Friday morning we headed over to the city via the regular ferry service that goes from our marina. We enjoyed the short 12 minute trip across and used our new Hop cards for the first time.

We wandered into the city….and headed up Queen Street towards the shopping areas and were surprised by the number of beggars we came across. We found numerous malls and department stores. The stores were top end near the Wharf area eg Louis Vitton and Gucci, with its constant queue of Chinese outside. The quality of the shops reduced as we moved further into the city. We got some drinking vouchers from the ATM along the way.

We stopped for coffee and headed into a camera store. We have had an eye on one particular model (Lumix TZ90) ever since Black Friday but kept talking ourselves out of it and had been completely indecisive. We even looked at the same one in Singapore but then we decided against. Well, today, Richard decided he did want it after all, so we treated ourselves to a joint Valentine’s Day present.

We continued walking uphill towards the Sky Tower. We enjoyed looking at the Tower but had already decided not to go inside as we are keeping this as an experience for when Clive and Val are with us later in the month.

We headed back down towards the Wharf and explored the Wynyard Quarter….which is more wharfs and lots of waterfront bars and restaurants. We visited a few and just enjoyed people watching. I’m fascinated by the little electric scooters that everyone hires and dumps them, anywhere they like, and they are collected during the night to be recharged and left back out on the street. They whizz along very fast – up to 20mph allegedly – and they are pretty hazardous on the pavement in the hands of an inexperienced rider LOL.

We decided to head back towards the main wharf and had supper in Shucker Brothers, our favourite wine bar on the wharf so far. Then back to the ferry and home to Morphie.

Saturday morning we got the 9.20 ferry to the City. We walked to the end of the main wharf road and purchased a 48 hour hop-on hop-off Explorer bus ticket.

We took off on the Red Route and the first stop was Bastion Point. We enjoyed looking at the memorial to Michael Savage, the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand plus the views across Waitemata Harbour and further away to the volcanic cone of Rangitoto Island.

We then took the path down the hill towards Mission Bay and enjoyed wandering around this quaint town looking at some of the Art Deco buildings and people just enjoying their time on the lovely beach.

Back on the bus we carried on towards Newmarket and, at the War Memorial Museum, our bus changed onto the blue route. So we continued on and got out at Maungawhau (Mount Eden). This volcanic cone is closed to traffic (other than vehicles to the disabled) so we took the very long hot walk to the peak, enjoying lovely views along the way, including visits from some friendly birds which looked like sparrows with yellow heads. Looked like they had had their heads dipped in paint LOL.

We reached the peak and looked down into the volcanic dome and all around at the 360 degree views, including many other domes dotted around the area. Was very hot with no shade so we were thankful for the brisk wind at the summit. We took some time out before making the long hot walk back down.

Oh yes and, of course, we had a bird’s eye view of the Eden Park Stadium, the home of the New Zealand All Blacks. Shame they are not playing in the city while we are here.

We rejoined the bus. drove past the Stadium, and got off at St Luke’s Shopping Centre. We managed to pick up a few things that we needed and then got the blue bus back towards the War Memorial Museum. We got off here and wandered up to the very impressive building and memorial. Was very nicely done.

We noticed something going on in the grounds and realised that this was gearing up for Chinese New Year celebrations – so enjoyed having a wander around and even got some silly photos.

We then came across a miniature version of Crystal Palace which was really just a big greenhouse.

Later on we headed back on the bus to the city and returned to The Viaduct area and enjoyed a few cold ones. We were both pretty tired but decided to stay out and enjoyed a leisurely evening on the wharf, admiring some nice boats, and some great views. Oh yes, and we found the Sea Plane parking spot.

Sunday morning we headed over to the ferry terminal, arrived in the City, and then got another ferry to Davenport. This trip was included on our bus tickets so we decided to make the most use of it and spend our second day over there. This is a historical area and also houses the Naval Base so we admired the scenery around us and watched some yachts racing in front of the port.

Getting off the ferry we were attracted by some music and came across a Folk Concert in the park. We thought we’d listen for a while but the (original) songs were a bit depressing and not particularly to our taste so we didn’t linger. Clearly the audience was much more appreciative than we were.

