03/12/2024 Motuarohia Island, Bay of Islands

The very short leg of what should be a very long journey has been safely completed with us arriving in the Bay of Islands.

I was originally looking at sailing solo from Auckland to the Bay of Islands but about a week from departure a friend of ours, Peter, confirmed that he would join - much to Nik's relief.  Peter is an old friend, an experienced sailor and has decades of seafaring knowledge.  His experience and assistance were invaluable for these initial outings in Sea Otter and for helping to figure out both the onboard systems and provide guidance on sailing solo.

It should be mentioned here that it is envisaged that for the longer passages I will be looking to attempt to complete these solo as Nik has no desire to undertake these trips and so I have to be comfortable sailing the boat on my own.  Having not solo'd before this is quite a daunting undertaking when I am looking at multiday/multi week voyages in the future.  Ideally I may be able to find crew but ultimately it will come down to soloing and that is a huge unknown at this stage.

Peter arrived in Auckland two days after Nik left, just as the electrical system commissioning was completed.  We carried out some last minute provisioning and then departed the marina in the early afternoon of the 27th November.  The plan was to take advantage of the favourable winds for the next three days to complete the passage to the Bay of Islands stopping in at anchorages for the nights. 

The destination for the first night was Waiheke Island, one of the larger islands in the approaches to Auckland harbour.  Waiheke Island is about 15NM from the marina and this gave us a good sail for the first day and set us up ready for the push north the next day.  We arrived at Oneroa Bay around 6:00pm. and settled into a very comfortable anchorage.  No issues had been experienced with the boat on its maiden outing.  

The next day we followed a course to Great Barrier Island which lies north of the Coromandel Penninsula.  The wind was southerly and so we sailed the whole day running before the wind with a full main and poled out genoa.  The weather was fantastic and we had dolphins along side the boat for a time which is always great to see.  Great Barrier Island is a really interesting looking place and it was unfortunate that we did not have time to explore further.  We found a secluded bay off the west side and anchored for the night.  

Dolphins at the bow on the way to Great Barrier Island

Ideally we would have spent some time exploring on the way north but we needed to take advantage of the favourable weather and in addition we needed to be in Opua by 6th December.  Sea Otter is due to be lifted out of the water so that I can get the bottom antifouled as this has not been carried out for a while by the looks of it.  The 6th Dec was the only slot I could find before X-mas to be lifted so do not want to miss it.

We had one more overnight stop which we made at a place called Tutukaka on the mainland before we motored the last leg up to the Bay of Islands in almost flat calm conditions and dropped anchor in Paradise Bay at Motuarohia Island.  The Bay of Islands Is reputed to be the best cruising ground in New Zealand and from first impressions it certainly looks interesting.  

Sea Otter at Paradise Bay

The sail from Auckland has been very successful.  We tried out all the onboard systems and experienced some different sailing conditions albeit in light winds for an extended period and I am quietly confident in the vessel now.  Sea Otter seems to be a very sturdy, well thought out vessel which has had minimal negative alterations carried out. The new electrical system is performing as anticipated and the connectivity in the system means that our sparky Jasper can monitor the system as we sail.  There are a couple of minor issues which need to be sorted but this will always be the case.  Saying this the work list does not seem to have got any shorter.

We will spend the next few days relaxing, getting some of the outstanding jobs on the boat done and generally having a look around until we need to arrive in Opua.