Bay of Islands to New Plymouth and Home

An Easterly wind had been blowing for four days prior to our departure from the Bay of Islands. I was worried it would blow itself out before I could leave as I was keen to take advantage of reaching up to North Cape and running across the top to Cape Reinga with the wind behind me. The only hold up was waiting for John, my crew, to collect the repaired automatic tiller and arrive by bus from Auckland. When John did arrive resplendent in a coloured waistcoat I asked him if he wanted to change before getting the boat ready for sea. “No” he replied “I can do that when we get underway”. He then leaned over the rail to help haul the anchor onto the deck for lashing down and dropped his reading glasses into the sea. He wasn’t the least perturbed and insisted we carry on.

We headed out at 1500 hrs and were met by some very large seas which had build up over the last four days. All night we could hear the sound of breaking water rushing up behind us and had to hand steer the whole time but only once did any water make it into the cockpit. In the middle of the night I heard the rumble of a large diesel engine long before I saw a huge ship slide down our port side at about 100m distance.

At 0500hrs I was treated to an amazing sight. As the dawn broke I had North Cape light abeam and in the distance could just make out Cape Reinga lighthouse and then the sun burst out of the sea flooding the hills in a beautiful orange glow. The next six hours were a glorious roller coaster ride across the top of NZ as that Easterly wind kept blowing unabated. It seemed very strange all that day knowing that behind the line of hills off our port side and completely out of sight was the rest of New Zealand. We rounded Cape Reinga a good 5nm out to sea and gave Pandora Bank an extra wide berth. By 1500hrs the log showed we had covered 130nm in our first 24 hours. For the whole time we had been running with two reefs in the main and only half the genoa unfurled. Now as the land came between us and the direction of the wind the sea dramatically flattened out and we were able to engage the automatic tiller for the first time. The flat sea also enable us to cook our first proper hot meal as my attempt the night before had ended up on the floor.

The next 24 hours were absolutely glorious sailing conditions in which we reeled off another 125nm. ARCA effortlessly thrust ahead and a wonderful feeling of contentment settled on us both. John commented as the sun slowly dropped into the sea : “It doesn’t get any better than this!” – A poignant moment I was able to share at his funeral some months later.
The wind had now eased sufficiently to have all sail up. Our speed had dropped a little but we had still covered 360nm in 72 hours. Since Cape Reinga had disappeared astern we had not seen any sign of land. At one stage we had been more than 80nm off the coast but late in the afternoon of the third day the top of Mt Taranaki appeared above the clouds on the horizon so we knew our GPS was working well.

The bright lights of New Plymouth seemed to be much closer than we expected until we passed a Tuna fishing boat all lit up like Christmas and realised our mistake.

Although the wind died for 3 or 4 hours during the night it was picking up quite strongly as we headed into the Port in the dark. We were having trouble identifying the leading lights into the Port and were worried about the rocks to the south of the entrance when we realised a large ship was anchored outside the entrance waiting for daylight to enter. We picked up a mooring at 0500hrs a little more than 3.5 days after leaving Bay of Islands. We dropped into our bunks for a well deserved sleep in until we were rudely awakened by hundreds of fizz boats heading out for a fishing competition. A local yachtie who works on the Maui Oil Rig helped us into a spare berth in the mini marina and then John and I walked up to the camping ground for a shower. John travelled back to Auckland later that day and my son who three months earlier had sailed from Mana to Gisborne and then to Tauranga arrived by bus for the final leg home. With very little wind this last leg was completely uneventful except for a “satellite” phone call from the yachtie on the Oil Rig to tell me what the weather was like. However as the top of the Malborough Sounds appeared off to starboard and Kapiti Island became visible up ahead these last lazy miles gave me plenty of time to reflect on the wonderful times I had experienced over the last 14 weeks. It has taken me a long long time to write this all down, so that now I am beginning to wonder when it will be time to do it all again.