Just when we thought we were ready ……

Well everything went to plan with the re-launch and we got back in the water on Tuesday morning. We immediately went for a quick sea trial to check the rebuilt steering system and also to do engine checks. Everything seemed fine except that the engine didn’t seem to attain the revs that it should at maximum throttle. This is not something we were particularly worried about as we rarely run at maximum throttle. However, the engineers undertook to do further checks.

Debi arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we spent Wednesday buying provisions, stowing provisions and then Debi started cooking. Once again she has done a fantastic job and prepared eight meals for our passage and we are all fully stocked and ready to roll.

A serious load of provisioning

It's important to include the essentials

Now the difficult task of stowing it all

On Thursday, Debi finished up the cooking, did the laundry and got everything stowed, whilst Pat filled up the water and did final preparations on deck with a plan to head up the coast on Saturday to our planned departure point at Marsden Cove.

Whilst driving to the airport on Thursday to pick up our third crew member, Leanne, Pat got a phone call from the engineer, saying that they had investigated the tachometer issue and had decided the alternator was “fried”. Not good news.

A depressing look in the engine bay

The offending alternator

Given that the alternator was a) a very expensive one and b) only two years old this seemed completely improbable. However, further investigations have revealed that it is indeed “fried”, that being the technical term for a short in the windings. A new one is now on order but has the come from the US. It should hopefully be here on Tuesday. Having been on the brink of departure with everything lined up, including notifying NZ customs of our imminent departure, this has been to say the least, disappointing.

The weather has not been the best with very squally showers and high winds coming through, so it wouldn’t have been the best weather to set off. It is also quite cold.

Yesterday we decided to get away from the boat and go and visit Piha, a small village on the west coast of North Island. There is a lovely long beach of black sand and some wild waves rolling in from the Tasman. Thankfully there was also a Surf Life Saving Club, selling good beer and hot food!

A stormy Piha Beach

Sheltering in the Surf Life Saving Club

Leanne, our new crew member

A very windy Piha Beach

Debi getting to grips with her new camera, courtesy of Leanne

Sea spray on a windy Piha Beach

You've been framed!

Leanne has undertaken to upgrade the interior design of X-Pat and has been busy embroidering anything that doesn’t move! Our interior is gradually being transformed!

Our new look interior!

And so now we wait for the alternator to arrive, be fixed and for the next weather window!

Almost back in action

It seems like ages since the last post. We parked X-Pat at Gulf Harbour marina at the end of March and have been back to Sydney and doing other things for the last month. 

X-Pat came out of the water on the 30th April for the annual service and antifoul and at the moment is still sitting on the hardstand! We had the hull soda blasted to take off all the old antifoul and get back to the gelcoat. This was followed by three coats of primer and three coats of antifoul and so we are hopefully protected from all those marine beasties that would like to make our hull their home.

Blasted and filled and ready for primer

Primed and looking a lot better

New anodes and coated with Prop speed

Three coats of anti-foul and ready for re-launch

We have also had the whole steering system dismantled and serviced. Anyone who has ever helmed on X-Pat would be familiar with the steering "clunk" which has been with us for years, but has been getting progressively worse. Driven by a fear that something might just fall apart we decided it was time for a closer look. It turned out there was nothing too sinister lurking within the gearboxes and auto helm which make up the system. It just all needed a good clean and lots of grease! The system all seems much smoother now, but the real test will be when we get back in the water.

We have also had a rig check and the engine serviced and new fuel filter system installed.

Pat got back on board on the 13th April and has been living aboard since. He has been busy checking all the safety equipment and doing a few running repairs.

Lifejackets all checked and serviced.

It's never much fun living on the hardstand, but we are due to be lifted back in the water on Tuesday (22nd). Debi will be arriving from Sydney on the same day. The plan is then to provision and do a lot of cooking. Leanne, our new crew member is joining us on Thursday (24th) and then we will be looking for a suitable weather window to leave for Tonga!

We are looking forward to getting back into the cruising life.

Great Barrier Island with Friends

It’s always nice to have friends come to visit us as we plod our way around exotic places, but it does require some preparation so that they don’t find out how we really live on the boat!

After leaving Whangaparapara we headed south again to Tryphena, primarily to do the laundry, which hadn’t been done for 3 weeks! We battled south in a nasty Force 6 easterly and at one point had to divert into Blind Bay to get the headsail completely furled and then crept around the coast with the engine, avoiding the large seas. We were relieved to get anchored in Puriri Bay and then ashore to investigate the laundry facilities. Unfortunately we were out of luck as they only operate in the morning when the generator is running. There are downsides to living off the grid!

