The first time we had lived in Auckland, more than ten years ago, our living quarters were in a rented high rise apartment near the trendy neighborhood of Ponsonby.  Westhaven Marina is located within easier walking distance of the city center than Ponsonby, but the air pollution is worse.  Due to an absence of  regulations, automobile exhaust is thick, and autos are imported into New Zealand without catalytic converters.  A wind will blow the city clear of the smog, but during the calmer summer months the air pollution index climbs very high.  The air in the marina was clear, but I when I walked into the business district to run errands, after three hours my eyes would water so badly that I could not see.

			Nonetheless, our bicycles gave us many fun rides from the marina, along the waterfront, through the America's Cup Viaduct Basin and in to the city.  We even biked to an evening movie at the Sky City Cinema Complex which resembles a science fiction space city, with wildly lighted elevated catwalks and escalators to take you up many levels to the movie theaters.

			Each evening, the streets and sidewalks were filled with young people out on the town, seeing and being seen, many of them Asians with camcorders taking videos of the activity, from the tops of passing cars and street corners.

			We were not sure when we could safely make our way north to the Bay of Islands because of the confused and unpredictable weather situation.  It's not very far to go but the seas in the area can become nasty.

			While we waited in Auckland for a weather window to sail north, Steve stayed busy designing the deck layout for several new sail trimming lines so that we would be able to "tweak" the sails from the safety of the cockpit.  He was also designing a replacement for our boom vang.  The current "air strut" vang was unable to hold the boom up when we were reefing the mainsail.  He was also considering having a hydraulic boom lifting system installed.

			We took our jib and mainsail off the boat so the sailmaker could give them their much-needed maintenance and inspection before our big trip to Alaska.

			I located a net maker in Nelson who made ADAGIO superb new trampolines.

			We were examining two different routes for our passage to Alaska, and calculated that there were approximately 3 days travel time difference between the two routes.

			Route A (7100 nautical miles) would take us from New Zealand to Tahiti (14 days), then Tahiti to Hawaii (14 days), then Hawaii to Sitka, Alaska (14 days).  The advantages of this route were that the voyage is divided into three equal parts, allowing us to rest and reprovision in first world countries.  Each leg of the voyage is approximately 2 weeks.  Another advantage is that we can make crew changes easily, and the family members of our crew could join us for a bit of cruising at each destination along the way.

			Route B (6375 nautical miles) would take us from New Zealand to Fiji (7 days), then Fiji to Tuvalu (3 days), then Tuvalu to Kiribati (4 days), then Kiribati to Majuro in the Marshall Islands (2 days), and finally Majoro to Sitka, Alaska (19 days).  This routing is only 3 or 4 days sailing time and 720 nautical miles shorter than route A.  Advantages are that there are more frequent rest stops.  Disadvantages are that the rest stops do not allow for first world provisioning, boat repair and medical services if we should need them.  Also we could not change crew after Fiji due to prohibitive airline costs.

			Additional advantages to Route A include opportunities to cruise among the Society islands to the northwest of Tahiti, and to visit Hawaii.  There would be a slight danger that an early season cyclone could pop up unexpectedly in the vicinity of Tuvalu.  However the passage from New Zealand to Tahiti could also bring some pretty rough weather.  Our thinking was that with a flexible departure date and good weather routing advice we could avoid this bad weather.

			On Sunday, January 25, we untied our dock lines and stowed our fenders as we departed Westhaven Marina in Auckland.  It was a long weekend, "Anniversary Day", for Aucklanders, and they were all out on the water.  We saw a hundred small fishing boats in a pass north of our route.  We sailed to beautiful Waiheke Island, just 12 nautical miles from Auckland.  We proceeded along its southern shore for another 12 nautical miles, and up its eastern shore to Man 'O War Bay where we anchored at about 1 PM.  Ours was the best location in the anchorage, and more than sixty other boats anchored behind us.  People were swimming from the beach, and two men swam out to ADAGIO to have a look and a chin wag with me.  They were fellow catamaran sailors.

