Tuesday 5 November – stopping in the Cavalli islands

The weather forecast for the next few days is very calm and sunny, so an ideal time to head north of the Bay of Islands, to some highly recommended anchorages. We needed to do some provisioning as we have no fruit or tomatoes left, and we are running low on eggs. Rowan was up before 6am, the sea was like a mill pond, not a cloud in the sky, so we got going. We headed to Russell to get some groceries, on the way we made a stop at a beach for Rowan to have a 7am meeting, good tea break or me! The supermarket at the jetty was really disappointing, with just a few apples and no tomatoes, how can a shop on such a prime spot be so poorly stocked! Luckily Rowan went a couple of streets back from the waterfront and found a Woolworths which was much better. Fully stocked we headed north to the Cavalli islands. We had to navigate a fairly narrow passage to get to the anchorage, it was stunning getting up close to cave filled tiny islands. We passed an area which must be millionaire’s row on the mainland, it had enormous houses at the top of the cliffs looking over the water, some were pretty monstrous. Amazingly they have no beaches nearby but they must have stunning views.

The anchorage had one other boat slap bang in the middle of the bay, there were quite a few rock bommies lurking about, so it took us a little while to get comfortably settled. We had just put our feet up when the Customs Patrol boat roared up, they had all our details and were just checking up on us. They had us as 3 crew, because Phil checked in with us, he said it was like the start of a joke that we had an Irish, English and Kiwi on board. He was very chatty and full of laughs, Francois our friendly South African was not on board. He told us their boat which lifts onto foils, can do well over 30 knots in a chase. Sounds a pretty fun job! Reassuringly they did check the other boat too, which was a local Kiwi boat. That was enough excitement for one day.

Leaving behind the lovely trees full of Shags

Flat sea and blue sky

I had to take over the helm for a while, it’s cold that early in the morning!

Heading north

So many rocky islands

Markers showing underwater rocks, it requires full concentration

A little farm house on this island ….. what remote living

Loads of caves

Navigating our way through all these rocky outcrops

Tiny islands covered in wonderful, untouched vegetation, no alien acacia here thank goodness

Our anchorage with one other boat

We get a visit from the Customs patrol boat

Next they check up on the local Kiwi boat, not just us foreigners!

We land up anchored close to the rocks, you can tell by the change in the colour of the water

Interesting beach, white sand then shingle behind

Stunning sunset, but cold!