The trip home

I must get this blog up todate fast as February is nearly finished.
Number one and only son wanted to get back to New Plymouth Saturday so after transferring from the Whai back to Tusk we headed to the barrier for Thursday night the 6th January. It was a great trip up to Tryphena harbour, light easterly swell and a few skippies to be caught.Unfortunately the once keen crew were so tired they slept and the autopilot steered the boat and I alone enjoyed the scenery. Great Mercury Cove to Tryphena Harbour Great Barrier is a great trip, the closest you get to the Coromandel peninsula is about 5 to 6 miles and the 21 miles at trolling speed of 7 knots does not take long to roll off the miles.The crew were gone burgers, so no fresh scallops and only the skipper wanted to fish that perfect evening for a big snapper. As the bait fisherman were not successful the first snapper were landed with soft baits, then using the belly pieces of one snapper on a flasher rig I caught this 6 kg beauty.

Snapper, of Tryphena harbour, 6th January 2011

Just after dark we slipped into Mulberry Grove Bay to anchor in 5 metres of water. Good holding in a light easterly wind. The last night an sea always demands a good feed, scallops and fish and a few nightcaps.
Awaking early on Friday morning I made a mug of tea, let the boys sleep, hoisted anchor and headed for Auckland, not even bothering to fish. The next 4.5 hours were spent cleaning the boat, packing the gear and noting the work that would have to be done, finally arriving at the marina at noon. The end of a great cruise.

The annual Whai Trip

 
I have been fortunate to have been fishing and diving from the good ship Whai for many many years, starting with its builder (creator) and first skipper Peter Spurdle, who wrote the book about this story called Into the Rising Sun. I then  travelled to Tonga and Fiji as crew with new owner Mick Ellwood in 1978.
We have regularly chartered this boat for many successful trips for many many years. In fact my children grew up with Uncle Mick.
The Whai now under skipper owner John Ellwood would be the most successful charter boat on the NZ coast. No other vessel comes near it and she calls the Mercury islands home. As the boats popularity has grown it has become harder to book a weekend or  week, you need to be on the waiting 'list'.
This was the catalyst to build Tusk to run my own trips. But with the Sandford family from Rotorua we have retained the annual booking right after New Year and every year 10 to 17 of us all close friends head to Whitianga for 4 days fishing and diving and never any dull moments.

The Whai is not the prettiest catamaran, but she sure is functional, efficient and rock solid seaworthy in the biggest of seas. And John Ellwood sure does know how to catch fish.

So from January 2nd until the 6th we parked Tusk in the cove on the Whai mooring and enjoyed 4 days with great company, wine food and fishing in the Mercury Islands. And we had a ball.
Our two families will be organising the same booking for next summer. Reason is if we give it up we will never ever get the dates back....in our life times and our kids still want to keep going on Whai trips and in a few years we will be taking their kids along to.

Father and son effort

John Ellwood, skipper and owner of the Whai and what a great skipper he is. One of the best.

Shaun with a beauty

Sam has done really well

Eamon caught the heaviest, 11 kg.

An evenings catch

This year the snapper were BIG, the scallops were fat and the crayfish scarce (hard work).
But despite this we all had a really good time. There were some personal bests in the snapper league,in fact I scored a 9 kg fish (released) but the biggest was 11 kg.

Fiona with a personal best snapper

The team for 2011, and that is Tusk tied alongside

Special Boats I have spotted

Every so often I come across boats that I like for whatever reason.

In Mercury Cove during our Christmas cruise the Resolution (home port register Picton) caught my attention.
I know very little about this boat but intend to find out in the future.
Her current owner though has always maintained her in mint condition and she is clearly set up for cruising.
She is an oldie, a woodie and a beautie.