Pacific Circuit Rally reunion: Auckland produced a glorious first weekend of light winds
by Jenny and Rob Gill, Bonnie Lass 8 May 2018 02:51 PDT
Pacific Circuit Rally reunion © Island Cruising NZ
Welcome festivities, cooking and eating local produce, diving, island walks, dinghy safaris, exploring, chart marking, beach barbecues, sundowners, farewell parties... Sounds like your typical Island Cruising schedule? You bet! Only this one has already taken place in our own Hauraki Gulf playground.
Back in October 2017, as we were about to depart from Noumea on the last leg of the Pacific Circuit Rally, Lettin' Go (Brisbane) and Blue Summit (USA) mentioned that they would love to explore NZ further and "cruise in company" with some of us locals. And so a plan was hatched to meet in March this year when both cats would be in the Hauraki Gulf. Bonnie Lass undertook to coordinate things and scheduled a 10-day itinerary, covering two weekends, enabling others to join us for shorter periods as their busy on-shore lives allowed.
As with all sailing itineraries, the weather quickly made its presence felt! In mid February, Cyclone Gita caused Lettin' Go to delay their trans-Tasman crossing, so our cruise dates were pushed back one week. We finally mustered at Oneroa on a Friday for the highly anticipated reunion, including a brief visit from 'Summer Lovin' visiting from Melbourne, via ferry to Gulf harbour, hitched a ride with Bonnie Lass, then returned to Auckland by ferry - great effort guys!). Then on to Owhanake where we were joined by Lola II (now with two hulls!) and the aforementioned welcome party took place on Lettin' Go.
Auckland produced a glorious first weekend of light winds and blue skies to explore the Top End of Waiheke. Saturday morning, not too early, we walked the spectacular coastal path to Matiatia, and sampled rock oysters on the beach. Then on to Onetangi where Mahia were already fishing and Udder Life joined once they had finished their Volvo in-port race marshalling duties.
Another party night, followed by a Sunday morning beach walk, shared coffee and group photo opportunity on Lola II. Unfortunately, once again the weather put a dampener on things. With Cyclone Hola looming we decided to play it safe and returned with our visitors to Gulf Harbour. We three boats re-mustered on Wednesday, setting sail in beautiful reaching conditions for Coromandel mid-morning and setting our anchors in Deep Cove mid-afternoon after a fabulous sail. And no, it wasn't a race. (Yeah, right!)
Here we were joined by Malakite, a good excuse to re-enact the welcome party for phase two of our cruise. We explored Waimate Island, carefully avoiding the cows, and later took the dinghies for a foraging party at the nearby mussel farm, adhering to the rule of elbow-deep collection only! This was followed by a shared lunch on Bonnie Lass of "Mussels Four Ways", with matching wines of course.
The next port was Coromandel Harbour where activities included: a dinghy safari at high tide up the river, through the ubiquitous mangroves, to the township for provisions (hot and cold smoked salmon) and a sunset drink at a local watering hole; another dinghy trip to Wyuna Bay, a walk along the headland with magnificent views and visit to a quirky local art gallery; collecting cockles in the channel off Whanganui Island at low tide; a beach barbecue to welcome Manuhaea and partake of our foraged and purchased delicacies.
Fortuitously, our last full day together was St Patrick's day. We began with a scallop dive (led by Manuhaea) at Goat Island. Increasing rough conditions didn't deter the divers who all managed to collect their 'bag'.
Having warmed up and sought shelter at Deep Cove once again, we held a chart-marking session where Lettin' Go and Blue Summit were overloaded with choices as we all offered our advice on favourite spots around the Hauraki Gulf that we hadn't managed to fit into this one cruise. Then it was party time - a shared meal, hosted by Malakite. Green was the flavour of the night, in both food and attire, washed down with guinness and that other well-known Irish drink, champagne!
Sadly, we had to leave the next day (not before coffee on Blue Summit) but the rest went on to Ponui for a night before the visitors departed for Waiheke and on to Great Barrier Island.
Our overseas visitors were indeed suitably impressed with our wonderful Hauraki Gulf. Blue Summit wrote, "To say that we are jealous of your having such an amazing cruising ground in your backyard would be an understatement...You could explore here for a lifetime and still find new gems." And Lettin' Go were equally effusive, saying that from their home base in Brisbane they would have two or three destinations to take visitors in fair weather, but nothing like the extent and variety of the Hauraki Gulf.
All we can say is, glad you liked it, guys! Smooth sailing and fair winds, until we meet again...