Sunset at Islington Harbour Rangitito

Shelter at last - Sunset at Islington Harbour Rangitito

Shelter at last - Sunset in Islington Harbour at Rangitito after an Interesting day - February 1999 It seemed time to leave the Coromandel and head across into the extra shelter of the Tamaki strait as the forecasts weregetting worse. We crossed over to Waiheke and entered down the wide Waiheke channel. The forecast was for 25 knots gusting upwards and the nowcasting was broadcasting Tiri Tiri at 34 knots so we had both reefs in the main from the start - Largesse does not have easyjacks to contain the sail so you either have to be able to flake it better than we ever managed or use extra ties to reef her neatly, on one occasion we did not use the ties it all escaped leaving a six foot pocket billowing sideways which looked most unprofessional. In the event the crossing was not as bad as we feared and after crossing into shelter we took out one reef and it was a pleasant cruise down the Tamaki Strait.

The wind and seas however increased rapidly as we passed the end of the Motuihi Channel and were briefly exposed to the open seas. There was only a couple of miles to our sheltered mooring at Islington so I let her run to find out what she was capable off - rails almost in the water and spray over the front. The GPS on the few occasions I had time to look at it was always showing over 7 and up to 9.6 knots and it certainly felt like well over 7 knots - Pauline's comments are unprintable and she was very pleased glad when the ten minutes were over and we entered the shelter of Islington! She said she always knew there is trouble when I develop a demonic grin and wrap my self round the rails - she goes down and hides from the flying spray. Overall 32 NM in 6 hours.

When I originally wrote this section sitting at anchor in Islington Bay I was trying to convince myself the weather was getting better. It was not - I had just looked out to see the dingy go past a meter high and slowly turning over! The forecast was for 25 knot winds but the automatic station was reading 35 knots at Tiritiri a few miles up the Hauraki Gulf. We were forced to hide in Islington for two days with one move as the wind swung round from the NE to SE and increased to be gusting to up to 55 knots. We did at least catch a Kahawai for supper and there was a Spectacular Sunset. One yacht dragged its anchor at high tide the next day and was on the edge of the Motuhui channel before he realised and another went aground as the wind swung. We took regular sightings with the hand compass and stayed firm but getting the anchor out at the end was fun. It looked as if it had pulled the chain down 1.5 meters into the thick grey mud.