Paradza Musings: Bay of Islands Feb 2016

Even Keels

Sailing the bay of islands is a team affair. That's certainly the case according to captain Craig, sometimes referred to as lieutenant Dan (aka Forrest Gump).

Capt Craig

Like all good teams, there's positions, rules, players. Capt Craig determines the positions, the rules and the players. And for the uninitiated and/or sailing experience is limited to watching the boxing day Sydney to Hobart, the Craig sailing method can be more than a little bewildering.

It is all pretty much learning on the job. By example; day One, the leg over rule: successful launch from Opua harbour jetty. A collective sigh of relieve. Only after lecture One was conducted. On the use of the toilets. Vital, yes. Back to leg over rule.

A grand announcement, main sail team (the rest of us in this team) to the ready. Main sail cover unzipped. No problem. The members, the Roberts family to the blue rope, to hoist the critter up. We pull. The first meter, a holler from Capt C. 'Stop'. 'Pull'. We pull. 'Stop' we stop. It's getting difficult. From the top of his voice 'Clive sit on the deck'. Onto the deck i go. 'Pull'. We pull. It ain't moving. 'Clive get your leg over'. Huh, I'm thinking get my leg over. What is he on about. I swing round. A bark from our capt, no get your leg over the other way. I'm spinning around like a top. Looking at the other designated members of team main sail. We all look equally bemused. Transpires, what i should have known through telepathic means was too sit a pull the rope like an oarsman taking a stroke through the water. Eventually we figured it out up goes the sail. We are shaken. This could be an interesting week. Example Two 'the deploy rule'; in an equally time pressured moment. Something to do with a sail. A bark from the capt to Yvonne 'tell Clive to deploy'. Yvonne head whips around looking at me. I spin around, from the leg over position of course, look at Yvonne we look at Craig. 'Deploy what!!??' A torpedo I'm thinking. .. man i couldn't even remember what he wanted us to deploy. Don't think he did.
So you get the picture what what we're dealing with here. Man we were cracking up.
One more example; in in my all important leg over position. I pull. I'm . 'STOP' IS THE COMMAND. 'Cept, I'm teatering out of balance. Could be man over board. I pull. The response is quick and sharp. 'When i say stop i mean stop.' YES CAPT. Even if it means into the drink!!

Fortunately even a captain is accountable to some one. Admiral Yvonne proving more than up to the task of keeping the capt in check.

Admiral sunset, tonic on hand

One team that team Rob brought to the 'table' was sundowners. I great African tradition. Sure Aussies have a drink at the end of the day. Just the institution of sundowners goes far beyond just grabbing a drink and going back to the helm. Once moored as close to six as possible, accompanied by chips, dips, cheeses. The days events were discussed. Tomorrows day planned. And at least one new rule was added to the repertoire always accompanied by much mirth. The Admiral particularly taken with sundowners. And by six was ready and waiting. The Admiralty would let it be known if mooring hadn't taken place yet.
With brilliant weather for the week. Sundowners were actually accompanied with some spectacular sunsets.

The capt has come in for a little flack so far. Maybe pay back. However, his mooring spot skills were not in question. Finding the most pond like conditions that could possibly exist in this magic place.

There were other teams. With Less controversy.
The anchor team. Well honed. Down with the anchor. On with the bridle. Down they both go. Capt tests it holds. Onto the fun activities. The SUP, raft, etc. Or Sundowners...of course.
The Genoa team. That was interesting. Not as controversial as its main sail 'sister'. But not without its excitement (read shouting ).

Anchor director

The sewage team. Initially that was a volunteer team. Except no hands went up. With a mass exodus from the deck seeking other urgent tasks. Fortunately said tank was off loaded out at sea worth little incident...i hear, i wasn't there! Unfortunately other problems in that dept ensued requiring a flushing back at Opua. Successfully executed by the capt. Once again others were otherwise engaged.
The fishing party. Now that was good one. Initial attempts by trawling saw bait snatched by a whopper, the one that got away! . So a specialist spear fishing party of 2, lead by Capt Craig. And his 'bitch'. The capt staying on boat. Instructing (he called it mentoring) 'his bitch' to go spear them fish. Rules were dished out here too. TWO being emphasized several times. Understandably. Rule 1: don't shoot at fish in front of rocks. RULE 2 (which i thought should rule 1): don't load while pointing at people. Particularly capt. I got that.
On the first day 'we' speared us a malway. Which by all accounts is sleeper. Either way, was added to the dinner menu. The second; a black fish. A good hit according to the capt. This became a breakfast treat. Bitchournot, I could get used to this.
The last party to mention was the scrubbing party. Once again instituted by our Capt with other member being 'the B'. He was instructed to keep the mask ON (after partaking in a little snorkeling) and scrub the hull. .... which he dutifully did. To good effect.

I can wax on about the wonderful weather we had. The magic islands we visited. The brilliant 12 km hike on the Cape Brett track i did. The views. The food. etc etc.

There were a lot of laughs, light hearted banter. Much fun. All in all a marvelous time.

Cheers to the Admiral and Captain.