Opua, New Zealand

Those extra 2 weeks we spent in Opua were put to good use.  Since we had a paying gig this time, we didn’t just take off and go exploring ashore.  Instead, we did boat work.  What kind of boat work?  The yucky kind.  Observe:

But this article wasn’t titled “passing grey water” was it?

No, no it was not and for good reason…

Fortunately, while we did a lot of messy stuff, not all of it was disgusting.  Ever seen the inside of a sailing winch?  (That’s the rolly thing that holds the lines on the sails, just FYI.)  Here’s what’s going on in there:

(Greg would like to note how Tiffany got assigned the winches and he got assigned the poop clogs.  The fact that Tiffany is the trained civil engineer makes this doubly outrageous…)

But when “thanks for going the extra mile” takes the form of a bottle of fine new Zealand wine from the owner alongside a nice meal, well, things look up:

Finally, our grog files came in handy!

Eventually we did get to sail out of Opua and through the Bay of Islands.

It was gorgeous.  Since the location of the delivery had changed from Australia to farther south in New Zealand, we were no longer in a rush and got to do a bit of hiking on the islands.  Here are some of the sights from around the bay and down the coast:

[fgallery id=12 w=450 h=385 t=0 title=”New Zealand sailing”]

When we arrived in our delivery port we got busy emptying tanks, storing sails and greasing stainless for the long trip on the delivery ship.  The most interesting part of this whole trip was watching our 64 foot ketch get hoisted onboard a bulk carrier and strapped down on deck for the journey back to the States:

Now that’s an interesting way to leave a boat!

After waving our boat into the sunset and having one last L&P for good measure it was time to find our car keys, board the flight and return to our next Australian adventure:

Wallabies

About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out atwww.CoastGuardCouple.com!