Opua Return Again

Hi everyone,

Sadly last week's weather window to sail for Australia closed.  So on Tuesday we departed the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua to spend some more time in the Bay.  We anchored in Clendon Cove for a couple of nights, six nights in Opunga Cove and one night in Pomare Bay near Russell.  Winds were E for most of the week.  Yesterday we returned to the marina to ride out approaching ex-TC Vaianu.

Waiting on ex-TC Vaianu

Here's our track...

Track

Our stay in Clendon Cove was very quiet.  We were the only boat there.  We discovered why on our second night when it became quite rolly.

Clendon Cove

The next day we moved to Opunga Cove.  It's a very popular anchorage but we scored a good spot well inside the bay in 4m over mud.  The weather was variable.  Autumn has arrived so it's cooler.  Ex-tropical lows are continuing to drop down from the north.

A little sun in Opunga Cove

Rainy weather in Opunga Cove

Collecting water

With TC Vaianu passing W of Fiji and heading S we booked a berth back in the marina.  On Thursday we motored in a flat calm to Pomare Bay S of Russell.  Then on Friday we motored the short distance back to the marina.  We backed into the berth so we'd be head to wind when the ex-TC passes by.

Looking N towards Russell in Pomare Bay

Run-off in Pomare Bay

Weather this morning

Back in the marina we rigged double dock lines, did our laundry and had hot showers.  We met up with several friends who are also here for the ex-TC's passage.  It seems the Coromandel Peninsula (to our SE) will have the worst weather.  The local news is calling it a cyclone, which it ain't.  But it will drop a lot of rain and bring gale-force winds, mostly overnight tonight.

Zen Again in the marina last night

We're continuing to wait for a weather window to depart!

Trust all's well where you are.

Opua Return

Hi everyone,

After several nights at Opunga Cove we started making our way to the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua.  We spent two nights in Matauwhi Bay near Russell then two nights in Tewahapu Bay.  We went into the marina to wait out a tropical low as it passed by.

Run-off in Opua 'apres le deluge'

Here are out tracks...

Tracks

In Russell we repeated our pattern of fish'n'chips on the waterfront, a beer at the Duke of Marlborough, an ice cream then a shop at the supermarket.  Always fun!

Icecream in Russell

At Tewahapu Bay we anchored a shore dinghy ride away from the small beach.  There one can leave the dink and follow a track to the Omata Estate Winery.  We had a great wine tasting and lunch there.

Zen Again in Tewahapu Bay

Tewahapu Bay dinghy beach

Walking through the vineyard

Ready to eat at 

Lovely wines and kitchen platter

We moved into the Bay of Islands Marina on Tuesday.  An E wind was coming in, with a lot of rain and wind forecast.  Wednesday and Thursday were both wet and windy.  We easily filled out water tank and jerries.  And it was nice to return to the Opua Cruising Club for cheap beers.  And of course the hot showers were marvellous, even with the horizontal rain en-route!

We'll be using the marina's courtesy car tomorrow to get our empty gas cylinder filled and for a provisioning shop.  We hope to clear out on Tuesday and depart towards Australia - if the weather window holds.  Otherwise we'll wait in the Bay of Islands.  New Zealand hasn't been kind to us with weather windows but perhaps our luck will change!

Trust all's well where you are.

Whangarei to Bay of Islands

Hi everyone,

We spent five nights in Marsden Cove, from Monday to Saturday last week.  It was a miserable week weatherwise so nice to be in a marina.  The marina stay gave us an opportunity to catch up with some friends, fill up water, fill diesel tanks from jerries, stretch our legs, enjoy hot showers and have our rig inspected.

Sunset in Opunga Bay

The rig inspection was carried out by Independent Riggers.  Their two guys were very professional and thorough.  We often do our own rig inspection but once in a while it's good to have the job done by a pro.  Happily no significant faults were found.  We also got a few tips which was very helpful.

View from Marsden Cove

Rig Inspection

We also replaced our engine battery.  This is a 300CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) lawn mower battery.  We first changed to this smaller battery type in Deltaville, VA two years ago.  Recently it has been cranking more slowly so it was time for replacement.  During replacement we found its engine compartment wall-mounted battery box was splitting.  We rotated it 180 degrees to remedy that too.

New Battery

On Saturday we sailed 53nm N to Whangamumu.  Escaping Whangarei Harbour was hard work with wind over tide conditions.  Once out we had a fresh SW breeze gusting to 30 knots with occasional light showers.  A great little shakedown which Zen Again loved.  We were down to double-reefed main (= triple-reefed on a full sized main) and triple furled yankee.

Here are the usual screenshots...

Track

Arrival

Graphs

Departing Whangarei

Anchored in Whangamumu

We stayed in Whangamumu for two nights with half a dozen different boats each night.  It's a great anchorage.  Nicki tried out her recently completed knitted pullover.  Very warm!

Chilly in Whangamumu

We'd had a full week of cloudy weather with little solar input.  I knew the batteries were getting low but hadn't checked the individual battery Bluetooth status, relying on the Battery Monitor's state of charge reading.  Turned out they were lower than indicated.  After our first night in Whangamumu we were woken by the gas detector alarm.  On inspection it wasn't alarming for gas.  As I pondered the cause, still half asleep, I saw the voltage on a nearby USB charge drop from 12V to 6V then the lights went out!  There was also a loud 'clunk' from the pedestal/table housing our batteries.  Oops!

Each of our Lifeline LiFePo battery's internal BMS cuts itself off at 8V so we'd really given them a workout.  The lights came back on when I started the engine using the entirely separate (and new) engine battery.  The BMSs restore connection at 10V.  This incident reminded me of the 'cliff' LiFePo batteries fall off when deeply discharged.  Our battery monitor is good but the battery voltage needs to be monitored too.  Here's a graph from our Lifeline battery manual.  Unless very cold the 'cliff' is very steep...

Battery discharge graph

That (Sunday) morning ran the engine for several hours to put a little energy in the batteries.  On Monday we motor-sailed the 17nm to the Bay of Islands' Opunga Cove in very light winds.  We motor-sailed partly to put more energy in the house batteries!

Track

Arrival

Whangamumu astern

Cape Brett

Motukokako Island astern

Motoring into the Bay of Islands

This bay is very well protected from all but W winds.  It's quite popular with about a dozen boats each night.  After anchoring we realised we were next to a Fremantle-registered boat sv Zulane.  We met them today.  Their Contest 45 'lives' here in NZ and they spend their summers here.

Anchored in Opunga Bay

This morning (Tuesday) we swapped between our two 10kg GRP propane cylinders.  The empty cylinder had lasted since mid-November, soon after arriving in NZ.  Nearly four months.  Using our inverter-driven 600W kettle adds a month to each 10kg of gas lifetime.

This afternoon we had a hull-cleaning swim.  We were surprised to find the hull quite clean 10 days since our last clean, including 5 nights in Marsden Cove.  The fouling here in NZ can be really bad.  We expect to spend the rest of this week on anchor around the Bay.  We expect to move into the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua for a few days next week.

Happily the batteries are charging well in this week's sun!

Trust all's well where you are!