			The wind was light, and was forecast to be light in the morning, even though we had arranged to meet our sail maker in this anchorage for a test sail.  Two days earlier we had received delivery of our spinnaker.  The wind never arrived, but our weekend away from the marina was superb, cruising the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.  The last night we anchored in full view of the Auckland skyline and Rangitoto Island in the distance as flames of sunset filled the skies and painted the water and ADAGIO in pinks and reds.

			I toured two islands, Rangitoto and Tiri Tiri Matangi, in the gulf near Auckland and have written a separate illustrated document about it, entitled "From Volcanoes to Pohutukawa Forests in New Zealand".

			We would need to have a car while we were in the Bay of Islands, so I took a bus to the small town of Whangarei near the Bay of Islands, bought a car at auction, drove it to Russell, stayed overnight with friends, and took the bus back to Auckland.  Easy peasy.  For NZ$4000, charged to my credit card, I bought a Nissan Bluebird with dual air bags, after having it inspected by the New Zealand Auto Association.

			We met some fellow cruisers who had recently cruised in the islands of Vanuatu. I thought you would enjoy hearing what the people of the islands of Vanuatu call a piano:  "Big black box, kick him in the teeth and he scream".

			At last there came the weather for a short test sail with our sail maker to trial our new spinnaker.  His chase-boat crew took some good photos of the operation.  It was a real eye opener.  I was very happy.  I had not been so sure I wanted to wrestle with such a large sail as a spinnaker again.  But the ATN Snuffer worked dependably, as soon as we got the hand of its quirks and pulled hard enough on the retrieving line.  We would need a lot of practice to make it fool proof.  The Snuffer makes it easy to hoist and unfurl the spinnaker when you want to sail, and then to snuff the spinnaker and lower it when you want to take it down.  The spinnaker moved ADAGIO through the water at 6 knots boat speed in 10 knots of wind.  Perhaps we can now sail in the light winds rather than motoring.  The spinnaker is gorgeous, by the way.

			We have arranged to be in the Bay of Islands at Alan Legge's Boatyard for haul out by February 1.  The best tidal range was to occur on February 5 and 6.  We needed a three meter tidal range so that we could tie ADAGIO in place over the concrete boat ramp at high tide at 8 PM.  At low tide at 3 AM the house moving truck would lift ADAGIO off the dried out ramp and haul her to the boat yard nearby.  That gave us about a week to get ADAGIO up to the BOI and get organized.  We had time to do some sightseeing on the way.  There were several islands and bays we wanted to visit, continuing to follow in the wake of Captain Cook.

			We departed Westhaven Marina in the early afternoon of February 5, in fresh breezes. The wind forecast was for 25 knots of wind from the SE, then easing to 15 knots.  We had a rollicking sail blasting across the region of the Hauraki Gulf where the America’s Cup boat races had been held for the past three years.  They could have used some of our wind.  We were making 10 to 11 knots of boat speed in 20 to 25 knots of true wind, under full main and jib.  After four hours sail we set the anchor in Harris Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island in 5 meters of water.  A few houses nestled on the shore with small jetties out into the bay.  It was a beautiful small harbour.  The cloudless sky allowed the nearly full moon to shine its brightest.

			As the sun set, the anchorage began to fill with boats, with more arriving after dark.  You would be amazed at some of the mega motoryachts that anchored around us. One was the size of a small hotel, and just as noisy.  As we prepared dinner after sunset, more and more boats came into the anchorage, and before we turned in there were 100 boats all around us.  A look at the "2003/2004 Auckland Harbour Events Calendar" showed that today was the "Night Race to Kawau Island sponsored by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.  Well, timing is everything.  We should have known by the names of the boats (Xaviera, Cutting Edge, Photon, Heluva Hurry, E Type II, Bull Rush, Dynamo, Mind Bender, Arch Rival, SatelliteSpy, Fast Company, Mustang Sally) and the mostly all male crews, that our visit to Kawau Island had coincided with a sailboat race.  I think Junkyard Dog was also a race boat but I'm not certain.  By contrast, the cruising boats around us had names like Roam, Elysium, Fulmar, Warringa, Legal Tender (must be a lawyer or banker), Nimble, Namu, Plane Jane and Viva.

