We are slowly making our way back south to Whangarei, Rowan has an electrician he wants to meet to see if we can improve our solar panel’s performance. In the morning Roger from North Sails boarded to go out into the bay with us, to get our new Gennaker sail up, and to put up our repaired Sporty Spice (Code Zero sail) onto the new furler. Roger has just been out to Kenya to climb Kilimanjaro, so he knew all about ‘polepole’ -all the Masai guides tell the punters to go polepole. Our new Gennaker is very colourful, pink and yellow, and I had nothing to do with it!
By the time we had returned Roger, the morning was over so we went and found a protected bay on Urupukapuka island, our first anchorage in Bay of Islands, which we had left just before dark because it had got too rolly. This time was perfect, there were 4 other boats who had the same idea. It was almost high tide so we went close into the one cove and had a glorious afternoon soaking up the late afternoon sun which had finally appeared. A couple of boats left leaving just two far from us, so we went to bed feeling very comfortable.
Just after 4am Rowan went to the loo, I was awake enough to comment that there was a strange sound. Rowan had noticed it too, so he went upstairs in the dark to check it out and discovered to our horror that we had grounded! The tide was at it’s lowest and we had swung 180 degrees. Ugh in the pitch dark and chilly night air we decided to pick up the anchor and see if we could get her off as she was resting on our rudders, our dagger boards were right up high from the marina. We knew we were in thick mud and had fingers crossed there were no rocks in the way. Thankfully it all went to plan, we got the anchor up ok, and slowly with the engines pulled away. With torch light we could easily see the bottom, we could see our twin trails through the mud from the rudders! We managed to re anchor closer to the other boats, hoping we hadn’t woken everyone up. Of course I managed to get back to sleep, but poor Rowan didn’t.
Loads of boats out in the bay, all sorts, an ancient Gaff Rigg and a double masted catamaran. The bay is very shallow and has to be negotiated between markers. I was steering while the men got the sails up and down.
I was pleased that Rowan had taken back the helm when these Parasailors came worryingly close to our mast
The bay is full of little coves with big homes on the ridges
Our idyllic anchorage with the Shags roosting nearby. Also showing off our new red main sheet
The lovely little cove where we grounded!
Discover more from sailingpolepole.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
