Sunday 8 December – more socialising

Tim had to do an early dash to the beach with Benji for a poop walk before we headed back to Whitianga. We did a slightly different route on our way back through some other islands and discovered a very red island. We had a deadline as we were meeting an old University friend of Rowan’s and taking them out on the boat for lunch. We landed up arriving in the river mouth at high tide with the current racing in at about 5 knots, it was hard for Rowan to keep us between the channel markers guiding us to the marina where we needed to get fuel for PolePole. The fuel dock was right near the entrance, with a big sign warning of strong currents entering the marina. There was a very narrow space for us to get onto the fuel dock and nobody to catch lines, it is all self service. With the strong current and a wind blowing us off the pontoon it was pretty stressful for us to lasso the cleats on the dock. After a couple of attempts and bumping off a green post we finally got there. We said our goodbyes to Tim, Carol and Benji, Rowan took them to the dinghy dock in JeldiJeldi while I finished refuelling. Timing was impeccable as Rowan’s friend Felicity and her husband Dale arrived minutes later.

We headed out into the bay and went for a bit of a sail, the wind was gusting up to 22 knots and then dying, so it was a bit erratic, but it gave them a good taste of sailing in a Cat. We headed over to a nice sheltered little beach, put the anchor down and had a good lunch on board. Loads of stories to catch up on. We headed back late afternoon and anchored in Cooks Beach where we anchored our first night here. Rowan took them back to Whitianga in the dinghy, they had to borrow coats as it was pretty chilly in the wind and they were likely to get splashed. When Rowan came back we had to move again as we were not protected from the wind, we were rocking around like crazy. We went across the bay to Simpson’s beach, which was nicely protected and had a very comfortable night.

Benji having a rub down after his walk, he suffers from bad excema, poor boy

Eroding soft white cliffs

Red island, we hope to come back here

Felicity and Dale

Leaving Whitianga behind