Whangamumu!

Don't you just love those Maori names? Whangamumu! Wish I knew what it meant…..probably something like "sheltered bay on East coast".

Anyway, we finally got out of Opua…what a relief! As much as we liked it there after the long passages, it was definitely past time to move on. So we crawled out of bed at the crack of 8….another sleepless night for me…I sometimes wish I had a switch in my head that could turn the brain off at bedtime! Set switch to off, had all day to figure out the weather, the tides, plot the course, wonder what the new sails will be like, how about that cracked shoe at the base of the mast, need new jib sheets,
what else was on that list…no, time to rest now…..shut the brain off! But it does not work that way, so they invented coffee! Greatest drug in the world…well, ok, maybe there are a couple of better ones, depending on the circumstances but this one manages to get me moving in the morning. Linda is up and about brewing it and getting us organized, as excited as a kid at christmas…we get to go somewhere new!

Not far, we planned about a 25 mile day or about 5 hours at our rate. The weather forecast is good and the sea is calm, long rolling swells as we clear the Bay of Islands to round Cape Brett. Not enough to sail but we have the new main up and we motor sail through the tour boats hovering around the dolphins like moths to a lantern and around the famous 'hole in the rock' on Motukokako or Piercey Island and turn South for the first time in four months! We did shut the engine down briefly and roll
out the new jib. What a difference! These new sails are going to be fabulous.

But we have arrived already, the entrance to the anchorage is somewhere in that shoreline….supposedly recognizable by an inverted V of green grass….ah there it is! In around the dogleg and a beautiful sheltered bay, open only slightly to the North, awaits! Only a couple other sailboats but by the time the sun goes down, about two dozen other boats, mostly small sport fishing boats will drop their anchors for the night. The wind has died completely and we rock gently to the Pacific swell.

Linda goes all out and produces a spicy lamb curry in the pressure cooker. A couple of glasses of wine and its time to find that switch again….now where was it…behind the ear?