Moving on we wandered around and took in the sights and I bought a nice sun hat for my cruise! Yay, result….. The girl was shocked when I paid cash and she told me to be careful in this area, better to pay by card. Interesting….first time we had been warned about that. Oh yes, and check out the exhibits in the Art Gallery.

We then found a place for lunch which seemed very popular. We waited ages to be served and were on the brink of walking out but the food looked so good we decided the pain of waiting should be worth it. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, was absolutely amazing, but way too big! Never mind….saves me cooking again later LOL.

After lunch we headed to The Patriot pub housed in the old Bank of New Zealand building. Spot the symbols for the English (rose), the Irish (shamrock), the Scottish (thistle) and the Welsh (dragon) on the facia. We found a shaded spot in the beer garden where we found a guy singing live. He was really good…and we thoroughly enjoyed his set. We had planned to get the early ferry back but decided to miss it and got the later one instead. We had an absolutely lovely time.

Monday we were both feeling tired so we had a lazy day on board. Later on we headed across on the ferry again to meet Paul in town. Richard met Paul 36 years ago when they both worked at the BBC and had crossed paths at other jobs along the way. Paul has been in New Zealand for 17 years now and we had a lovely evening together.

Tuesday we started preparing Morphie to be left whilst we go on our cruise. The bad news was that there was a Cat 3 Cyclone near New Caledonia that the forecast models were puzzled by. There was a 50:50 chance that the cold front coming up from the Tasmin Sea would push this storm towards Australia. The other 50:50 chance was that it would come to the top of North Island (which would be unusual in itself). Damn. So we started prepping the boat by getting dink off the davits and onto the bow to reduce windage. We have tied off and covered the halyards at the mast; double wrapped the lines around the genoa and the staysail and have covered the new navigation equipment at the binnacle. We also doubled up on all our lines and have springs in all directions – including the post to our stern.

After a hot day’s work we headed back over to the City and met up with Kieron (who lives in Sydney). Richard worked with him at Battle McCarthy and they hadn’t seen each other for 18 years. Kieron was over in Auckland on business so what another amazing coincidence eh?!? Spent a few hours in his company but left him to his business colleagues and headed back to Morphie after supper at The Shucker Brothers.

This morning, Wednesday, and we downloaded the latest weather gribs. The forecast looks much less threatening than before but I think we’ll continue taking all our canvas down, just in case. So blogging and laundry feature on my list today…. Tomorrow, Thursday, we’ll be spending on board having a quiet one and then on Friday we are heading to the hotel to meet Carolyn and Ron in preparation for our Friends Reunited Cruise 2019.

Bye for now

Jan

Friday morning the weather appeared benign despite the storm warnings in place – then suddenly the sky turned black, the heavens opened and the wind picked up. So we just did some more boat jobs and had a movie night onboard.

Saturday was another showery and windy day so we continued pottering around and, when the weather improved later, we headed to the Opua Cruising Club and bumped into a couple from California that we had met last year. So we had a lovely evening with them catching up.

Sunday morning and it was time to get Morphie ready to go to sea. So we stowed items down below and cleaned her up, filled up the water tanks (as the watermaker remains pickled for now) and whilst I was up in the laundry Richard did the last engine checks. We then had another movie night on board.

Monday morning we bid our farewells and paid our bills, again. We had breakfast in the Marina Cafe and left our slip around 11 am.

We headed out into the bay to find a huge cruise ship anchored in the channel but we skirted around him and then, when we were in open water clear of hazards, we did the sea commissioning of the autopilot. Final job done.

We then ran down towards Omakiki Cove, our chosen anchorage, and thoroughly enjoyed sailing in 20 knots of breeze. Was absolutely amazing….

As we neared Omakiki Cove we realised that the stronger than expected winds coupled with a shift in direction meant that this was no longer such a good overnight option. So we changed course and headed to Otaio Bay on Urupukapuka Island instead. We dropped the anchor and got a good set straight away – yay – very happy.

Sadly we had to anchor a bit further out than we would have liked but a huge motorboat was there – so we were rolling about a bit as the swell came around the headland. Surprisingly, at about 5pm, the motorboat picked up his anchor and left so we quickly weighed anchor too and moved further into the bay to get more protection. It was more comfortable and we enjoyed a nice evening in the cockpit watching the birds fishing before finally roosting in the trees for the night. Meanwhile I cooked two meals – one for the overnight passage to Auckland – as well as the evening’s dinner.

