Waiiti Bay, Cavalli Islands

After staying overnight at the quarantine dock, I made the rounds in the morning among the 10 or so boats stuck with us and invited those who flew burgees to identify them as OCC members for drinks the next day. Mike and Nikki from Western Australia on Zen Again and Lisa and Mark Pollington from the UK on Wild Iris showed up for the occasion and a good time was had by all. Zen Again is a 34 footer built in Japan and its former owner wrote the only Japanese language cruising guide for the South Pacific. So Mike and Nikki find that their boat is well known among Japanese cruisers!

With our OCC friends Lisa, Mark, Mike and Nikki

For a while now, I’ve been thinking that Kincsem’s dinghy, a Highfield 340 rigid bottom inflatable named Seabiscuit, was not going to survive much longer without replacing the tubes. Foreign registered boats in New Zealand can purchase equipment and get services provided to them – like marina stays - without paying the 15% GST sales tax. That’s a great incentive for us to purchase new equipment and get work done here in NZ! So earlier this year, I ordered a new dinghy, an OC Tender 330, made right here in Opua. It is a hard dinghy made largely from Carbon Fiber which weighs in at only 38 kgs. That’s half the weight of a new RIB, which makes a huge difference when trying to pull a dinghy up the beach. Because it has no tubes, it has a lot more room for all the things we never had room for in the old dinghy, like anchors, VHF etc. One worry was what to do with the old dinghy when we landed in New Zealand but then I was able to sell it in the marina in Fiji where we were staying in July before departing for the US.

Russ, the founder of OC Tender, delivered the new Seabiscuit soon after we had cleared in. It looked phantastic! Russ is quite the character, more stand up comedian than business person. He had an opinion about everything – easily summarized as “my way or the highway.” Given that the OC tender is his brain child, he didn’t hold back on explaining the virtues of the new Seabiscuit. Seems the best thing since sliced bread – but time will tell how much is hype and how much is real!

Russ explaining the ins and outs of the new Seabiscuit

The challenge we had was to get Seabiscuit put on the davits without it swinging around too much. For the Highfield, I had a stainless steel structure which fit and firmly held the tubes of the RIB. That structure had to come off obviously as the new Seabiscuit has flat decks instead of circular tubes, which turned out to unexpectedly easy. Russell provided some pieces of closed cell foam which we taped to the underside of the davits as a start. However, the lifting lines have some heavy weights at their ends and pulling the dinghy up to the top when the weights hit the davits still had the dinghy sit 15 centimeters below the foam pads. So we decided to cut off the weights and voila, the dinghy was sitting pressed right up to the pads! Russell provided a video showing how to prevent the dinghy from swaying sideways with some webbing loops and ratchet straps. Off I went to the well sorted local chandlery and back on board with 10 meters of webbing and a couple of ratchet straps, we had the dinghy fixated quite well in no time!

Seabiscuit properly tied up for travel

Russell also delivered the new Torqueedo Travel outboard which is going to be the work horse for Seabiscuit. I had not sold the Honda 20 HP outboard with the old Seabiscuit as I think I will need a gas outboard for longer trips where the range of the Torqueedo will not be sufficient. Seeing the size of the Honda vs the new Seabiscuit and considering its 48 kg weight, I explored some options and ended up getting a Yamaha 15 HP 2 stroke for an excellent price in a 30% off sale. The dealer is selling the Honda for a 10% commission which seems an excellent deal. The new Yamaha is much smaller than the Honda and weighs only 36 kgs – another substantial weight savings.

With the dinghy and outboard situation well sorted and provisions refilled, we were ready to go cruising again. First stop: the town of Russell where we met my OCC friend and ex OCC commodore, Simon Currin and his wife Sally for a nice dinner at the Duke of Marlborough restaurant.

Sharing ice cream after dinner with Simon and Sally

The dock in Russell viewed from the “heavily reinforced” beach

The next day we were off exploring the Bay of Islands starting with the Deep Water Bay anchorage. The anchorage offers a 5 hour + in and out hike to Cape Brett and the lighthouse there. Spectacular but very challenging!

