Opua Cruising Club

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It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Opua Marina for almost two weeks, but we have. I guess time flies when you are having fun or something like that. It looks like we will be setting our sails early in the AM of the 30th of May for Fiji. The weather doesn’t appear as perfect as before, but its better than it’s been. Should be fun.

Like I said, I’ve been in Opua, which is in the Bay of Islands, for almost two weeks. The real shame is that as beautiful as this place is, I really haven’t seen it. Nor has Paul managed to dive the Poor Knights. Supposedly one of the top 10 dive locations in the world. So what have we done for 2 weeks? Well I’ll tell you. But don’t expect this to be exciting, this is more of a blow by blow of what happens when you are “boating”. Thanks Gary, for the boating term. I think the analogy is that “boating is to sailing, as fishing is to catching.”

I will apologize if I forget days, but they all seem to run together. Anyway, we arrived Thursday afternoon. I went running around trying to find a freezer to store our food and managed to use the freezer in the Opua Store. When asked later what the charge would be and when we had to get the food out we were told “No worries, happy to help, just come into the store and by some food and we’ll call it a friendly exchange.” Sweet as!

Friday the work really started. Not sure what order things happened but I think we worked on the boat, Friday and Saturday. We fixed leaks in the watermaker, I spent most of Friday cleaning the gasket rings of the front hatch and replacing that. The mechanic got the DC drive for the refrigerator working. All and all a pretty productive couple of days. We also managed to get laundry done. We believed we were now ready to sail, mostly. We still had to fix the leech line in the Genoa, but that could wait. I don’t really remember Saturday’s weather. I think Friday was fine and Saturday was scattered showers, but who knows. I do remember the evenings though. Friday was spent at the Opua Cruising club, drinking Monteiths Black and meetings lots of other people. Almost all were cruisers, some were just crew on boats, and most Paul knew, and I met. I closed the place down with Evelyn Roberts (Robert, Sue, and Chris (female)) and Wind Rose (Kyler and Anne Teag). Closed down means home by 11PM. Chris the cook/bar tender was quite accommodating in making a hot toddy for me and suggesting Whiskey and Green Ginger wine as a drink to help a throat/cough. The whiskey and green ginger wine was quite fine and I had it many times over my time here.

Saturday was a Mexican Fiesta party at the club. The club itself is closed on Saturday nights, so this was a private fundraiser that we had to buy tickets to. I think Paul and I were the only cruisers at this event. It was mostly locals. For some reason I found myself showing them the Mexican Hat Dance at the end of the night, but at least that is better than doing the Macarena. I also found some new sour cream that had this incredibly long expiration date. This type of thing has become important to me, as I had spent much of my time the previous week, stocking the boat with food and staples.

Sunday was a rest day and we hiked up to Paihia. It was a great hike, with some great views of the bay and ok weather, scattered showers I think. We simply hiked the two hours to Paihia, looked around, had lunch and came back. That night, we ate at Stella’s, and had great burgers. Tomorrow we would have to shop, since the pantry was basically empty, and the club and Stella’s would both be closed.

Monday the weather was just Shiit. It rained so bad at times that people joked about looking for Dinghy windows to move between boats in the brief periods when it wasn’t pouring rain. But we did get an outing out of the day. We conned Christine from Twelfth Night into taking, Paul, myself, and Guy and Annika from Street Legal up to Kerikeri. They have a friend up there that runs an art gallery. Doug is quite an interesting guy. He sailed/moved over here from England, in an old wooden fishing vessel converted to sails. Oh yes, and his paintings were awesome. I did manage to go shopping and decided that I shouldn’t really be left alone in a butcher shop. I just kept buying food, because it looked good. No matter we needed meals for the week anyway. That night we had Guy and Annika over, while we watched a movie and had beef brisket for dinner… plus requisite adult beverages, but that really goes without saying.

Tuesday was another shiit weather day. I stayed on the boat all day, drinking tea and reading. I had decided I was going to knock my cough, which I did. Though it seems to have returned tonight, but it will be fine.

I think the weather was ok on Wednesday, I’m not really sure. I don’t really remember what we did either but I think it was a boat day. I know we took the sail down and to the sailmakers to have the leech line put in. I started looking into sea kayaking trips, but none were scheduled and I needed two people for the outfitter to hire the boats out. So that didn’t look so promising. We had early drinks on Rolling Home to celebrate Heinz’s 60th Birthday. And of course early drinks, leads to more drinks at the cruising club. It’s open on Wednesdays, after being closed the last two nights. Wednesday is dart night. I picked up the name Karen from some of the locals. I got there late and took over Karen’s throws as she was leaving early. Didn’t win anything but it was fun. I also met some more boats and people. Hung all night with the Amadis (Lily, Mike and Chris (male)), Evelyn Roberts, and Wind Rose. Lots of people are here waiting on the next weather window to head to Fiji, Tonga, or Vanuatu.