So, on Monday we had a busy day doing the laundry and then the provisioning for our last few weeks aboard X-Pat. Our friends Mal and Ange arrived early evening and we rather conveniently met them in our favourite Irish Pub for a few beers and dinner. We then had the fun job of dinghy transfers for all of us plus luggage. Our dinghy really isn’t built for more than the two of us, but we managed.

At Anchor in Puriri Bay (photo courtesy on Mal)

The team including X-Pat in the background

On Tuesday we moved X-Pat around the corner to Mulberry Grove. We had a nice walk just along the coastline and then convened at 8pm for a tour of the skies with “Heavens Above”. This is a local company who have taken advantage of the fact that Great Barrier Island has recently been declared a “dark sky sanctuary” where there is negligible light pollution and the views of the night sky are truly magnificent. Once the telescope had been set up we had over two hours of star gazing along with hot chocolate and homemade brownies! A very nice evening. We even managed the dinghy transfers back to X-Pat in the dark without any dramas.

Our trusty dinghy in action (photo courtesy on Mal)

On Wednesday we set sail in light winds, but did manage to sail with just the genoa for a few hours, back up to Whangaparapara, where we had a pleasant evening. 

Thursday was a cracking day. We left Whangaparapara mid morning and headed towards Smokehouse Bay. Once again we passed through the beautiful group of islands off the west coast fo Great Barrier Island and this time decided to stop for an hour to catch our supper. It didn’t take too long to land two good sized snapper and then we headed around and got anchored in Smokehouse Bay.  

Ange kindly volunteered to clean the fish at the fish cleaning table in Smokehouse Bay, so we loaded the dinghy with fish, knives and a few cold beers and went ashore. As we headed ashore Ange was convinced that one of the beers had ruptured as she could hear it hissing. It wasn’t until Pat went to head back to X-Pat that he discovered that it wasn’t the beer but the dinghy that was hissing! Sharp knives and inflatable dinghies don’t mix. He managed to get back and retrieve the pump but it was a pretty bad puncture and we didn’t have much glue to fix it with. Fortunately Ange had managed to chat up a fellow yachty, Warren, who kindly headed off to his boat and returned with copious amounts of glue. We then completed an emergency repair on the beach whilst the snapper were slowly smoked in the smokehouse!

Beautiful Scenery as we headed north (photo courtesy on Mal)

Ange prepares the Snapper at Smokehouse Bay (photo courtesy on Mal)

Fellow Yachty, Warren, provides helpful advice and glue (photo courtesy on Mal)

Smoked Snapper feast! (photo courtesy on Mal)

During all the drama Debi was still back onboard baking her wonderful caramel slices and muffins. We then went and picked her up and had beers and smoke snapper on the beach! This cruising game can be rough sometimes! Back on X-Pat a few more drinks were consumed and the day was only spoilt by Debi insisting that we play Taboo! The girls won but we are convinced they cheated so we’ll call it a draw!

On Friday morning we had guests for morning coffee. Bron and Ken joined us from their yacht SV Nicola and Brodie, Cat and Travis joined us from SV Citation. It was nice to catch up with others to swap stories and understand peoples future plans. It sounds like we’ll be seeing them all again later in the year. We left Smokehouse Bay in the afternoon and stupidly didn’t look at the weather before we left. It was only about a mile around to Kaiarara Bay where we planned to anchor but a nasty squall came through and guess who had to stand out in the rain!  

Bron and Ken in their reliable dinghy 

Brodie, Cat and Travis from SV Citation

Helming in the rain! (photo courtesy on Mal)

Saturday and Sunday were quite active as we decided to go for a couple of nice walks, including the Glenfern Sanctuary, which we had visited previously. Then sadly we had to say goodbye to Mal and Ange on Monday morning when their taxi arrived to take them to the airport. After dropping them we decided to move X-Pat around to Nagle Bay. This lovely bay  was empty when we anchored, but seemed to fill up quite quickly and we ended up with about eight neighbours by the evening.

There are some wonderful walks on Great Barrier Island

Sunset Rock at Glenfern Sanctuary with Port Fitzroy in the background

Sadly our stay at Great Barrier Island came to an end on Tuesday when we hauled anchor and headed back across the Hauraki Gulf to Gulf Harbour Marina. It was an absolutely windless day when we left but the wind did pick up a little and we managed to motor sail for a good part of the way.

Departing Great Barrier Island on a very still day

X-Pat is now berthed for the next six weeks and is getting her annual service prior to the next adventure. Suddenly the boat started filling up with new bits and pieces to be fitted before we head off. Busy times ahead!

It's annual service and upgrade time!

Walks, Hola and a Pub!

