Bay of Islands to Great Barrier Island

Having anchored in Te Rawhit Inlet overnight which was pleasant, it was now time to start heading south towards the Great Barrier Islands. The plan from the captain was to lift anchor mid- morning,  sailing through-out the day and continue into the night. Forward starboard watch would be first on shift for the day doing the 8am to 12 noon shift. With the weather forecast showing cloudy but dry for the day we decided at 1045 to weigh the anchor and start our passage.

The passage would see us island hop throughout the day. First up was Te Korowhiti Rock which was seen by the morning watch. Come 1400 and Cape Brett was ticked off the list of places we had passed while still heading south towards the Great Barrier Island region.

1612 the ships yards were squared as we experienced winds from the stern. With this wind behind us meant we were now getting pushed along quite nicely.

Soon after squaring the sails we passed the famous “Hole in the Rock” where the ship passed it by a matter of a 100 metres or so. This gave everyone an opportunity to take photos of some New Zealand heritage.

2000 Forward starboard watch were back on the bridge to do their night watch. Throughout the watch we passed Paki Point with the weather giving us NW force 4 winds, broken cloud and calm sea state with a boat speed of 4 knots.

2400 Before heading to bed we had one last job to do which was to stow the “fore course” (one of the traditional sails) due to us needing to slow down and allow us to arrive closer to our ETA.

Weather forecast: Overcast and low swell

A new day was upon as we sailed past Burgess Island between 0500 – 0800.

1200 We passed Mahuki Island where everyone managed to catch glimpses of the birds covering the whole island.

1300 We passed Pigeon’s Rock as we continued to our anchorage which had an ETA of 1630.

1600 The forward starboard watch handed over to the Aft Port watch who would continue to take us to our anchorage in the Great Barrier Islands.