My fortune was good on the way home, as the gate wasn’t locked. This might not sound like a big deal so I’ll explain. The marina gave us keys which get you into the bathrooms, laundry room, and oh yeah, the big, heavy, grated door on the end of the dock. Well this door isn’t always locked but it usually is at night. Of course it’s designed so you can’t climb it either. It’s a grated metal door surrounded by more grated metal. The grates are too small to get more than your pinky in and barely. The area surrounding the door extends over the door and around the door and is angled up towards the parking lot. I tell you all this because as I come home on Wednesday, I realize that I had left my key with Paul on the boat. I’m not really sure what I’ll do about the door. I don’t have a phone or a radio, and the marina is essentially dead. Lucky for me, the door isn’t locked. But of course I start looking, and wonder what I would do. Swimming is a definite option, but the water is cold and nasty. I could try and climb around. I’m pretty sure I could get to the backside, but not sure what I would hold onto, and splash. There is also the over the top in the center option. I think once over the top, though you would slide right down. My guess is there goes an ankle or buttocks. I think I would have less than a 50/50 chance of not getting wet or hurt, but I’m not sure. Luckily I never had to find out.

Wow, I don’t remember Thursday either. I think the weather was semi-fine. I also think Thursday I sent running around between the boat builders and the engineering shop, trying to figure out what screws we could put in to lock the hinges and finish the hatch project. This running around had started the day before and continued long into Thursday. The problem was the screws that had come out, weren’t standard, and they needed to be replaced since the heads were stripping on them. We had made our best guess on what screws to order but they were slightly bigger in diameter. In the end we retapped the holes for the new screws. But I really wanted to make sure I had the right tap. It’s not in a place you can screw up and fix easily.

We also decided to reseal the mast boot. In the earlier rains during the week we noticed some water seeping into the cabin on one side of the mast. And since it was going to be shiit weather for the next few days, I suggested we try and get that fixed. Of course it proved a bigger task than anticipated. It wasn’t just a matter of retapeing. We had to take off the old sealant and put new sealant on. Needless to say I fixed it good. Friday it leaked on all 4 sides of the mast… great fix huh?

Thursday night, Paul took me out to Stella’s for a nice meal for my Birthday, number 35. And of course after dinner we ended up in the Cruising club again. And for the 2nd night in a row, we closed it down. Though that isn’t late like 10 or 11PM.

Thursday night the winds started. I have no idea how fast they were Thursday night, but I remember thinking that I hope the lines to the dock hold. Talking to Amadis Friday morning, I remember Lily saying she hoped her mooring was good. And yes the weather on Friday was the biggest shiit of the week so far. The winds were blowing at 20+ knots with gusts to 45 or so knot. (1 knot is 1 nautical mile/hour. A nautical mile is 1.15 statue miles or 1.85 Km). In the brief break in the rain, I went to Waitangi, so see the Treaty Grounds. Ok, actually I got a ride to Paihia and walked the last 2Ks or so to Waitangi. This is significant because while I was in the visitor center the skies just opened up. I did spend a very enjoyable hour or two at Te Whare Runanga, talking with a Maori guide for Waitangi. His tours had failed to show up and he was bored so I basically got a free private tour of the Maori meetinghouse on the Waitangi grounds. It was quite informative. I even got a free ride back to Opua, which was nice because it had never stopped pissing rain and blowing like nobody’s business. The treaty grounds were quite nice and I only wish I had the time to go back in better weather and hike around some more. For those that are curious, this is where the Maori chiefs signed the treaty with Mother England. In New Zealand minds this treaty and this signing essentially was the creation of New Zealand. Probably something equivalent as our Declaration of Independence, though I’m sure it didn’t have the violent connotations that our declaration did/does.

Oh yeah, the refrigeration was finally fully fixed on Friday afternoon.

Friday night the club was hopping, but mostly from locals. The people out in the anchorage weren’t going to brave the dinghy ride. Can’t say I blame them. It wasn’t a smooth harbor and the winds were still howling. Amadis and Evelyn Roberts were there though and I think we closed the place down again, but I’m not sure, it was a pretty early night.

