February 12, 2014
Sitting in Woolshed Bay, I took a good look at the chart and was dismayed to see Coromandel Town was two miles away, at least a 40-minute dinghy ride for us! We decided to go anyway, hoping it would be a nice ride.
Once in the dinghy, we exited the bay and found ourselves motoring right into a 12-knot wind. The water was choppy and spitty, and we were both getting splashed. I was thinking this wasn’t going to work out, but Rich veered into the little bays and indents, hugging the shore, which gave us bits of time in calmer conditions. Still, it was a long and not particularly fun ride.
We finally spotted the wharf and while there wasn’t a dock, we saw a stairway with a dinghy tied to it. Unfortunately its engine was up so we couldn’t tie up next to it without risking our dinghy getting slashed by one of its propeller blades (people who leave their engines up at a dinghy dock are being incredibly thoughtless).
We tried going around to the other side of the wharf, and then to the beach, but both were too shallow even for our dinghy. So, we decided Rich would take me to the stairs and I’d run up to ask someone if there was a place to put our dinghy. I ran up the stairs, interrupting a film crew working on some sort of Muppet production. Between the shallow areas and no dinghy dock, this was already a strange place, but this Muppet group was the icing on the weird cake.
I ran down the wharf and found a man in an office. He was nice enough, but I got the impression he’d never been asked about dinghy tie ups. He suggested we carry our dinghy up the flight of stairs to the dock. Uh, not very appealing, but it seemed our alternative was to wait an hour for higher tide so we could land on shore. This wasn’t really an option for us, and although he suggested we could tie up to a workboat there, I was worried the person might come to use it while we were in town.
In the end, carrying our dinghy up a flight of stairs was our only option. This nice man actually offered to help! We both headed down the stairs to find the wind had picked up and the water really choppy. Rich, who was holding the dinghy away from the stairs and the other dinghy’s outboard, was very glad to see me coming with someone official!
So Rich and our new friend carried our dinghy up the stairs, engine and all, and placed it on the pier, trying not to disturb the film crew. The man said he’d take care of the trash we’d brought and gave us directions to town. So far our adventure had been touch and go, but it seemed we’d see Coromandel Town after all. By now, it was obvious that cruisers in this harbor don’t generally venture into town, or if they do they wait for high tide and beach their dinghies.
The walk to town took about 15 minutes, including a walk down the long wharf followed by another walk next to the road, past a grass park and mangroves on the ocean side. The inland side was a rocky hillside covered with trees. It was actually quite a pleasant walk.
Soon, we started to see some of the town’s businesses, many of them in heritage buildings, quaint and attractive. We walked along the main street until the businesses petered out and the street became residential. This area was small, 2 or 3 blocks long. Yet because this was an active tourist town, it had an interesting mix of people: the arty individualist Coromandel types, tourists, lots of older folk, and some young attractive families. The restaurants seem to do a brisk business and the town had internet, so it wasn’t too remote. We’d checked out the eateries as we walked, deciding a place called Umu which, with its café atmosphere, indoor-outdoor layout, and pizza oven, looked the most appealing. (Below, photos of the town and restaurant–click to enlarge any photo.)
We headed into the restaurant, sitting near the big open glass doors, and ordered a pizza with artichokes, feta, capers, and other yummies. This may be a historic town, but the food here was very modern. The pizza was delicious, and it was fun to watch the interesting mix of people walking by. After lunch we headed to the market for a few items before ending up back at Umu to share an ice cream sundae and cappuccinos, giving ourselves a treat before braving the trip back to the boat.
As it turned out, we deserved that treat! I’d hoped the wind would have died down, but no, not only had it picked up to 15 knots, it was now blowing from the west, which meant we’d be heading right back into it. Rich took the dinghy down the flight of stairs, pulling it while using the back wheels to ka-thunk it down the steps to the water. It was choppy, and we knew we were in for a long ride.
For the next 40 minutes we slowly motored directly into the wind and waves, getting pretty soaked in the process. Both of our backs hurt from holding our sitting positions, and when we arrived at an indent just before our bay, we ducked in to take a rest and refill our gas from the fuel jug we’d thought to bring along. While it wasn’t much further to our boat, we didn’t want to risk running out of fuel and trying to row in these conditions. We gathered ourselves then began the final leg of the trip, getting around the headland and then beelining for the boat. Cold, soggy, sore and tired, we got onboard.
What a nice feeling to be back on board and take showers, especially since the wind was picking up and we could see it was getting rougher in the harbor. Our verdict of the day was that we enjoyed Coromandel Town, but we’d recommend visiting it by car as part of a bigger Coromandel loop trip, not by boat.
In the evening I headed out to the cockpit to look around. Woolshed Bay is indeed nice, but not as nice as the bays in Te Kouma Harbour. Part of the reason was, for me, Coromandel Harbor didn’t have a very agreeable energy. The combination of its windswept feeling, rough channel, large tides, and remoteness just didn’t add up to that cozy feeling that makes it so enjoyable to sit in the cockpit or swim in the bay.
In fact, this had more of a feeling that could make a person feel trapped as it became apparent, observing the funneled winds and considerable currents running into the harbor, that we couldn’t just get up and leave whenever we felt like it. If the weather were at all bad, we would not be going out, period. It was an unsettling feeling, and I realized I would be happy about leaving tomorrow.
It turned out the gusty winds blew off and on all night long. Our bay was reasonably calm and protected, but it was still unnerving to listen to it. Tomorrow we planned to head north again to another island off the Coromandel called Waimate. –Cyndi
