This was me leaving the marina - mid February bound for Auckland to do final preparation and pick up Robin
Jo took this shot too, on the same day - H3 heading out into the bar at Tairua
As Planned, we pulled out of the Eastern anchorage at Mayor Island just prior to 7:15am, logging our trip report as we idled out of the bay. We had a ‘less than perfect’ night as mentioned previously but hey it really didn’t matter today, with such a short leg back to where it all began several months ago. The wind was about 15 knots from the South West and the sea was running North East. We were seeing a swell height of 2 - 2.5 metres which surprised me, particularly for this time of day but again this swell was coming from well out to the East of NZ where the passing low was doing its thing. That low had smashed Tairua with enormous winds and rainfall last weekend causing significant flooding and some damage to homes, with evidence of slips on and roads and private property. Paku had a shallow river running down the hill where it accumulated to form a lake at the intersection at the base of Paku and surrounding areas. The rugby field was completely awash and was featured on Youtube when some lads were wake boarding on the fields - towed by a car on the street alongside! Our beach house driveway was apparently also a torrent with some damage to the edges of the tarmac. It was to be a redo sometime in the near future anyway so this has just given me the information I needed as to what best to do regarding stormwater run-off. My neighbour wasn’t so lucky with her kitchen swamped by a blocked stormwater drain to the rear of her house which will result in a new kitchen. My point is, even weather systems that have passed through can impact boating conditions for several days after.
I digress, we cruised at 18 knots once the engines were up to temperature and we were surfing the waves, meaning we would arrive to the entrance of Tairua early. I was pleased about this as I wanted to have time to assess the bar, get radio calls in to enter the bar and then, if successful, to close our trip report after negotiating the bar. As we approached slipper Island I changed to channel 20 for the latest local weather forecasts and bar report. The forecast was disturbing; Tairua bar was described as grade 3 and unworkable. We cruised past Skipper in the lee of the Island meaning almost no swell but sadly slipper does not shield the bar. As we passed Slipper heading North the swell was back with a swell period of 12 seconds (quite fast) and the height was around 2.5 Metres again. I thought we should continue towards the leading mark for the correct track and assess prior to entering the bar. I phoned a local, Stuart who advised me he was in Whangamata so he was unable to help me. I remembered another local John, who was an experienced skipper who had commercially operated on the West Coast of the South Island. He took a look at the bar for me and said “stay close to the rocks and you should be fine, particularly with your boat length”.
The waves can really stand up on Tairua
I radioed Whitianga to advise we would be crossing the bar in 15 minutes or so, once we had reached the mark and assessed the situation. I would radio once we were in the Marina, as recommended by Coastguard for Tairua bar users. I rechecked our lead marks and after a large swell rolled under us, we were off. We were running at about 18 knots constantly readjusting our boat speed to stick with the wave. I let a couple roll under us before choosing the one to take us all the way in. Robin watched out behind, calling the following wave position while I focused on the task in front of me. In our final push, the nose of H3 was just touching the back of two waves standing ‘bow high’ in front, they were about to break. They compress up as they hit the shallows, now the stern of the boat was being pursued by another building wave immediately behind. Just then the radio burst into life, it was Whitianga Coastguard following up to see if we had made it through ok. I tried to respond but it became clear he couldn’t hear me, so I dropped the microphone on the seat beside me to focus on the task in hand. Paku obscures the radio signal creating a blind spot - not ideal! I was feeling bad that they were worrying about us and I couldn’t allay their fears. We continued to slow, as the sea compressed, until the waves had collapsed in front enabling me to speed up, staying clear of the following, now breaking wave.
As we cruised up the channel into the marina I gave Robin a ‘high five’ to acknowledge both the safe bar crossing and also the end of our mammoth voyage around our beautiful and rugged country. There was a strong sense of achievement as we meandered between the channel marks. The slipper Island boat was heading out towards us but being a small vessel, he ran outside the channel to give us room to continue in. There was even a lady swimming on my starboard side, parallel with the channel. I sounded the horn, with a little ‘pip’ to let her know I was there so as not to ‘freak her out’ when we slipped by, only a few metres from her.
As I approached my berth in Tairua, Whitianga Coastguard radioed us once more. Again I responded but we were still in the blind spot and not being heard. This has happened to me before in here. This is very frustrating for me and very distracting. I had to have two goes to align correctly to enter the berth, something I have never had to do in here. I ended up googling their phone number and rang them to close my trip report advising them we were safely in the marina.
That done, we set about securing the boat and sorting the boat inside, including giving her a wash to remove all the salt from our trip into Tairua. We had taken one big dip while surfing down a large wave, so there was a bit of water that went past the hatch seals. Just enough to be a nuisance. Robin started washing down while I chatted with a couple of locals I hadn’t seen for some time. Once I returned to H3 I made a coffee and called Robin in to join me ( should have been a bottle of Champagne but there was work to do and a drive home). I was still feeling hyped up from the bar crossing and the excitement of being back in Tairua ( my other home). To be perfectly honest I just wanted to sit down, enjoy the moment and reflect on our achievement. We will do that another day soon.
Horizon III after a wash down. She looks remarkably good after many thousands of nautical miles at sea.
I phoned Andrew, a local involved in Coastguard to complain about the lack of signal for Whitianga channel 63. He acknowledged there was an issue but that the locals use Whangamata channel 4 as it has full coverage of the Tairua Bar. Well that fired me up! I said to him, “why does the latest online Coastguard data point people to 63’? Visiting boaties rely solely on this information. It should be pointing us to use the channel which actually works, primarily for the boatie (customer) and then for them. If there are other reasons for Coastguard wanting to use 63 then put a repeater in to Tairua to fix the problem! Lowest cost though would suggest that they should recommend boaties to use channel 4 not 63 - pretty damn simple wouldn’t you think?? I know, first hand, how dangerous this bar can be, but to point us to use a channel with known blind spots is well... nothing short of crazy! I will follow up with a letter to these guys, as this must change! It is simply too dangerous and setting us up, to screw up! Any distraction when handling a boat in tough conditions is a recipe for disaster.
My next Blog will be journey’s review and reflections hopefully to inspire other boaties to do what we have done. I would thoroughly recommend it!