Saturday was a fine day, and the boat was ready to sail. Though it looked like Monday’s weather window had moved until later in the week, around June 2nd. Paul and I decided to take the dinghy over to Russell. We had been talking about this all week and today was really the first day with good enough weather for the undertaking. So we spent the day exploring Russell. It’s another historical NZ town. At one point called the “Hell Hole of the Pacific.” It was a whaling town/port and filled with bars and brothels. It also has a very famous flagpole. This flagpole was chopped down 4 times by a disgruntled Maori chief. It is believed that he was not happy about something doing with the way the Treaty of Waitangi was being executed. This defiance started a war that neither the British won nor the Maori won. They just decided to stop fighting one day, well several years later.

While at Russell, we also started making plans for more adventures. The boat was done and we had a week or so to explore. We were going to do some sailing around the bay. Maybe anchor at Urupukapuka and explore the archaeological Pa ruins on the island. Who knows.

Saturday was a big deal. We were all headed to the Roadrunner tavern to watch the Super 14 Rugby finals. The club is closed on Saturdays remember, plus no TV there anyway. Well the game was quite an experience. It was so foggy in Christchurch that you couldn’t see the field from any aerial shot. The only shots that were any good were at field level. I actually heard that many of the people at the game left early and went home to watch it because they couldn’t see. Christchurch Crusaders won much to my chagrin as I’m a Wellington Hurricanes fan, but what are you going to do. The bar scene was about half yachties, which we all went together, and half locals, about 20 people and all. It’s too bad the weather for the game wasn’t better because I think that would have been more fun to watch. The local sitting next to Paul just kept cussing and saying they should call the game for weather. It became quite funny toward the end of the game. And on the way home the fog had set in for us. Amadis got turned around in their dinghy looking for their boat. I was glad we were on the dock. Oh yeah, roadrunner gives free shuttles.

Sunday was shopping day for me. The pantry was empty and Paul and I were talking about heading out into the bay for a couple of days. So Amadis, Ann Teag and I headed to Kerikeri, where we took in the farmers market and grocery store. Yes, it took almost all day to shop, but so what.

And now good the real fun starts. Since Sunday was the first nice day, we had all the hatches on the boat open. In doing so we found out that the gasket in the front hatch had fallen out. Yes, that is the hatch we had fixed earlier in the week. So we hurriedly took it apart, and cleaned it up, and re-glued it. But the glue didn’t hold and it was dark so that was that, it would have to wait.

Sunday night is roast night at the Club. So despite that fact that we now had a full pantry we went out to eat. Once again, I closed the place down with Amadis and Evelyn Roberts. They had decided to leave on Monday for Tonga and Fiji respectively. So we stayed late drinking. Chris even let us have another round after last drinks, I guess he figured that since our little drinking crew was breaking up, one last drink was ok. We did some email exchanging, and we’ll see what happens. I returned to Dreamweaver to find that Paul was still up drinking with Rolling Home and contemplating a Monday or Tuesday departure.

Monday woke to another foggy morning, and light winds, but no rain. It looked like the window for leaving was now. Though we weren’t quite ready anymore. We had a hatch to fix and a sail to put up. Our plan was to do that quickly in the morning, and then head out into the bay and come back in Tuesday AM to check out and head to Fiji. Well the sail and mast boot were no problem at all. The hatch, well they say 3rd time is a charm… try 4th time. I glued and cleaned that gasket and hatch twice today. It seems fixed and isn’t leaking now; so lets hope it stays that way. I’m no opening that hatch until Fiji unless I really have to. Since the hatch took most of the day, we didn’t get out of the marina into the bay.

Quite a long rambling for doing mostly nothing. I’m disappointed that I didn’t really get to see the bay, but I wouldn’t have done it differently. Sometimes, shiit happens, and you just have to deal. That is “boating” for you. Tuesday morning we leave early for Fiji, we hope.

Oh yeah, about the store. We managed to spend quite a bit of money in the store. It is an awesome bakery. Every morning, breakfast was either fresh croissants, or fresh apple turnovers from the store. We have also stocked up with fresh bread from the store as well. I’m going to miss the fresh baked goods. I’m going to miss the friendly people of Opua and NZ as well. But it’s all just something to look forward if/when I make it back. As I type this I wonder which boats, I/We will come across again on the sailing leg, and which will just be “ships passing in the night” so to speak. I guess only time will tell.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my ramblings.
If anyone that gets email notification of this blog gets like multiple emails again. Let me know. I talked to travelblog.org and they gave me a fix for the problem so we will see if it works.

Next stop Fiji.

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Comments

[Dedra]

Happy Birthday, Mike! and yes, I did receive about 20 of this email. What kind of job in Antarctica?