Five days cruising in the Bay of Islands.

Sailing in the Bay of Islands was something that many ocean sailors plan to do as it is a natural place to stop after crossing from Tonga and Fiji in about November, prior to the cyclone season in the south pacific ocean.
We had four days of great sailing in warm weather. For three of them the wind was more than 20 KN and so we had two reefs in the mainsail most of the time. We also sailed downwind as much as possible. Going up wind the sea was lumpy and we motor sailed to make it more comfortable.
On the  fourth day a deep weather front came through so we picked up a mooring and spent the day in Russel. In the evening while we were ashore there was torrential rain for about an hour then miraculously it stopped so that we could get back aboard in the dingy without getting soaked.
The first night we anchored in Wharengaere Bay, the second night in Motuaohia Island (Roberton Island), the third and fourth  nights in Russel and the fifth on a mooring at Opua.  Each day we also anchored for lunch in mostly deserted bays.

On the last day we met up with Nina and Tony (Ocean Cruising Club Port Officers) with their Nicholson 45 in which they had sailed from Portsmouth England in 1991 with their four children aboard.