The visitors berth at the Napier Sailing Club has been wonderfully comfortable and the facilities enjoyable.  Numerous bars, cafes and restaurants along West Quay have enjoyed our patronage but it really is time to move on, further south.

Napier City is a delightful place, very clean and well organised.  After coming from Auckland it is refreshing to see clean footpaths, no chewing gum, no graffiti and everyone you meet in the street says hello.  There are green spaces and parks dotted all over the place and great parks for children.  It might be a nice place to live – but what else is there?

We have lingered in Napier so long to avoid strong winds further down the coast and coming out of the Cook Strait. A succession of lows and associated fronts have been arriving over the South Island in quick succession, the weather has been very unsettled and no clear window to get south has presented itself.  The conditions are still unsettled but the stronger winds will hopefully clear away for a few days as we head down towards Akaroa.

Truce is all ready to go, lots of small jobs have been completed during the stay and after Ngozi doing a deep clean I think we have all the Auckland grime off the boat.  Just need a bit of heavy weather to wash the decks and make everything sparkly again.

The spinnaker pole is a bit of a brute to rig up single handed at sea.  I have taken the opportunity to pre rig it in port and all being well I should only need to attach the topping lift to get it swung up into place.  Getting the sheet from the yankee through the pole end is a mission as the yankee is high cut, it’s a balancing act to reach up to the clew from deck, especially when everything is moving around.  I can’t think of any easier way yet, suggestions welcome.

Our last day in Napier and we visited the aquarium.  Lots of fish in tanks as you would expect.  But it gave us the inspiration for Thai Fish curry this evening.