I am currently back at the hostel where I stayed upon first arriving here in Auckland. My face is hot. It could be the wine, but I think it’s the sunburn. My cheeks are even redder than usual. I guess that should be expected when two days are spent on the water under a sunny sky.
After spending a night at Verandah’s hostel (where I worked and met Bobbie), I got up early, packed my things, woke up Bobbie and gave here hug goodbye, and got picked up by an older retired guy named Roger. Roger and I had corresponding for a week or so regarding a sailing trip.
We headed to Okahu Bay where is small sailboat is anchored. He purchased the boat in 1985 or 86 and raced it for many years. He now posts bulletins on backpacker boards advertising day or overnight sail trips – of course I called! Roger was a very nice man and was very interesting to talk with – as a civil engineer from Britain, he spent many years in Iraq and Jamaica before settling in New Zealand. Jamaica is where is got into sailing.
Yesterday was a beautiful day to go sailing. Calm waters, a bit of a wind, and a fairly clear sky. Roger was pleased to have someone on board that had a bit of experience, as some people come on the boat expecting a luxury yacht and no work. I manned the tiller the entire way to Mototapu island (the island right next to Rangitoto, of a previous blog). We passed Islington bay, the water between the two islands, where I had walked to on my trip to Rangitoto. We anchored in Home bay and had the whole bay to ourselves (well, after we chased a fishing boat out :). After setting the anchor and stowing the sails, Roger rowed us over to the beach and got his feet wet in order to get me shore dryly (I felt a bit bad about making a retiree haul me around – but that’s why I was paying him, right?). After scaring some sheep further up their hill, we cut off from the road and onto a path that took us through some lovely restored vegetation. We walked to the top of the island and saw the remnents of old gunnery hides and armament storages (with cows standing right next to them, how NZ is that?).
After looking around a bit, we headed back down to the beach and rowed back to the boat. Roger would not let me row, I offered. We sat around and had tea, chatted about this and that, ate some pasta and tuna fish, and then chatted some more. After dark and before bed, I used the ladies loo (a gray bucket, not to be mixed up with the yellow dish washing bucket) and was thrilled to see the sparkle of phosphorescence when I emptied the bucket. I love phosphorescence. Okay, I love anything that glows and sparkles – and these little buggers did both. So what is phosphorescence? Phosphorescence is basically just light. In this case, the light is produced by tiny little organisms in the water. When you disturb the water the organisms produce a bright light. I’m not sure why (I know, what kind of biologist am I?), but it’s absolutely beautiful. I remember seeing phosphorescent streaks created by fish at night when Forest and I were sailing. The coolest was pulling up the shrimp pot. You would see this glowing blob get closer and closer to the surface until you could see each rope of the pot creating its own light.
I woke up in the middle of the night and use the bucket again. I took the time to look up at the millions of stars sparkling above (there were so many that I couldn’t even make up a constellation!). After pondering the sparkle of the universe for a bit, I pondered the sparkle to the ocean. I used the bucket to create swirls of twinkling light. When I went back to bed I had dreams about being on a boat and watching the phosphorescent outlines of manta rays, turtles, fish, jelly fish, and all sorts of crazy creatures creating crazy designs. I would have forgotten this dream if it hadn’t been for Roger. We were sailing back to Auckland under blue skies with a good wind (less than 15 knots). We wanted to get back before the 25-30 knot winds picked up in the afternoon. Roger was telling me that orcas sometimes came into the bay in winter. They chased the rays up. That reminded me of glowing images under the water.
Roger also told me that the little blue penguins could be seen in these waters. You only ever see them in a sailboat, because the engine noise frightens them. He pointed out a bird he thought was a penguin. Then decided it was riding to high in the water. Then we watched if fly away. Penguins don’t fly (in the air). As I watched the cliffs roll by and the green of Browns Island approach I saw a dark bird low in the water. “No, it can’t be a penguin” I thought. I had tears in my eyes from the sun and wind (oh yeah, I lost my sunglasses just before picking up my car a couple days ago – I really need some new ones, I’m really cheap and the style here is BIG sunglasses. I look horrible in BIG sunglasses. Did I mention I’m cheap. I don’t really want to buy stylish sunglasses for $200. I’ll keep looking). Anyway, I cleared the water out of my eyes. The bird was still there, riding low. I asked Roger “that isn’t a penguin is it?” He was surprised to say that it was in fact a penguin. I didn’t get a really great look at it, let alone a picture. I was manning the tiller at the time. I can say, it looked a lot like any other sea bird, only it looked like it was floating on it’s belly – it’s head didn’t come up real high and when it did, it was more horizontal than vertical. Pretty cool though – my very first ever penguin!!!!
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