Change of plan

A sleek motor launch pulled into our bay this morning with Bill & Johanna Strassberg aboard. We had been trying to fix a rendezvous for the last few days and finally our plans coincided for a walk around the coastal paths and posh Waiheke wineries followed by tea and scones on board Shimshal. We first met Bill at our Scottish BBQ in 2019. We then met them both near their home in Maine when we did our wintery cycle ride to Canada in 2022. It was wonderful to catch up again here in NZ on a fine and blustery.

An ex-tropical cyclone, well east of NZ, is blasting strong southerly winds up the east coast and blocking our progress south towards Nelson. So, instead of battling against the weather, we have cancelled our South Island marina reservation and booked ourselves back into Whanagerai from mid-March. We will leave the boat  there (at Riverside Drive) and fly down to Christchurch for a land based trip to Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds. That gives us 2 more weeks of idyllic cruising around Great Barrier Island and other gems in the Huaraki Gulf. All good!

Coastal walks

A walk along the coastal paths of Waiheke Island is like a stroll through the archives of Grand Designs. Amazing houses, manicured olive groves, netted vineyards and native bush all bathed with the noisy clatter of cicadas. The anchorages have filled with the weekend Aucklanders and those bays that are protected from the ‘strong wind advisory’ are at a premium. The 40 knot easterly gusts that our vhf warned us of have not materialised and Shimshal is quietly dancing around her anchor when a more moderate puff comes through.

Waiheke Island

We are anchored on the south side of Waiheke Island and today we had a visit from Joe who took an early morning ferry from Auckland (his new home) to join us on Shimshal for lunch. Great to see him. 

In the afternoon, cruising contact, Tim le Couteur, took us on a guided tour around this beautiful island after drinks on his idyllic balcony overlooking Oneroa Bay.

Enough sun today to fill up our house batteries and recharge our outboard motor battery. We are continuing to love our new solar system!

Kawau Island and solar panels

It’s going to be hard to prize ourselves away from the Huaraki Gulf as there’s so much to do. A lovely cruising destination at this time of year. A change of plan maybe afoot and we will decide at the weekend!

Two new bits of Boat Bling are bringing us much joy in 2026. Last season we condemned our aged and very dead diesel generator and swapped it for a noisy but reliable petrol generator. That did the job though it made for noisy anchorages, occasional carbon monoxide poisoning and a need to carry a lot of petrol to keep us powered up across the Pacific. We gazed in envy at our neighbouring cruisers who were able to cook and subsist purely from the sun’s energy.

For 2026 we have invested in a new rigid 3 solar panel array all mounted on a stainless cage replacing our canvass bimini. Our batteries are now flooded with 5 or 6 kW a day harvested from the harsh Kiwi sun. 

For the cloudy, high-wind days and nights we have fitted a second hand Watt & Sea hydro-generator to our transom to deploy when under sail. Once powered up at maximum hull speed this spinning propeller should generate us an additional 600 Watts per hour. 

No longer are we the noisy, petrol gobbling pariahs in the anchorage. Instead, we sit smugly in the sunshine watching our Bluetooth app monitors as the watts flow in. We now have the luxury finding new ways to use our new found solar riches. An electric kettle has replaced the propane one and at last we can grind our fresh coffee beans at speed and not worry about powering down the internet to save the electrons.

Otters, badgers and foxes at the boathouse & Traighuaine trailcams

Launched Whangarei 26th February 2026