Gisborne to Whangamata via Tauranga

Christmas Day and Boxing Day were spent wandering the streets of Gisborne and remembering school days, paper rounds and girl friends I had thought long forgotten. But when the weather forecast the next day looked settled the decision was made to head for East Cape. We cleared the Gisborne breakwater mid morning with a good reaching breeze and were making excellent progress up the coast as darkness fell. I had heard so many horror stories of other boats rounding the Cape in confused seas and gale force winds that in my haste to leave the Cape behind me, I passed up the chance to enjoy the delights of places like Tologa Bay. We had East Island abeam as the sun rose the next morning and about an hour later I found myself staring at the majestic sight of Mt Hikurangi and its mighty bluffs lit up in the early suns rays. What a great spot for those who climbed it to welcome in the millennium three years ago.

The next 24 hours were lights winds and quite uneventful. As we drifted past White Island the forecast was for SE winds in the morning and not wanting to have to beat to windward into Tauranga the next morning I changed my plan of sailing around the outside of all the rocks and reefs and set a course more directly towards entrance of Tauranga Harbour. I expected it would daylight before having to navigate past any hazards however about midnight a fresh breeze sprang up from the north and we were soon barrelling along at 6kts with the need to safely navigate to the entrance in the dark. Using the principle taught to me in Coastal Navigation Courses that knowing with certainty where you are not, (ie not near anything dangerous) is more important than knowing exactly where you are, I set my GPS on a direct course for the most dangerous underwater rocks ahead and then proceeded to sail one mile to the side of the track as I approached this final danger. Without a chart I cannot explain the logic of this method but I also use it to avoid ‘Cook’s Rock’ when sailing to the Sounds.

Just before sunrise I had a very strange conversation on the VHF with the foreign sounding skipper of a large ship also making its way to Tauranga. I firmly believe that it is better to call up another vessel to make sure they have you on radar than to find out too late that they have you on a collision course because they have not seen you. He must have thought I was slightly mad when I asked him what his intentions were, as his lights shortly afterwards showed he was moving away from me and not nearer. I didn’t mind what he thought as long as he knew I was there.

As I made my way into Tauranga harbour I couldn’t understand why I was making such slow progress as I had checked that it was an incoming tide. Later I discovered that I had looked up the wrong year. The Nautical Almanac had been printed with two years of tide tables. I was only 12 months out!

That afternoon my son caught a bus back to Wellington and my sister arrived as new crew and with fresh food.

Sailing across Cook Strait year after year in 2-3m swell and broken seas does not prepare you for the amazing sensation of sailing on dead flat water with full sail, 25kts of steady wind and the rail sitting just above the water. This was my experience two days after arriving when I took my sister and niece out for their first sail. Coupled with the strong tidal streams on the inner harbour I could hardly believe how fast the shoreline was sliding by with so little boat motion. The GPS indicated 9-10kts over the bottom and I just sat back and enjoyed every minute of it.

We left Tauranga the next day bouncing our way over a succession of standing waves at the entrance. Our destination was Whangamata Harbour but we had decided to stop overnight at Mayor Island. The water was beautifully clear and the weather so settled that we anchored well off from the beach and watched the sun set over the mainland in the distance.

As we cleared the island headland the next morning a long lazy swell greeted us from the north, but no sign of wind. More motoring! That is when I saw my first flying fish! I couldn’t believe it; they really do fly! This one came out of the swell and stayed just above the surface for at least 30 metres and appeared to use its tail dipped in the water like a rudder. Next a couple of large sharks glided by, the biggest I had ever seen but not unusual I was told later by my brother who keeps a fishing boat at Whangamata.

The Cruising Guide clearly describes where to look for the leading marks at the entrance to Whangamata. Well I never spotted them. Even after arriving and going for a walk along the beach I found them hard to identify. However with several hundred motorboats coming and going it wasn’t too difficult to pick the general area of the sand bar. Never the less I still did not enjoy watching the depth sounder slide down to less that 1.5metres before the depth increased again. Inside the entrance was also a surprise to me. The channel was so narrow, with pole moorings along one side and swing moorings on the other, that there was very little room to turn. Turning was also made difficult because of the constant stream of vessels in both directions, more like driving a car down a narrow two lane highway waiting for a chance to turn across the traffic. I had written ahead and booked a mooring but repeated calls to the Harbourmaster on the VHF brought no response until the local Coast Guard came on the radio and said they would pass on my message. Once I had picked up my mooring I was able to relax a little and enjoy the entertainment of watching scores of boaties jostle for position in their attempts to land crew on the only available wharf. With 600 miles under the keel I was also growing quietly confident that I would complete what I had set out to do. I was also keen to phone my partner in Wellington because I had now arrived at the place where she would join me for the next section of my trip. Unfortunately 10,000 visitors to Whangamata with 10,000 cell phones had jammed the system and so after inflating the dingy I rowed ashore to find a phone box.

Chapter Three