Author: Pam
As we lay in bed and listened to the heavens open up and pour down buckets of rain that came as a complete surprise after the moonlit night, the thought of Scott sitting on the bow in his bright yellow jacket as we exit the narrow Man of War pass formed a very wet imagine in my mind. The plan was to pull up the hook and head out on Aspect of Arran’s heels at 09:30. We got up and prepared the boat as it continued to drizzle. Michelle and Aaron came over to say goodbye, they were staying another week at Great Barrier. We traded some favorite music, Jack Johnson for them and Nature’s Best (Kiwi music) for us. They also delivered the rest of the Kawhai, Scott’s prize fish.
We actually got underway at 10:00 and by then the rain had stopped and Scott was spared the drowned boat rat look. We followed closely behind Aspect of Aarran out through Man of War pass measuring .05 of a mile, this is represented by a minute strip of water on the GPS. The seas were calm making our exit a piece of cake. We are already getting into a rhythm on Starship for navigating the arrivals, anchoring and departures that lay ahead. Starship has a seat that hangs just slightly off of the end of the bow, it gives you an excellent vantage point from the front of the boat. We also have new headsets that we purchased while back in the states. They allow for a two way conversation and have solved the problem of not being able to interrupt the other person if you need to communicate something quickly and there is no interference or activation caused by the wind. These headsets have very quickly moved up to one of the most valuable pieces of technology we have on board and after one trip we have determined one set is not enough insurance. We will purchase another set as soon as we return to the marina and then figure out how to get them to NZ. So, with a safe and comfortable vantage point, the use of monoculars and the ability to clearly communicate even in strong winds we are feeling at least prepared for those scary and intense moments.
After exiting the pass we navigated around some of those rocks mentioned earlier that seem to sprout up near islands. Once we were a safe distance out we started preparing to put up the sails. Scott at the mast, boat into the wind, ok ready set go for our second time raising the main on Starship. The mainsail went about half way up and then came to a screeching halt as it got snagged on something. After some inspection Scott discovered one side of the lazy jacks (a rope system for managing the sail when you bring it down) had come loose and was causing the tangle. He lowered the sail, tamed the lazy jack and the second attempt went smoothly. The winds were light and almost dead behind us. The seas were rolly and the boat swayed and swooshed her way back. The wind finally came up to 15 knots and we turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Urqhart’s Bay. We quickly lost sight of Aspect of Arran as they continued to motor sail. Though rolly seas are not the most comfortable sailing conditions, this trip was all about finding out how Starship responds.
During the past year one of the frequently asked questions was, do you fish? We have only been able to answer we are absolutely terrible at fishing. At the conclusion of our first year of sailing the score was fish 13, Tournesol 0. Well, on her second sailing day Starship is in the running. Once we were underway Scott put the line out to begin what he thought was a competition for the day with Jeff. The line was in about fifteen minutes and there was a strike. Scott was so excited and of course he was sure it was a big one. Ok, now what? I ran down below, got some gin, a bucket and his fish knife. All of my visions of the cleaning chaos came crashing to my mind. The fish weighed about five pounds and fortunately didn’t put up a big fight. Scott got it in the bucket, gave it a drink of gin in its gills and as he learned from Aaron started the bleeding process. I was torn between being excited we finally caught a fish and panicked that blood and fish parts were going to be from one end of the boat to the other. Once the fish was subdued (that sounds better) Scott called Aspect of Arran to report his catch. Jeff was congratulatory, but admitted he was not going to throw a line in today. At the conclusion of their conversation Aaron from Mawingo gave Scott a call and announced they were jumping up and down on Mawingo. Aaron’s enthusiasm came through the radio loud and clear. He then wanted a description of the fish, because of course Scott and I had no idea what it was. It had long, thin fins and according to Aaron it was a Skipjack, a member of the tuna family. Ok, next Scott needed a piece of rope to tie through the fish’s mouth so he could be put over the side to finish bleeding. Sitting in the cockpit doorway he threaded the rope and tied the fish to the boat so it was hanging over the side. Five minutes later Scott went to retrieve his catch only to find we had provided lunch to a hungry predator (probably a shark). There was nothing left at the end of the rope but the head and some innards. We both just stared at it and each other. Honestly, we were both a little relieved, we do still need to work out some of the fishy details. We have been told it doesn’t count if you don’t have a picture, we do have proof (coming soon to the website).
We arrived at Urqhart’s Bay at 20:00 and called Jeff and Raewin on the VHF to locate their whereabouts in the anchorage. We dropped the hook with no hitches and settled in for our last night out for awhile. We cooked our first lamb on the BBQ (good thing we had a backup), we are trying to get into the kiwi spirit of eating lamb. The lemon and garlic marinade did the trick and it was really quite tasty.
