Saturday 4 December Out into Bay of Islands

We'd decided today we'd leave Opua. It's only been a month since we arrived from Tonga. Where's the time gone to? The weather wasn't auspicious; grey and overcast day with the threat of rain. It wasn't going to be a quick get away as first we had to clean the anchor chain. Iit took an hour to scrub the top 20m which were fouled with growth, no barnacles, but if you don't clean the chain all that algae ends up rotting and smelling in the chain locker. Not nice. With the anchor finally retrieved we picked up a vacant mooring ball to allow us to switch out the old anchor for the new one. David was on the water in the dinghy, me on board operating the windlass. Rocky the Rocna looks perfect on the bow and hopefully will be perfect underwater too.

Bay of Islands

While it rained we had lunch then when the rain stopped we slipped the mooring ball and motored out to the Bay to join our friends on Inspiration Lady in Pareanui Bay. There are so many little bays to drop the hook that you can always find one to give protection from the prevailing wind. We arrived just in time for sundowners.