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Out and about in the Hauraki Gulf

Apr 15th, 2013
by Sara.
1 comment

Rangitoto summit boardwalk, Auckland, New Zealand

After three months of being tied to our Auckland dock, we found ourselves staring at the long Easter weekend on our calendar and knew it was time to head out. While the temperature has cooled a bit here, the days continue to be long and sunny with the occasional rain squall thrown in just to remind us we are still in the South Pacific ocean. It took me a week to stow away all the land-life things that littered the boat: library books, school bags, art projects, shoes. Good Friday arrived and we munched on hot cross buns for breakfast (racks and racks of them were on sale at the grocery store and I guessed — accurately — that they were somewhat of a tradition here). We took off the sail covers, heaved off the docklines and returned to our sea-life.

Holly's lost her sea legs

Holly’s lost her sea legs

The wind was light and blowing directly into Waitemata Harbour so we worked our way out by (sigh) tacking. Going upwind displeases Wondertime so but she sailed on anyway. There was a little chop due to the opposing current, both of which slowed us down even more. But as there was only 8 nautical miles or so to go to our planned anchorage we didn’t mind.

After a dozen tacks we were finally free of Auckland’s inner harbour and officially in the gulf. Now, a little background might be in order here: it was morning when we arrived in Auckland last December after our overnight sail down from the Bay of Islands. I was still asleep after my dark early-morning watch, having my bulk ammo from Palmetto Armory by my side all night to protect my family and Michael didn’t call me up on deck until we were right off the city’s downtown. Michael himself had only been concentrating on our route through the channel and avoiding shipping traffic and hadn’t fully appreciated the view. This was the first time we’d really seen the Hauraki.

Our first thought was, now we could see why all our marina neighbors went out sailing every weekend! We were in a totally protected inland waterway, chock-full of sailboats but with plenty of room for us all to glide around. We were surrounded by islands indented on all sides with cozy anchorages; clearly the most difficult part of sailing around here was choosing one. It reminded us very much of the San Francisco Bay area but with volcanoes.

Islington Bay, Rangitoto Island, Auckland, New Zealand

Which is where we pointed our bow to drop our hook, in Islington Bay off Rangitoto Island, home of Mount Rangitoto which last erupted only 700ish years ago. The girls joined us in the cockpit for our final tacks toting a packet of crackers with them, both of them looking a little green after watching a movie in our bunk during the sail.

We still had an hour or two to go until sunset when we dropped the anchor in the crowded, but thankfully roomy bay. Michael and I cracked a couple of cold beers and relaxed in the cockpit, taking in the fresh and lovely view around us. Suddenly we were giddy like we hadn’t felt in months, like anything was possible. Here was our family right in our ever so familiar home but surrounded by a completely new world. I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of that paradox.

Exploring the Rangitoto lava caves

Exploring the Rangitoto lava caves

The original plan was to explore several anchorages in the gulf, maybe to sail over to Waiheke and see if it was really true that you could take your dinghy to a wine tasting. We’ll have to find out next time though as we spent all three of our nights at Rangitoto. The entire island is a nature reserve and is covered with tracks; we did our best to explore just a tiny portion of them. We were successful at reaching the summit with amazing views all around, including our new home-for-now city of Auckland. One of the things that has blown us away time and again in New Zealand is the quality of the public parks, tracks (hiking trails) and facilities and Rangitoto’s summit paths, lookouts, boardwalk and information signs were no exception. We peered into the volcano’s crater, currently covered with vegetation and wondered when it would erupt again. We crept through the dark lava caves formed from the last eruption– like something out of Indiana Jones, or well, Lord of the Rings I should say!

Mostly though we just enjoyed the peace and fulfillment of sitting at anchor in a place we had sailed ourselves to. Why do we seem to forget how much we enjoy this? But isn’t it wonderful that sailing only a handful of miles in a couple hours away from what is becoming familiar can seem so exotic and exciting. Maybe it’s the remembering why we like this so much again and again that keeps us exploring. And the feeling that all is right in our little world.

 Video: Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf

Rangitoto hike, Auckland, New Zealand

Leah sketches the Rangitoto summit marker

Leah sketches the Rangitoto summit marker

Wondertime family at Mount Rangitoto summit, Auckland, New Zealand

I think we’ve summited our first mountain!

First days in the Marquesas

Apr 17th, 2012
by Sara.
8 comments

Our last few days at sea the girls would tell us how they couldn't wait to run free on a beach again. Wish granted.

