Leaving in the Morning

Bridge Marina, Tauranga, North Island

Sunday 13 June 2021

There is much excitement aboard as we contemplate heading out in the morning.  Gary, Annette and Martyn arrived this afternoon from Hamilton – Gary (Annette’s brother) having first flown there from his home in Wellington –  with Annette and Martyn’s daughter Kirsty acting as Uber Daughter. 

As I’ve mentioned earlier, we now have the very same crew on board that we did in March last year, as we prepared to leave Wellington on the leg north to the Bay of Islands.  At this stage, second time around, it looks like we are good to go in the morning!

Dinner of (bought) pizza has just been eaten, with Annette, Martyn and I having first made an assault on the local Pak n Save supermarket with around 20 litres of petrol also being bought for use in the outboards over the next few weeks.

Rain, plus the need to actually tidy the boat up, (in readiness for the arrival of our new crew) put a stop to all painting activities.  At least until we can get another clear run at it up north, or some other anchorage along the way.

The search for a trans-Tasman crew continues and one possibility arose from the most unlikely of encounters.  You may recall that on Friday afternoon I opened a Westpac bank account at the local Bayfair Shopping centre.  In idle chat with the teller, I said I was from Australia – I was feeling brave – and also mentioned that I’d come on a yacht.  “My husband and I have an 11 metre yacht we keep in an Auckland marina – we use it as a place to live when we go there”, she said … Isobel was her name.

“Maybe your husband would like to sail to Australia with me”, I ventured.  “I’ll ask him” she replied … “but if he doesn’t, he might have a friend, or know someone who would like to”

We exchanged contact details and would you believe, I got a call yesterday from Isobel’s husband Ian and he dropped by this morning to check me and the boat out … on behalf of his friend, who he said was keen to get offshore experience.

As it turned out, Ian was a boat builder.  At least that was his first career.  He then got into house builder, then became a boat broker and delivery skipper.   He even knows the guy that donated the 50-metre ship to YWAM and regularly skippers boats, or all sizes, around the place.  We chatted for an hour or more, sharing stories back and forth, and who knows, I might get a call from his friend in Auckland!?

The weather is still looking ok for tomorrow.  Not ideal, but certainly good enough to go.  Our first day’s trip to Mayor Island is only short – maybe 25-30 miles, so we should be at anchor by mid-afternoon.   I can hear rain on the deck currently, but I think they are only passing showers, however, it’s likely to continue like this for most of tomorrow.

Right now, we are working towards having an early night, with the big job for the morning being to lift the large dinghy onto the deck.  Normally we would have done it today, so everything was good-to-go.  But we are giving our newly painted deck as much time as possible to harden up before punishing it with the weight of the tender.   

After lifting the dinghy, (in the morning) I’ll then head up to the office to settle the account.  They always like to have you do that before you untie the lines … funny that … not just because I’m Australian … that’d be discrimination.  No, I’m guessing they might have had someone not pay their account some time in the past … who’s made it bad for the rest of us.  Just guessing?!

Smooth seas, fair breeze and leaving in the morning

Rob Latimer