Gulf Harbour to Station Bay

Pancakes and cereal were a great start to the day and then we were straight into closing out the crew training and safety familiarisation. A quick run to the supermarket for a few more bottles of vino and we were off. With lines slipped we were soon out of the harbour and into the bay. Whilst it was as good as windless it was nonetheless an opportunity to raise the mizen and lower it a couple of times getting everyone familiar with how the furling gear worked, how the preventer was applied and the importance of using the topping lift before hoisting or furling the main. We had lunch underway and before we had finished we arrived at a deserted anchorage, Station Bay on Motutapu Island. With lunch out of the way Andrew swam the 500m to the beach whilst the rest of us, barring the skipper, took the dinghy before taking on a short but sometimes demanding 2k circuitous walk around the headland. We walked past old gun emplacements from world war 2, although why anyone would want to invade this little island is anyones guess, and we tramped through knee high spongy grass that seemed to swallow us up.

Grass was thigh high at time. Fiona with Te Kaihōpara in the background

Back at the beach, Jason the skipper had swum to shore so he took the crew back to TK whilst Andrew and Rob swam. Once onboard Andrew wasted no time and had the fishing line out but despite his perseverance, only the little ones showed any interest in being caught, so back they went for another day. Fiona and Kate made themselves busy in the galley and served up an excellent chicken stir fry. An evening sharing stories and chocolate was a great way to round out what had been a great first day.