Commodore
December 31, 2024

Wednesday 1 January – Happy New Year to all of you

We had a great break off the boat celebrating Christmas with Rowan’s cousin’s and aunt. Roy and Libby have a wonderful home in Mangawhai about an hour north of Auckland. Their kids are currently crossing the Atlantic in a catamaran with an 18 month old baby. We were in good company having no kids around for Christmas, and making calls either late or early to catch everyone. The days flew by with loads of delicious eating and drinking.

We left on the 27th and headed back to PolePole in Gulf Harbour marina, pleased to find her all safe and sound. Always a relief to get back and find the electricity has not tripped, the fridge and freezer were all fine. We had planned to leave the next day but big winds were forecast, so no point in us leaving until the following day. We had a nice long walk in the Shakespeare reserve, on a spit of land just beyond the marina.

It was very quiet in the marina, only a couple of foreign boats with people on board, the majority of boats belong to locals. We met a very interesting French couple on a catamaran near us, called Amazoli. Solene is actually from the Indian ocean island Reunion and sailed for the French Olympic team for 10 years. Richard has spent most of his life on Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. They are both on second marriages, she is home schooling her daughter (12) from her first marriage and he has two sons, in their 20’s who are on board for a holiday. The one son is competing in a wing foiling competition happening nearby which is why they are in the marina. They had the cutest dog on board, a beagle called Reef. Reef has seriously curtailed their sailing plans as there are so many countries they can’t get into with a dog.

On the morning of the 29th Solene and Richard helped with our lines while we cast off and set off to sea. It was astonishing we landed up in a solid queue of boats leaving the marina. As soon as we got out to open waters it was like an armada, there were so many boats. Quite unbelievable, but the weather had been really iffy and this was the first good day. We got out into an open area, we started getting the main sail up when the winch stopped working for me, turns out we had got the main halyard (rope) jammed around a light half way up the mast. We couldn’t get it down, so there was nothing for it but for me to go up in the bosun chair and free it. Happily for me it was only half way up the mast but still high enough out at sea. I’ve only been up the mast in marinas or at anchor before. Thankfully it all went smoothly and I didn’t even get a single bruise! With the sails up, we switched off the engines and enjoyed a nice sail in winds in the mid teens. We needed to make water as our tanks were empty, Rowan went to turn the water maker on and it would not start. He tried everything, but with no joy in getting it running we had to turn around and head back to the marina, as we had no water on board. What a disappointment, all the people Rowan tried to contact were closed until 6 January. Everything in NZ seems to close until then, our hearts sunk.

Luckily we could go into our old berth, Solene and Richard came to see why we had returned. Richard speaks no English and Solene has to interpret everything, turns out Richard is a really handy guy and she said he would look at the pump the next day. We had not even had breakfast the next day when he was around, Solene had to come too as she had to translate everything. He dismantled the pump, after 3 hours of stripping it, with Rowan there to hand him the tools that Solene said he needed, he miraculously got the pump working. We are not too sure what the problem was other than it was a bit loose, but it went back snug and worked perfectly. What a major relief!

Our Belgium friends, who had lived in Burundi and therefore knew what PolePole meant, invited us for a goulash supper on their boat Orinoco2. They had also been on land for a couple of weeks and had just got back on their boat. Their son had been visiting them, he is an IT engineer who loves photography, they showed us the most amazing photos of birds he had taken. He obviously has a huge big lens and great talent. Every bird seems to be caught with something in it’s mouth or doing something unusual.

The last day of the year and we could not leave as the wind was howling again. We went for a long walk from the marina and did a few odd jobs on the boat, before retiring for New Year’s Eve, it was incredibly quiet in the marina. Solene and Richard had gone into Auckland to see the firewaorks, it didn’t sound too appealing to us in the rain and wind. We celebrated a couple of hours early and were pleased to be able to talk to all the kids. Phoebe is skiing in Austria, they drove from Budapest with Dani’s dad, a five hour journey. It sounds stunning, a really quaint old skiing village with plenty of snow and really reasonable. Han and Noah were back in Bristol seeing the New Year in sanding their kitchen worktop! Noah heads out soon on his next shoot (note Hannie I’m not saying where or what he is filming!). Luke and Milly were back in London celebrating with friends.

New Year’s day and we were out the marina before breakfast waving to Amazoli and Reef as we passed by. This was a much more successful departure, we got the sails up and had a lovely sail over to Waiheke island, we went to the northwest coastline to get out of the wind as more big winds are forecast. There seems to be an endless stream of lows coming up from the Antarctic and getting stuck over NZ! Rowan had chosen a bay off Onetangi beach as it was nicely protected. We got there just after lunch and found a spot in amongst a lot of boats, who had all obviously had the same idea as us to seek shelter there. We dropped the anchor and Rowan reversed hard to make sure the anchor was bedded well and the engines cut out. Rowan discovered the painter (rope) of the dingy had fallen into the water and had got wound around the propeller. Rowan had to get into the freezing cold water and get the rope off. It was well and truly wound tight and every time he dived down his back rubbed against the hull which was full of barnacles. He finally got most of the rope off and came out with blood pouring from all the cuts. Ugh so annoying, not a good start to the year! Luckily we are hauling out the boat on the 14th January, as we need to get the last bits of the rope off the propeller before it goes into the seal and causes more problems. But at least for now we have engines again!

By the evening we were surrounded by boats, some way too close in our opinion, I counted 83 boats, about half motor launches and half sailing boats. We were glad to be secure for the night. This wind has brought in colder weather and we are still very grateful for our down duvet at night!

Roy and Libby at the communal gazebo at their gated community property on the estuary

Sunset at the estuary, which backs onto a big reserve with loads of birds and huge sand dunes behind us

Walking the big dune, with Hen and Chicken island in the background

Rowan said I had to have a photo with tall Jake (great family friend of Roy and Libby’s), I was rather fascinated by the many tattoos going up his thighs!