Bay of Islands Marina

Hi everyone,

We spent a week in the Bay of Islands Marina after clearing-in.  Great marina costing about $50/night for a 12m berth including live-aboard charge.  Great showers - our first since Panama - but you pay for them separately in 5 minute periods.  Excellent laundry too.

Zen Again in the marina

After arriving and clearing-in on the Wednesday we spent Thursday early morning doing our laundry.  Our friends on OCC sv Wild Iris invited us to share a taxi with them into Paihia to visit the town market.  The market was small but had lots of great stuff.  We stocked up on fruit & veg.  From there we walked out on the jetty for lunch at Charlotte's Kitchen - very nice.  We then walked the 1km or so to the Waitangi Woolworths for more general shopping.  We taxied back to the marina.

Marina building

Laundry

Paihia market

Lunch in Paihia with OCC sv Wild Iris

Paihia waterfront

Later on Thursday we met the crew of local sv Sam.  Like us they plan to cruise the South Island this summer.  They very kindly offered their car for us to use.  On Friday we drove south to Whangarei where we visited Bunnings, K-Mart, Woolworths and Harvey Norman.  Amusing how they're all arranged exactly as in Australia.

Shopping included another supermarket run; replacing our sheets, pillows and cushions; and buying a bread-maker.  The latter will be great not only for making bread but also as a 600W heater 'down south'.

We had lunch with Helen and Steve of OCC sv Cerulean.  We originally met them immediately after they purchased their boat in Gosport, UK.  We cruised in company with them on & off from our post-Covid UK departure to the Caribbean, Colombia and Panama.  It was great to catch up with them again.

On the road

Lunch in Whangarei with OCC sv Cerulean

Booty from Whangarei

Over the weekend we got on with various boat jobs made possible by two chandleries in the marina grounds.  We replaced our old, light-less, northern hemisphere compass with a new southern hemisphere unit.  We stocked up on various consumables such as cleaning fluids, head treatment liquid and hull scrubbing pads.

New compass

We measured-up for a bracket to stow our secondary 16kg Manson Supreme anchor on the stern.  We ordered 100m of 14mm 8-braid nylon rope for the rode.  And we cut 15m of 10mm chain from our main anchor chain, end-for-ending the remainder.  We need an anchor with 100m of rode for some of the Fiordland anchorages.  Local stainless steel fabricators Fisheye will make the bracket.

Test fitting for stern anchor bracket

Fisheye Stainless Steel Fabricators

On Monday we again drove to Whangarei to complete our shopping, visiting Spotlight, K-Mart and Woolworths.  We also visited Hunting and Camping for Bushman insect spray and sandfly-proof netting.  We drove on to Marsden Cove Marina for lunch with sv Island Kea II, Mistral Dancer, Moody Rudie and Thestral.  We won't see them again until next year so it was good to catch up with them all.

Marsden Cove Marina

Brunch at The Marina Cafe

This time sv Sam loaned us their truck.  We had hoped to refill an almost empty 10kg GRP propane bottle.  It turns out only NZ-certified bottles can be filled here - international standards don't count.  So we bought a 9kg metal bottle for our stay here.

The Truck

On Tuesday we met FSC sv Halcyon Days.  They had sailed in from Vanuatu a fortnight before us.  Their sail number is F89 and ours F88.  It was good to meet them and we agreed to do some island hopping in the Bay of Islands over the following week.

FSC F89 sv Halcyon Days II

During this stay we spent two evenings at the Opua Cruising Club.  They're a very active club and have great beer and food.  The nearby General Store is good for essentials and also meat pies.  Nearby also is an excellent fish & chips place.

It was a very busy week but we're now ready for a 'week off' cruising the Bay of Islands.

Trust all's well where you are!