Musket Cove - Opua (Neuseeland)
Musket Cove - Opua (New Zealand) in Google Maps (web browser) and Google Earth (separate application)
The passage to New Zealand starts furiously. The wind blows with 25 knots around Fiji’s Southern cape and the waves are deflected by the reefs straight on my bow. I sit comfortably in the saloon and listen to other cruisers on the VHF, who are complaining about green water on deck. I get a lot of spray on deck, but I had not even in 35 knots of wind green water on deck. After a few hours the wind is turning a bit more aft, the waves are aligning and the sun is drying the deck quickly. It continues like that into the second day, which I spend reading on deck.
NZ passage beginning
Clouds and even some rain are passing on the third day, while the east-southeasterly continues with gusty 12-25kn. I start spending my time in the cabin, since it’s slowly getting colder. Blue Bie continues doing close to 200 miles a day without much work for me. The sun is mostly out the next two days, the wind is going down to 12-15 knots, the waves disappear and Blue Bie is doing more than 200 miles a day.
NZ passage end
I arrive after 5 days and 8 hours in New Zealand, an average of 205 miles a day without ever doing less than 7 knots or the wind shifting more than 20°. I know that this isn’t the normal weather pattern and learn only later from other cruisers how much more demanding the conditions have been later in the season. I spend the night at the Opua quarantine dock and await the officials in company of the Swiss Balena crew and Jean-Yves Delanne, who has delivered Blue Bie on behalf of the previous owner from Australia to Europe.
Jean-Yves & Balena crew
It’s surprisingly cold in Opua and it takes two blankets to keep me warm at night. It also takes me a while to like Opua. Opua offers pretty much nothing – a marina, a wide selection of related companies and shops, a small general store and the cruising club which offers food four days a week. Opua has a hill with villas, but the next village Paihia is some 5 km away. You only meet cruisers and people working in the sailing industry.
Opua waterside
But it’s very peaceful, the anchorage is surrounded by nature, and it’s easy to get things done. I get Blue Bie’s standing rigging replaced after 7 years of service and evaluate new sails. I’m going for a modern square-top mainsail and high-tech woven spectra sails (Hydranet Radial). It’s not only the best possible, but also the most expensive cloth and an early Christmas present for Blue Bie (or for me?!?)
Opua morning mist
I’m working with the local sailmaker WaveSailsNZ, who has no big brand yet, but plenty of experience racing and building sails for two America’s Cups campaigns and the Orma 60 multihull circuit. Charles Viviani is Italian and for sure a bit different than the average Kiwi, but I enjoy the very personal process and the espresso in the sail loft! We go sailing together and define the sails and their use at length.
Cracked chainplate
I’m getting more and more involved in the local racing scene and start racing twice a week on all different kind of small yachts. If you think perfect conditions for racing in New Zealand, you stand corrected. We’re racing in a river with tidal currents and worse wind shifts than the Lake of Zurich! But it’s fun, a good crowd and a nice change to the cruiser scene.
New sailplan
The second week of November also brings the All Points Rally to Opua and I’m attending some interesting seminars and enjoy the sociable BBQs, pizza nights and an excursion to a local vineyard. John & Lynn from the Island Cruising Association are perfect hosts. Amongst all the cruisers there are eventually only a few people with whom you really click and it seems Ursula and Rainer on the German boat Thule and I have an event within the event.
Russell vineyard
Time’s flying and I could spend the whole season in Opua as many cruisers do. But I wouldn’t want to look back on half a year of my life having seen nothing of New Zealand. Once more I’m casting off my lines, saying good-bye to dear friends.
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