Heading to Coromandel Harbour’s Woolshed Bay (Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand)

February 12, 2014

What a pleasure to wake up in Squadron Bay, go outside, and be surrounded by trees, hills and so many birds. Hearing some birdsong I didn’t know sent me groggily into the cockpit before I even had my coffee in hand. It turned out to be a group of Australian Magpies, a bird not uncommon in New Zealand, but I hadn’t heard them group together and be so vocal before.

We sat outside and had our coffee, admiring our surroundings and what looked the beginnings of a a beautiful day. Aside from large birds in the trees (cormorants and those lively magpies), we saw groups of larger birds like wild turkeys and pukekos grouped on the hillsides surrounding us. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scenes in Jurassic park with the grazing dinosaurs. This place had a similar appearance and feeling, not typical for a New Zealand anchorage.

Once again, it would have been lovely to linger in this one spot, but we needed to keep moving to take advantage of the good weather. Our plan now was to make the short trip north to the next area, Coromandel Harbour.

Coromandel Harbour isn’t really a popular destination. It edges the border of the good cruising grounds of the Hauraki Gulf. There are anchorages and some scattered islands further north, but they are rather open and rugged, lacking the pastoral prettiness of Te Kouma and some of the Hauraki Gulf’s inner islands.

The reason we wanted to go there was to visit a town called Coromandel, located at the head of the harbor. It’s a historic town dating back to the gold mining and logging eras of the 1800s, but it’s now one of those places that attracts artists, craftspeople, and those who enjoy living in a remote, somewhat difficult to access area. There is a road that goes out to it, but it’s a long and winding drive to get there.

The harbor looks large, but much of it is shallow and actually dries out at low tide. In spite of this there are a few anchorages in the outer half of the harbor, protected and suitable for a deep-draft boat. We were headed to an anchorage called Woolshed Bay, about 3 1/2 miles total from our Squadron Bay location. Technically Woolshed is on an island, Whanganui Island, but it’s more like a finger of land got split, opening a channel of water between the two ends and creating this “island.”

We pulled anchor and headed out of Te Kouma Harbour around 10am, the conditions fine until we exited the harbor and headed north. We could see what looked like a patch of fog approaching and realized it was actually a thick layer of cloudy rain. Soon, we we were in miserably wet conditions as the wind gusted up to 20 knots and the temperature dropped.

Between the rain and the wind we didn’t get to enjoy checking out this new harbor as we  headed in towards the anchorage. Mostly what we experienced was just was gray and damp, with splashy whitecaps around us. We continued towards Woolshed Bay, promising ourselves some Laphroaig (our favorite Scotch) as something to look forward to when we got to our anchorage (shown in the lower right in the gallery below–click to enlarge any photo).

By the time we got in, the rain and wind had died down, but it was still cold outside. So we went below to huddle under the covers and enjoy that Lahroaig we’d promised ourselves. While cruising there are plenty of times we get caught in less than nice conditions, and a good way to cope is to dream of the treat we’ll give ourselves upon landing. Arriving in the evening after a very long passage, it’s a long shower and champagne. Daytime arrivals usually mean a meal at an eatery, hopefully one with a view and and festive atmosphere, but any place that serves adult beverages will do. On a day like today, crawling into bed to warm up and sip some whiskey is just the ticket!

After a time, the sun came out and we went outside to look at our bay. It was very nice, well-forested with an attractive beach. We wouldn’t call it particularly special by New Zealand standards, but it was still a nice place to be.

With the weather suddenly looking better, it was time to think about heading to Coromandel Town. –Cyndi

Lovely Squadron Bay (Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand)

February 11, 2014

By the time we finished our hike, a breeze had picked up and was coming into our anchorage. As we wondered whether we should move, another boat arrived and made our the decision easy: we’d move.

Naturally, I wanted to head to Squadron Bay, our original destination, but having noticed boats in that anchorage during our walk, Rich figured there wouldn’t be room for us. I urged him to just go take a look, hoping to create a phenomenon I’ll call Manifesting a Spot. Rich does this all the time with car parking spaces. He believes there will be a spot, often right in front of where we’re going, and to my continuing amazement, it works! It doesn’t work for me because, frankly, I never believe there will be a spot nearby and always start urging him to park as soon as I see anything available.

On the other hand, I do tend to have good luck with anchoring spots. This is less for mystical reasons than counting on a uniquely Kiwi boating behavior: their tendency to make multiple stops during any given day. I think the main reason for this is many people like to go out fishing, but they also seem to enjoying having lunch at one spot, dinner at another, and who knows what else.

What this means for us is that often, as we approach an anchorage, at least one boat there will be pulling up their anchor. Today, miraculously, not one but two boats pulled anchor and headed out. Rich was as disbelieving and as impressed by my “anchoring spot manifesting” as I am when he “creates” a parking space right in front of wherever we’re going. Between the two of us we tend to find both places to park cars and anchor our boat.

Right away we liked Squadron Bay. While our last bay had endless green grass and a white beach, this bay had a more mountainous, forested feeling and more animal life including wild turkeys, cows, pukekos, and other critters. It may not have had the blue water and white beach, but Squadron Bay was beautiful and had bucolic, graceful energy to it. It was a very lovely spot, and well protected, too. (Below, a photo gallery of the anchorage–click to enlarge any photo.)

As the sun got lower, the light in the inner bay became more shadowy, giving it a very peaceful feeling. We had a lovely dinner inside the boat.

Come sunset, the outer bay lit up with a golden light. This called for some whiskey outside, in the cockpit, so we could watch the light show. Truly this cruise through the Hauraki Gulf had given us some incredible sunsets, maybe the best we’ve seen in New Zealand! Below, a few panoramas of Squadron Bay at sunset.

Tomorrow, we planned to head north to another harbor, but this evening here at Squadron Bay had been memorable. –Cyndi

Happy Holidays

December 25, 2020

May you dream big in the new year. May all your dreams come true!

(Big enough that you can send the crew up the mast to duct tape your Christmas tree at the top.)

Love,

Cyndi and Rich

Place Your Bets: Britannia versus Spirit of New Zealand

December 23, 2020

The America’s Cup boat Britannia was getting their warp reactor ready for intergalactic flight as the tall ship, Spirit of New Zealand sailed by. As everyone knows, anytime there are two sail boats within sight of each other, it’s a race. The rules say (rules I just made up) that each boat must carry the same number of crew. Spirit has 54 on board today. My money is on them to win this one.

Here are a couple more photos of Britannia getting ready to go.

-Rich

By Air: Rangiahua Island near Great Barrier, New Zealand

December 22, 2020

Look closely and you can see Legacy in the bay on the right. Click on image for larger version.

We were going to anchor on the northeast side of this island for protection from the light northerly but it wasn’t very pretty so Cyndi suggested this bay on the south side. Wow!!! For the most part, we had it to ourselves. With the aid of forward scan sonar, we were able to get way up into the bay and anchor in 15 feet of crystal clear water.

The water was clear enough to spot numerous bronze whaler sharks around our boat. From the drone, we saw five at one time. Some were very big – almost eight feet. Here’s a little video of them.

Here’s a map that shows where we were. -Rich