We got up bright and early at 6:00am to prepare breakfast then set about making sure we were ship shape for our 5 hour trip to Gisborne. I wanted to fuel, as mentioned earlier, so we got underway at 7:00am sharp for the fuel jetty. As we both expected, it was still occupied by the fishing trawler who thought the ample signage saying KEEP CLEAR - FUELLING JETTY ONLY was just for other people not hard arse fishermen!
The other three signs of same size are obscured by the boat!
Anyway I pulled alongside and one of the crew Came out, so he copped an earful. I had been very patient waiting 3 days for him to clear the jetty, so I could fuel up and here they are still tied up obstructing the jetty! I phoned the fuel company and said I want to spend $3000 buying your fuel but a boat is obstructing your pumps. Sadly I cannot buy your fuel so I will have to fill my tanks at Gisborne. That seemed to fire him up! I sent photos of the vessel to him so the fishing company could be identified. After phoning the harbourmaster, he put me on to the council responsible for the area. Jenny at the council, was very sympathetic and had already received my photos, from the fuel company, so she was getting onto the fishing company to wind them up. Apparently this fishing company use it constantly as their personal berth, they just don’t seem to care about anyone else. Well, I stirred the pot as much as possible and left them to sort it out the mess! At least other visiting boats may get to enjoy the benefits of the windup - I hope!
Having done some research I discover Gisborne don’t get have a fuel jetty so fuel has to be trucked to the Marina. Robin and I decided we would reverse H3 into the corner and jump across to a low dock to fuel up. So that’s what I did, leaving the nose sticking out into the channel. Robin dragging the fuel hose over the edge and down to the back corner of the boat. It was a bit risky to do so in the slippery conditions following rain earlier this morning but we were on a mission and the show must go on!
It was sad to leave Ahuriri so soon however I was looking forward to getting into more familiar waters. We headed out for Gisborne finding the sea conditions to be less desirable than those forecast, particularly around the point where we struck a few sets of rogue waves. One was crazy high, the signs were there too, the wind was peeling the top off the wave, a sure sign it will be a steep drop off, it was like a vertical wall of water. I needed to carry enough speed to crest the wave but immediately needed to close the throttles to allow the boat to drop into the enormous trough behind it! That sent a shudder through H3 that I felt in my bones too! To make it interesting we were dodging craypot buoys as well. It was going to be a longer trip than planned.
We continued for an uneventful run through to Gisborne Marina with Robin at the helm. The berth tonight was going to be a barge which we would tie up to. It is quite a distance in to Poverty Bay and there is a fair bit of compression occurring as you come in. It is no wonder this is regarded as such a great surfing spot. I later would see the beach when taking the Brompton to get the bolt I needed to replace the water pump impellers. We arrived an hour later than predicted due to the sea conditions slowing us down, so we had a lot to do before dark. The Marina manager, Grant met us on the barge where I completed the usual contract documents. These days you need evidence of both current Public liability insurance and Electrical WOF, including tagged power lead - all of which we had.
The entrance to the Marina in Gisborne past the port terminal.our barge was well down on the right hand side.
I got the Brompton out ready for the 7 km trek across town to source a 34 UNF bolt. Thankfully Gisborne Engineering had one on the shelf so it was, on my bike and back to the boat. As mentioned before, I biked along the shore and the surf beach. There were several people surfing some really structured waves having some great rides!
Anyway on my way back I tried the more direct route and got a wee bit lost. My instincts let me down today! Thankfully google maps was on my phone in my back pocket so after a check I was off again. Then I went back to trusting my instincts again and........... with the same result! Google got me back to H3.
I arrived back to find that Robin had washed the boat and learnt that our genset had overheated once again. Turned out an overheated raw water intake hose had split allowing the pump to suck air. Now we had more work to complete today! I had used my spare impeller and gasket so would need to buy one here....hopefully. Not my lucky day though, they had none in stock. I realised we didn’t actually need the genset for the last few legs as the auxiliary alternator would keep our batteries fully charged doing our long runs. The generator can take a well earned break and we will just leave it until we arrive back in a couple of days time.
Robin and I got on with the task of extracting the impellers from the Cummins engines and refitting the new ones. The port engine was relatively easy but the starboard engine had restricted access and was more difficult. On inspection, it was clear that changing the impellers was a good idea - I had well and truely had my monies worth out of the old ones! Robin cleaned the raw water Inlet strainers, while I finished off and by then we had our deck floodlights on in the failing light for the tidy up. Our day had been another big one!
Our view from the front window looking back out of the Gisborne Marina entrance
The weather checks confirmed tomorrow was still the best day to round the East Cape, a notoriously bad sea area in New Zealand. It is very exposed, often with strong winds tracking around the peninsula at great speed. To make it even more interesting two sea directions often come together creating huge lift and unpredictable patterns.
We confirmed our intent to depart at 5:00am for White Island, so after tea, retired relatively early for the night.