Monday morning we prepared the boat once again for the final leg of the trip, back up the 13 mile river to our home base at Riverside Drive Marina. You have to go up the river as the tide is rising, so Jeff and Raewin said we would leave at 10:30. Scott took his post on the bow, fortunately again the cloudy day did not dump rain on his parade. The two and a half hour trip was filled with trying to keep up with Aspect of Aarran (somehow Starships five knots was much slower than their five knots), moments of minor panic as Aspect of Aarran stopped to assess the depth and we had to quickly avoid a rear ender, while while the depth sounder was only reading 5’4”, yikes. Of course the lowest water is at the narrowest part of the river, where there are also boats anchored with their buts in the channel. It was a bit dodgy I must say. I think at this point my anxiety was starting to build in anticipation of the dreaded task of parking in our eminent future. Not only did we have to park the boat, we had to park the boat for the first time. As we approached the marina, Jeff called and said “just hang out there by the five mile marker, we will get our lines on and come down the dock to help you”. Well, I am here to tell you hanging out by a sign in a river that is flooding is no easy task. We were making tight circles, being pulled with the current and finding all of the shallow spots. Oh, and throwing a fender overboard to add to the excitement. Finally, it was time to park and Scott and I change positions. He took the wheel and I headed to the side of the boat. I looked over on the dock and you couldn’t fit another person next to where we were supposed to park. On the first attempt we were too far to port, so Scott tested Starship’s ability to backup. She did great. The second attempt he brought her in and I was able to hand (not throw) the bow line to someone on the dock. The lines were put on in flash and we were safely parked, thank you Ray for letting us park on the end. After many thank you’s and hugs we made sure everything was secure and then jumped in the dinghy to head out on the fender recovery mission. If you are going to accidentally (but I must say enthusiastically) throw your fender over, I highly recommend doing it in a river. We found it lolling near the riverbank just waiting to be rescued.
Our trip to Great Barrier Island was a very successful shakedown of Starship and ourselves (only a short list of things that broke). We want to extend a special thank you to Windsong and Aspect of Arran, our excellent guide boats up and down the river. We are energized for this cruising season and look forward to throwing our lines off in the near future for the final trip down the river, around the Whangarei Heads and off to places unknown.
As we lay in bed and listened to the heavens open up and pour down buckets of rain that came as a complete surprise after the moonlit night, the thought of Scott sitting on the bow in his bright yellow jacket as we exit the narrow Man of War pass formed a very wet imagine in my mind. The plan was to pull up the hook and head out on Aspect of Arran’s heels at 09:30. We got up and prepared the boat as it continued to drizzle. Michelle and Aaron came over to say goodbye, they were staying another week at Great Barrier. We traded some favorite music, Jack Johnson for them and Nature’s Best (Kiwi music) for us. They also delivered the rest of the Kawhai, Scott’s prize fish.
We actually got underway at 10:00 and by then the rain had stopped and Scott was spared the drowned boat rat look. We followed closely behind Aspect of Aarran out through Man of War pass measuring .05 of a mile, this is represented by a minute strip of water on the GPS. The seas were calm making our exit a piece of cake. We are already getting into a rhythm on Starship for navigating the arrivals, anchoring and departures that lay ahead. Starship has a seat that hangs just slightly off of the end of the bow, it gives you an excellent vantage point from the front of the boat. We also have new headsets that we purchased while back in the states. They allow for a two way conversation and have solved the problem of not being able to interrupt the other person if you need to communicate something quickly and there is no interference or activation caused by the wind. These headsets have very quickly moved up to one of the most valuable pieces of technology we have on board and after one trip we have determined one set is not enough insurance. We will purchase another set as soon as we return to the marina and then figure out how to get them to NZ. So, with a safe and comfortable vantage point, the use of monoculars and the ability to clearly communicate even in strong winds we are feeling at least prepared for those scary and intense moments.
After exiting the pass we navigated around some of those rocks mentioned earlier that seem to sprout up near islands. Once we were a safe distance out we started preparing to put up the sails. Scott at the mast, boat into the wind, ok ready set go for our second time raising the main on Starship. The mainsail went about half way up and then came to a screeching halt as it got snagged on something. After some inspection Scott discovered one side of the lazy jacks (a rope system for managing the sail when you bring it down) had come loose and was causing the tangle. He lowered the sail, tamed the lazy jack and the second attempt went smoothly. The winds were light and almost dead behind us. The seas were rolly and the boat swayed and swooshed her way back. The wind finally came up to 15 knots and we turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Urqhart’s Bay. We quickly lost sight of Aspect of Arran as they continued to motor sail. Though rolly seas are not the most comfortable sailing conditions, this trip was all about finding out how Starship responds.