Overnight we didn’t move an inch and we both had a reasonable night’s sleep. At 9am on Tuesday morning we picked up our anchor and motored out the channel.

We headed, on quite a gloomy grey day, towards the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett (a huge tourist attraction in the Bay of Islands as you can see by the ferries) and enjoyed the sight although it was a bit swelly as we rounded the Cape.

The weather improved and the gloom lifted and we were sailing in a light breeze coming from behind us, so we poled out the genoa. This was the first time we had used the new system and it was much easier than it was previously, so it was definitely worth spending the cash on it.

The swells continued throughout the day and, at one point, we were briefly joined by a pod of dolphins. We enjoyed watching the birds fishing en masse in the ocean too.

There wasn’t much traffic and we enjoyed being at sea and looking at the islands and rocks as we went south.

By the time we went into our night shifts the wind had shifted 180 degrees on the nose and was only 2-3 knots – no good for sailing – so we reluctantly furled the genoa, returned the whisker pole to the mast, and continued under motor alone. I really enjoyed the sunset at sea.

During the evening the shipping traffic increased and we were passed by cruise ships (in both directions) and numerous cargo ships. There was one yacht keeping pace with us for a while but he disappeared into one of the east coves along the way. We were very impressed by the new navigation equipment – it took much less power, it handled the autohelm much smoother than before, and the plotter was great. The new AIS system kept us informed and I particularly liked the way it showed the closest point of approach in both distance and time. Very happy sailors!

Wednesday morning and we were on the approach into Auckland. Auckland is a commercial harbour with a narrow channel so we stayed just outside of it where there was adequate depth of 20 feet below the keel. There were cruise ships, ferries, dredgers, fishermen and even a NZ Navy ship Canterbury underway – and, of course, let’s not forget those pesky power boaters who do insist on crossing our bow at speed, causing us to bob around in their wake.

They call Auckland the City of Sails and check out the AIS signals on the plotter to see just how much boat traffic there is here. Oh yes, and those waypoints were indicative, we didn’t follow that route across the channel, honest!

We enjoyed our first sight of the Sky Tower and were very excited to have finally arrived safely after our first overnight passage in a very long time.

We followed the channel towards our marina – which is virtually opposite the Sky Tower on the opposite side of the bay – and called them on the radio looking for assistance on the dock. And of course they ignored us, as usual, so we continued. We had already had our slip allocated and had downloaded a plan so we knew where to go. We headed into our slip with the wind blowing quite strongly behind us….only to find no cleats but just metal loops….and no middle dock cleat or loop for the brest line either. Damn!!! We managed to get in and tied up but it wasn’t pretty… Not particularly helped either by our neighbour storing their dinghy on the pier between us which we could barely get by.

Anyway….never mind….we have arrived! Woo hoo! We got cleaned up and went to the marina office and found out where all the facilities are – the showers, the loos, the cruisers lounge and the washing machines. And that is all there is here. But the main reason we chose it as our base was because of the ferry dock running a regular schedule over to the City. The marina is a bit tatty at the edges but it will do and it’s nice and quiet.

Back on board and we decided, despite being tired from doing our overnight shifts, that we had to go into Auckland for a beer to celebrate. So we hopped on the ferry, enjoyed the view of the marina and watching the Americas Cup yacht out in the bay, and arrived in the city 10 minutes later. We purchased return tickets and also got ourselves some Oyster-equivalent cards for future bus/ferry use.

We got off the ferry and wandered around and found the information centre – we loaded up on brochures / leaflets on just about everything you could think of, and headed for a walk down the waterfront. We ended up in the Viaduct Marina area and quickly realised why they laughed at our enquiry about staying there…..hmmmm…….think we might have just been too little LOL.

We found an elevated bar called Dr Rudi’s with views over the marina and enjoyed a single very expensive glass of freezing cold draught lager which went down a treat. Both of us, by now, were feeling a bit land sick but that was probably tiredness as much as anything.

We headed off to another bar, this time by the cruise ship dock, and people watched as they were all rushing back to the ships. Feels a bit weird to think that we will be joining those people very soon!

By now we were thinking of having something to eat (and didn’t want pizza or fine dining) so we ended up in a lovely little fish bistro near the ferry wharf and had some happy hour Sauvignon with some smoked herring pate and fish sliders. And very good it was too…. We then headed back to Bayswater Marina via the ferry and so to bed.

