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!