It’s official we are living on the boat
Mooring 77 Onewhero Bay,
Whangaroa
Just a quick apology for the quality of the photos.
I got a lovely little digi camera for Christmas but somehow it is just not right.
I am going to have to take it back when we return home.
But hopoefully what is there does show off this lovely place.
As opposed to weekends away or being on holiday
We have a problem with our anchor winch and thank God for Bob Evans we have secured the use of his mooring again, and not only that he is also Bob the Fixer and is arranging for the winch to be repaired.
But up here in the winterless north nothing happens with any sense of urgency.
As luck would have it time is something we have plenty of.
And we have been at this salubrious address for the past week.
Just like out friends Lois and Terry domiciled in Malta 35◦ North we are at 35◦ South.
How about that?
They are of course in a populated ancient society just minutes away from wonderful little cafes and bustling markets.
We meanwhile are in a little nice neighbour hood with a swimming pool on the back doorstep
a general store and a cafe at the Pub.
Good if you like deep fried foods.
Meanwhile afloat...
You don’t even have to move your body for a new vista to appear.
One minute the shore next thing before you know it… the harbour
I’m not a natural on the boat. I’m a fair weather sailor and annoy Dale with my bad balance and inability to hop onto dinghies and onto wharves.
Of course he prances around like a man half his age
I am hopeless at throwing ropes and can’t lasso a post to save myself
On the other hand I can whip up good food and serve good wine and cocktails.
One can’t do everything you know.
I am easy to please, just give me the computer the internet and dozens of books and I’m happy.
Whangaroa is a pretty harbour almost prehistoric around the West arm
On a misty rainy day like this you can imagine early Maori living here in this spiritual place. Before the early Europeans arrived it was a thriving settlement they say with 4000 or so inhabitants. .But now it is a quiet little tourist spot.
Renowned for Game Fishing. World records have been cracked here
The harbour at night in the summer is full of hopefully record breakers.
You may remember in a previous post I wrote about Geoff and his 230K Marlin.
And very tasty it was too.
It’s a fisherman’s paradise which is a shame for us as we have not had any success with the fishing. But as luck could have it we have friends who do.
This is Jones Bay a favourite haunt
In January, we spent a lot of time with Sandra and Garry on Margaritaville
Founding members with us in The Royal Whangaroa Yacht Club
They fly the flag along with their personal Margaritaville Flag
As you can tell there is a little bit of influence from Jimmy Buffet and his Parrot Head Society.
They are excellent Hunter and Foragers.
We have had several days dredging for scallops.
It’s quite a mission
Find the bed, put the dredge out
Keep on course and then drag the dredge back into the boat
Not only do you get scallops you also get huge horse mussels and all sort of debris
You have to sort out the crap.
It’s 20 per person and we make sure we get every one we deserve.
Any undersize go straight back.
And then you do it all again till you reach your quota.
Everyone had a job Dale was in charge of the line.
Our prize
It gave me the chance to make the up market Mac and Cheese with Scallops
I used penne instead of macaroni and made a lovely rich winey, cheesy sauce
added the raw scallops
Nice crunchy breadcrumbs on top.
A delicious dinner
Ruth from Once Upon A Feast who lives in Halifax runs a weekly event where bloggers from all over the world enter their favourte pasta dish.
It great to read the round up So many pasta dishes. Need and idea you'll find it
here.
Just click
here
A bonus was the use of the scallop roes
Dale and I find them a bit rich and I thought there has to be
A way to use them.
I have a nice recipe for savory prawns fritters.
So I replaced the prawns with chopped up scallop roe
And 3 anchovies
Fantastic.
This makes about 14
1 cup SR flour
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons spring onions
1 cup chopped scallops roe
3 anchovies chopped
1 egg
Water to mix
Little oil for frying
Lemon wedges
Just throw the first lot of ingredients into the bowl
Add enough water to make a batter
Let sit about an hour before cooking
In medium hot pan add a little oil
Drop spoonfuls into pan
When bubbles form (about 2-3 minutes
Flip and cook another 2-3 minutes
Serve on a platter with lemon wedges
With extra freshly ground black pepper
Let people squeeze their own lemon to taste.
The flavour is amazing, reminiscent of whitebait.
Good substitute.
Will definitely make these again.
We had a few dramas over the January stay.
The engine oil pressure disappeared and we were without engine
Guess what the outboard had died on us as well.
Bugger!!! as they say.
When our engine finally died we were on our way to join the crews of Silverado and Zulu at Kingfish lodge.
