. By the time I’d finished though, I did appreciate that the trampolines were in much better shape in advance of our offshore trip, and there was a certain pleasing symmetry to lines I had woven into place too. It was useful too in that it struck me as being very similar to writing a book, or even living a life — just doing each small piece of the task, without being very exciting all by itself, was getting me closer to the whole thing coming together just beautifully.
Two nights before we left Tauranga, we went out for a few beers in town. It was a good chance to get to know each other some more. I knew Chris a bit from crewing on a few Ohana day charters over the last two summers. Chris had only met Niko and Joe a few weeks previously, and I had only me them once a few days ago to say hello and get acquainted. So the pub was a fun way to chat, tell stories about sailing and about home, and get ready for spending a month or more today in the close conditions of a 15 meter sailboat.
The voyage to Rapa Iti
- Part 1 — Introduction
- Part 2 — Auckland to Tauranga shakedown trip
- Part 3 — Leaving New Zealand
- Part 4 — Trying to get into the swing of things
- Part 5 — Action stations!
- Part 6 — Now we’re sailing
- Part 7 — A very happy birthday
- Part 8 — Action stations again!
- Part 9 — Whales
- Part 10 — A day with a bit of everything in it
- Part 11 — The sky is on fire
- Part 12 — Almost there
- Part 13 — Land ho!
