John B
04-11-2002, 06:46 PM
The last of my copying and pasting about the easter just gone... I swear.
Paradise.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p5019a6f896f1f48e939468d7c7397b41/fdd24443.jpg
We all deserve to find some paradise somewhere. We found it ( again ) at easter. It's called Garden cove and it's on the Northern( exposed) side of Waiheke Island. Heres the formula. A slightly dangerous entrance to the cove, marginal depth at low water, a beautiful beach enclosed by the hills and rocks, large trees ( with a rope swing,) only room for a few vessels.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p08808305614bd3321315863a7e4d25e8/fdd274f2.jpg
Approaching from the sea you see the cove with a prominent rock about 30 or 40 ft off the starboard shore( which is also rock.)Thats the entrance. the wide open side to the port of that rock is foul and not recommended for navigation.Get your James Bond music out as you make the entrance because it is definitely an exciting thing to do. We made it to the Cove on the best day of the whole cruise. Calm and with the wind from the south, the cove was like glass. Best of all there was only one trailer sailer in there and it was tight up to the beach so we could put Waione right in the deepest water.
High tide...
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/pc502ae39c388c1a3e0f7ea21440b0f7f/fdd274e6.jpg
We came in on a rising tide and ended up spending the whole day there and then the night.
Low tide. we had 300 mm ( 1 ft)under our keel.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p4cd1229211f17f5b2d206b708db271e4/fdd274e5.jpg
Well nearly the night. See the thing is , the breeze turned to the north at about 2 am ,and by 4 at half ebb tide we needed to get out. We could have stayed if the weather stayed as it was but it might not have .It would have been dead low at about 7am. We might have got trapped in there with an increasing onshore breeze so we baled out.The prudent thing to do.
There was half a moon to see by and the sky was fairly clear. It was beautiful, in fact, but the half metre swell crossing the face of the entrance was a bit of a surprise. No drama though . We threaded out of that gap at about a knot and a half and then punched a quite robust little sea for a couple of hours up to an calm anchorage. The kids slept all the way through it despite the fact that their berth in the bow was pitching perhaps 5 ft or so in the swells as we got further out.
A perfect end to a perfect day I say.
What a place.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p305e11a0360b1f92440cedb1eea082d6/fdd274dd.jpg
As an aside to all this, early in the evening I remarked to someone that it reminded me a bit of an Arthur Ransome adventure, and I ended up telling the two young girls ( 9 and 10)about leading lights or marks and how you use them to make your way through the rocks. One of them dived down below ( we were on Ronaki at the time)and came up with an anthology with one Swallows and Amazons story in it. I 've been trying to get my girl to read these for some time now but she turns her nose up at them. "you're doing what these guys did, you have your own boat, you go off with your friends and row onto beaches and up to rocks, you're on the water most weekends in summer...."... hasn't made any impression. Any way She's interested now, so I'll make haste slowly and get her into them.
[ 04-11-2002, 06:58 PM: Message edited by: John B ]
Paradise.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p5019a6f896f1f48e939468d7c7397b41/fdd24443.jpg
We all deserve to find some paradise somewhere. We found it ( again ) at easter. It's called Garden cove and it's on the Northern( exposed) side of Waiheke Island. Heres the formula. A slightly dangerous entrance to the cove, marginal depth at low water, a beautiful beach enclosed by the hills and rocks, large trees ( with a rope swing,) only room for a few vessels.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p08808305614bd3321315863a7e4d25e8/fdd274f2.jpg
Approaching from the sea you see the cove with a prominent rock about 30 or 40 ft off the starboard shore( which is also rock.)Thats the entrance. the wide open side to the port of that rock is foul and not recommended for navigation.Get your James Bond music out as you make the entrance because it is definitely an exciting thing to do. We made it to the Cove on the best day of the whole cruise. Calm and with the wind from the south, the cove was like glass. Best of all there was only one trailer sailer in there and it was tight up to the beach so we could put Waione right in the deepest water.
High tide...
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/pc502ae39c388c1a3e0f7ea21440b0f7f/fdd274e6.jpg
We came in on a rising tide and ended up spending the whole day there and then the night.
Low tide. we had 300 mm ( 1 ft)under our keel.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p4cd1229211f17f5b2d206b708db271e4/fdd274e5.jpg
Well nearly the night. See the thing is , the breeze turned to the north at about 2 am ,and by 4 at half ebb tide we needed to get out. We could have stayed if the weather stayed as it was but it might not have .It would have been dead low at about 7am. We might have got trapped in there with an increasing onshore breeze so we baled out.The prudent thing to do.
There was half a moon to see by and the sky was fairly clear. It was beautiful, in fact, but the half metre swell crossing the face of the entrance was a bit of a surprise. No drama though . We threaded out of that gap at about a knot and a half and then punched a quite robust little sea for a couple of hours up to an calm anchorage. The kids slept all the way through it despite the fact that their berth in the bow was pitching perhaps 5 ft or so in the swells as we got further out.
A perfect end to a perfect day I say.
What a place.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/p305e11a0360b1f92440cedb1eea082d6/fdd274dd.jpg
As an aside to all this, early in the evening I remarked to someone that it reminded me a bit of an Arthur Ransome adventure, and I ended up telling the two young girls ( 9 and 10)about leading lights or marks and how you use them to make your way through the rocks. One of them dived down below ( we were on Ronaki at the time)and came up with an anthology with one Swallows and Amazons story in it. I 've been trying to get my girl to read these for some time now but she turns her nose up at them. "you're doing what these guys did, you have your own boat, you go off with your friends and row onto beaches and up to rocks, you're on the water most weekends in summer...."... hasn't made any impression. Any way She's interested now, so I'll make haste slowly and get her into them.
[ 04-11-2002, 06:58 PM: Message edited by: John B ]