			In between peeling carrots for the chicken stew, I had to stand on the bow of ADAGIO and ask other boats to please not anchor upwind of us, on top of where we had set our anchor.  We have learned from experience that the skipper of another boat will be more cooperative when a woman asks him to move.  My strategy is to stand on the bow of ADAGIO, making sure the other boat's skipper can see that I am watching him, and just before (not after) he begins to lower his anchor, I ask him to please find a different place to anchor as he is dropping his anchor on top of ours.  I then walk slowly back to the cockpit, as an indication that I expect he will do as I requested.  If not, I return to the bow and ask with more emphasis, and invite Steve to join me.  An electronic bullhorn works wonders in difficult situations.  If all else fails, we would raise our own anchor and move out of a dangerous situation.

			I had been enjoying reading The Journals of Captain James Cook, as we followed his route along the east coast of New Zealand.  We visited several of his anchorages, and can see how much things have changed since his first visit. He encountered many of the native Maori people, some friendly and some not so friendly, and traded cloth for fish, collected fire wood and water and native "celery" which he fed to his men to prevent scurvy.

			After we departed Kawau Island, we sailed north along the beautiful east coast of the North Island, counting the sandy beaches and rocky headlands, bays and  volcano peaks as we went.  On Friday we anchored in Whangaruru Harbour, a beautiful deep inlet rimmed with beaches, tree-clad rocky cliffs and dotted with islands green and red in bonsai Pohutukawa trees.

			Saturday morning we continued up the coast, rounded Cape Brett and passed Piercy Island (named as a pun by Captain James Cook after a Mr. Piercy) which has a huge hole through it and which has become a fun tourist treat as the tour boats take passengers through the "hole in the rock".  It was wonderful to be once more sailing the waters we had come to know so well when we lived in New Zealand for six years.  We were slipping gently and gradually into our old haunts.

			As we entered the beautiful Bay of Islands, we tried hailing our various friends on VHF radio, with no responses.  We finally reached our sailing friends Jane and Shelly aboard their yacht MAGIC DRAGON. They were anchored in Indigo Bay at Urupukapuka Island.  We turned and retraced our course, as we had passed the island, and a pod of dolphins swam under ADAGIO, seeming to take refuge from the large "swim with the dolphins" tourist boats that were in hot pursuit.  We stopped ADAGIO and let the dolphins pass safely beneath her hulls.

			Jane and Shelly came aboard ADAGIO for dinner, as we had a rack of wonderful New Zealand cervena (venison) we had bought in Auckland, just crying out to be shared with friends.  Steve unpacked our BBQ for the first time in over a year, and I grilled the cervena chops my mother's style.  We chatted for hours about mutual friends, sailing routes and technical boat issues.

			On Sunday we sailed out to the north of the islands for a bit of practice with our giant blue spinnaker.  As we were going to be sailing in the vicinity of infamous Whale Rock on which Captain Cook had scraped his keel, and named it Whale Rock, uncertain as to whether he had hit a whale or a rock, we marked this navigation danger with a red diamond on our electronic chart.  We sorted out a problem we had been having to pull the corner of the sail out of the "snuffer" cone, and flew the giant blue jellybean-shaped sail first on port tack, then snuffed it, gybed the boat and unsnuffed it again to sail on starboard tack.  The snuffer is designed to allow us to hoist the spinnaker to the top of the mast, stowed inside a long sausage-shaped tube of fabric, then release it from its tube by hoisting the bell-shaped cone at the bottom of the "sausage case". The cone stays at the top of the mast until we are ready to "snuff" the sail.  We do this by pulling the cone and thus the sausage tube down over the sail, spilling the wind out of the sail and then allowing us to lower the sail in its tube to the foredeck.  It worked beautifully.  Steve was disappointed that the 10 knots of wind fell to 7.5 knots, but Dorothy was thrilled to see ADAGIO sailing at 5 knots of boat speed in 7.5 knots of wind.