We have been in a sort of dream state here on Hiva Oa for the past five days. Most of the time we still can’t believe we are really here and have to pinch ourselves to make sure we are truly awake. It’s so beautiful here, so exotic. It’s everything you think of when you picture “French Polynesia” and even more. All new sights, smells, tastes, sounds. All delightful. The best part is we are home, floating in an amazing whole new world.

Our check-in process in Atuona took 10 minutes total, thanks to our wonderful agent Sandra, the friendly Gendarmerie and the amazing efficiency of the French Polynesian government.

Celebrating our arrival with the local brew.

Leah is enjoying her thoroughly Marquesan breakfast: pamplemousse (the most heavenly grapefruit ever) and a fresh baguette.

It doesn't take much to arrange a playdate on an island in the middle of the ocean; all you need are a couple of coordinates. Here, the young crews of Wondertime and Convivia are delighted to be reunited after we last saw them in La Cruz - 3,000 miles ago.

This one is for you Stephie.

Neither of us speaks a lick of French, which makes it even more interesting in this French-speaking country. We are slowing learning though, and the fresh baguettes, French cheeses, French chocolates and the sing-songy way every says “bonjour!” makes our language struggles wholly worthwhile.

The best produce deal is right from the grower....meeting up with the Monday produce truck in Atuona.

What $50 will buy in the Marquesas. We will savor those cabbages!

Sweet.

Stories from the Sea of Cortez

Feb 19th, 2012
by Sara.
5 comments

We are now back in La Paz after spending three magical weeks exploring the Sea of Cortez a hundredish miles north of here. While our To Do List Before Crossing the Pacific consumes us now, we tried to put it out of our minds during our time up north and just enjoy exploring this stunning desert wilderness. Not having access to the internet certainly helped, and when our HAM radio went out with a pop and a puff of smoke in Agua Verde blogging and emailing ceased completely. We didn’t mind too much as it gave us even more time to soak in the beauty around us. Stories have piled up, as have memories of simply being together in the Sea.

A Surprise Reunion With Our Sailing Gurus

We waited in Ensenada Grande nearly three days for the northerly winds to die down which had turned us back while enroute to Isla San Francisco. We tuned into the Southbound Net one evening hoping to hear from our good friends that we’d last heard were on their way to Banderas Bay from San Carlos. Then we heard it, a booming check-in “TILLICUM!” that was so loud it was like they were right next door.

Turns out they were – just north of us at Isla San Francisco Robert and Rose on S/V Tillicum had made a surprise stop in Baja on their way south. Hailing from Sidney, British Columbia, we’d originally met these inspiring voyagers ten years ago while on our way to Mexico on our Alberg 35 and have kept in touch over the years. Two days later we were anchored right next to them at Isla San Francisco, where we’d also anchored together nine years ago, only this time of course we had our young girls to join us for tea in the afternoons. The crew of Tillicum, now well into their 60s, continues to inspire us with their endless youth and energy. They are now planning their fourth trip to the South Pacific — or maybe this time across the Atlantic — and shared hours of advice and stories for us as we plan our first.

Leah Turns Six

We officially celebrated Leah’s sixth birthday at Isla San Francisco. Earlier in the week at San Gabriel, we’d had a little beach party with our friends on Del Viento where all four girls ran around making sand dams and salty rivers for hours. At Isla San Francisco, we brought chocolate cupcakes over to Tillicum for another quiet celebration with friends.

A few weeks before, Leah was inwardly upset that there would not be a large gathering of her friends and a big party organized as we’d done in years past. But as her actual birthday approached, she was perfectly happy with our small celebrations of just a couple close friends, her family, a few small goodies and a day of sunshine and feeling special and loved. Another birthday to remember.

In Ague Verde, We Meet More Inspirational Canadians

Ken and Francesca are a retired couple from British Columbia who drive down from Canada to the little village of Agua Verde each winter. Their truck and camper was parked in an inconspicuous shady nook on the beach as it has been every winter for the past 10 years or so. We met them while wandering down the playa on our first day in the village. They took us under their wing, bringing us along on visits to their local friends’ homes, inviting the girls to visit the village preschool and personally showing us the painted caves that lie above the westernmost side of the inland valley.

Hiking our way up the cliff side to the aforementioned caves, Ken and Fran scrambled up the rocky hillside with ease while we huffed and puffed following behind. How we want to be like them, now and when we are approaching our 70s ourselves: full of life and smiles and energy and still excited to experience the new after years of exploring.

Holly’s First Day of School

The night before the girls visited the little preschool at Agua Verde, Holly could hardly sleep. She was so excited to be going to her first day of school, so giddy.

