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Published: January 18th 2009
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Opito Point
Northern headland of Mercury Bay Whitianga to Whangarei
Written 13-15 Janurary 2009
Captains Log: (extended)
Having been dropped off in Whitianga by John after Prana (thanks mate), I loaded the gear back on board and asked the marina guy when he would like me off. He said now would be good, so it was full speed ahead to get underway. This included picking up the frozen meat from the marina office and getting Lorraine the gear she wanted for her trip with Rebecca. As Hakura was low on fuel, this was another job.
After most jobs had been done, I headed out to spend the night out in a bay near Whitianga. On the way the birds were working in Mecrury Bay and I joined in. The final tally was 3 kahawai and 1 diving petral, the latter having been released unharmed though very indignant.
Anchored off Wharekaho Beach and had a very restful time, even though the wind backed from NW to SW during the evening.
Returned to Whitianga wharf at 1230 to pick up John and Richard and get some more provisions. Left for Great Mercury Island at 1330. Another motor job. Headed out on a NE course until
we could lay a northerly course through the Hole-in-the-wall. Still no wind to speak of.
Tried drift fishing followed by anchoring in 30 meters. John caught a nice snapper. About the only bite. Then we up anchored, this being done by hand (a big job with 60 plus meters of chain out). Between the three of us we got the anchor aboard (this included some running repars to the roller over which the chain travels with the hammer).
Arrived off White Beach (western side of Great Mercury) and dropped anchor at 2000 hrs. We enjoyed a nice dinner of fresh snapper, some defrosted gurnard and veggies. All this to a backdrop of a great sunset over the Coromandel Peninsula.
After their breakfast, John and Richard rowed ashore and walked across the narrow middle section of Great Mercury Island. On returning to Hakura, John and I set to cleaning her bottom. She was free of significant fouling with just a fine brown film. We managed to clean about 40%.
Left at 1010 heading for Port Fitzroy (Great Barrier Is) in a gentle sea and no wind. There were lots of other boats round. Along the way to
Colville Channel (between Coromandel and Great Barrier) we had caught 4 albacore tuna. After the fourth fish we decided to stop trolling.
While passing Tryphena John spotted a shark fin ahead. It was a hammerhead of about 1.7 meters. We were able to get along side though not too close. About a half hour later there were large numbers of gannets working to the SE of the Pigeons. We hooked two and landed one large kahawai. We tried bottom fishing off the Pigeons without luck. Continued towards Port Fitzroy through the inside passage of the Broken Islands with ever increasing numbers of boats out and about.
We motored through Man-of-War Passage in rushhour traffic and anchored in Kiwiriki Bay at 1830. There were heaps of boats anchored in every cove, including some very big launches and a few that only their mother could love.
We all had a swim and John and I finished off cleaning Hakura’s bottom. Fresh barbequed tuna and veggies were the dinner menue. A great end to another day.
Port Fitzroy is my favouite place on the Barrier and Kiwiriki Bay is one of safest anchorages around. My first visit was in
Easter 1979 during the tail end of a tropical storm. The bay is well inside Port Fitzroy and enclosed by bush covered hills. I have seen and heard kaka on several visits. This is my favouritest spot.
Even John decided against a swim on the morning of the 6th. We knew what we had just been doing and if all the other boats had been doing the same maybe another location for a swim would be better.
We headed off towards Fitzroy accompanied by some common dolphins. Richard and John had a great view from the bow. After a quick tootle around the the Fitzroy arm we headed out to look around Port Abercrombe. High on the “want” list was a location for John to have his morning swim.
All needs were meet in a cove on the southern side of the Port. John had his swim, we tested the craypot and the setline, and deloyed them. Some fishing produced one snapper and two pigfish - all fine eating. The setline produced another snapper, though no crayfish.
The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and rowing around the next cove. A fabulous day all round.
As we were heading for Whangarei and needed an early start we hit our bunks early. Up anchor 0700 on the 7th and after retrieving the craypot (no crayfish and no bait either) we headed off towards Whangarei Heads. A trip of about 7 hours.
The Hen and Chickens Islands lie along the direct route so we set sail (under motor as usual) for these islands. About 2 hours out the wind picked up to about 10 to 15 knots from the south. Up with the sails and off with the motor. Oh the peace and quiet (plus a bit of speed). As per my wind luck, after another two hours and it dropped again.
I was down below resting before my next turn on watch and I could feel the boat slowing and hear John working hard to get some speed out of the wind. Unfortunately it was not a goer and as I came on watch I had to fire up the motor.
We called into the Hen looking for a place for an afternoon swim. It was too deep for all of us.
The seven hours to Whangarei Heads was not the
end of the story as we needed to motor all the way into Whangarei Town Basin, another 3 hours. The esturary is a real mixture of major ports (Marsden) former ship building (Whangarei Port) and mangroves. The channel is well marked and we had little trouble finding our way.
Our destination was berth C8 in the Town Basin Marina, where we were meet by the friendly marina man, given a key and told to report to the office tomorrow as he was off home.
Later that night Lorraine rejoined Hakura, Richard headed off with his third daughter, Davina, and so ended the Boys’ Barrier Voyage.
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Tot: 0.213s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 16; qc: 67; dbt: 0.1266s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Wendy A/A
non-member comment
Photos
Love the photos. great adventure, awesome sailing by the crew.