Yesterday was quite a day! What follows is a fairly detailed description of our journey back to Westhaven, during which we encountered a wide range of sailing conditions and faced a few interesting challenges.
We made a fairly early start from our overnight anchorage at Huse Bay at the eastern end of Waiheke. The forecast was for 10 knots from the NE with rain, rising to 15 in the afternoon and 20 in the evening. Saturday’s forecast was for 25 knots, so we definitely wanted to get all the way back to Westhaven today. Our initial thinking was to take the north coast of Waiheke and complete a circumnavigation of the island. With a NE breeze, that should have been fairly straightforward. However, as we started to get the boat ready this morning, the rain began to fall and looking out into the channel we realized what an effect it was going to have on visibility. At this point, the thought of sailing off a lee shore on an exposed coast that we didn’t know and may not be able to see started to seem a little less wise. So we decided to go back the way we had come, through the Waiheke Channel to the Tamaki Strait.
On balance I’m sure this was a good move. We sailed off the mooring about 8:45am, electing to use the #3 headsail instead of Thursday’s larger #2. The thinking was that if the 20 knot breeze forecast for the evening arrived earlier than predicted with us still on the water, it would be easier to handle the boat with less sail area. We took off south through the channel with a SE breeze that built from 5 knots to 10, in contrast to the NE direction that was forecast. We made really excellent time through the channel, and needed only a couple of tacks to clear a marine farm south of where we had anchored.
As we made our way south we noticed that the dinghy was sitting well down in the stern and realized that it had taken some water, likely due to the fairly large waves. We bore away to a little south of west inside Passage Rock, and not really wanting to gybe with an awkward following sea carried on to about Maraetai where we tacked onto starboard and continued westward. The breeze never went much north of east, which presented a bit of a challenge to us getting under the southern end of Motuihe without gybing (intentionally or not). This part of the journey was fairly slow with only about 2 knots of boatspeed, and we got drenched with rain which also cut our visibility dramatically. There were times when we could hardly see any land at all and we were glad to have the GPS chartplotter to guide us. Unfortunately a lot of rain also found its way down below, leaving us with quite a bit of drying and cleaning to do when we got back.
After a long sail we did end up making it under Motuihe without gybing. The wind picked up slightly and we made good time past Brown’s Island, with the sailing being easy enough for us each to go below for a while to eat lunch (great salami sandwiches made by Jonathan).
Shortly after passing Brown’s Island and with Jonathan now on the helm, we headed for North Head, hoping to make it past on the same tack we had held since Maraetai. However, the rain now closed in again, making navigation much more difficult. One of my greatest concerns about coming back into Auckland in the rain had been crossing the main shipping channel with poor visibility and we were now faced with exactly that situation. With North Head and Bean Rock only occasionally visible, we kept a close lookout for shipping. Jonathan was the first to see a big ship coming down the Rangitoto Channel out of the clouds of rain and directly intersecting our course. We hardened up and headed north, skirting the channel, allowing it to pass. We bore away again towards Takapuna, intending to tack back to get under North Head. However at this point we saw another ship in the process of leaving the harbour. We decided to head north for a while and give this one time to get well clear of where we eventually needed to head.
About this time the wind speed increased significantly, to probably close to 20 knots. We were glad we had the #3 headsail on but were rocketing up East Coast Bays at a pretty good rate – away from where we wanted to go. By the time we felt it was safe to turn around, with the higher wind and fairly large waves it took us a few attempts to go about – still learning to sail this boat in different conditions – but we got there eventually. I took the helm and we shot back down towards North Head. At this point, with the wind rising we decided to get the sails down. Jonathan went forward to take the headsail down. He had a pretty rough time as the boat was pitching a lot in now quite large waves and for a while the halyard got jammed back in the cockpit.
To make matters interesting for me on the helm, after sailing for the whole day practically alone on the water, we now had quite a lot of traffic to contend with, and with us on port tack as well (port gives way to starboard for those not familiar). Jonathan did a great job and eventually got the headsail under control. He started the motor and went back up on deck to bring the main down, again a tough job in the conditions. In the process, I noticed that the free end of the backstay line was trailing in the water, and not wanting it to foul the outboard I hurriedly pulled it in. In the process the line knocked the key out of the outboard cutoff switch and the motor immediately died, with us in irons. Doh! No great problem, as I was able to get the key back in and start the motor again pretty quickly. However with Jonathan bouncing up and down on the deck and me trying to stay clear of a number of other vessels, it was a small moment of drama.
Once the main was secure, we turned back west and headed for home, knowing that we had just two more challenges in front of us. We had to empty the water from the dinghy and get it onto the boat, and then get ourselves back into the marina berth. We felt that we could take care of the dinghy once inside the marina entrance. This turned out to be more difficult than we expected, because by the time we got to Westhaven the wind had turned to the NE – what we had been promised and had been wanting all day! The wind was now blowing directly into the marina. We threaded our way through some boats on swinging moorings, rounded up and dropped the anchor, close enough to several other boats to cause me a little anxiety.
Eventually we got the dinghy up over the side, emptied of water and sitting on top of the main hatch. From there, getting back into the marina berth turned out to be fine – the practice I’ve had in the past few weeks seems to be working.
All in all a satisfying day, but one with a few challenges and some exciting moments. We were quite exhausted by the end of it. Lots of photos will follow in due course.