This morning, Thursday, and we have decided to have a lazy day and stay onboard so I’m blogging while Richard is reading all the brochures we picked up yesterday. Oh yes and Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Tomorrow, Friday, we are going to explore the City.

Bye for now

Jan

Friday afternoon we enjoyed being at anchor for the first time since we left Tonga in October 2017. We bobbed around, enjoyed watching the huge boats racing in the Millenium Cup and decided to stay put for the night.

We had picked a nice spot between a catamaran and a monohull, with plenty of swinging room, and lo and behold at 5pm a big steel ketch comes in and drops his anchor only about two boat lengths away….which was very annoying as this is a huge bay with lots of room….oh well. We enjoyed a nice dinner sitting in the cockpit in the evening watching the stars, although it was definitely a bit chilly once the sun went down. Thankfully the conditions remained benign and there were no bumps in the night.

Saturday morning and we launched our new dink into the water and secured the outboard to his transom. Richard then tried to start the engine…to no avail! This was a very frustrating development as we had this running before we left the marina. He took the carburettor apart; cleaned the spark plugs; and generally worked his way through the troubleshooting manual. But it refused to start. Damn! So it looks like we will not be going ashore again.

So we settled down to another night on board and downloaded the latest weather only to see some rough stuff coming through overnight and we are in an area which is not noted for its good holding. So we picked up anchor and got covered in very gloopy mud…and moved further into the bay. We settled in, got to grips with our new anchor alarm system, and the heavens opened. So we got dink back up onto the davits and had a quiet evening in the rain. We were much happier in our new position as there was much more sea room if the wind kicked in as expected.

During the night it rained cats and dogs and the wind picked up. Then suddenly, at 8am on Sunday morning, our anchor alarm went off and we were dragging. Quickly we picked up and reset the hook – yuck, mud everywhere again! Thankfully the rain was lighter at this point. Looking around we realised that a number of boats had also re-anchored during the night. Literally half an hour later the wind picked up and, yes, we dragged again – what fun, NOT! So we selected another spot further into the bay and, this time, thankfully we were more sheltered and stayed put.

We then sat back with a cup of tea and discussed our options about the outboard. The tidal currents here are pretty strong to be rowing against so the lack of an engine really curtailed our plans of rock hopping and exploring new places. There were a few other bits and pieces that didn’t work quite as expected either so we decided to return to Opua. So, in 25 knots of breeze out in the bay, we headed back into the shelter of the marina. We were not particularly happy but that’s the way it goes sometimes with boating!

Apparently this weather is supposed to clear on Monday evening but return with a vengeance overnight on Wednesday and into the following weekend with both gale and surf warnings. So we’ll have to consider our options again later in the week. The rest of the day was spent relaxing.

Monday morning we were up early and took our outboard to Seapower. Well, the rain was horrendous, so we holed up in the marina cafe and had bacon sandwiches to cheer ourselves up. We downloaded the weather again and the updated gribs were not favourable at all to be running south along the east coast of North Island as easterlies create huge seas and a lee shore (with many of the coves along the way being untenable in those conditions) and southerlies will be on the nose. Looks like it is going to be a wait and see situation. Check out these gribs.

We have some wriggle room with our schedule, thankfully. The last thing we need for our shakedown cruise is particularly taxing conditions although we will probably make a straight overnight shot at getting to Auckland now.

Monday afternoon Seapower managed to get the outboard running again albeit it was a bit lumpy. So they did a few adjustments and, eventually, the outboard was running great in the workshop….but not for us when we tested it back on board. What?!? So we eliminated all the variables and found the connector between our fuel line and the input valve on the outboard was faulty. The fuel line was showing some signs of wear too so we used up our spare and ordered another for the bilges. We swapped it out and everything was great. Only took a few hours to work it out LOL.

To prevent any further mishaps we decided to take advantage of the light airs to pull all our sails out and refurl them – we had loosened halyards when the riggers were on board – so wanted to double check that they were all good to go. We also spent quite a bit of time in doing some navigation planning and inputting waypoints to the new plotter. We also redid the dockside calibration of the new autopilot as it appeared to have lost the settings in our absence. We’ll do the seatrial calibration when we get into open water. We then had a quiet night on board with a nice glass of wine.

