Barrier to the Bay

I took off to the barrier to do the contract job on the BBC set for the new Castaway

And was hoping to get off the island in time to get back for the feeder race, but, transport links to the island are pretty unpredictable, so, I got back a day late and had 10 days of washing to attend to prior to legging it in the car up to Opua.

I arrived at the camp site to find the crew in fine form tucking into the Mount Gays. Dinner was a BBQ without plates...hmm interesting eh.....and of course the usual early night!!! Yea right!

As you all know, I do not suffer from Hangovers, so up at the usual time of 7ish, I took off to the Campsite to see the tent crew, then up to Keri Keri to sort out a mild ticket issue for my trip back to the UK.

Monday was hot, humid and windless....the crew went out for a sail, I decided on an afternoon at the beach in Paihia and a date with my book.

I got back to the Campsite for yes, another BBQ, but this time I came armed with the luxury of plates and cutlery that I had picked up in Keri Keri along with a sack of local oranges.(thats what Keri Keri is famous for)

Tuesday bought another beautiful day, and itwas registration day....we hung about on the boat, I legged it back up to Keri Keri to pick up my ticket again, the crew and Skip went out for a sail and to dive and clean the bottom of the boat...my mate Swanny was up in the Bay with his fishing boat, so we took off out to Robertson Island to do a spot of fishing

A COOL CHANGE

A couple of weeks back I found out GNET the Farr 40 I raced on in Auckland last year was not going to be doing the Bay of Islands regatta this year, so I set out on a search for a new boat.....advertising on crew.org.nz produces pretty instant results and I managed a few different options and chose the Ross 850 owned by David Steen....lucky for me the skipper and crew turned out to be a very COOL CHANGE.

Hey Lloydy, don’t get me wrong, WHISTLER is still the coolest, but a CHANGE is as good as a rest, and I am merely in mild training for the 2007 JOG season......:)

We did a pretty sedate Wednesday evening race....had a couple of drinks in the Richmond Club, shooting the shit......and made arrangements to do the feeder race and Bay of Islands regatta.