Last sail in New Zealand waters for me, for now. What a windy bumpy ride it was, which is what I have come to love about New Zealand’s waters. Sailing down here is no easy feat but man it is worth every second of hard work. Unforgettable coast lines and incredible people.

Today the wind was all over the place, it would be a book if tried to explain all the changes. We hugged the coast all the way down and caught only a 10cm kingfish (obviously threw it back) seems New Zealand sea life is a dead.

Very easy and slow day out on the water, not much wind to use so we filled the time with cards, music and books. Beautiful anchorage to end the night

Good day of upwind sailing with a further destination than expected. Wind was about 13 kts when we rounded Cape Brett and grew to about 18kts by the time we got to Whangaruru.

Mostly spent my day reading Finding Endurance by Darrel Bristow-Bovey. Light winds gave us a pretty easy and calm sail.

Early morning rise joined by a pod of Orcas just of Berghan Point. Had some breakfast in the nearby bay and then set of for the Cavallis. All upwind today blowing a firm 10-15kts easterly.

Flying the spinnaker up to 60’ apparent didn’t quiet make the point but a beautiful day of sailing either way

Beautiful day out with the spinnaker. Average wind speed of 8kts, starting South Easterly and ending Northerly. Quote of the day: “you’re born naked, then you die knackered”

Gotta love the Cavalli’s

5-8 knt winds all day with a SW morning and a NE afternoon. Made two fishing stops stocking up on snapper and even a pig fish, a first for me. Ending the day darting through the Cavallis was pretty good to say the least.

Beautiful day for some champagne sailing, 8-10 kts of wind mostly spent going upwind trawling and some of it spent drifting for some snapper.

Upwind all day with 1st reefed main and jib. NNW winds averaging 15kts with 1.5m swells. Been a while since my last sail so good to be back on the water

Good long day of sailing starting with a spinnaker run averaging around 6kts. Outside the Poor Knights we caught up on 3 skip jacks and a yellow fin tuna, a first for me, so lunch was sashimi of course. The wind then switched forcing us into a beam reach toward Cape Brett. The wind completely died for about 2hrs so engine was was initiated, but getting close to the Bay of Islands the wind picked up again. We shot the gap between the hole in the wall and Cape Brett then had a final little spinnaker run into the bay. Beautiful anchorage in Paradise Bay tonight with many boats for company. Yellow fin and veggies for dinner.

20-25 knot winds, started on the jib doing 6kts and ended on the para-spin doing up 13kts. Bit of a struggle finding a good anchorage with pretty dodgy wind angles and rocky bottoms. Been just over a month since my last sail so all in great to back out here.

Upwind back home for Christmas and man did the ocean have a present for us. We found some kingfish feeding and had a ball catching a few. The sail itself was upwind and we just cruised passed Sail Rock and into Mangawhai after a tack, averaging about 7kts. Tired and ready for Christmas.

Good morning of fishing in Elliot’s Bay waiting for the wind to start. Had good wind all the way to Poor Knights and it only dropped away about 10nm from Hen’s and Chicken’s. Beautiful anchorage in starfish bay with some good company from Brizo.