Waihau Bay - Moutohora Island

We've still got a few miles to go before we get to our berth booked in Tauranga for Wednesday, so we made another jump today to Moutohora Island. As was suggested by last night's fiery sunset, today was an absolute stunner.

We pulled up the anchor and motored in absolutely glassy conditions out into the Bay of Plenty. The water quickly turned a brilliant blue and was super clear. We were greeted by dolphins twice again today (since we left Wellington we've seen dolphins every day except Saturday when we stopped at Mahia). We got some pretty cool footage with the 360 camera of the dolphins playing in the bow wave.

As we made our way towards Whakatane, we could see Whakaari (White Island) steaming moodily in the distance. We discussed sailing past for a closer look, but it's quite a bit out of the way, so we decided to give it a miss.

We made fresh sushi for lunch, using one fillet from last night's Kahawai. Afterwards we settled in for the long haul, with Nathan reading on the bow while Vela enjoyed some K-pop in the cockpit.

The sea breeze eventually came in and the sails came out, giving us a welcome speed boost and respite from the engine. We arrived at Moutohora after roughly 8 hours of sailing, just in time for dinner. Nathan whipped up some fish wraps, but we're getting a bit low on salad supplies, so they were a little bit ordinary today.

After dinner, Nathan spotted a seal colony lounging on the nearby rocks and managed to get a couple of half decent photos through the binoculars. Unfortunately the seals being present put paid to any fancy ideas of spear fishing off the point tomorrow... After the sun set, we raised the boat transom, wouldn't want to wake up in the morning to a neighbour sunning themselves on our duck board!Read more