At anchor in Hooks Bay at the north east end of Waiheke Island. What a change to be finally at anchor after the last couple of weeks of constant action.
There was not much time for writing the blog and Shay has kindly filled in the last couple of days after we phoned him.
We dropped anchor at 3.30 am this morning after an exciting but progressively more wearing trip down from Opua.
We arrived at the outer edge of the Bay of Islands at dawn on Wednesday, it was great to see the NZ again. We were tied up at the Quarantine wharf in Opua by midday and soon had cleared customs. Ted and I checked the local weather forecasts and it seemed best to go south straight away or we may be a few days awaiting better conditions.
We had a good NW wind that afternoon and into the night although the wind became lighter. However a front came through at dawn yesterday with wind of 30 knots and we were soon running before it in an exciting sail down to near Kawau Island. We intended stopping overnight there but as we approached a fierce SW wind change came in gusting to 35 knots.
It was clear we would struggle against this headwind to reach the anchorage so we set a course for the east end of Waiheke Island. The wind was very strong gusting to 40 knots and the seas built up. We carried on under reefed sails and hand steered in half hour shifts. We were already tired having had little sleep in the last 24 hours
Despite the forecast of the wind becoming less at dusk, it was not until 2.00 am that the wind dropped a little enabling us to reach Hooks Bay.
Today has been a peaceful day of sleeping and relaxing. We should be back in Howick within the next 48 hours.
It has been a excellent voyage and I would like to thank Ted for joining Katipo in Fiji and being both great company and crew. Many thanks also to Shay in Auckland who monitored the weather and kept in touch via Katipo's satellite phone with advice.
Within the next few days I will write more about the voyage overall and also a few changes I will consider in terms of modifications to Katipo to make sailing easier.
Best wishes to all
Don
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