The Dyson and my mozzie preventative actions paid off! We had a good night’s sleep even though it was equally hot as the night before. We set off after breakfast to Mana island about 15 miles away. Luckily Rowan was alert as we came to an area we couldn’t get through because of the reef just below the water, very tricky to see from far, a big ferry came whizzing by so we turned around and followed it through. The charts are really not that accurate here.
The entrance to Mana island is quite challenging, a long, narrow wiggle through the reef, and in areas very shallow, at least there are good markers. Of course we had arrived at low tide, so a little squeaky bum moment. There were quite a few boats here, and more of a village than we were expecting. A couple of resorts, and a backpackers hotel. The ferry we had followed came in here no problem, so we should not have been too worried. Apparently this is the island where they film a TV program called Survivor, it really doesn’t look as if it would be too hard to survive here.
In the evening we had drinks on a Kiwi boat that Rowan had been in touch with when we were in Whangarei. Rowan had been looking for other boats doing the passage to Fiji at the same time as us. They were meant to be doing it at the same time but had some last minute issues that delayed them a few weeks. They live on the coast not far from Whangarei and apparently watched us sail by as we departed. They had climbed Kilimanjaro so they were familiar with the word polepole. Turns out they are Brits who moved to NZ in 1987, both Maths teachers, her sister and her husband from Dorset, are sailing with them for 3 months. They are keen divers and have tanks on board, diving wrecks is their thing! The 4 of them are really well travelled, it was an interesting evening. Their house in NZ was hit by the cyclone last year and started slipping down the hill, so they have had to move out while they wait for insurance. Sounds like they have an idyllic plot where they look down on their Catamaran on their mooring in a lovely bay.
The pass is right down at the bottom and curves into the bay
The markers on the way into the pass
Our anchorage
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