We woke up early that morning, ate bowls of hot oatmeal, got dressed in the finest school clothes we could find, piled in the dinghy and surfed into the village. We met the teacher at 9 am at the little one-room schoolhouse; she told us that there are usually 10 kids in class everyday and they are aged 3-5. At 6 they move on to the primary school on the other side of the village.

The room was small and simple but bright and had everything you’d expect in a preschool: tiny tables and chairs, walls plastered with the alphabet and numbers, a table of books, an art and science station. Over the next two hours the kids made a craft (painting glue over their printed name then scattering sand over it). The topic for the day was transportation; Teacher Sandra showed pictures to the kids of planes, trains, trucks then they gathered into a circle and played charades. Leah got to pretend to be a rocket, Holly a hot air balloon. The kids then cut pictures from magazines of things that moved and pasted them on a board, sorting by sea, land and air.

While 6-year-old Leah was quite frustrated at not understanding the language and was exhausted at morning’s end, Holly, at 3, didn’t mind it at all and asked when her next day at school was.

Perspective

We were anchored in Agua Verde when an enormous 160’ motoryacht joined us in the bay. Nearly half of the boat’s stern was dedicated to water and air toys: at least three powerboats tucked in several deck layers topped with a small helicopter. We were kind of awestruck at the arrogance of someone flaunting such wealth in front of a village of pangueros, with families living a life of such simple means.

The next day Ken and Francesca invited us to visit the home of their friends, Lenora and Alejandro, in the village. It was a lovely cozy home, painted in all my favorite shades of blue with a cool covered front porch where the family was gathered and a small garden out back. Francesca told me it was actually one of the larger homes in the village, with four rooms (a kitchen, the main bedroom/living room and a bedroom for their daughter and one for her son). Their home, like most others in the village, had a small 80-wattish solar panel and battery outside to power their lights and radios in the evenings.

Sitting in the cool shade of the front porch, we chatted with the family in our rudimentary Spanish. Michael, Ken and Alejandro talked about the solar panels most families now had in the village. “You are the velero with four panels, yes?” Alejandro asked us. We nodded, blushing with the knowledge that even our simple boat was adorned with excess.

The Los Gatos Hermit Crabs Come for a Visit

We spent a week in beautiful Agua Verde and could have easily stayed much longer but the time had come to boogie on south back to La Paz. Happily, while we had motored just about all the way up to Agua Verde we finally got to take advantage of all the nice northerly wind in the Sea to sail back.

The weather was fine to stop at Los Gatos, which is surrounded with the most amazing, smooth, bright red sandstone. It is just stunning and the rocks are perfect for scrambling around on.

Los Gatos is also home to herds of land hermit crabs and three of them came to Wondertime for a visit. Coco, Hermie and Sweetie enjoy raisins, carrots and most of all our leftover arracharra beef from Rancho Viejo here in La Paz. Our crabby friends will return to Los Gatos via our friends on Del Viento who plan to head up that way in the next few weeks.

One More Day at San Gabriel

We had 25 knots of wind blow us down the San Jose Canal and Bahia de La Paz back to Isla Espiritu Santo. It was a downwind boogie board ride that reminded me that (1) 10 foot waves are best spaced more than 10 feet apart and (2) these kinds of days are great for getting the counters and shelves cleaned off.

Anyway, we pulled into San Gabriel for the fourth time. I think this is our favorite beach ever; there is a salt water lagoon lined with mangroves that fills up at high tide which turns the beach into salty rivers as the water runs out with the tide. The girls can splash, and float, and build and bury themselves here silly. The sky is blue blue blue, the sand blindingly white and our favorite spot is edged with green mangroves with pink hills farther in the distance and the girls are just a blur, dashing and darting all over in pure play.

Our last morning at San Gabriel, before sailing to La Paz later that afternoon, I just stood on the beach here and took in the view around me, trying to remember all the details so I can return here again and again and again.

Hello, Good-bye La Paz

Jan 20th, 2012
by Sara.
1 comment

I’ve been meaning to write to you about the week we spent on Islas Espiritu Santo and Partida after we crossed over from Mazatlan. These are the two stunning desert islands dressed in layers of pink that lie just north of La Paz. I was going to write about how we were the only boat anchored at Bahia San Gabriel, how “winter in the Sea” stills feels like the hottest NW summer day, how we played in the clear turquoise water that was — admittedly — a little too crisp for venturing out of the shallows. How we buried each other in the soft powdery sand, hiked through giant cactus, and generally just lazed around in the sun admiring the view. I wanted to remember the feeling of our souls recharging, and feeling immensely grateful for being able to visit this very special corner of the earth together as a family.