Tuesday morning we started on our remaining list of boat jobs which we had thought we would do once in Auckland. Richard sorted out the wheels on dink – which had got stuck in our absence; he removed and repaired the exhaust flapper; serviced the tie-down mechanisms that keep dink secure on the davits; sorted out the dinghy anchor; and fixed a gas strut under the bed. I got dink down and gave him a good clean to remove the boatyard dust followed by a protective coating of sunblock LOL.

Bill very kindly allowed us to use his car again so we headed over in the afternoon to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. On the way we came across the Wakas being launched from the beach. These are traditional long boats used as war canoes and are intricately carved, usually from one single tree. Lots of crew and really can’t believe the size of some of them! That was fun to see….

We arrived at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to be met by the women from the Waitangi cultural group – doing their scary eye routine LOL.

We went see the Royal New Zealand Navy beat retreat, the ceremonial sunset at the flagstaff and the lowering of the flag. This is an annual event in advance of Waitangi Day and we were surprised by the number of dignitaries there, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ahern and her new baby.

We enjoyed watching the ceremony and headed back to the boat. The traffic was horrendous especially going across the single lane bridge which, eventually, was sorted out by a policeman despite the protestations of a very angry Maori guy behind us in the queue. By this time we were hungry so we headed to the Cruising Club for dinner out on the verandah.

Wednesday morning and it is Happy Waitangi Day and, despite the dire forecast for later, it was a very hot day with blue skies. Perfect! This Bank Holiday celebrates the signing of the treaty between the Maori people and the British 179 years ago. We left the marina and queued in constant traffic for almost an hour to the designated car park where we picked up a bus to take us to the grounds – the actual Treaty area was closed to traffic – and, along the way, cars were abandoned everywhere with people on foot. It was just total chaos. We had decided not to go to the dawn ceremony but wanted to catch the 21 gun salute from the warship out in the bay. We just made it in time and it was quite an impressive sight.

As we walked on the upper treaty grounds we came across a Maori group who had erected a temporary flagstaff in its original position and were praying and chanting. Afterwards we asked a friendly old guy, Owen Oto Simmonds what was going on. He is a member of the Maori Government of Aotearoa nu Tireni (The Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand) and they say that the Waitangi Treaty is a fake as the original one signed by the tribes was amended before the Waitangi signing. Very interesting chap and, if you check out his cap and lapel pin, he is a retired member of the SAS. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him for a while.

We then watched a Kapahaka group doing traditional Maori dancing and songs – and, of course, the guys manage to look very menacing doing their Haka. All good fun.

We then wandered down to the lower level and saw the Waka boats being lifted from the water but, sadly, never got to see them in action.

We had some lunch from one of the food vans and tried to get an ice cream but failed miserably. Funny that, on health grounds, alcohol and fizzy drinks were banned from the concessions but you can eat yourselves stupid on fried food!

There was very little shade so we ended up sitting under a tree near the smaller stage and watched some more Kapahaka. The singing is melodic and the show is impressive – not sure you would ever get bored of this.

Returning to the top level of the site feeling a bit frazzled in the heat we headed off to get the bus back to the car and return to the marina. When we got back onboard we rested up for the rest of the day.

Overnight the weather kicked in as promised and it is a cloudy, rainy and very windy Thursday here in Opua. We have provisioned up again and Bill is now heading back this way to pick up his car and move it. He is stuck in a small east coast marina waiting for the weather so that he can move further south. So a common theme here right now!

Bye for now

Jan

Friday the riggers finished the job….yay….so we now have the whisker pole mounted on the mast. And very smart it looks too.

Friday night, as planned, we headed over to Bill’s Island Packet, SV Music, to enjoy a delicious chicken madras cooked by Peter (Bill’s crew member). Was a great evening and the wine flowed. Bill also confirmed that he wanted to purchase our old autopilot control head as his screen was failing….so we made plans to return in the morning.

Saturday morning we popped over to Bill and I did the dockside calibration of the control head for him….and wrote down instructions for the next step, the seatrial calibration. He seemed bemused by all this activity, but I was pleased to be able to prove to him that it was all working properly. We then left them to their final preparations to leave the dock and were pleased when Bill agreed to lend us his car whilst he was out cruising.

