The Perception of Freedom

One of the best things about having a boat is the sense of freedom you have in choosing your destination and setting off. 

Due to some essential tasks we needed to complete, we spent three days up the Whangarei river. But now we're out! Days of early starts and late evenings muddled our sleep patterns. One more early start is needed for us to get to Mahurangi harbour to clean our boat bottoms. 

A haul out is scheduled next week, but the last time we hauled out, a high pressure wash damaged our copper coat. So we didn't want a repeat of this, and decided to forgo the pressure wash this time. As we didn't want to lift out with dirty bottoms, it means we have to clean them, so this why we are heading for Mahurangi. We prefer super settled, almost glassy conditions, and shallow waters for bottom cleaning, and Mahurangi provides this. 

So we were up before dawn, the waxing moon giving us just enough light to get ready. We made it back round the gap between the isolated danger mark at High rock. There is a shortcut here just wide enough for a boat to pass between reef and rock. It's tricky because the gap is narrow, and in anything but slack tide the current will try to push or pull you onto either rock or reef. It's worth it though because High rock is spectacular, and one of the best looking anchorages in the harbour. 

The anchorage is small, there is only really room for one or two boats, but as most cruisers enjoy the access of the town, we get usually find we have spots like this to ourselves. The backdrop of Mount Mania has the classic steep and jagged sides of volcanic rock. The area of Whangarei heads also has a tropical feel, plants are similar to those in Polynesia, and walk through the area feels like a Sunday morning stroll, just like in the Marquesas.

Whangarei town basin is good too. It's convenient, there are all sorts of parts and services available for boats, and the cruising community is there, but we prefer the harbour over the river, and the roadstead anchorages along the coast over the harbour. This shift from marina to anchorage didn't happen overnight. It took years to build up this level of confidence in ourselves, and our boat, to be able to live life at anchor like this.

On leaving the marina we are always struck by the sense that, we're out of there!  That feeling amplifies again when we leave the harbour. It's not that we're leaving a place that we don't like. It's more about experiencing the freedom of cruising. It's like riding a bike. Not a push bike, a motorbike. The first time you ride one. You immediately gain a sense of space a freedom, unconstrained by a the metal cage of a car. Free to position the bike as you like on the road, you feel like you can go anywhere, you are not trapped in a lane. Sailing out of a harbour feels a bit like this too. We can go where we want, when we want, and do what we want, there is a sense of possibility and adventure. A feeling of freedom.