Working, Working And Working On New Dawn.

It is amazing the work there is on New dawn after all theses NM sailed. I also have engaged Riggers, Mechanics, Doyle Sail-maker, Fridge chap, Simrad people, ordered loads of things from the Ship Chandlers, etc.. Times flies fast and I struggle to finish everything in time for my flights. Today was washing time and as the machines are poor here at the yard I had to dry most things hanging in the rigging. 

Dockland5 Yard.

Finally the weather improved and we took the chance to haul me out at Dockland5 Yard, even though it was almost low water and I hid the bottom a few times sailing though the river and into the slip. Dockland5 is not a nice yard and it make Port Napoleon an upper class yard in comparison. In any case, New Dawn finally stand still again and will be prepared the coming weeks for the hibernation until I can get back to her.

Whangarei, NZ.

Today I cleaned the outside of New Dawn and took of the wings of the wind generator and prepare for the haul out, hopefully Tuesday, if the wind will not be too strong. The Anchor sail and mainsail are off and given to Doyle loft, for repairs. The weather has been nice most of the day with sunshine, but it is still cold.

Today's photos from around the marina.

This ad was seen at the yacht club and I wonder who put it up and really what it mean, unless it is a joke? You judge.......

A Tough Trip From Opua To Tutukaka And On To Smugglers Bay And Whangarei Marina.

The weather forecast was for Gales all over NZ and I ran into it. I went into Tutukaka (who invented that name?) for the night and boy was it blowing. My anchor dragged about 80 m during the night, even though I had put out 65 m chain. But that bay has a bad reputation for the holding. I ended up spending two nights there. 

Then on to Smugglers Bay and on my way it was blowing like mad. I registered 36-52 kn of wind, mostly from an OK direction, but even with the little Fetch, I had big waves. Not funny sailing in these conditions.

I ended up motor sailing the last 20 min in 40 kn wind on the nose and waves of 4 m, so that I could get a bit of shelter in Smugglers Bay. Well shelter is a big word here, as the wind from west, comes hauling around the Bay and hit me from north, west and east. It blew like mad all night (47 kn when I looked at 03:00 h and my anchor sail started to part - again. Well we survived but only with a little sleep.

Why did I sail south in these conditions? Well the yard was booked to haul me out on Friday 14 November, but could not do it because of the storm. So they advanced it to Thursday and I had to accelerate. Then it was cancelled as we still had the storm. I am now booked for next week, but yet another system is approaching, so I hold my breath.

In the end I decided to go to the Town Basin Marina and prepare New Dawn here as it is better sheltered. Once ready and the weather will be better, I will try to haul out at Dockland5 yard.

On my way up through the river, about 15 NM, I received 42 kn wind right on the nose and torrential rain. It was so hard that New Dawn had problems in steering and keeping the speed and the visibility when to almost zero in the rain. All went well and I am now at the marina. What a trip and it is still hauling outside.

 Some bad weather is approaching.

 The Barometer dropped from 1020 to 1006 mb in no time. This is scary! Ever seen this on your yacht?

 Two Rainbows in the Smugglers Bay.

 Look well and you will see the other end of the Rainbow right next to me.

 Today's passage up the Whangarei canal and river just before I was hit by 42 kn wind.

 Here we are in the strong wind.

 And safely moored at Whangarei Town Basin Marina.

 NZ art;

Bay Of Islands, NZ

 Paihia town, which is the biggest town in the Bay of Islands. It is a few km from Opua.

 If you look well at this island you might see a Duck laying flat in the water and its head to the right. In fact it is called Mickey island and I wonder why it got that name?

 This is the house where the Waitangi Treaty was signed establishing a pieceful settling between the Europeans and the locals, thus creating the NZ we know today.

 There are a lot of Dolphins in the Bay and of course also the day tripper boats haunting them.

 This is Robertson Island, where Captain Cook anchored in 1769. He carted the Bay and counted 144 islands. Guess he was right?

 Not much left of the Red Lion Flag after having sailed since St Tropez.

This two master sailing ship, gave an impression of what it would have been like during Captain Cooks days. Sorry for the modern yacht in the foreground.

  Yet another nice bay. This is Parekura Bay, where I anchored for the night as the wind was blowing outside. Someone had build a nice house and had his own marina just in front.

 The famous rock, called "Hole In The Rock" with its hole, where the day tripper and fast speed boats zoom through. I think I would call it Elephant rock.

It is spring in NZ and even with the sun shining, one needs to be well dressed. Ugh, after the Tropics.

Opua, NZ.

There are loads of good sailors in NZ. I think that every NZ person and his dog has a sailing boat. Here in Opua there are hundreds yachts and today, Wednesday, they had one of their many weekly racing days, where they, a bit like in Newport, RI, zigzagged between the moored yachts and raced deep into this natural harbor. There are so many different racing boats that I can't give a brief description, but I liked, in particular, this four man trapeze boat, which was extremely well raced. 

Not much to write about in Opua, except for the cold, windy and wet weather. I have the diesel heaters running a lot and even during parts of the nights to keep warm and the humidity at bay. People are nice though and I have bought a lot of equipment from the well stocked chandlers and today I had the tender cover restitched at North Sails.

This is the old store dating back to 1914. It is charming and apart from a supermarket, it also serves at the Post Office, Lotto, Phone cards, small restaurant, bakery, Ice cream store, etc.. But the prices are extremely high.

Wet, Humid, Foggy, Cold And Windy Opua, NZ.

Since we arrived last Friday, it has almost rained each day, it is very humid and each night and early morning it is very foggy. The fog is so thick that I can hardly see the bow of New Dawn. So until now it has not been a pleasure arriving here. I do hope that the people and the country will warm me up to it here. So far the people are friendly and remind me of the English. But the officials are absolutely a pain to deal with and they are aggressive and unpleasant.

The morning view from New Dawn, as the fog is lifting.

Opua, NZ And A Bit Of Statistics.

Distance sailed since leaving the:

- Golf Of St Tropez on 20.09.2013: 15.952 NM .

- Montalk Marina, NY on 05.11.2003: 61.950 NM.

Countries visited, so far 38, I think, namely: USA, Bermuda, BVI, Anguilla, NL/ABC Islands, St Kitt/Nevis, Saint Maarten, St Martin/Guadeloupe/Martinique/St Barth/etc., St Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, The Grenadines, St Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, ABC Islands, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Malta, Tunisia, Cap Verde, Jordan, Columbia, Panama, French Polynesian, Niue, Tonga, Fiji and NZ.

The following is the route sailed from Panama to NZ. Those that have good eyesight, might see the penciled route?