It was yet another cloudy and misty day and as we sailed into the mooring.
Geoff and Pat the skipper from Zulu came across on Zulu’s tender and helped us moor.
So safe for now.
The sun came out
A couple of views from the bar at Kingfish.
Nice little sculpture and the landing.
We forgot our woes and went ashore and a pleasant afternoon was spent in the bar at Kingfish.
Peter and Steph the owners of Zulu with their Crew Pat and Lani, 2 Canadians crewing their way across the world...Plus Geoff and Laurian
What a way to apend an afternoon.
Great people excellent drinks
Laurian and Geoff are quite the pool sharks
The crowd went wild!
Dale was pretty good too.
Where did these people spend their youth?
A few games of pool and back to the boat..
The next problem was what to do next.
Through our friend Garry we were able to secure the us of Bob Evan’s Mooring No 77 so we had enough engine grunt to get us there..
The problem was we needed to get back home, we were about to have a holiday with our family in Omaha .
The decision was made that I would catch the bus home and come and up get Dale later.
A few phone calls and as luck would have it we were able to secure the services of Tom from Seapower in Opua.
And I was able to get on the bus
He came up and I left them to it.
As you have probably gathered
Dale managed to get the boat back home.
We had the holiday in Omaha It was fantastic
And then here we are back up north again.
Whangaroa “village” is a pretty little place
There is a general store
The Pub
The Game Fish Club
A Marina and here is our bay, where we are currently domiciled
There were major rainstorms here in Whangaroa last year and this section has been the victim of major landslides.
Luckily the house wasn’t damaged but someone is very busy using a chainsaw everyday and there is a digger there provably preparing for a retaining wall. I think.
Nice spot though
We did have a lovely view across the harbour BUT
Unfortunately this is the view that we now have.
Seafort “The rust bucket”
Got it looking good this year!!!
In the lst couple of weeks we have had guests and spent time with other boaties.
Pete and LP Burt spent a couple of days with us
As you can see they are having a terrible time.
Geoff and Laurian meanwhile
have been constant companions
We have had a lot of fun and they have been a great source of power and fish
Silverado is 46’ Launch and he has to run his Genset anytime he's needs power.
We have taken advantage of that and plugged in to charge our batteries.
Our only power is battery driven and they need constant charging.
We normally have to run the engine at least an hour a day.
Here’s Geoff filleting some mahi mahi for our dinner
Laurian just pan fried the mahi mahi I made some pasta flavoured with carrots.
Delicious.
There was a Riviera launch fishing tournament and we made new friends .
Aaron and Ian from Aquapro who were responsible for taxiing contestants to functions at Kingfish Lodge.
Aquapro was a sponsor of the contest.
Pity we didn’t have them when we had our outing at the Gamefish Club last Saturday
But that’s another story for another time!
The boys had time on their hands and caught fresh crayfish, kawhai and snapper.
Laurian cooked up the crays
What a feast!
Not much left. Not a leg went to waste. It was fabulous.
By the way we got the snapper and the kawhai.
Geoff and Laurian were off to catch more large fish with their son Jesse off the Bay of Islands
With their departure came the arrival of our intrepid traveling companion Lana
Normally she is part of our January holiday but this year her traveling was curtailed,
She broke her ankle.
Broken legs and boats really don’t mix.
So she drove up just before Easter for a quick break
She was the lucky recipient of the fresh snapper.
When Lana was in the South of France at a French language course a few years ago.
She is great at managing to find the more interesting people in the group
Amongst the fellow pupils were these delightful people, Americans, Mal and Martha .
They were touring New Zealand with their son Chris and we were lucky enough to be able to entertain them on Cajun Moon for lunch one day.
It was a gorgeous day.
I turned the Kawhai into my favourite fish cake recipe.
I have already posted this earlier
Just go back a couple of posts.
They are excellent.
So here we are now everyone has gone.
Not too tough though.
It has been hot and sunny.
Swimming everyday.
Bur unfortunately it has been raining today.
Swimming is not so inviting.
But it has given me time to write this blog.
Always something good everyday
It was a stunning sight. It must have been magnificent at the Domain. Thousands of people throughout New Zealand and Australia,
For the British in WWI and for New Zealand in WWII.
So of course later on in the day we felt the need to celebrate, and went out for lunch at our favourite local Italian Restaurant Portofino.
Our crowd substituting for backing singers. 
Dan recording his own composition circa 1975
Dan (left) performing at the Devomnport Wine and Food Festival February 2008
