April 19, 2008 - Opua

Before leaving Tutukaka this morning, we put the mainsail back on the mast. While Sten balanced on the boom and reattached the bat cars, I cranked the main up and wrestled the battens into the batten pockets. While raising the sail, we noticed that the fresh, bright white material of the new spreader patches and repairs to the batten pockets glow against the slightly yellowed material of the 18 month old sail.

Whenever either one of us is working on the mast, I can't help but sing the Beastie Boys song "Brass Monkey," replacing the word "brass" with the word "mast." Mast Monkey - that funky Monkey. Catchy, isn't it?

That funky Monkey

We left Tutukaka around 9am, and headed North to Russell, in the Bay of Islands. Along the way, we had some squalls, seeing 25 kts apparent. Our boat speed hit 9.2 kts, which is really fast for us. It was good to get everything loaded up and see how our refurbished sails handled a bit of breeze. Four hours later, we rounded Cape Brett, and turned into the more protected waters of the Bay of Islands. I headed below, and turned last night's meat sauce into a pan of lasagna. We were both salivating, smelling it bake in the oven.

We hoped to pick up our friends' mooring in Russell, but another friend of theirs was on it, so we headed towards Opua, where we'll be clearing out of the country within the next few days. Opua turned out to be a calmer anchorage in these conditions, so we were fine with the change of plans. As a bonus, we found ourselves anchored near Phoenix. Patty and Giff are planning to leave for New Caledonia in the morning. We were pleased to have the chance to see them before they head North, so we asked them over for pizza. The nights here are chilly - in the high 50's, low 60's, so we'll take any excuse to turn on that oven and heat up the boat a bit.