We’ve been doing quite a few walks since the last blog. Last Saturday we went ashore at Bush Beach in Kaiarara Bay and set off on the Kaiarara bush trail. This turned out to be a bit more arduous than we had envisaged, with a lot of up and down hills, climbing over fallen trees and slipping around on the mud. It didn't help that Pat’s advice to Debi was that she wouldn’t need her hiking boots and would be fine in sandals! Wrong! She spent a lot of the first part of the walk sliding around as she tried to descend some very steep muddy slopes. After dropping down into the adjacent bay we then had a massive climb back out to eventually hit what is known as Forest Road which is a dirt track and a little easier walking. This road then seemed to go on forever, often in what seemed like completely the wrong direction. We were very poorly equipped with no map, no food and had visions of spending the night huddled in a hut somewhere. However, things eventually came right and 5.5 hours and 18k later we were safely back on X-Pat.

At least the sandals were useful for wading through the rivers

Fantastic views back to the bay once we had climbed to Forest Rd.

Sunday was spent recovering from our exertion and preparing for the remains of Cyclone Hola. We put out extra chain (a total of 70m) to make sure that we were secure, lashed down everything that we could on deck and put up our dodger to give us a bit of protection from the heavy rain. Then we waited. Monday came and the bad weather arrived exactly as forecast, with winds out in the channel rising to 45 knots. We were nicely tucked away and saw a maximum of 27 knots. Then in the afternoon it started to rain and rain and rain. We’re not sure how many mm we had but the bay turned a tea colour from all of the sediment washing down of the hills. Branches and other debris was sweeping past us as we swayed around at anchor. In the evening the wind got up again and was gusting 60 knots out in the channel. We were thankful to be hiding in the harbour.

The bay turned tea colour from the sediment

On Tuesday the wind moved around to the west and so we were a bit exposed and decided to move around to Stony Bay which was more sheltered from the west. We had a nice quiet night there after all the excitement of Hola. Debi had a swim and Pat went and did a beach clean up on a very stony beach, finding lots of micro plastics. The island here is made of volcanic debris known as breccia. The hard pieces of volcanic rock are in a matrix of softer material which is eroded by the action of the sea and leads to a very stony beach!

Andesitic Breccia at Stony Bay

X-Pat and Double Trouble at anchor in Stony Bay

From Stony Bay we moved a few miles around the corner to Warrens Bay to join friends. We had a few drinks on X-Pat on Wednesday night with Jo and Rob (Double Trouble), Karen and Mike (True Companions) and Linda and James (Sol). They are all sailing catamarans and we think we convinced them not to change to a monohull after they were all squeezed into our tiny cockpit, which got gradually chillier as the sun went down. Still it was nice to get together, before we all set off in different directions again.

On Thursday it was time to blow away the cobwebs and head off for another walk, this time with walking boots. We did the Warren’s/Bridle track which took us to some lovely waterfalls and then followed this with a walk through a lovely area known as Glenfern Sanctuary. The area was purchased by Tony Bouzaid over 20 years ago and had been extensively logged and farmed. He decided that he wanted to try to return the area to more native bush, to see the return of many of the birds and other wildlife that he remembered from his childhood. Over 10,000 trees have been planted over those 20 years and a big pest eradication programme has been undertaken which has included fencing the whole area. It’s certainly a beautiful area to walk through and very well set out for visitors to enjoy and understand a bit about the work.

Warrens Track along the river bed

Waterfall and Hiking boots

The birdlife is certainly impressive here though many of them are very elusive. In contrast to most birds here the Fantail’s are very inquisitive. If you stand still on the paths they will come very close to take a look at you. These birds are a common native in New Zealand and are one of the few forest birds to have thrived as a result of forest clearance, which has resulted in the creation of forest edge and scrub habitats which they like. 

The ever inquisitive Fantail

600 year old Kauri's

We have also seen a few Brown Teal or Pateke as they are known locally. This rare endemic duck was once widespread throughout New Zealand but is now largely confined to Great Barrier Island and the east coast of Northland between the Bay of Islands and Tutukaka. Their population decline is believed to have been due to predation from cats and dogs, the drainage of lowland habitat and the harvesting of birds prior to their protection. The population is now recovering due to conservation efforts such as those at Glenfern and is currently estimated to be between 2000-2500. What a privilege to see a pair of these ducks with a duckling!

The Brown Teal or Pateke with duckling

The view from Sunset Rock at Glenfern Sanctuary. X-Pat is at anchor in the distance

After all that walking it was time for refreshment and so we headed off to the Boat Club which overlooks Port Fitzroy. Having been on a fish and vegetable diet for the last three weeks, Pat was encouraged to see “Pie of the Day” at the top of the menu which he duly ordered. It turned out to be fish pie!  With the exception of buying some milk and cheese in Port Fitzroy we haven’t had to shop since our last major provisioning trip which was done in Tauranga, three weeks ago. Debi has done a great job on the planning and cooking front and we have now been meat free for three weeks! Supplies are beginning to get low now though, so a major shop is planned in the next few days.

