Before the weather turned too bad, we took the kayak across the inlet to the beach by the popular anchorage at Squadron Bay. From there, it is possible to climb the hills behind for long views of both the bay and the northern Coromandel Peninsula.
As we arrived at the beach, we met, and then were loosely joined by, a group of four friends from Arctic Loon. They were all from down Wellington way, but keep their boat up north because the weather is milder here. After a while, as we were walking, we learned that two of them worked for Air Traffic Control and another was an almost-retired airline pilot. Finally, someone who understands obscure meteorological jargon!
I'm just kidding, but it was nice to know I could go there if I wanted. After our walk, they invited Maryanne aboard for tea, and then agreed I could come as well. We then had a nice few hours swapping yarns back and forth as the cows lowed in the fields above to add to the soundtrack.
A short walk ashore and a cuppa aboard with fellow boaters on Arctic Loon
The wind was really starting to kick up, and it was coming almost directly from Begonia. We knew it was going to be a bit of a slog to get home, so we bid our new friends goodbye. They kindly offered to tow us home with their dinghy, but I convinced them Maryanne was happiest when her arms are burning and she gets to act as a spray dodger to keep me from getting too wet. Actually, anybody making that trip, dinghy or not, was going to get wet. I figured it would be best if it was just the two of us. We promised to abort and come back if it got too much for us.
Had Begonia been another half mile upwind, we surely would have. As it was, by the time we realized we were in over our heads, we were almost home, so we decided to just put our heads down and finish the job. That way, we could bask in our sense of accomplishment when we made it.
We were both definitely soaked through. I'm glad we weren't responsible for doing that to anyone else. After a rinse and a dry and a change into fresh clothes, we were good as new again, ready to hunker down in our cozy cabin for the deluge to come.
We got two days of heavy rain, which was finally cleared out by wind so strong that anyone trying to launch the kayak would have taken off like they were beneath a hang glider. We were joined intermittently by two to five other boats during the period that were also clearly there for the shelter.
Our batteries had really suffered during the gloomy downpour period. The last night of it, we were getting close to our discharge limit for starting an engine. We decided to reduce consumption and wait until morning to see. Luckily, the cold front moved faster than expected, so the dawn brought enough photons to hold us steady until the wind arrived. With the wind added in, the batteries were all topped up again just after noon. The turbine kept us at 100% all night. What a change from the day before. We went from trying to conserve power to trying to find uses for all the excess. We hunted down everything rechargeable aboard and made sure it was all topped up.
Anchorage location >> On google maps
No comments:
Post a Comment