It is unusual to feel like you’ve come home when we are half a world away from our families, but today felt like that. We made the trip upriver with the rising tide from Marsden Cove to return to Whangarei, specifically to Riverside Marina where we hauled out last year. We spent a few hours in Marsden getting the bottom scrubbed by a local diver, cleaning the anchor chain and storing it, washing and packing away the kayak, flushing the watermaker, rinsing and storing the snubber line, doing a load of laundry and cleaning the oven and ice box. We were almost exhausted before we left Marsden!

The new bridge at Whangarei. Bright Angel is in the foreground and U.S. yachties will notice that "Red, Right, Returning" does not work here. Waterway navigation is the opposite.

This year’s trip included a passage under the new draw bridge that was under construction last year when we came this way. We buddy-boated upriver with Bright Angel in the lead. Bright Angel Bob called channel 64 to inform the operator that we were both nearing the bridge when we were 1/2 mile away. As we turned the final bend in the river before the bridge the bridge was descending! Yikes! The bridge operator called and told us he was just letting some traffic go and we could be on our way. Fortunately we were able to slow down enough and with relief saw the cross traffic stop and the bridge begin to rise. You have to report your required mast clearance so he will open the bridge far enough. Sure would hate to screw up that conversion! On Charisma we checked with each other before replying. Never can be too sure.

Bright Angel going under with Charisma close behind.

So the bridge opened and we went through and were immediately at Riverside! It is always tough to back into a berth, but with some wind and a current it is even more interesting. Thanks to a near perfect throw of a stern line by Bob to our wonderful friends from Eagle’s Wings on the dock, Charisma was gently backed into her new berth. Nice to be back.

"Whew, that was almost fun". In this pic I'm calling the bridge operator to thank him. His response? A hearty; "My Pleasure!" What nice people around here.

It is wonderful to return to a place with such great memories and especially when it puts us one step closer to “Home for the Holidays!” We will quickly clean up Charisma and head to Aukland to return to the US! Yay!

View across the Hatea River in Whangarei.