Kiwi Zone
Last week, we rented a sail boat to cruise around the Hauraki Gulf northeast of Auckland. I can’t say we actually sailed the Hauraki Gulf much, because there was almost no wind and the boat we had was sizable - thus requiring more wind than that to have it sail at a reasonable clip. We had rented this boat, the Ika Moana II, two years ago off of the Bay of Islands (northeast New Zealand) with two friends, who got engaged on the trip. We were happy to be able to locate it again this time, since this Kiwi boat is by far the favorite boat I have been on. It is a very beamy 43 foot boat with a tremendous amount of space and light below deck. The curviness, as well as its deep keel, also ensures that it sails upwind very comfortably while heeling. But as the gods would have it, too much wind and heeling were not the things to grapple with.
We had a few snafus during the week, yet don’t worry, as I write this, we are safely back and docked in Auckland.
1. Getting out of the Auckland marina, the weather was actually windy, with the boat being blown downwind quite a bit as we undid the dock lines. In the running around the deck to quickly get us on our way, Corey slammed his knee into some part of the sailboat. Now that we have been to a clinic, the injury seems to be minor, but it limited his range of movement and ability to put weight on it all throughout last week. Resulting in less hiking on the islands surrounding the Gulf and more wine tasting. Not an entirely bad outcome one may say.
2. On the first and only day that was windy, we wanted to the put the mainsail up, but…did not realize that the halyard was not attached to the head of the sail! In retrospect, we should have checked this, but this had never been an issue on a charter boat. To secure the halyard (and maybe limiting it from banging against the mast), someone had attached the halyard to one of the lazy jack shackles. So - when we tried to pull up the mainsail, we ripped one of the lazy jack shackles off with the halyard pulling it up to about 1/3 of the way up the mast when we realized. No sailing. Once anchored, we were able to get the halyard back down and lazy jack shackle attached. First time, I climbed a tiny portion of the mast and stood on the boom, which was what we needed to reach the halyard shackle with the hook!
3. We also blew the fuse of the windless when it struggled to pull up the anchor in a particularly muddy, secure anchorage (even though, as I go over what we did in retrospect, it all seems the right moves). We worried some as the anchor and sone 8.5 meter of chain dangled off the bow, off of the sea bottom, and assessed if we could pull it up by hand (possible but a bit herculean). Yet the problem was luckily easily solved once we tried to flip the fuse.
4. The last (and most entertaining to Corey) incident involved me and the dinghy. Historically, I have not shown high aptitude in steering the dinghy. For some reason, having the same hand and lever to control both the speed and the direction seems a bit baffling to me. While better at low speeds, I tend to go all different directions once the speed is higher…at which point I also go at different speeds because i’m panicked. Not my best really. To proactively address this issue, I got in the dinghy while we were anchored in a bay (with other boats anchored around us) to practice, with Corey overseeing the progress from the boat. For a while things went well, I circled around the boat with decent direction and some variance in speed. But as then tried to approach the boat to tie the dinghy up, I missed, wanted to do another round to approach the boat, but then accidentally really sped up during the turn and found myself cruising at max speed out into the sea towards other boats with everyone else staring at me. So - I killed the dinghy engine and stopped. Took a breath and tried to start the engine again. And again. And again and it wouldn’t start. An older gentleman whose boat I managed to stop next to offered to help with instructions, to no avail, and then offered to tow me back to the boat where Corey was waving his arms at me. This may not be a horrifying situation for everybody, but for a woman who is bad at dealing with failure and not good at accepting help, it was mortifying (and gendered - a damsel in distress with men coming to the rescue). So I refused this kind man’s help, took out the oars strapped to the boat, fiddled with them for a while in stress and frustration, and then starting rowing, only in the wrong direction. As I was feeling like an idiot and correcting this, another helpful man motored to me in his dinghy, offering to tow me back to our boat. He hadn’t as much asked as he had come right next to me, so I said yes, feeling awful the whole time. Oh also, at this point, Corey had started swimming towards me as well. Anyway, all was fine at the end, and by all means was going to be fine eventually at any cost - but I just felt like such an incompetent young woman, my version of the turning up at school naked nightmare. Corey assured me that rather than a damsel in distress, I was just a sailor that other sailors kindly helped, and this is true. But what really made me feel better was that the dinghy engine not starting was not my fault - it ran out of fuel!
Below left: Corey’s knee being iced. Below right: Zeynep far away from the boat on the dinghy.
All of these aside, we had a wonderful week. Since we did not have winds and did not want to cover long distances motoring, we visited a few different bays on Waiheke Island (famous for its many vineyards - we liked Man o’ War and Mudbrick very much), Rongitoto Island and Kawau Island. These islands are all absolutely beautiful. You can swim, hike, wine taste, eat fresh seafood, see kiwis if you are lucky - just a slice of paradise an hour ferry ride from Auckland and the New Zealenders have managed to keep it a secret at the end of the world. We even had a pod of dolphins swim along our boat for a while! What else can one ask for, really. I felt very spoiled, very fortunate.
