After 5 days with our friends on AZUL,
and a few days after that to get to Opua, our cupboards are bare. We shared every evening meal with AZUL, for a total of 12 people. That’s a lot of food!
We left Bayswater Marina and went to Waihiki Island with AZUL to do some diving and playing. Molly and Jessie water-skied behind AZUL’s dinghy, and both got up and stayed up right away. We had no luck fishing or spear-fishing. We had to eat non-seafood the whole week! We left AZUL after many good-byes and sailed to Great Barrier Island, where we spent one night. It is beautiful there, but quite crowded, since it was Easter weekend, evidently the last hurrah of the sailing season in New Zealand. There were boats everywhere! We spent one night in Tutukaka Harbour, much prettier than its name implies. There, we ran into some friends who had sailed there for the weekend, and we decided to go diving with them the next day. We went to Poor Knight’s Island, about 12 miles offshore from Tutukaka. It is a marine reserve, and is full of large, beautiful fish. Poor Jim was just itching to use his spear gun, but couldn’t in this protected area. The weather was great and the visibility underwater was spectacular.
We dove one more time the next morning, right near Opua. Molly and Jessie went diving together for the first time; they usually go one at a time with Jim. It was slightly unsettling to fling them into the murky water and watch them disappear slowly beneath the waves. I was nervous as a cat. Jessie had some trouble with her dive equipment and had to come back up after a while, but Molly continued diving and emerged with a bag full of scallops – about 50 good-sized ones. Jim caught a couple of King fish on the way to Opua, so we have been feasting on fresh seafood. It ended with a scallop omelet this morning for breakfast.
We finally have arrived in Opua and are tucked in a slip at the marina. The weather has turned sour; the wind is blowing and it is raining off and on through the day. We have contacted Customs, but they want to know exactly when we will be leaving. They don’t want sailors hanging around in their waters after they have checked out. So far, we have told them that we will leave by Friday at noon. That may change, but we have to pick a date at some point. It is a superstition among sailors that you never leave on a trip on a Friday. It doesn’t bother me at all, but it sure makes other sailors look askance at us when we choose that day to leave the dock. Molly found an injured Myna bird this morning, and brought it on board to see if she could get it moving again. Evidently, this type of bird steals eggs from other birds’ nests, so we think it may have been poisoned by the local government, who are very protective of their indigenous birds. The bird started moving around after a bit, and Molly set it up in a tree, where the cats can’t get to him.
Everything is in speeded-up time as we get ready to leave on a crossing. Jim is scurrying around, doing last minute boat projects, I am pushing the girls to do extra schooling, because I know for the first couple of days I won’t feel like even talking to anyone, let alone teach school. I am trying to cook some dishes ahead and get them in the freezer so I won’t have to go below. I need to stock the boat with food all over again (no more car)! Jessie needs to clean her room, since that is where Jim and I sleep while out in the ocean. Jessie will sleep with Molly or out in the main salon. No one really uses the forward part of the boat, since it has the most motion while underway. There are friends to say goodbye to, New Zealand Customs to deal with, and paperwork to send to Australia, informing them of our arrival. They will search our boat for unacceptable food, shells, and medications. I have a ton of serious drugs in our medicine chest; I hope they don’t take them all. We need to fill our scuba tanks, our LPG tanks, and fill the boat with fuel and water. Then, I guess it is time to untie and go to Australia!
There are new pictures in the media gallery.
Question of the Week
What was the name of Tonto’s horse?
(We watched the very first Lone Ranger show in black and white on DVD. I had never known why the Lone Ranger wore a mask, or why he left a silver bullet each time he saved someone from dire straits. It was all very illuminating and educational, and Molly and Jessie loved it!)
~ Jeanna