			After showers, we joined our MAGIC DRAGON friends at an anchorage in Parakura Bay, near the point of land where the New Zealand opera diva Kiri Tikanawa has a home.  Shelly came aboard and showed us how to adjust our windlasses to allow the clutch to work in order to ease the tension on the entire anchoring system.  He also showed Steve how to measure the distance the alternator brackets are vibrating.  The brackets have failed again, for the fourth time.  The design is wrong, and we will hopefully have them re-engineered to a design that will not fail.  Shelly and Jane invited us aboard MAGIC DRAGON for coffee and freshly baked chocolate cake.  They built MAGIC DRAGON, designed and built all the systems, and have been cruising for almost 40 years.

			The next morning "The Dragons" had departed for their nearby home port of Kerikeri.  But we watched a small dinghy work its way upwind from across the bay towards ADAGIO.  It was bringing our friends David and Susan Goodall from their sailing vessel IMAGINE.  David had crewed for us from Nelson to Auckland, and we were happy to see him and Susan out cruising in their own boat.  Soon another dinghy approached, bringing our friends John and Ella from their sailing vessel QUICK DECISION. They used to have their boat on a mooring near our house and we let them park their car in our driveway and use our beach to store their dinghy. It was wonderful to share stories and bring ourselves up to date on the goings on in the Bay of Islands over the past three and a half years.  John and Ella have sailed together since the mid 1960's. They are wonderful sources for the history of the area.

			Monday morning it was time for us to make our way along the beautiful chain of islands -- Urupukapuka, Okahu, Motukeikie, Moturua, Motuarohia (Roberton Island where there is an underwater snorkeling trail), then past Tapeka Point, the historic town or Russell, and into Pomare Bay.  We picked up our mooring in front of our house.  What a beautiful bay.  Still just as we had left it, with the addition of a couple of new houses up the hill.  We bailed the rain water out of the hulls of our dinghy, launched it, and I ferried Steve ashore.  We had telephoned our friends Jeremy and Diana who are summering in their holiday home up the hill from our home.  Their son Sam had just arrived and offered to give Steve a lift to the ferry so that Steve could walk to Alan Legge's boat yard to get our car.  Our house sitter Matt graciously ferried Steve back to ADAGIO, and came aboard for a visit.  He filled us in on many of the local happenings.

			Early in the morning on February 10, birds were singing in the trees ashore, across mirror calm waters.  We measured one meter of water under the keel at low tide.  A cruise ship was anchored between Paihia and Russell, brightly lit.  Steve went to Whangarei to meet with engineers, and I did a little provisioning in Russell, and visited a few friends.  It was windy when we took the dinghy ashore in the afternoon.  Even more wind was forecast for the next day.

			Our neighbor Diana, her son Sam and two of his chef friends came aboard for a visit and some of ADAGIO's home made banana ice cream.  In exchange, Sam gave us some of the kingfish they caught at Bird Rock.  They reported seeing a lot of kingfish. It was good to know that there were some left at the end of the summer fishing season.

			One day at low tide, before dawn we were awakened by the sound of our port side keel scraping on the top of our concrete mooring block. Good thing it was our port keel, the one that we damaged by hitting a rock in the Clarence River of Australia.  Another good thing was that the tidal range was increasing.  We had been on pins and needles hoping that all the meteorological and hydrological factors would cooperate for a peaceful hauling out of ADAGIO on schedule.  The weather forecasters had been predicting the arrival of a new low pressure system from the south, bring 30 knot southerly winds.  Such conditions would not be conducive to tieing ADAGIO above the concrete of the boat launch ramp at high tide and waiting several hours for the ebbing tidal waters to recede.

			Haulout

			ADAGIO gets improved

			I remained at our house every day, preparing for its sale and sorting through our belongings.  The weather cooperated.  I planted numerous flowering plants, just before the rain gave them a good soaking. I sold our Laser sailboat to a young brother and sister and our wind surfer to an athletic young mother of two toddlers.  We gave many clothes and our prescription medications which were nearing their expiration dates to our cruising friends Alan and Martha to take to the people on the islands of Vanuatu where they are setting up medical facilities.  Other clothes went to the Opportunity Shop in Russell.  The books that we did not keep we gave to our house sitters who are home schooling their children.  They also bought our car and the furniture that we did not put in storage.  So all in all, the process of choosing which belongings to keep and which to sell or give away was mostly painless.

