Commodore
November 7, 2024

Friday 8 November – paddle up a creek

We woke up to thick fog which was a surprise, very atmospheric. After a late breakfast the fog had lifted, the water was like a mirror, an excellent day for us to go exploring by kayak. There is a creek that we were able to go up quite far until we nearly grounded, we have to be extremely careful as our dinghy is an inflatable! It was incredibly scenic with wonderful thick bush everywhere, extraordinary rock cliffs and rock formations. We had great fun exploring around the little nooks and crannies of each bay. We went to the government hiking hut to see if we could leave JeldiJeldi there as it is the start of a walk we plan to do tomorrow up the Duke’s nose. On our way back to PolePole we stopped at the only other boat anchored in the bay, called Champagne, registered in Honolulu which looked interesting. Turned out to be an American skipper with an Irish and Scottish lady. We invited them for drinks in the evening.

It was a good way to prompt us to do a bit of a boat tidy up. The Champagne crew arrived around 5:30 pm in their bright red inflatable dinghy rowed by Gary the skipper.

Gary left the States in the 1990’s and has lived in Russel since then. Susanne and Marge both studied medicine together in the UK, both specialising in micro biology and are both retired now. Susanne, the Irish lady lives on the Isle of White but seems to be spending a lot of time with Gary sailing. Marge is over visiting, she lives in Chichester having left Scotland ages ago. Both the ladies are seriously into their wine and belong to a wine group in the UK, so they were thrilled to do a bit of wine tasting of Rowan’s wines on board. Gary is a rum and coke man, ex US navy. They were all great fun and we had a very convivial evening so much so that we all agreed to meet on Champagne tomorrow night for more wine tasting.