Tall Ships Race, Russell Bay of Islands

On January the 9th we took part in the Tall Ships Race around the Bay of Islands. We did not officially enter the race, but we sailed the course and ogled all the yachts. We managed to sail around with "Melody" another Westsail, we had a lovely sail and it was a glorious day.
Paul is keen on anything with a sail, and He loved seeing all the Tall Ships, Spirit of New Zealand, Soren Larsen etc. I managed to get some reasonable photo's of them for him. Kabuki sailed beautifully, even though we did have a slow spell in the channel between Roberton Island and Moturua Island. We completed the 15 mile course in about 4 hours, and that was with lots of yacht watching involved.

Since then we have been up to Opua and the Waikare Inlet, done some washing at the Opua Laundromat, shopped in Paihia for supplies. Then wandered over to the Te Puna Inlet for some quiet and recoperation after all that activity. Today we are in the Keri Keri Inlet, and after lunch we are going to visit the ruins of the house of the man who helped build the Stone Store in Kerikeri. Tomorrow we are going to dinghy up to Kerikeri and do some shopping at the markets. Ahhh civilization again.