We returned to Morphie and Richard serviced the engine and swapped out the fuel and oil filters. He also replaced the impeller as it definitely had seen better days – check out the damaged blades!

I had a laundry day which was incredibly frustrating as quite a few people started their washing machines and then disappeared for hours. So, along with some fellow cruisers we mutinied and emptied machines as they finished. One of the piles of clothes were still there when I had finished three loads of washing and drying! Anyway about half an hour later a guy came in and complained because all the machines were still full. Well, mate, just leaving your laundry on the side while you head off to the cafe for breakfast doesn’t mean you keep your position in the queue. He was clearly annoyed but there were quite a few of us who were there watching our laundry and freeing up the machines as quickly as possible so he didn’t really have a leg to stand on, particularly when we pointed out the notices that said you should not leave your laundry unattended LOL.

Saturday night it rained hard and turned cold. We headed out, anyway, as we had plans to meet Chris and Frances (from SV Usquabae) in the Cruisers Club for dinner. We had all crossed the Pacific together. They had spent some time at home in the UK too so we had a lot to catch up on. We were delighted that they were both well and we had a fun evening.

Sunday morning Richard busied himself with a variety of boat jobs and I ploughed through admin jobs on the computer like banking; Australian visas; North Island hotels for an upcoming trip with Clive; and activating the Iridium Go! unit again, including the tracker, which is now live again (under the Where are we now? page). Everything ticked off the list and it was a pretty productive day for both of us. We decided not to go to the Cruising Club for Sunday roast and, instead, had a quiet night on board.

Monday was a Bank Holiday in New Zealand so it was busy in the marina and the stores were closed – so we had a lazy day on board reading and snoozing. Was lovely!

Tuesday we went through our spares and put an order in for some new filters, a replacement horn for the arch (as it is now sounding pathetic LOL) and various other bits and bobs. We also went through all our provisions to compile our shopping list. We then wandered around the marina and paid off our bills at SeaPower, NSR Rigging and Cater Marine. We also got a new rigging report to confirm that all ‘defects’ had been rectified to send to our insurance company who, very quickly replied, to confirm that we were in compliance and could now leave the dock. Yay!!!! In the evening it was pretty chilly so we had a movie night down below.

Wednesday morning we cleaned the boat and did our final boat jobs and checks. Lists finished for now we were ready to go…so time to have some fun.

In the afternoon we headed into Paihia to meet Mike and Michelle. Mike used to work at the Bank with us and we hadn’t seen him in a very long time – they are on a NZ touring holiday and just so happened to have a free afternoon/evening in Paihia. Amazing coincidence and we had a lovely time catching up with them – we took them to visit Morphie first – and then had a glass or two on the Paihia wharf followed by a great meal at The Alfresco restaurant on the waterfront.

Was really good to see Mike again after such a long time and to meet Michelle. Oh yes, and during our dinner another guy came over and asked if we had worked at the Bank – seriously – and it turns out he was also on the same tour as Mike and Michelle. We should definitely have done the lottery, with these types of odds we might have managed a big win LOL.

Thursday we were up at a reasonable time and headed into Paihia. First stop was the doctors for some more prescription drugs followed by a wander through the town whilst the chemist filled the order. All done we headed to the large Countdown supermarket and did our final provisioning run or, as Richard called it, the “Final Countdown”. We returned to Morphie, put everything away, and got ourselves ready to entertain Chris and Frances as it was our last night in the marina. They came over and we showed them how the Iridium Go! unit worked – the real purpose of the visit – and having done the demo we then just sat and chatted, and drank, and laughed and generally had a lovely evening.

This morning (Friday) we were up very early and headed to the Marina Cafe for breakfast; did some laundry; paid our marina berth fee and parked Bill’s car in a safe place to await his return to Opua to collect it. We tidied everything away down below, checked the charts, and slipped the lines. And, finally, after a very very long time we were leaving the marina behind us.

It was lovely to be back on the water. Of course the wind was very light and from the wrong direction. But the seas were flat and we enjoyed motoring the huge three miles to our destination.

So we are now anchored behind a mooring field in a bay near Russell Yacht Club and are just enjoying bobbing around and checking out the boats.

The Millennium Cup is underway here so there are so lovely big boats racing around and at anchor.

Bye for now

Jan