Dave & Margs' Travels

We just about kept awake for the flight back to Auckland which was good as it was nice weather. We stayed at a backpackers in the City and met Nemo and Scoobs (another of our drivers) for a quick drink. It turned into a late drink including bright blue shots.

We carried our bags up to the bus station the following morning and took the intercity bus to Opua, in the Bay of Islands and found our motel. We walked down to the sea and met Cindy from Great Escape, the company we were sailing with, and then went into town for supplies for 5 days. We cooked fish at the motel and had a sensible early night.

We met our instructor, an 18 year old English lad the next morning...

Q What was his name?

Q what was the name of our boat? (named after a New Zealand bird)

We left the mooring and went out and practised motoring around before heading out to space and putting up the main sail and then the genoa. The day was spent steering, tacking, gybing and generally going around. We stopped at a nice bay for lunch and learnt how to anchor. The weather was ok, the winds not too high and I got a sunburnt neck and lips (ooch). We moored again at 5ish and had a beer before cooking on the boat - we thought we should try it in dock before trying it at sea. The battery didn't work so an early night at 8.30pm!

The following day we learnt to moor against a wharf, I went in at too steep an angle the first time and a big boat went in instead of me the second time. huh! We did man of board (we learnt from that it was better if I went overboard than Dave) and reefing the sail which you do if it is too windy to make the sail smaller, but of course we did it in a sheltered bay not where it was windy. We did figure of eights round a couple of posts and generally sailed around in the nice weather. We were passed as competant and would be allowed to take the boat out on our own.
Dinner was a bargain at the local yacht club which was having its 30th birthday do so we got free birthday cake too.

Next day.... the boat and us on our own.

We set off and got the sails up and headed on a straight course for probably half an hour. Great we thought until we had to turn and by then it was rough water and a howling gale. We didn't manage it very well and so a few practices in the more sheltered water would have been good. We managed to turn to more sheltered bit and Dave, wearing life jacket, bravely reefed the sial, but in a windy spot and in rough water, not how we had practiced the day before! The turning didn't go well and bending didn't happen and the sea got rougher, and it got windier, oh and did I mention that it was cloudy?

We tried to get out round the headland to the interesting bit where there are lots of islands but we decided it was too rough for us and turned back. i find the angle that yachts can achieve bizarre at times but with me in charge of it - it was madness! We found a Bay to helter from the NE winds which turned out to be 30-35 knots(!) and had lunch. Half way through sorting it we decided that we weren't properly anchored so had another go. Whilst Dave had a nap, i did some homework and worked out why we weren't turning very well and did myself some drawings of what to do steering wise where-ever we were in relation to the wind. We intended to go out an practice in the sheltered area, but by this time it was late afternoon, the wind was still strong, sea getting rough even in the bay and it was raining and poor visibility. Not the weather we had hoped for. As we were safely anchored we decided to give it another go the next day. I didn't manage to catch anything when fishing off the boat so we had vension sausages for tea.

We slept ok considering we were bobbing up and down and swinging arough the anchor point, there were howling gales and heavy rain. We wrote lots of postcards but as it was still rough conditions and poor visibility with rain at times we stayed put. The forecasted winds were 35-40 knots so we decided to call it a day and go back to base rather than spend another night in the bay bobbing around.

Luckily before we set off Dave spotted a fin and we were treated to the sight of 8 or so dolphins swimming around out mooring - that saved money we'd have had to spend on a trip. it sort of made up for the weather.

So we motored home. We considered putting up the sail for a bit of it but the few other boats on the move, either motored or had their jib out and we were told to always use the main sail so we were a little confused. Also the dinghy which were towing and hadn't used was filled with water and we were in danger of sinking it. We returned to base, unloaded, still got our certificate (!) and took a taxi to Paihia, a ferry to Russell and a lift to our accommodation - a stationery room which didn't bob about and we weren't sleeping on top of the toilet.

Russell was the original capital, described as a hell hole with brothels etc. Nowadays it is a relaxed chilled out place we like immensely. We signed in as visitors to The Swordfish Club - for game fishermen (well with my sun burnt neck I looked the part) and had cheap drinks - champagne for me.

Q We saw info on a possible relative of ours. Who was it and what achievements did that person have?

We had seafood chowder there, and moved on to a restaurant before ending up in the Pub Round The Corner where a pub quiz was on. As we walked home we got soaked - it was raining very hard - the weather had not improved.

The next morning was clear but by the time we had visited the museum and oldest church in New Zealand it was raining again. After games of pool in a few of the pubs, including the Duke of Malborough, the first place in NZ to get a liquor licence, we got the ferry back to Paihia and waited for the bus back to Auckland and Rebecca and Matt's home. We were pleased we had tried the sailing but were needless to say disappointed with the weather.



Tbc...........