Gisborne Inner Harbour Marina
Sunday 30 May 2021
After a night of passing showers, which didn’t bode well for the day ahead, the morning dawned with patches of blue sky and the promise of more to come.
With the other three sound asleep in their bunks, I made my way ashore a bit after 8:00am and decided to go for a walk … up over the local hill and around the town.
It really was a gloriously still and sunny morning, as you can see from the pictures and I came to the conclusion that Gisborne would not be a difficult town in which to live.
My return took me past the steam train and I could see they had her fully steamed up and ready for the big “Chardonnay” excursion ahead.
Back on the boat around 10:00am, John, Kate and Alvin had completed breakfast and were starting to work on some onboard maintenance … Kate on the wooden toe rail, Alvin re-sewing the zip on the stern canvas panel and John sealing up a small screw hole near the chartplotter which let in a persistent drip of water the other day during a serious downpour.
There was also the overdue task of loosening the companionway hatch, and fixing a mainsail “car” – one of those small, ball bearing-filled brackets that slides up and down a track connecting the sail to the mast – which had mysteriously come loose.
Around 12:15 I wandered over to the steam train to see it depart, fully laden with wine-drinking revelers. I’d hoped to be able to see our four new best friends from yesterday, and sure enough there they were, strategically positioned on each carriage in their fluoro vests, ready to make sure people didn’t do anything silly or dangerous.
For the rest of the day, each of us wandered off to do our own thing. There was discussion about the weather of course, with our departure tomorrow morning coinciding with the arrival of a southerly change later in the day, which should push us up and around East Cape. From there it’ll be a change of course to the west, as we enter the Bay of Plenty the next day and onto the Tauranga Harbour; hopefully by Tuesday evening.
Unfortunately, the IridiumGO satellite device has now run out of battery power and until I can get the charging input socket re-connected to the internal motherboard on the side of the unit, it will have to remain in its box. The good news is that I think I’ve found an electronics technician in Auckland who might be able to fix it. In the meantime, if you’d like to see where we are, go to www.marinetraffic.com and search for the vessel Chimere (there’s a few Chimeres, so pick the Australian one) or try this link HERE
Smooth seas, fair breeze and a lazy day in Gisborne
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 