Yesterday we left the shelter of Port Fitzroy Harbour and started heading back south again. There was very little wind and so we motor sailed down to Whangaparapara which is another lovely sheltered natural harbour, nestled into the hills. We anchored in the ominously named Graveyard Bay. Despite the name we had a very quiet night, Pat was up early and had a great view of the night sky, with Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Pluto all visible. we have also been visited here by Blue Penguins which are a common native here. They are the smallest penguin and have been swimming around X-Pat calling to each other. We suspect that they have been nesting on the nearby beach or in the scrubland behind the beach. The water is clear enough to be able to see them ‘flying’ underwater, which is spectacular to watch.

We had planned another walk today but the weather has deteriorated and so we have been reduced to doing a trip to the recycling facility on the wharf and a sort walk up the road. 

Great Barrier Island

We have now made it to the beautiful Great Barrier Island and we are going to be here for a while!

We left Huruchi Harbour on Great Mercury Island on Monday on yet another windless day. We do seem to pick our days. We motor sailed the 25nm to Tryphena on the south west side of Great Barrier Island and found ourselves a nice anchorage. The next day we moved around to Puriri Bay to get an improved internet signal (always a priority) and just chilled out there. Pat spent the morning servicing all of the winches, so that they are all nicely greased and sounding good.

On Wednesday we decided we should get ashore and explore. We set off in quite changeable weather with a bit of rain. It was high tide when we went ashore and so we tied the dinghy so far up the beach that it was tied up to  road sign! Then we set off up the road and carried on walking up and up and up. The weather cleared and so we just kept walking and ended up across the other side of the island at Medlands Beach. This is a beautiful beach on the east side of the island, but there is nothing there. No shops, not even coffee shop. So we had a nice walk along the beach and then turned around and came back again. On the way back we spotted a Kaka. This is a large and very noisy forest parrot which is fairly common in New Zealand but is not found anywhere else. Their total population is believed to be around 10,000 birds and they are classified as a threatened species due to loss of habitat. Unfortunately the one we saw didn’t hang around long enough to have its photo taken. 

On the road to Medlands

Medlands Bay

Medlands Beach - not a coffee shop in sight!

Back in Puriri Bay after 13km

By the time we had walked back to Puriri Bay we had walked 13km. The legs were in shock until we found a genuine Irish pub run by an Irish family. The pub is called the Currach and is thoroughly recommended. We met our cruising friends Jo and Rob, from Double Trouble and Mike and Karen from True Companion there and had a fine time sampling the local ales and the guinness. I suspect we may be visiting again!

Happiness after a long walk

It was so warm that Pat's pint was just evaporating!

Then it was back to the dinghy and the realisation that the tide had now gone out and the sea was a very long way from the dinghy. We can just about carry our dinghy plus outboard motor between the two of us, but it is not easy, especially after multiple pints. Thankfully the sun had not yet set, as trying that in the dark would not have been funny. 

That's a long way to carry the dinghy

Back on X-Pat we decided it was time for a nightcap and movie time, which has become a regular feature at around 8pm each night. We have downloaded a lot of TV series from Netflix and are working our way through them. We are currently enjoying Wallander, a swedish detective series.

On Thursday Pat woke with a mild headache and managed to swim it off fairly quickly. We have some more bad weather on its was over the next few days and so we have decided to accelerate our trip north and hide in the Port Fitzroy area which is a lovely sheltered harbour. So we hauled anchor and departed in some very dubious weather.  There were some horrible squally showers on the way north but we passed through a lovely area of little wooded islands and then through the narrow Man O’War Passage to enter Port Fitzroy harbour.

Heading north through the islands

Approaching the very narrow Man O'War Passage into Port Fitzroy

Last night we anchored in Smokehouse Bay, which was very peaceful. It was so still and the sky so clear that Pat attempted to photograph the stars. However, despite the stillness the boat was still moving too much to get any good shots. This morning Pat went exploring in the dinghy and found a wonderful area that was set up for cruisers many years ago and has been gradually added to. The place is fantastic. It has freshwater there with showers and a bath. You can heat the water by lighting a wood fire. There is a book exchange library, a smokehouse where you can smoke your fish and a BBQ. There is even a sink for doing your laundry, complete with a mangle! We must go back.

X-Pat at anchor in Smokehouse Bay

The house for smoking your fish

I knew we didn't need a washing machine on the boat

This morning we moved across the harbour and are now anchored in Kaiarara Bay, which is very well protected from the wind from just about any direction. This is just as well as there is a big blow forecast from the SE for this evening and then yet another ex cyclone (Hola) is heading our way early next week. We have decided to ride this one out on anchor as we are a very long way from any marinas out here. Tomorrow is forecasted to be windy but fine so we are going to do a long bush walk through the hills here.