Inauspicious start

Half time. Left to right: Jimmers, Jim and Iain

Narrow path on the rim looks worse than it was. The Department has provided a fence in the critical section!

Arrived at the Lighthouse!

Well deserved brew in the G&T seat!

The next anchorage was on Urupukapuka island, an island that is supposed to have no mamals like all of New Zealand originally. Apparently, birds were the only creatures occupying New Zealand when it was first settled. Several islands in NZ have been restored to the original status and the Department of Conservation (DoC) watches over those places. The DoC also maintains hiking trails and a number of huts for rent which are very basic and sometimes a bit rough. Urupukapuka ended up having a large farm on it with lots of sheep – so we were confused about the “back to nature” mantra. No matter, the place was beautiful and the hike entertaining. Just back on board, Lisa and Mark from Wild Iris rowed over on their SUP and we spent another nice evening with them.

Seagull doing acrobatics!

Spectacular cliffs on the East side of Urupukapuka

Back in Russell

After another night’s stay at Russel to restock, we sailed North to Whangaroa harbor, a beautiful bay with several great anchorages. Unfortunately, not only did I catch some sort of bug which gave me a fierce throat pain, but the washing machine packed in, giving a “defective motor” message! Not feeling well enough the next day to join Jim and Iain on the steep and spectacular hike to Duke’s Nose, I had plenty of time to work on organizing a repair of this crucial piece of equipment. Fact one: the machine is made in France for the French apartment market and not available elsewhere. Fact two: LG, the manufacturer, divides the world into regions and parts for machines built in France are not available in New Zealand. So the thoughts about repair quickly turned to replacement, but then there is fact three: the machine is 600 mm wide and 550 mm deep but the door through which it needs to fit is only 480 mm wide. I learned from another Amel 55 owner on the Amel 55 forum that the machine can be slimmed down to less than 480 mm deep by removing the front panel and door – but who will know whether the same thing is true for a replacement machine that is not the same model?

Jimmers on watch!

Upwind sail to Whangaroa Bay

From our first anchorage in Whangaroa Bay

The Duke’s Nose in the waning light, as seen from the anchorage

Iain negotiating the steep parts – photo by Jim who’s only a few steps behind

Jim hard at work cleaning the deck

Up the river in the Kayak

Our second anchorage in Whangaroa Bay from the drone, with St. Paul’s Rock towering above

Well, after two days I started fighting the bug successfully with antibiotics in Kincsem’s medicine cabinet so I was ready for the second hike – St. Paul’s Rock. I also hatched a plan for the washing machine: Replace with a Chinese model that is only 400 mm deep and is available in Whangarei where Kincsem will spend a few months starting before Christmas. Success!??

Climbing St Paul’s Rock

Whangaroa Bay has a lot of oyster farms but oysters grow naturally on the rocks as well.

We are surprised how few birds fly around here – but they sure are pretty!

Next stop and our most Northerly point was Mangonui in Doubtless Bay. Manganui is easily the least attractive place in New Zealand we’ve seen so far but still quite nice. It has a lot of houses but very few businesses – it seems like a cheap place to retire. The highlight of our stay in Mangonui – if it can be called such – was our visit to the “World Famous Fish and Chips”. Well, it seemed that the place has seen better days and the food was just adequate.

The next day someone suggested that we challenge ourselves and not use the motor for an entire day of sailing. Challenge accepted! We sailed off the anchor under mainsail without a hitch and tacked our way back South to Waiiti Bay in the Cavalli Islands some 30 miles away but the real challenge was to get into the anchorage with a dying breeze. We had to tack once but managed to hit the anchorage spot right on – stopping the boat with the mainsail being pushed out by the crew – in the rain! Success!

Jim on watch for a fish to strike

After a rainy morning, we dinghied ashore for yet another hike: 4 hours across the island to a beach and back. A bit slippery after the night’s rains but well worth the effort.