During the past year one of the frequently asked questions was, do you fish? We have only been able to answer we are absolutely terrible at fishing. At the conclusion of our first year of sailing the score was fish 13, Tournesol 0. Well, on her second sailing day Starship is in the running. Once we were underway Scott put the line out to begin what he thought was a competition for the day with Jeff. The line was in about fifteen minutes and there was a strike. Scott was so excited and of course he was sure it was a big one. Ok, now what? I ran down below, got some gin, a bucket and his fish knife. All of my visions of the cleaning chaos came crashing to my mind. The fish weighed about five pounds and fortunately didn’t put up a big fight. Scott got it in the bucket, gave it a drink of gin in its gills and as he learned from Aaron started the bleeding process. I was torn between being excited we finally caught a fish and panicked that blood and fish parts were going to be from one end of the boat to the other. Once the fish was subdued (that sounds better) Scott called Aspect of Arran to report his catch. Jeff was congratulatory, but admitted he was not going to throw a line in today. At the conclusion of their conversation Aaron from Mawingo gave Scott a call and announced they were jumping up and down on Mawingo. Aaron’s enthusiasm came through the radio loud and clear. He then wanted a description of the fish, because of course Scott and I had no idea what it was. It had long, thin fins and according to Aaron it was a Skipjack, a member of the tuna family. Ok, next Scott needed a piece of rope to tie through the fish’s mouth so he could be put over the side to finish bleeding. Sitting in the cockpit doorway he threaded the rope and tied the fish to the boat so it was hanging over the side. Five minutes later Scott went to retrieve his catch only to find we had provided lunch to a hungry predator (probably a shark). There was nothing left at the end of the rope but the head and some innards. We both just stared at it and each other. Honestly, we were both a little relieved, we do still need to work out some of the fishy details. We have been told it doesn’t count if you don’t have a picture, we do have proof (coming soon to the website).
We arrived at Urqhart’s Bay at 20:00 and called Jeff and Raewin on the VHF to locate their whereabouts in the anchorage. We dropped the hook with no hitches and settled in for our last night out for awhile. We cooked our first lamb on the BBQ (good thing we had a backup), we are trying to get into the kiwi spirit of eating lamb. The lemon and garlic marinade did the trick and it was really quite tasty.
Monday morning we prepared the boat once again for the final leg of the trip, back up the 13 mile river to our home base at Riverside Drive Marina. You have to go up the river as the tide is rising, so Jeff and Raewin said we would leave at 10:30. Scott took his post on the bow, fortunately again the cloudy day did not dump rain on his parade. The two and a half hour trip was filled with trying to keep up with Aspect of Aarran (somehow Starships five knots was much slower than their five knots), moments of minor panic as Aspect of Aarran stopped to assess the depth and we had to quickly avoid a rear ender, while while the depth sounder was only reading 5’4”, yikes. Of course the lowest water is at the narrowest part of the river, where there are also boats anchored with their buts in the channel. It was a bit dodgy I must say. I think at this point my anxiety was starting to build in anticipation of the dreaded task of parking in our eminent future. Not only did we have to park the boat, we had to park the boat for the first time. As we approached the marina, Jeff called and said “just hang out there by the five mile marker, we will get our lines on and come down the dock to help you”. Well, I am here to tell you hanging out by a sign in a river that is flooding is no easy task. We were making tight circles, being pulled with the current and finding all of the shallow spots. Oh, and throwing a fender overboard to add to the excitement. Finally, it was time to park and Scott and I change positions. He took the wheel and I headed to the side of the boat. I looked over on the dock and you couldn’t fit another person next to where we were supposed to park. On the first attempt we were too far to port, so Scott tested Starship’s ability to backup. She did great. The second attempt he brought her in and I was able to hand (not throw) the bow line to someone on the dock. The lines were put on in flash and we were safely parked, thank you Ray for letting us park on the end. After many thank you’s and hugs we made sure everything was secure and then jumped in the dinghy to head out on the fender recovery mission. If you are going to accidentally (but I must say enthusiastically) throw your fender over, I highly recommend doing it in a river. We found it lolling near the riverbank just waiting to be rescued.
Our trip to Great Barrier Island was a very successful shakedown of Starship and ourselves (only a short list of things that broke). We want to extend a special thank you to Windsong and Aspect of Arran, our excellent guide boats up and down the river. We are energized for this cruising season and look forward to throwing our lines off in the near future for the final trip down the river, around the Whangarei Heads and off to places unknown.
No comments:
Post a Comment