Queen’s Birthday Holiday

Bridge Marina, Tauranga, North Island

Monday 7 June 2021

It definitely seemed a bit quieter today, with traffic noise from the nearby highway having a breather from the usual work-a-day flow.  Not that everyone was at the beach taking advantage of the long week-end.  If they were, they were definitely rugged up, or wearing a wetsuit in the surf; whipped up by the strong winds.

Between the rain showers I was able to keep working on painting the deck, here and there, while also planning to make the most of our remaining 7 days here.

I say “our”, because John returns tomorrow from his break up north, and once I pick him up from the bus stop in Tauranga we might make a bee-line for the famous fish and chip shop down on the wharf.

There is a chance I might even be able to catch up with a long-lost cousin … Mark Latimer … who still lives in the region. I last saw Mark and his brother Peter (who I might also get to see) back around 1971, when mum and dad brought us over here for a holiday … to meet some of the kiwi kin.

Mark and Peter’s father …our Uncle Bunty … was the youngest brother, by around 15 years, of our granddad; dad’s father.  So, although Mark and Peter are about my age, they are in fact of my father’s generation – more an uncle than a cousin.

Uncle Bunty was a real character.  Always cheerful and encouraging as I remember.  You can see him in the photo – aboard his boat, in Mt Maunganui, I think – when we came to visit.  Mum probably took the photo – she was never really keen on boats! 

I think Uncle Bunty and Aunt Sarah must have lived right on Maunganui Road and because of his boating background, the interior of their house looked every bit like the inside of a ship.  My recollections are that he drove the pilot boat here in the harbour and might even have been the Harbourmaster for a time, but I can’t be sure.   I looked at the remaining houses along that road when I was in Mt Maunganui the other day, to see if a distant memory could be triggered, but there has been an awful lot of development in these parts, as you’d expect in half a century – sounds much longer than 50 years doesn’t it?

Tracking down my cousin Mark ended up being a little easier than I thought it would be, and after several phone calls to folk from the White pages, I resorted to Facebook and Messenger and had a “hit” within about an hour. 

On spec I simply said …

“Hi Mark, it’s Robert Latimer here, Bill Latimer’s son from Melbourne.  Just wondering if you are the Mark Latimer, cousin, and son of our Uncle Bunty? Cheers, Rob”

Actually, in looking at the messages again, I see the response took 31 minutes, and came back as … “Yes Rob that’s me. Long time cuz”      

While I’m in the “catching up” mode, I also hope to have coffee with Kylie from “Fruit of the Pacific” – whom I got to know through our shared work in promoting oral health in Vanuatu.  The last time we met was in March 2015 as we emerged from our respective hotels after having just been pounded, along with the rest of Vanuatu, by Tropical Cyclone Pam packing wind gusts in excess of 300 km/h.  Great memories!?

Following on from the McCarroll gathering onboard yesterday and dinner at David and Susan’s place last night, I’m booked to attend the local combined Rotary club meeting on Wednesday night, with further social excursions planned for Thursday arvo and Friday night … so the social calendar is definitely starting to fill up. 

Cousin Keith from Wellington kindly checked in with a regular phone call earlier today.  It seemed strange to hear him say that it was “warm” yesterday and today in Wellington, with a “light” southerly breeze – particularly when compared to what we are getting up here.  Quite the reversal of fortune. Keith is a wealth of information about anchorages, bays, islands and “must-see” spots north of here.  Even dive spots, but that’s not something I’ll be getting into – unless by accident.   Even though I’ve got all the usual cruising guides on board, I think I’ll be tapping into Keith’s knowledge a little more over the next few weeks. 

Speaking of which, my new crew will be arriving next Sunday … the 13^th June … Gary from Whitby near Wellington, along with Annette and Martyn from Hamilton.  Nicola was going to join us on Sunday, but there’s been a change of plan and at this stage she will join us up around the Auckland region, a few days later

Being the Queen’s Birthday, not everyone was focused on the holiday, there were some who found their names on the “Honours List” – for a range of important and significant pursuits.  I didn’t bother to check if my name was on the list, I figured someone would have called … but someone who was on the list, receiving the New Zealand Order of Merit, was Jack Thatcher.