			The house was sparkling clean, after four years of tender loving care from our house sitters.  How fortunate we were to have them.  They had moved in to another house and agreed to move back in to our house if our house did not sell before we were ready to sail away again.

			On February 27, dolphins swam into our bay for the third time in a week.  We were expecting the remains of a cyclone to pass over us on the weekend.

			The weather was beautiful.  My windows were filled with views of  sparkling waters, gracefully sailing boats, birds, sunshine, a full moon and stars.  So I had no complaints.  I listened to many hours of New Zealand radio, so was up to date on local issues.

			After we received in the mail three heavy boxes of cruising guides for The Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and British Columbia, and a tube of "planning charts" for the same areas as well as for French Polynesia, I was able to begin our cruise planning.

			We were consulting with our weather router, and it looked as if we would follow the route from New Zealand to Tahiti, then to Hawaii, and finally to Sitka, Alaska.  He said that this route would help us to best avoid cyclones, but it would take a lot of patience and coordination to position us out of the path of foul weather.  We were game.  Now that we had decided upon our route, we could begin signing on crew members.  We had several excellent prospects.  It would be asking a lot of our crew members to remain flexible enough to wait for the best weather window for departure.

			In March we invited into our home for dinner, Lynn and Ross, and their two year old son, who hail from Anchorage, Alaska.  I met them when I saw their boat GYPSY tied up at the Opua Marina.  We were interested in hearing what they had to say about cruising in Alaska, and they were full of good advice and cautions.  They pointed out on our charts where the best wildlife viewing is to be found, and the best native totems.  There are also hot springs along the coast, some of which require local knowledge to find.

			Lynn has been a kayak instructor and tour leader, and manager of one of the Outdoor Education Schools. She has led groups of sea kayakers in Chile as well as in Alaska.  Ross has been a sailing instructor and float plane pilot in Alaska.  His company specializes in taking climbers to Mt. McKinley.

			Their advice was similar to the advice given to us in Hobart by our Alaskan friends who hail from Juneau.  We intended to make landfall in Sitka, then coast down the outside, going south in the prevailing northwesterly winds.  When we wanted to come back north, then we would travel on the Inside Passage to stay out of the winds and seas.  We still had a lot to learn.

			We were told that the best weather for cruising the region is April through September. The position of the North Pacific High pressure system determines the weather.  There would be a lot of rain, and possibly some snow.  The number of rainy days increases each month beginning in April.  There are many bears to be seen, at the mouths of streams when the salmon are running, and wolves are sometimes seen hunting along the shoreline.  We can expect to see whales, seals and sea birds.  Some of the national park islands are covered with beautiful vegetation, and the coves with a rich collection of intertidal life.  The tidal range is 13 to 20 feet.  Most of the other boats along the outside coast are fishing boats.  The big tour boats follow the inside passage.  We were becoming excited about the endless possibilities for cruising the wilds of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia.

			We were finalizing our prospective passage making schedule:

			Our friends Beth and Evans sailed their sloop HAWK into our bay and came ashore after a peaceful crossing of the Tasman Sea from Hobart to the Bay of Islands.  We were looking forward to introducing them to the joys of touring New Zealand, and loaded them down with our best travel guides, cruising guides, maps and advice.

			At the end of March, we were invited to attend the annual Ocean Cruising Club get together.  The OCC is an English-based cruising club with members all over the world.  Beth and Evans aboard HAWK invited us to come as their guests.

			Our friends Beth and Evans dropped HAWK's anchor in our bay and came ashore in their dinghy.  They are some of our favorite friends and some of the best cruisers we know.  We spent many hours exchanging ideas, stories, books and good company.  We had visitors at the house almost every day, by land and by sea, bringing me a bit of socializing as I was "stuck" at home organizing the house and keeping it ready to show to prospective buyers.  I enjoyed the serenity of our home and garden, lovely views of the bay and the boats and birds.  But I resented the time I had to spend pulling weeds and planting and watering grass seed.  It was good that we were selling the house.  We could not keep it in good condition from afar.  The realtor had installed a large for sale sign on our lawn for all boaties to see, but so far few nibbles.

