Today we decided that we wanted to sail around the bay of islands. But we didn't want to do it with a guided boat, we wanted our own boat. We showed up at the boat rental dock and they said they were predicting some high gusty winds all day from the southwest, meaning we would have to fight the wind the entire way back from the island. We decided to take out the 20 ft. "Kea" anyway. With a bit of embelishing on my skippering expertise: "Oh yeah, I used to skipper a 18 ft skif all the time growing up" we set off. Dan, having no sailing experience was a bit nervous. Nevertheless, we motored out of the harbor, barely avoiding the large barge-like ferries and into the bay. We through up the main sail and fooled around with the gib until we got it up. Then we were cookin'! We tooled around the bay for the morning, going to a small inlet they showed us for lunch. We dropped the sails, ate and did backflips off the bow. During lunch the skies cleared of the early morning rain and the sun blessed the rest of the afternoon with warmth. We spent all afternoon in the bay, Rez took control of the helm and I relaxed on the bow. Somehow, I thought the site of me in my bathing suit as we sailed our own boat around would have attracted more females.... We must have been in the wrong place. We made it back just at 5, and the people we rented from had no idea that we had no clue what we were doing! Just like we planned it.
Tonight we're going for pizza and beer. Tomorrow we're heading back to Auckland, saying goodbye to Norton and hello to 2010.
Maybe it was the lack of showers that kept the females away...They were staying upwind:)
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