Omaha Cove to Kawau Island

Hi everyone,

On Tuesday we sailed from Omaha Cove to Bon Accord Harbour on Kawau Island.  Twas a very pleasant 13nm downwind sail in a nice 15G20 NNW-NW breeze.  OCC sv Thestral accompanied us.

Kawau Boating Club and RNZYS Annexe at Bon Accord

Here are the usual screenshots...

Track

Arrival

Graphs

It was a lovely sail from Takatu Point onwards when we got out of the seas into flat water.  We zigzagged around a couple of shoals then continued broad reaching SW.  We gybed into Bon Accord Harbour, only only motoring the last few hundred metres to anchor.

Departing Omaha Cove with sv Thestral

Approaching Takatu Point

Approaching Kawati Point on Kawau Island

Sailing into Bon Accord Harbour

On Wednesday we went ashore with single-handing Tim from sv Threstral and walked to the top of the nearby hill.  We left the dinghy at the RNZYS annexe's dock since both it and the Boating Club's dinghy dock have "Private" notices.  It's a nice walk on a good path.  Lots of ferns under the trees.

RNZYS Annexe

Dinghy Dock

Into the forest

View over the harbour

Selfie!

Remains of 19th century smelter

A beer at the Kawau Boating Club

The anchorage in Bon Accord Harbour is open to the W.  During Wednesday a SW wind came in, only 10-15 knots, which made the harbour uncomfortable at anchor.  Seas of nearly 1m penetrated the harbour.  We slept in the saloon that night.  But in the right weather it's a lovely spot with good tucker ashore at the Boating Club.

Marsden Cove to Omaha Cove

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we had a great sail, beam reaching in a 15G30+ WSW wind to Omaha Cove.  We mostly sailed with one reef in our small main, reefing down further during squalls, and with 2-3 furls in the yankee.  Several rain squalls came through with gusts to 35 knots.  It was fun to push Zen Again a little during a 30nm day sail with winds blowing off the shore.

Bye bye Whangarei Harbour

We had spent four nights back at Marsden Cove, mainly to wait out bad weather.  A deep low pressure system passed by and is now battering the east coast.  Its rain filled our tanks nicely and the wind made us happy to be 'tucked up' in a nice marina.  We met up with the recently returned crew of UK sv Island Kea II.  We met them in Shelter Bay, Panama last year and sailed across the South Pacific a little ahead of them.  We 'earned' a free lunch by updating their OpenCPN charts for the South-West Pacific.  Twas great to catch up with them.

Here are the usual screenshots...

Track

Arrival

Graphs

We sailed in company with OCC sv Thestral, a North Wind 435.  We sailed together through the Tonga Ha'api group last year.  She made up 1nm on us during this passage.

Approaching Rodney Head

Afternoon light in Omaha Cove

With OCC sv Thestral

Omaha Cove is a nice little anchorage, well suited to W winds.  We anchored in 8m, just outside the moored boats.  We slept well last night.  Today we'll be continuing S in lighter winds.

Morning light in Omaha Cove

Trust all's well where you are!

 

Whangarei to Marsden Cove

Hi everyone,

We spent four nights at Whangarei's Town Basin Marina.  It's a top spot for shopping with several large supermarkets in walking distance.  Many other stores like K-Mart, Bunnings and Harvey Norman too.  Besides shopping there are several good museums and art galleries, plus some good walks.

Whangarei Falls

Our pick of the supermarkets was Pak'n'Save.  It's a five minute walk from the marina.  We did two big sessions, each filling our packs and bags.

Our pick of the supermarkets

We did the bridges walk which takes you across two bridges - the bascule bridge below the town centre and the Canopy footbridge just upstream of the marina.  It's a nice walk with waterfront parks along much of the river.

Riverfront artworks

Bird, whale tail or seat?

Spectacular artwork, or is it graffiti?

Zen Again at the head of B jetty

We visited the Claphams National Clock Museum on the waterfront.  It houses an amazing collection of clocks and watches.

Inside the clock museum

Chronometers

Cuckoo!

We also visited the Hundertwasser Art Centre on the waterfront.  Amazing artist - very colourful!

On top of the art centre

Hundertwasser was into trees

Model of the art centre

Colourful posters

We've had Sodastream units aboard since leaving Australia in 2015.  The last time we swapped empty for full gas cylinders was in Panama.  Here we eventually found them at Briscoes.  The trick is that Australia and New Zealand cylinders use a different thread to the rest of the world.  When we arrived in South Africa we had to buy a new Sodastream unit.  Thankfully the cylinder threads aren't checked when one swaps cylinders.  So here we could swap empty 'rest of world' cylinders for local ones.  But we again need to buy an 'ANZ' Sodastream unit.

Sodastream gas cylinders with both threads

With shopping done we took a day off for the Whangarei Falls walk.  It took us about 4 hours with half an hour at the falls.  A really nice walk along the riverside up to the falls mainly through forest and parks.

The Falls

The reward back in Whangarei

Finally we visited Reyburn House which houses local art collections.  Really nice art at reasonable prices.

Art Gallery

Very nice pictures in the gallery

We met the crews of OCC yachts Shimshal 2 and Nimue for dinner in town.  There's an array of restaurants, cafes and pubs in the town centre, many of them in pedestrian malls.

Today we motored back downriver to Marsden Cove Marina.  We did so against a 15G25 E wind with a 1m chop and occasional showers.  Not much fun but once in we collected several parcels.  One of them was our new Sodastream-equivalent unit.

The unit we chose is a 'Sparkler' from NZ company Six Barrel Soda.  Sodastream is changing to a quick-release type of gas cylinder which they may have patented.  Over the last few years a host of Sodastream equivalents have appeared, all using the screw thread gas cylinders.  We have eight of them so didn't want to change.  It's great having sparkling water on tap for mixing up G&Ts, Rum'n'Gingers etc.  We're about to have one right now!

Heading downriver

Trust all's well where you are.