Bridge Marina, Tauranga, North Island
Wednesday 2 June 2021
It was a blissfully still night, tied securely to the end of D Row, and even the noisy seagulls on the pontoon a short distance across the water eventually fell silent.
The early night meant we were up and awake that much earlier too, with the borrowed car enabling me to drop Alvin into town to catch his bus home to Northland.
Back on board we cooked up the remainder of the bacon and generally had a long slow breakfast.
Pretty soon it was time to run Kate down to the car hire place near the airport, but not before moving Chimere into her allocated berth on the end of C Row; right next to a fishing boat.
It might have been a coincidence, but just as we were sorting the lines in preparation of the short move, along chugged a marina-man in his “tug dinghy”. We called him Mr Bow Thruster, because we obviously weren’t the first boat to encounter the strong tidal flow through the pens, and even though it was slack water, they figured it was probably better to be safe than sorry to be on hand.
In the end, I think he only had to give a small push here and there … just to be sure … because although there was no tidal flow, the wind had got up and was blowing off the marina walkway, potentially causing us to stray before we’d fully secured the lines.
After dropping off Kate, John and I then made our way to a couple of phone and communications repair businesses down the road in Mt Maunganui to see if they could fix our IridiumGO satellite unit; all to no avail … “sorry bro”
My fallback position is to post the unit to a guy in Auckland, but I want to be sure there’s no one in the Tauranga region first who might be able to offer a solution.
By around 3:00pm we were feeling hungry, so it was back to Tauranga to indulge in fish and chips. Not just any fish and chips. But fish and chips at a local wharf-side, fish market establishment, which Julie in the Marina Office described as … “the best fush and chups shop in …” either Tauranga, or the world, I forget now. But either way, it was well worth a visit, and may see us again before our stay is out
On the home front … the Melbourne home front that is … it’s been more than a bit disappointing to hear about the new COVID lockdown – initially for one week, now extended for a further 7 days. I know it’s still three weeks away, but if this keeps up it’ll potentially put in doubt the family’s time aboard in the Bay of Islands at the end of month. Let’s hope the trans-Tasman travel bubble is repaired asap.
Back on board John and I chatted with the fisherman, given we were his new next-door neighbour. Apparently he was heading out for three days and was heard to say … “if you’ve got a couple of beers for me Friday night there might be some fish on offer…” or words to that effect. That’s my kind of fishing!!
There was also enough time, before the usual 5:00pm business closing time, to ring a few local electronics firms about my communications problem, and I ended up talking with someone at the local Jaycar store. Given Jaycar sell electronics components, my thinking was that maybe one of their customers would be up to doing micro surgery on a sat-phone motherboard with a soldering iron and would be prepared to give our job a go.
As it turned out, I might have hit the jackpot, because a good customer of theirs, “Office Connect” – located just over the road from Jaycar, made positive noises about being able to do the repairs. I’ll find out for sure when I drop down there tomorrow.
Maybe it was just habit, or that the fish and chips didn’t quite fill us up, but I knocked up a tasty noodle stir fry ensemble for dinner, after which John and I figured it was time to turn in. Certainly, it’s quiet with the others gone and after John leaves tomorrow it’ll be down to just moi … reminiscent of last year’s lockdown … but not quite
Smooth seas, fair breeze and settling into Tauranga life
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 