Crazy Weather....

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA

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Shortly after our last blog post we moved to Man of War Bay at the south end of Waiheke.  This was the home to a lovely winery that is the only winery accessible by boat.  Anchored in the bay, we dinghied to shore where we tasted a whole bunch of wines!

The tasting at this winery was free, and they offered an excellent lunch for two for a very reasonable price...  What an FUN day! Relaxed on the front lawn in bean bag chairs, we enjoyed the food, wine, and each other all afternoon...

 

The next morning, aware of some severe weather coming, we made our way to a protected bay in the Corromandel Peninsula.  After setting the anchor with almost 100 meters of chain out we dove the anchor and felt ready for whatever mother nature dished out...

In the end, we were barely ready for anything...  During a small reprieve from the 50 knot winds, we launched the dinghy and set a second anchor.  We had NOT dragged the main anchor, but the pressure on it was very concerning.  After getting a little beat up putting the dinghy away, we had both anchors holding well.

The storm lasted 5 days! Including the day we arrived and the day we left, we were on the boat for 7 days!  We discovered a few leaks with that much rain, and have taken steps to repair all that...

What is left of Shelley's Women Who Sail burgee....

On March 14th we were finally able to get underway.  When we turned on our auto pilot, it started doing crazy things, like sharp left turns...  This was the same behavior it exhibited before it fried itself in Honduras, so we shut it down immediately, and called the Raymarine  technician we met when the GPS was repaired a few months ago.

For over an hour he walked us through software updates, and experiments, which did not seem to resolve the problems...  In the end he suggested we take the boat to Auckland City and get it looked at.  Only a few hours away, we arranged to meet a technician on Friday.

When we were underway to Auckland City, we tried the autopilot again, and it worked FLAWLESSLY!  Really?  Since we had already made the appointment, we decided to keep it and have it looked at.  In the end, the technician found nothing wrong, so we paid $116 for piece of mind...  The good news was that we were given a free slip for the night we arrived!

With all the bad weather and broken stuff behind us, we are now making our way north back to Whangarei where we will pick up all the school supplies we have ordered for our Right to Write work in Fiji and beyond...

Along the way, we have encountered more birds, and beautiful things...

Our repaired Asymetrical Spinnaker

Bath Time!

We are also getting our fill of fish along the way... Even while I was on the phone with Raymarine, Shelley landed her first fish ALL BY HERSELF!

While in Whangarei we hope to see a few friends, and provision one last time before we head to Opua to check out of New Zealand by mid April....  More soon...