Wind & Rain at Wharekaho

With a terrible forecast, we were surprised to start the day with a fantastic sunrise, which Nathan was up early enough to enjoy.

The morning was spent marveling at the massive schools of Kahawai and bait fish that seemed to be doing laps around the bay - followed of course by flocks of sea birds. The school came right up and underneath Starling, which prompted Nathan to get some fishing lines in the water (hooked a Kahawai which released itself alongside the boat...) Snapper were the target however and no luck with them at this stage.

The forecast wind and rain did eventually arrive, and we saw gusts up to 35kt on our wind gear (likely closer to 40kt). Vela spent this time doing some planning for our overseas trip, while Nathan took advantage of the extra water and scrubbed the decks in the cockpit.

While this was going on, we were joined in our anchorage by the Spirit of New Zealand, looking very cool in the wild and misty weather. We watched as she laid both her anchors in a V-formation which helps reduce the swinging at anchor and likelihood of dragging in the big gusts.

Eventually the weather settled down and the day was bookended with another beautiful sunset. Nathan pulled the fishing rods back out and hooked a little Koheru. This went back in the water as a live bait with dreams of attracting a Kingfish (no luck) and was later pulled back out and added to the bait bag. Nathan was also able to land a nice pan size snapper, the first for a long time! Looking forward to this going in some wraps for lunch tomorrow.もっと詳しく