Epic fail. The sun set as Matiatia came into sight and we navigated the Waiheke Channel with a torch, a chart, and no know-how. A bunch of fancy boats with lights seemed to think they were better than us and kept trying to crash into the little boat that could. This will be our last night voyage before pimping our ride with LED lighting. We located Passage Rock and sailed 45 degrees north-east into Otakaphe Bay. With a torch, our mooring failed to stand out, so we just picked up a random one and stowed everything away. We used about 10L of petrol for the crossing, which took about 5 hours. For two of those hours, the stop-cock on the fuel can was closed and the engine finally stalled due to suffocation. A small twist and we were back on the road.
At camp (Wallingford house), we all decided to stay up and finally retired around 1.00am. As agreed, the crew sans Eve arose at 5.30am, but it was still dark, so we went back to bed and hopped up at 6.30am, went down to the boat and motored her ashore. The process was very easy and the incline of the bay meant the prop didn’t get fouled even at full depth. We then headed back up and had an English Breakfast.
Around 9.00am, the full crew walked down to get our work on. Aground, Simple Image looked steady and secure. This was confirmed on boarding; the keels and rudder leading edge made a stable tripod and the boat was steady as a rock, even on the bow! We started off by scraping the solid fouling off with a metal scrapper. A few hours of sanding and rinsing and getting VERY dirty resulted in us removing 90% of the previous antifouling paint. A grey primer was left underneath and we decided to paint at midday to allow drying. With a roller, painting took 30 minutes and from the water line down, Simple Image was new again.
Ben the family man had to head back to the mainland and Sam’s Mum came to the rescue, taking Ben and Frenchie to the 5.00pm ferry. Sam and Eve stayed behind and Sam refloated Simple and moored her in her rightful place. Eve and Sam then stayed at Sam’s Mum’s house overnight.
9.00am Sunday18th March 2007, Eve and Sam left Otakaphe Bay under sail and headed back to Devonport. After 20 minutes, the rain came crashing down and the wind picked up to 20 knots. By 10.00am, Sam had pulled down the sails in favour of a direct course and we headed towards Howick. The swells were huge and really knocked the boat around. Water continuously came over the bow and straight into the cockpit. There was not a minute of dryness and so a picture wasn’t taken. It’s hard to describe how small the boat felt in the waves, but thankfully we rounded Musik Point at midday. Here the waves turned out to be even worse and the wind came through directly between the mainland and Rangitoto. Down below, things were crashing around and the swab bases kept banging up and down. With 2L left of out 14L of petrol, we collected the mooring with Eve at the helm after only one failed attempt! The boat was tidied, and shipshape, rested at home in Devonport with a cleaner hull than any of the pretentious Devonport Yacht Club boats.
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