Storm at sea on route to White Island
It was an early alarm that woke us up at 4:15am Tuesday - we had the big trip today around East Cape, then due West to Whakaari (White Island) (Considered New Zealand’s safety valve for geothermal activity).
We untied the ropes just before 5:00am and cruised out of Gisborne Marina. I made my radio call on the way out, trying Coastguard first (I was unable to raise them the day before). Today they answered loud and clear. I advised our trip report and agreed to provide an update at White Island. As we cruised out we felt the swell rolling in on our port side which was surprising with there being no wind to speak of. Clearly the recent weather events had left their mark out at sea and the swells have lingered on as they so often do when generated far out to sea. Once clear of the shipping channel we turned due East and headed straight into the waves - at least we weren’t rolling side to side now, but I needed to hold the speed back to avoid the banging and crashing. The waves continued to lift in size until we began to drop off them, giving the boat a hard time. So I decided to tack to port into the lee of the bay where we could take the sea at about 45 degrees, increasing the roll,but looking after the boat. It was still pitch black as we cruised out monitoring the GPS and the RADAR screen all the way. As we ventured further out of Poverty Bay we were able to shift 10 degrees at a time towards a more northerly heading as we rounded Tuaheni Point which made for smoother motoring. We were slowly increasing speed and bringing our heading towards the north east with the sea on our starboard quarter. Robin took over the helm around Tolaga Bay and took us around to the Cape. After our experience yesterday, Robin was a little reluctant to go between East Island but I convinced him we had a better angle to take the sea rather than the track we were on which would have taken us around the outside. once we changed course our ride improved and we made the rounding of Cape in heavy cloud with rain showers, but still at speed.
The view just prior to rounding the Cape
The East Cape..... at last! If you look closely you can see the lighthouse towering above the sea on the cliff top.
The rounding, for me, was very significant, as this was the last of the really exposed seas we needed to negotiate - or so I thought! More about that tomorrow. We continued towards White Island with a following sea and clearing skies in front, as the wind circled around our port stern quarter. The wind was now slowly easing too. We motored in to White Island for a closer look. The sea was still a bit too big to anchor up and go ashore. There were already a couple of Helicopters parked in amongst the steam and rugged stony landscape. There was virtually no vegetation at all with the exception of two wings of land either side which were far enough out to enable grasses and scrub to get established. It made for a very unique looking Island - certainly in New Zealand. We could say this now as we have completely circumnavigated New Zealand - well almost anyway, actually only one leg to go after today! The air was thick with the smell of sulphur and the evidence of sulphur on the surface of the landscape was obvious. Apparently they mined sulphur there in the early 1900’s until a lahar in 1910 took the lives of 10 miners. What a terrible way to go! There is a crater lake which is vivid green but not visible without going ashore.
Steam billowing into the air from the vents near the old crater.
A helicopter landed shortly after landing close to the steam vent near the centre of the photo.
We took some photos and moved around to the southern side in the shallower waters, interesting that is was around 1100 Metres deep approaching the Island rapidly rising to 100 metres deep close in. Monitoring the ocean floor as we went around the Island we saw the bottom was like a saw tooth so anchoring was going to be seriously risking. There was no way I wanted to be stuck out here glued to the ocean floor! We decided to drift fish for a bit but we were clearly in the wrong spot - nothing doing here. While my mates Shaun and Johno could have put us ‘right on the spot’ to catch all sorts of good eating fish with their local knowledge. We gave up soon after and continued on our way after first having lunch.
By now the sea had flattened a bit so it was back to the helm for me for the next couple of hours to Mayor Island. As we came closer the swell was increasing in height, the wind was also behind us. It has been 40 odd years since I was last here and from memory South East Bay was the only safe haven. As we cruised in a ferry came in from our port side and just pipped us to the bay. We ventured in behind them to find very little room and a massive swell rolling in to the beach. We quickly agreed that we would not be staying in here for the night! So we cruised around to the Eastern side to get some shelter from the swell and wind although later that night it did shift around to the East which was a blessing as the southerly keep us at 90 degrees to the sea swell with much rocking and rolling! Only after the wind shift arrived around midnight, did we get a peaceful night at anchor.
It was only a snack dinner of bacon and egg toasted sandwiches. We hadn’t burnt much energy today just a whole lot of sitting around. It was now about 5:30pm so 12 hours of motoring behind us and it was hard to believe we were in Gisborne this ,morning. We had a celebratory glass of wine to mark our last night of our intrepid circumnavigation. Only intrepid because Mother Nature did not give us a soft passage, she threw a significant amount of crap at us to see how we would cope. I think we did ok, doing something that most wouldn’t want to tackle. Obviously many don’t have their spare time to this trip either but at long last I did, so I had run out of reasons why I couldn’t do this. For now though it’s off to bed with a lot of excitement about heading into Tairua, where this journey began 10 weeks ago, with my trip to Auckland to complete last preparations and pick up my brother, Robin. We could sleep in a bit tomorrow; with a planned departure of 7:15am latest in order to catch the top of the tide at Tairua ensuring our best chance of a safe bar crossing.
I know I promised no more sunrises.......so true to my word I posted the last sunset of our voyage :-)