Tauranga

Janet “

     "How many?”" David spluttered into his wine glass. “

     "Sixty”," I said proudly.

     This is how many people are following us on our blog. “

     "Ooh, now I feel self-conscious about writing,"” David lamented.

It was day one in Tauranga and we’'d got our first blog post up, sending an email to friends and family inviting them to follow us. We were absolutely delighted with the response.

     The Tauranga stop was to provision for a ten-day sojourn around Coromandel, and to farewell our friend Barkie. He’'d crewed with us up the East Coast. Having him along allowed us to get six precious hours off between watches instead of the barely three we have when its just the two of us. Many thanks for coming along for the ride Barkie, and for the chopping board that fits beautifully into the top of the sink, and for making our electric bilge pump go much better.

    Arriving in our berth at 10am, exhausted, we fell into our bunks, grateful to be tied up to a jetty, no more course to keep or sails to set, for a couple of days. However being in port is usually a busy time. It means domestics for me - laundry, shopping, and cleaning. And for David it means tracking down materials and parts, and fixing things. Life on a yacht is very pink and blue at times. But being in port also means seeing a new place, internet access, and making new friends.

   Firstly we met the boat next door, Westerly from Nelson, and her crew Al and Kelcey, and Ralph the six month-old Jack Russel, who we immediately wanted to adopt. “

     "Hi, where are you from?”"

      "“Nelson, and you?"

    ”  "“Wellington. What kind of hull is that?”"

     I kid you not, this is virtually always the first thing a male yachtie asks after saying hello, and sometimes they even dispense with that. But I always like this next bit: “

     "Come for a drink."” It was duly arranged for 5pm.

We’'ve had the most amazing hospitality on this trip. Maybe it’s about not having a car. Suddenly people are willing to spend extraordinary amounts of time driving us around. Today a man we’d met once briefly in Wellington, drove us everywhere we needed to go, for a whole day. He is Kim Price, the best mate of our dear friend Piet. We called Kim just to say hello when we arrived, and we’'ve had the full service ever since. He is a fellow yachtie and understands the challenges of being in a foreign port and not knowing your way around. He drove us to all the shops we needed, including a South African cheese and sausage shop. I was in heaven, ordering one of each of all the sausages. Our freezer is now a veritable delicatessen.

     However the Gisborne people weren’t even yachties, not even blood relations, being David’s ex-wife’'s family. But no, we were family, and we got driven around, laundry done, and were loved and fed. Many thanks to you all.

With clean bodies, clean laundry, more food and fuel, we departed Tauranga on Wednesday into a stiff breeze that soon died out on us. The iron sail was commissioned. We’'ve done an awful lot of motoring on this trip. But, whatever it takes to get to our next destination.

PS we are now at Great Mercury Island. Will catch posts up soon.