Now, I have no idea who Jack Thatcher is, and you probably don’t either, but I mention him because he is associated with the traditional Waka boat moored just a couple of berths up from me.  In fact, as it turned out, I saw Jack on Saturday while I was sanding and scraping Chimere’s deck – at least now I know it must have been Jack, because I’ve seen his photo.  He was talking into a camera while being interviewed from the deck of the Waka. 

As the planes flew in low overhead, at pretty regular intervals, to land at the Tauranga airport across the road, I thought, “I wonder how that’s going to affect the audio on the video?”   He’ll get part way through his delivery and be drowned out by Vrrrrrrrrooommmm … Do it again … Take 5…    

Anyway, after a while I noticed out of the corner of my eye a chap walking in my direction and when he got close he politely asked … “excuse me, we’re just doing an interview up here and I’m wondering if you might be able to hold off with what you’re doing, it’s affecting the sound … we’ll only be about 20 minutes?”

“Yeah, sure, no worries” … what can ya say?

Anyway, that’s my brief brush with fame … helping to stuff up an interview from the deck of a Waka with master navigator Jack …

If you’d like to check out Jack and his award … it’s HERE    Plus a short film HERE

That’s pretty much all for today.  The wind blew, it rained off and on, and I slept-in after my night out at the Campbells yesterday.  Life’s pretty simple at the moment … which is a good thing

Smooth seas, fair breeze and Queen’s birthday holiday

Rob Latimer

PS I’m really curious ... the “Stats” from this blog site provide some basic info about how many people visit each day and where they are from … naturally most are located in New Zealand and Australia. But would you believe, there are some who view from (or have an email address that originates in) the USA, Canada and Germany … AND Ecuador. Ecuador?!! If that happens to be YOU, then all I can say is G’day mate, great you could join us! It would be lovely to hear from you sometime and to discover how you stumbled across this site, because I can’t think of anyone I know who lives in Ecuador … at least not yet.

POSTCARD FROM KATE … Now back at work in Wellington   (Thank You Kate … good to have you aboard!!)

Was it really only a week?

Was it only a week? It seemed so much more as life quickly settled into the daily routine of watch-keeping, eating, sleeping….repeat. The crew knitted together nicely, all easy going with interesting stories to tell.

After waiting an extra day, with the weather causing doubts about when we could actually go north (rather than a take a little shake-out sail in the wrong direction), a narrow weather window with light winds and easing seas opened up so took our chance to leave Wellington in the direction of Cape Palliser.

What a beautiful morning it was, and all the better for being at sea. I have a little ceremony I perform when going out on the big blue, asking for fair winds and kind seas, and the immediate appearance of a pod of orcas seemed to favour our passage.

We had a rolly sea the first night from left over swell from a big low up north and not enough wind to carry the main to steady the boat, but the lunar eclipse with blood moon was a spectacular sight. Occasionally we had little bursts of wind that let the boat sail but mostly the fabulous engine chugged away eating up the miles. Thank goodness it had been serviced in Wellington – it didn’t miss a beat. And there were seals and dolphins, albatrosses and mollymawks and petrels all keeping us company.

So to Gisborne for a couple of days to wait the next window (let the northerly pass and the new southerly arrive to carry us around East Cape). What a lovely little township – apart from none of the banks being prepared to change Australian dollars for Robert! Seems banks don’t do such services any more. We had a good meal at the Tatapouri Fishing Club one night (as a thank you for letting us use their showers).

Then the next leg to Tauranga. East Cape was still forecast to have a big swell but by the time we got there it was gone. We had the gentlest passage of that mighty cape that I’ve had so far. Full moon, silvery water gently rolling under the boat and the engine chugging steadily. There were fishing boats to make life interesting though – it’s always a challenge trying to work out what fishing boats are going to do next.

Dawn and Whakaari White Island appeared on the port bow, a sulphurous plume of steam rising so that we could “smell the view”. Finally too some real sailing and another glorious day to herald our arrival into Tauranga. One more gorgeous sunset and a last dinner with the crew.

Thanks to Robert for sharing his lovely boat from me and Patrick. She’s now parked up for a couple of weeks until the next lucky crew arrive to help her on her journey north.

Was it really only a week?

Kate