The latest from the annals of false advertising!

Would you give this cute cuddly pussy cat a home!?

Well someone did, we've been taking bets on how long before she finds her way back! The marina barbeques are just not the same.

Mahurangi and Hahei

Sorry no photos for this update but we spent anniversary weekend at Mahurangi. Great sail across from Motutapu on Friday. I sailed the classic boat race on Breeze while Jim socialised, drinking cups of tea and beer on various boats. And last weekend we went to Hahei to catch up with Son and Geoff. Really good weekend catching up. Walked down to Cathedral Cove and Tori had a good snorkel in the marine reserve. Very scary to see Son pregnant though!!!!

Tallships

We stayed a couple of extra days in Russell so we could sail the Tallships race. We went out in Breeze and despite motoring over the start, not making the topmark, not going around the next buoy and not quite the crossing the finish line (if they’d just moved it a few hundred metres…) we had a great if exhausting day and achieved what we’d set out to – which was to provide a spectacle with Soren, SoNZ and Tucker. It would be nice one year if a course was set that the Square-riggers could actually sail! Tori then sailed back to Auckland on Breeze while Jim drove the car back. On Breeze we had a motorsail and then a sloppy sail in the 2m swell to Whangaruru (after we had replaced the fuses in the engine). The next day a few of us got up at the crack of dawn and motored out of the harbour. The wind picked up around nine o’clock at Tutukaka and the rest of the crew were roused to set sail. With all sail set we were doing 7 or 8 knots and overtook a yacht under spinnaker! All in all a great sail to Kawau where we anchored off Coppermine for the night. We had a light wind sail back to Auckland the next day. Approaching Auckland we were circled by some maniac driving a large black Barquentine!

The photo of Breeze complete with battle flag reproduced without permission from Will Calver, Ocean Photography.

Kayaking up North

So far this holiday was unusual in that Jim had not subjected me to any near death experiences (well the water polo almost counted!) so we spent a day kayaking in the surf at Elliots Bay. You had to be careful not to ride a wave all the way in as the waves were dumping right on the shore – getting back out was interesting and involved a few nose over tail experiences. The water was a beautiful colour with white white breakers. The next day we kayaked down the mighty Kerikeri river. A few years ago we had mounted a similar expedition up this river, when we had been anchored below the stone store with three other cruising boats we had met in the Islands. We walked up the track carrying 2 kayaks, our inflatable and an inflatable kayak and then variously floated downstream with much hilarity. I seem to remember Jim deflating the dinghy just as we went over the weir at the bottom. This time it was just us on our kayaks. I managed to hit every rock in the river and get pinned under a tree branch but still very good fun!

Russel for Rod and Bridget's wedding

A couple of friends of ours that Jim had met cruising were getting married in Russell, we decided that we didn’t have enough time to sail in the leisurely way we like up and back so drove up and stayed in a room, sort of a B&B without the B, overlooking Russel and Matauwhi Bay. We were a day late leaving as when the morning of our planned departure came we were missing something! CP had obviously realised something was afoot and had made herself scarce for the day. She turned up later that evening –too late for us to leave and spent a very unhappy night locked in. Departure take two and with the cat safely in the cattery we drove up the Bay of Islands, stopping en route at Whangarei to see some other Saga 40s in the boat yard and then at Tutukaka to see some friends.

The next few days were spent mostly at the very flash lodge where the wedding took place, lounging around the pool and spa pool, catching up with friends and making some new ones. Not too mention playing death by water polo (the bruising on my nose has almost gone down!). The wedding was lovely and went extremely well- despite Rod’s nervousness (not something we had previously thought him prone to!). Thanks to Rod and Bridget for inviting us to share their day.

Christmas 2007, Bon Voyage Whisper

Christmas 2007
We only had five days off over Christmas so weren’t going to be going too far. In the end we circumnavigated Waiheke (in the opposite direction to what we had done at Easter). The first night we anchored at Owanake Bay to visit the newly named “Chicken Bay Estate” to catch up with a friend. The next day we headed down to the bottom end of Waiheke, stopping along the way to get some scallops. It was a bit bouncy at Hook Bay so we had a very nice sail down to anchor off Ponui (in a bay that isn’t named – at least not on our chart!). That night we spent aboard Whisper and then returned the favour the next night. It was good to catch up with Robin and Duncan as they had left the Marina recently, bound eventually for points north. The next day we waved goodbye to Whisper who were heading across to the Coromandel and we headed back towards Auckland. We spent a night anchored off Waiheke (between Rocky Bay and Putiki Bay – very calm and pleasant in a NE) and spent our last night in Isy before bashing the SW home! Oh yeah I guess there was Christmas day in there somewhere!