Whangamumu: the other side of the mountain
Whangamumu: the other side of the mountain
Evening. I’m nine miles east and a little north of THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s Opua mooring.
I raised anchor at 0900 and powered for a few minutes until I was clear of the channel between islands and out into the bay before setting sail.
The wind was the predicted southeast, which made the way here all to windward, but only against a maximum of sixteen knots and I thought the boat needed to bounce around a bit. Had the Monitor steering instead of the autopilot until the last mile. Mostly sunny day and the temperature in the 60s, but because we were going to windward I was cold. At anchor by 1330.
I’ve been here many times. This harbor is an oval roughly a half mile in diameter with an entrance to the east. Once it was a whaling station, but almost no signs of that remain. Only green hills. I had the place to myself again until just before sunset when a launch came in. In New Zealand the generic term for a sailboat is a yacht, for a powerboat a launch.
We are rolling slightly in a small swell coming from the Pacific.
I’ll sail north, west, and south back to the mooring tomorrow. Probably twenty miles to make nine miles west. Should be off the wind and able to test the gennaker furling gear again.
Friday, September 28, 2007