We bashed our way north today. Into 15-20 knot headwinds and and a running sea. Forecast was for wind to swing to southwest which would have given us a lovely beam reach. But the wind stayed stubbornly northwest until we were well into the Bay of Islands. Oh well – was exhilarating ploughing into swells – sometimes got waves washing back to our dodger replacing all the salt we washed off yesterday.
Not to over dramatise – this was not a rough or dangerous trip, we keep a log and mostly sea state is noted as slight or chop (except around Piercy Island off Cape Brett where it did get a bit rough). And Ernie/Fred coped well -when it gets rough we have to hand steer. Winds on the nose are just tough sails.
We left Tutukaka at 9:00 and dropped anchor at about 5:10 so took 8.5 hours to do 48 miles. Average speed of 5.4 knots, maximum wind speed of 21.9 knots.
Lure failed miserably – only thing it caught was the tender rope when I reeled it in and it is such a shiny new lure.
BoI’s are still busy – we passed a lot of yachts heading south but there are still a lot of boats up here – including a small cruise liner anchored off Urupukapuka island.
We dropped anchor in Opunga Cove – a lovely protected anchorage on south of BoI’s. Tomorrow we need to go into Russell to pick up a prescription for Rob – he needs some antibiotics. Then we will have a few days in BoI before heading north to Whangaroa.
I had defrosted mince – not my favourite and I’ve brought more than I should because it packs well into our deep freeze and I can make things that can be eaten with a fork only. Very useful when we have a lot of visitors and can’t all sit at the table or if we want to eat in cockpit. It is also goes with pasta which is easy to keep and cook on the boat. Well that is my pathetic justification at any rate.
For tea I made pasticcio – a complicated Greek dish with a meat sauce, pasta (and Rob was most impressed that it was artisan hand made in Italy) and a cheese sauce. Threw some tomatoes, cauli & courgettes in oven to roast so we had a very good meal.
Have a big very flash launch anchored next to us – has serving maids onboard! Rob was all for rowing over and telling him what we had for tea. I was all for rowing over and asking him how big his boat is and then to ask what he is compensating for.