Opua wharf, marina and hinterland from Russell road.
Great technology when one can stitch together three shots and call it a panorama. The Admiral and I were out walking, searching for a Bay of Islands walkways track one evening. Wild Bird is behind the trees on the left somewhere. We are back on mooring after a nice week in the islands, one hour away. (That was a few years ago, and as noted next, Opua is an old haunt of ours.)
Mooring in Opua
About 30 years ago we had a mooring made up and dropped at Tapu Point in the Bay of Islands. It was for our yacht Wild Honey, a Hartley 32 foot ferro yacht that I had recently finished constructing over a three year period. The Admiral has always joked that it was her surrogate engagement ring. (Well, what would you do, have a ring on your finger or a large ring on the sea bed? The choice was obvious.) We never extended ourselves to such a luxury…the finger ring that was, and a secure concrete block on the sea bed seemed to be a much more sensible acquisition. The Bay of Islands in Northland was the primo cruising ground of New Zealand, and back then, there were no marinas in the area anyway.
Today, most boats are on moorings. In our case, our preference for sailing without insurance also precludes us from using most marinas.
I had already ‘launched’ a mooring in Tauranga myself circa 1978. This was a two tonne mooring made to high specs. It was made on the nearby beach by filling a metal hoop ring with concrete and reinforcing. The bottom sand was heaped up so that a concave shape would enable the mooring to suck into the mud and stick. A large steel D ring poked out the top, locked in with much reinforcing. Heavy and light chain was then attached, a rope riser fixed onto the chain with a buoy on top. These were cowboy times, when a licence was not required, and no particular spaces allocated. It was cured by the cycles of several tides. Three days later I fixed four 44 gallon drums to the top, and floated the whole caboose out using a dinghy at high tide. At the spot X, I chopped the rope holding it and presto, it sunk to the bottom. Well, I tell you, it was exactly the same thing that has to be done using professional services today. And, it was made for a fraction of the cost of a professional one done today. Oh yes, I know about inflation, but today one pays about $3000 for a new mooring. However, that is if a space is available.
The Bay of Islands mooring was made by so called professional workers, but I had supplied the chain. For the cost of a dozen beer, I was gifted a length of ship’s anchor chain that was not wanted on the site of a major engineering works in Whangarei. The shackle was about 60mm diameter itself! (The cross sectional size of the ring metal.) Sadly I could not make this one myself, and handed it over to be made up. We sold it after Wild Honey was sold, and always lamented the loss of our private piece of marine real estate.
New spaces for moorings are like hen’s teeth. Mostly, they would be very far away from convenient dinghy launch spots anyway. Therefore one has to look for existing moorings that are for sale. Recently, we discovered a notice for a mooring for sale at Tapu Point, so snapped it up. It was newly serviced, and was only 100 metres from our original mooring. It is opposite the lovely new Opua Cruising Club to which we intend to become members soon. The block will save us expensive marina and/or mooring fees in the future when we have to attend family matters. We now have a base for Wild Bird in the Bay of Islands. A new adventure is ahead of us. The adventure of meeting new friends, and revisiting our old cruising grounds awaits us.
We have it advertised to let the mooring for the summer period as we intend to live on Wild Bird and cruise the Northland Coast, entertaining friends and family for some of that time. My original wetsuit from Wild Honey days has long gone, but a new ¾ wetsuit and new dive gear and fishing gear is ready for airing. The old wetsuits had an annoying habit of shrinking anyway.
POST SCRIPT. Well, three years down the track and the mooring is sunk, sitting in the mud somewhere. It provided a good home to several visiting boats over the years and since we left to explore, The Admiral and I are now working as caretakers in the outer Bay where Wild Bird is now securely tied to a four tonne block. We call it paradise, but put in 30 hours each (when panic button is not pressed) looking after two large waterfront properties. A large mooring was kindly offered for our use as part of the job deal.
A strong storm had swept through the Opua area, and the boat on our mooring was forced to cut loose when conditions made it impossible to release normally. The upshot is that we have had made a much better (bigger, stronger, and better caternary) mooring that should be darned near immune to shifting again. The mark two mooring (three if you count our first in Opua) has a four tonne block, two rings, 38mm bottom chain and 24mm intermediate chain with a whopping big 35mm riser rope and a massive pink bouy.. (Now available to cruisers to rent).
Annus horribilis (burst pipe in our ceiling of family home in Nelson, and father passed away) has presented a few other curved balls, but events eclipsed by a lovely new grandson. (Our first).
To the right, Northland Moorings are laying the new four tonne block with new heavy chain.
The Admiral inspecting new windy bouy, soft on hull.
