We filled water tanks this morning.
Rob and I have got pretty good at coming into wharves, jetties, piles and picking up moorings. I manage forward half of boat and Rob looks after the aft. I get my ropes secured – might have had to lasso or hug a pole or tie off on a cleat to get a rope secured to whatever we want to tie up to. Then I look after the fenders and help Rob if he needs it. But we never take it for granted and always plan approach and agree tactics before we get there.
Water on Barrier is available at three places:
Fitzroy wharf – busy commercial wharf with ferries, fishing and other work boats and tenders
Smokehouse Bay – hosepipe from a riverlet on a set of piles (great big poles set into the seabed)
Forestry – hosepipe from a spring on a set of double piles
We have only rewatered at Forestry. Main wharf is really busy and we are a little unsure if there is enough water (under our keel, not in hosepipe) at Smokehouse as we draw two metres. Even at Forestry we need to fill plus or minus three hours from high tide otherwise there isn’t enough water.
Anyway – this morning Forestry had 2 boats in and we’d almost decided to give the wharf a go when one boat finished filling so we scooted in and tied up to the piles. But there is only one hosepipe and so we have to wait our turn.
But worth it as we were richly entertained.
A couple our age were still trying to tie up. Gawd – did they make a hash of it –
could not get rope around piles (only one way – pretend it is George Clooney, hug the damn pole and pass the rope around – having made sure one end is tied off to boat).
dropped their only boat hook into the water
hosepipe did not reach their water tank inlet so they had to move boat forward.
they figured this out after stretching hosepipe to the point where the tap was bending.
then dropped the hose into the water.
lost their aft rope so boat was pivoting on pile on their starboard nav light.
and their tender was on too long a rope and swinging around Zinkwazi with prop perfectly positioned to scrape our topsides.
I resorted to giving advice on how to move boat forward. Not hard on a yacht, no shortage of rope and tie off points – and hey – several grunty winches available if you can’t do it by hand.
Other than fending off their tender and lending them our boat hook we settled to watch the production – including a swim in speedo’s to retrieve boat hook.
We had coffee and rusks, checked weather on internet and caught sprats for bait. And as per protocol we have a conversation with them. Set form is – from, how long here, when leaving any common friends, best anchorage, problems with boats etc. I had them pegged for newby’s – but no, they have been sailing longer than Rob and I. Can’t tell you how superior that made me feel!
There is a weather window so we are flagging the mussel festival and heading north. Tutukaka tomorrow then Bay of Islands and then up to Whangaroa. Why? We like Whangaroa and Barrier is to busy.
We tried a new bay – Oneura Bay off Governor’s passage. Good holding, good shelter, good find.
W had leftovers for lunch – my vegetables are holding out well. And for tea we had a variation on Spanish rice and tequila fried green beans.