ARCA – Around the Nth Island in 13 Weeks!
Part One – Mana to Gisborne
My yacht ARCA is moored at Mana near Plimmerton and the
thought of sailing around the North Island had lots of appeal. I could stop over
in Gisborne where I learned to sail 40 years ago but hadn’t seen since I left
school. I also wanted to explore the Bay of Islands. The prospect revisting the
islands of the Hauraki Gulf and seeing some of the America Cup action on the
water seemed very appealing at the time but proved disappointing in reality.
On the last day of school for the year I checked the weather
forecast several times and realised that unless I left that night I ran the risk
of being trapped by a Cook Strait southerly. So with my son Greg as crew, we
slipped our mooring lines at 2100hrs leaving the Mana Island astern an hour
later. I dropped well south of Cape Terewhiti to avoid the Karori Rip and gave a
wide berth to the midnight Ferry from Picton before altering course for Cape
Palliser. We flew through the night with one reef in the main, reaching along on
the last gasp of the northerly.
Cape Palliser in background in near calm conditions
Sunrise the next morning was awe inspiring. This was the first
time of many dawns when I would watch in wonder at the sun breaking free of the
horizon with fiery red scarves stretching out before it. Unfortunately that was
about the last exciting event for the next 36 hours. No southerly eventuated and
we were forced to run the motor in the absence of wind to keep the bow facing
into a horrible chop left over from the night before.
As Greg and I prepared for our third night at sea I noted in
the log that we had had to run the motor for 33 of the last 48 hours because of
lack of wind. So much for the notorious East Coast I thought until I tuned into
maritime radio to hear a storm warning being issued for Castle Point only 100
miles behind us. What a wonderful sense of relief that I had left on the first
night and not waited until the morning to depart Mana.
We must have caught the edge of the wind system to the south
because a few hours later it was double reef and reaching along with 25 – 30
kts of wind just forward of the beam. All through the night with only an
occasional shower we barrelled across Hawke Bay and along the outside of Mahia
Peninsula. As dawn broke the wind began to ease but shaking out one reef and
then the next we maintained good speed arriving in Gisborne on the afternoon of
Christmas Eve. We were both very tired after three broken nights so after a
quick shower at the Club Rooms on the Wharf we put our heads down for some catch
up. I think I slept with a smile on my face. I had achieved my first goal
safely. I had completed a coastal passage of 300 miles from Mana to Gisborne.
On Christmas day I showed my son Greg the house I grew up in
and the river below the house where I first tried to sail a moth but where I
only ended up putting the mast into the mud. We walked to the top of Kaiti Hill
with the tarseal road melting from the heat and phoned family in Wellington. We
were told Wellington was in the grip of a gale. It was raining and other boats
at Mana had been held up from crossing the Strait to the Sounds. I couldn’t
believe my luck. Had I waited just one more day to leave I would probably still
be there.
