Having spent a couple of nights on anchor in Okoromai Bay we set sail early, heading to Scotts Landing for the Ocean Cruising Club weekend. The festivities didn’t start until late afternoon so we had time to sail, and as the wind was coming from the direction we wanted to go in, we had the…

Cara and I left Waiheke Island on Tuesday, 5th of March heading to Okahu Bay, Auckland. The bay is next door to the Akarana Yacht Club, which was putting on a Yachting NZ presentation about offshore sailing safety, and while anchoring in the bay is free the club generously allows visitors to use their showers…

Our plan to leave Tauranga on Tuesday was foiled by strong nor-easterly winds that would have blown directly onto our nose. Rather than burn a lot of fuel and waste a lot of time we chose to delay our departure and make sure we were ready to go the following day. One of the items…

Sailing from Wellington to Tauranga involves travelling some 440 nautical miles, or 815 kms, up the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The journey passes through some notorious stretches of water, the Cook Strait, Castle Point, and East Cape. Part of this notoriety is due to the fact that once the trip is underway…

After weeks working on the boat on the hard the sail from Dunedin to Oamaru was a delight. It was great to be sailing again, and, miracle of miracles, both the hydrovane and head seemed to work — most un-boat like. On this trip we stayed in about 100m of water so had no trouble…

As previously noted, a focus of our time in the Sounds was the need to get our standing rigging replaced. We had sourced a couple of quotes from different companies, and these were so different in terms of time, cost, and work needed that it became quite an exercise to decide which firm we should…

Marlborough Sounds sits at the top right hand corner of the South Island. Queen Charlotte Sound is the easternmost of the sounds. The area, renowned for its natural beauty and its numerous anchorages, is something of a boating Mecca. This means that there are businesses here that cater for boats, and one of the things…

We left Lyttleton early on the 7th of October heading to Port Underwood, a sheltered area that would allow us to wait for suitable weather to get through the notorious Cook Strait and into the Marlborough Sounds. The weather was flukey in the morning, with sails up, sails down, sails up, and eventually two reefs…

We left Akaroa in weather that wasn’t ideal for our sailing plans, but was, once again, the best window available to us. As we left the protection of the harbour the wind settled into what often seems its favourite position, ‘on the nose.’ Wind from directly in front of the boat is disliked by all…