Dolphin Day

We left the Bay of Islands on Thursday 18th April, headed back to Whangarei for our sons 21st Birthday on the 27th. We decided to to harbour hop, and see how the weather held as we went. We upped anchor at about 8.30am and motor/sailed out of Waipiro Bay, we had raised the mainsail, but the wind was very light. As we made our way past Omakiwi Cove two Dolphins joined us at the bow, surfing in the pressure wave of the boat. They are amazing to watch, hardly moving their tail flukes at all they keep pace with us. They swim on their sides and look up at you, as you hang off the bowsprit all agape. I wonder what they think about us ungainly humans, are they trying to communicate?

The dolphins stayed with us in the bow wave, or dropping back then racing up and jumping beside the boat, for the 3 hours it took to motor around Cape Brett and into Whangamumu Harbour. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the free ride, not really caring about us on the boat. Paul and I got a bit tired of gazing down at them from the bowsprit after the first hour, so we left them to it. By the time we anchored up at Whangamumu we thought they would leave us and bugger off back to the Bay.... but no. They then commenced to circle Kabuki, they would breathe on the surface a few times then they would dive down and a few minutes later would appear, and breathe a few more times, then dive again. We thought perhaps they might have been feeding, but when this continued for the next 5 hours, we had second thoughts.
It was really weird hearing them constantly chuffing their breath, then diving, then it would be quiet, then they would be there chuffing again. Later in the afternoon at about wine time (5pm) our old mate the Ripipipi (Ipipiri) came into Whangamumu harbour (they seem to follow us everywhere). Thank goodness the Dolphins lost interest in us and went and did some tail slapping for the punters on board. They disappeared over night, hopefully making their way back to the Bay of Islands.

The next day we motored down to Whangaruru Harbour (no wind) and spent the night, the forecast for Saturday was NW 15 knots, a good breeze. We sailed out and down the coast to Whangarei, the wind was more from the North which put it right up our butt, but it was a great days sail, getting a bit blustery as we went down the "Mad Mile" between the "Old Woman" and the harbour entrance.
So yes we are back in town, today we moved off the boat deciding to end the cruising on the boat, but we will continue to cruise for a few more weeks on our Motorbike as we do a tour around the North Island of New Zealand.