			Early on Easter Sunday, our friends Beth and Evans departed our anchorage on a beautifully sunny morning.  A lovely 100 year old classic wooden sloop left at about the same time.  Because there was no wind, the owner used a long sweep oar to scull gracefully across our bay.  Hie boat had been tied up to the big piling next to the rock at the end of our beach for two days so that at low tide he could apply new paint to the bottom of his boat.

			We were very interested to hear from several of the cruisers about cruising in Alaska.  We were given the names of favorite anchorages, places to leave the boat during the winter months, and even a contact in Vancouver for shipping our boat from Vancouver to the Mediterranean.

			The Inside Passage was described as "boring", and "deforested".  There was much ooing and aaahing about the great abundance of wildlife to be seen:  whales every day, dolphins, Dungeness crabs and salmon for eating to one's heart's content, water birds and more.

			One anchorage was recommended as being an excellent place to watch brown bears slapping salmon out of a creek.  There is a boardwalk for us humans.  We were advised to wait until we arrived in Alaska to buy the proper mud boots.  August apparently can be very foggy.

			Our new friends from the sailing vessel GYPSY described the rain in Alaska as originating north of the Pacific High.  As the Pacific High pressure system moves from north to south in the autumn, it directs a "fire hose" of rain at the west coast of North America, and moves slowly southward until it parks opposite Seattle, directing rain onto Seattle throughout December, before moving back northwards in the spring.

			Alaska cruising notes:

			Prince William Sound is magical, protected, light winds.

			Juneau has a lot of history. Is very mountainous.

			Pretty north and south of Calvert Island.

			Strong currents at Cape Caution.

			South Central latitude is very different from SE Alaska.

			Seward, Kodiak Island.

			Chatham Strait between Admiralty and Barenof Island -- ferocious weather -- wind, fog.  ABC (Admiralty, Barenof and Chichagof) islands with lows. Nasty weather comes out of the south.

			At Warm Springs Cove, there are no signs to the springs. Walk up the creek past the first tubs, and continue on a bit farther to the good springs (tubs).

			West side of Queen Charlotte Islands has the best wildlife.

			Anthony Island is good.

			Vancouver Island west coast requires good weather.

			Be sure you travel around Alaska, via plane, or take the train.

			Mcneil River

			Fly in to Denali Park to see glaciers!  Telkeetna Airlines* (this is the employer for Ross).  2 hour bus ride from Anchorage -- or rent a car.

			Long Lynn canal from Juneau to Haines, Alaska. From Haines you can drive to Alaska. Through the Yukon and national parks.

			Bus from the park into Wonder Lake for incredible wildlife. There is an expensive lodge at Wonder Lake.

			Mt McKinley National Park.  Ride the park service bus on the gravel road on the north side of Mt. McKinley.

			Denali National Park web page.

			Go down on Kenai Peninsula to Homer. Lots of wildlife.

			Kenai Shores National Park.

			There are boat tours to see wildlife.  Tidewater Glacier.

			The fine weather was also perfect for working on ADAGIO, and we were beginning to be careful how we used the water from the water tanks at the house.  Having no buyer for our house was not so much a worry because we were happy to have our home to live in while we were unable to live aboard ADAGIO.

			Our crew members were beginning to sign up.  Our Australian friend, the professional deep sea diver Callum, agreed to crew for us from French Polynesia all the way to Alaska.  Also our friends Bill and Maryann, who  had sailed with us from New Caledonia to Australia in year 2000, wanted to crew for us from Hawaii to Alaska.  We were very pleased.

			I began cooking stews and soups for our passage, while I had a regular kitchen, plenty of electricity for slow cooking, and a big freezer.  It also took care of dinner every evening.  I poached a large chicken that had I bought at the Russell Saturday market.  It was huge because the farmer told me that he had to keep it longer than planned while he waited for the processing plant to open again, and the chicken just kept growing!

We were hoping that ADAGIO would splash down again the first week of May, during the full moon high tide.  I was savoring those final days in the house.  The weather was beautiful, and our garden was filled with flowers and birds.  We planned to live aboard ADAGIO at Ashby's Marina in Opua after she was launched.