Fleet is gearing up.

Being on the marina in the Whangarei Town Basin,we are right in the thick of the yachts gearing up for their passages up to Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia and even Australia. Yachts from all over the world congregate here and in Opua readying themselves for the migration north for the winter.
It is interesting watching them get ready, provisioning, cleaning, checking rigs and lines, testing sails and filling tanks, both water and diesel.
There has been an influx of young men and women, backpacks on their backs, scouting the boats for crewing positions. It seems to be the year of the bearded young man, a number of them having full growth beards down to their chests but very young faces that do not match. Our own Son and his wife are crewing on a 46 ft yacht up to Fiji, they will leave in a couple of weeks, a great experience for them and their own offshore dreams.
So the marina has been hiving with activity, boats to-ing and fro-ing, trolleys of provisions from the local super-market, folding bikes scooting past laden with bags and boxes. Different languages ring out over the water, as people call greetings to one another, swap information about the best place to buy supplies, or yell at one another from the tops of masts as they try to fix rigging. In a few weeks they will be gone, April there is a chance of encountering a cyclone, June is starting to get close to the winter gales, the best time to go is May. Very soon we will be left to endure winter in our quiet little marina.