{"id":3833,"date":"2016-05-07T02:42:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T02:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=3833"},"modified":"2016-05-18T02:56:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T02:56:32","slug":"exodus-town-basin-marina-whangarei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=3833","title":{"rendered":"Exodus – Town Basin Marina, Whangarei"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0742\"Town Basin Marina is a log-jam of cruising boats waiting for a weather window to leave NZ. Sharon and Brian at the Marina office are wonderful at being able to squeeze in \u2018just one more\u2019, including us. In fact, there\u2019s so many big cats here it\u2019s starting to look like a safari park\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s wonderful to be floating again, and to be back within easy reach of town amenities, including our favourite ice-cream parlour at \u2018The Fudge Factory\u2019! The dock is abuzz with cruisers finishing last-minute jobs, doing endless provisioning runs to \u201cPak n\u2019 Save\u201d, loads of laundry, and filling water and fuel tanks. The topics of conversation all along the dock are \u2018where are you heading?\u2019, \u2018when are you leaving?\u2019 and constant analysis of weather windows (or lack of) and charting options. It\u2019s a fun place to be, and there\u2019s much socializing and camaraderie.<\/p>\n

\"Sunrise
Sunrise at the marina. A much nicer view than the hardstand!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each season the local Whangarei Marine Services group hosts a welcome and departure party for cruisers. We missed the welcome party as we were so late arriving, but the departure party this week was a big success and a good opportunity for more socializing between yachties and tradies. They put on a great buffet dinner, with entertainment from the local Kapa Haka group to end the evening. Overall, we\u2019ve been very impressed with the local marine service providers here in Whangarei \u2013 helpful, friendly and efficient. Australian marine services could learn a thing or two from them!<\/p>\n

\"Cruisers
Cruisers and tradies mingling at the Whangarei Marine Services farewell dinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Beautiful
Beautiful singing from the local Kapa Haka group<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Topped
Topped off by a farewell Haka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week the first weather window cracked open, and the exodus from the marina has begun. With each departure, Sharon races out of the office to blow her airhorn in farewell, and the rest of us wave our goodbyes and wish them fair winds. It\u2019ll be our turn next, as soon as our good mates Geoff Sherman and Scottie Hamilton arrive from Sydney to join us for the passage to Fiji. We\u2019ve also signed up with the Sea Mercy group to assist with delivering aid to some of the outlying islands in Fiji that were so badly devastated by Cyclone Winston. We\u2019re not exactly sure where we\u2019ll be deployed or what we\u2019ll be delivering but I\u2019m sure it will all become clearer once we arrive in Savusavu. We think it\u2019s the least we can do in return for being able to visit these wonderful locations. In the meantime we\u2019ll sit tight and be just a little jealous of our cruising buddies heading north to warmer climes. It\u2019s getting decidedly chilly in Kiwi land!<\/p>\n

\"Brrr.....foggy
Brrr…..foggy mornings are becoming commonplace. Time to get outta here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Town Basin Marina is a log-jam of cruising boats waiting for a weather window to leave NZ. Sharon and Brian at the Marina office are wonderful at being able to squeeze in \u2018just one more\u2019, including us. In fact, there\u2019s so many big cats here it\u2019s starting to look like a safari park\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-ZP","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3834,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3833\/revisions\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}