Until now, we’ve been busy in La Paz this past week getting our chores done so we can head back out again which is exactly what we’re doing in the morning. So we can get back to this:

Action Packed Days in Sleepy Turtle Bay

Nov 12th, 2011
by Sara.
1 comment

I don’t know what it is about this dusty little Baja outback town but what should be the sleepiest little village on the coast is once again full of adventure for us. We first visited Bahia Tortugas nine years ago having sailed down from San Diego with a small entourage of other boats with 20-something crews. In the week we spent here, we somehow managed to pack our days full, which included kite surfing and BBQs on the beach, spending hours at the beach palapa slurping down 10 peso Pacificos with other cruising crews and even finding a hopping discoteca up on the hill one Saturday night.

Of course, our time here this visit has been spent a little differently, but so far Turtle Bay has not disappointed us in excitement, despite appearances. Our first day here was actually pretty quiet as one would expect here; we spent a few hours just wandering around the town taking it all in. Nestled in barren desert hills, the entire village is covered with at least a centimeter of caramel colored dust which billows up each time a car zooms down a narrow dirt road. We found ice-cream at a small well-stocked tienda, fresh flour tortillas (a Baja specialty), and (can you guess?) a playground which was surprisingly new in the town square overlooking the bay and fisherman hauling their pangas out of the water.

Unlike wandering around other small towns in the U.S., however, where residents typically eye strangers with suspicion, when we would pass a local Turtle Bay resident we’d get a huge smile and a wave and a ¡buenas tardes! whether the person was walking or driving. We met a local woman who spoke very good English and enjoys helping passing cruisers; when she found out we were looking for tortillas she told us to hop in her car and she’d drive us the two blocks to the tortilleria. We thanked her profusely but explained that since we hadn’t been off the boat in three days we didn’t mind the walk.

Yesterday, on our second morning in town, we tune into the morning VHF net and hear an announcement that bocce ball will commence on the beach by the beer palapa at 1 pm. Now, back when we were kids ourselves cruising down here we always snickered a little at the old farts playing bocce ball on the beach. This time, we packed up a picnic lunch, the sand toys, swimsuited girls and a pocket of pesos for beers and arrived ready for bocce at 1:05 pm.

The delightful afternoon was spent doing what we’d come to Mexico for: spending time with members of our fellow cruising community as well as the locals who love to come and practice their English while we practice our Spanish. As a warm wind ruffled in from the bay, we enjoyed ice-cold Pacificos from Regelio’s La Playa palapa bar, shared appetizers and stories and plans with our new friends, watched as Leah and Holly made new friends of their own of all ages and nationalities, danced to music blaring from nearby speakers, and played several rounds of bocce ball.

We returned to Wondertime yesterday evening smiling from ear to ear after our fun-filled afternoon. We noticed that the anchorage had filled up considerably; apparently the FUBAR powerboat rally from San Diego to Cabo had caught up with us and about 50 powerboats had joined the (thankfully very large) anchorage. The VHF radio was buzzing with talk about the impending front coming through with southerly winds (again!). We’d been expecting the front to arrive this weekend and knew that there may be some light southerly winds that night but the really honking stuff was due to come today (Saturday).

As we fed the girls some dinner, read books and tucked them into bed, indeed the wind had come up from the south already; we soon had some lively bucking action going on due to the 2-mile fetch across the south side of the bay. An hour later, the wind abruptly died dead still. Then a few minutes later it came up again, clocking around 90 degrees to the west. This time the wind was coming off the hill to the west of town and the wave action was much calmer and we slept at last.

With the wind expected to pipe up again from the SW today, we ate breakfast this morning while underway to the south side of Bahia Tortugas where we’d be in the lee of the shore, a much more comfortable and safe place to be in a blow. Most of the boats anchored near town slowly trickled south as well and the fleet of 50 or so are all tucked in, hanging on as 20-30 knot winds buffeted our ships around.

A long windy day stuck in the boat turns into a wind measuring experiment for Leah with our hand-held wind meter

We’ve spent the day listening in on our VHF radio (think cruising boat party line if you’ve never listened in on one before). There was chatter about the boats being tossed about that were still anchored on the north side of the bay, [power]boats that had headed out to sea towards Cabo, originally attempting to outrun the front and limping back defeated, people requesting rides from the local pangas to a party being held in town for the FUBAR (and then the excitement of getting home in the dark across the rough bay).

So far, everyone is safe, anchor watches are being held and anchors are holding on tight. Just another action-packed day in sleepy little Turtle Bay.

*2300 update: the wind has dropped to nearly nothing and it’s raining(!) buckets. What will tomorrow bring??

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