APRIL 2021 WEATHER TRENDS - BOB MCDAVITT 4TH ANNUAL WOW COMING UP VENUE - HIRE THE OCC SOCIAL EVENTS QUIZ - TRADE DIRECTORY: QUICK REFERENCE TO ...
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April 2021
Weather trends - Bob McDavitt
4th Annual WOW coming up
Venue - Hire the OCC
Social Events
Quiz
Trade Directory: Quick Reference to local services
Project Island Song - join the weeding trip to the
islands
2 | Tell Tales
On the cover:
IN THIS ISSUE... A breezy Seapower 2 Handed Race - by Vera
Commodore’s Report...............................3
BBQ Cruise Report...................................4 Advertise in Tell Tales
Monthly Quiz..........................................5 ...and be seen by hundreds of people in
What’s On...............................................6 the Opua area and all of our email sub-
Project Island Song..................................6
scribers every month
Venue Hire..............................................7
BOI Marine Mammal Sanctuary...............7 1 year - $300 ($25 per advert)
Bob Mc Davitt - Weather Trends...........8,9 6 months - $150
Quiz Answers..........................................9 3 months - $100
Racing Pictures & Help needed.........10,11 1 month - $50
Earthcare Opua teambuilding................11
Not a Yottie...........................................12 Call Sheila on 09 402 6924
Trade Directory.................................13,14 or email info@opuacruisingclub.co.nz
April Sponsor - Great Escape..................15
Hello everyone,
My name is Maggie. I have been featured in a few tell tales magazines over the
past year. I’m nine months old now, and I’ve learned a lot.
I enjoy hanging out at the club with all of you. I’ve recently learned to crawl so
watch out for your dropped food and shoe laces
because I like nibbling on those.
I can now clap hands and wave (when I feel like it).
My favourite word is “ba” and I babble a lot all day
long.
I love reading books, playing with mum’s baking
utensils, eating tinned asparagus and feijoas.
I have a jolly jumper and a rocking horse which are
heaps of fun.
I don’t watch much on TV but my favourite programme is the animated version of
the very hungry caterpillar.
I like animals and I have been to the parrot place twice now which I really enjoyed.
I like swimming and baths and I am very excited to get into the water.
I think I’ll be walking soon, I like to stand up against the couch and I’m getting
better at stepping along
sideways to grab toys. Mum
and dad will be busy chas-
ing me around once I’m
walking.
I have two teeth on the bot-
tom and a couple coming
through slowly on the top.
I’m living the baby dream -
until next time, see you in
the club :)
Tell Tales | 3
COMMODORE’S REPORT Chris Williams
Welcome to April
Twilight Sailing and Rum Races have officially finished, it feels like
yesterday I was writing about getting back into it all. Wow.
There will be an Easter Weekend BBQ cruise, all welcome of course.
Cees will provide us with the location details closer to the time.
I was a naughty boy and missed a committee meeting, so it happens
when I’m not present I get given jobs haha, organising a party seems to
be on my list for this month so on Saturday April 17 we will be having
a Mexican Party. Come dressed up, there will be music and food. Will be a good night to start off
the winter season.
Now our AGM is booked for the 22 June and there are going to be some committee roles
available. If you are interested in volunteering some time into the running of the club and join-
ing the committee please make yourself known. This is a great way to support the club and have
important input into the daily running of it.
Last but not least we say goodby to our lovely bar manager Violet for a few months while she is
off on maternity leave. She will be missed around here, but will be back. So from all of us, good-
luck with number 2 and dont be a stranger. Maybe we will need to start a creche at the club soon
huh, now that’s a thought .
That’s it for now thanks and have a good Easter.
Thanks Chris
Editor’s Note SPOT THE YOT - LET US KNOW
We had the opportunity to spend a few weeks away WHAT YOU THINK OF TELL-
on our boat earlier in March. South to Whangaruru TALES, AND WIN!
then back up to Whangaroa for the Tsunami - we Liz Crawford spotted
figured it was a safe a place as anywhere with such the YOT in last month’s
a narrow entrance, we hardly saw any effect which edition! Pop into Burnsco and
was great. Caught some fish, explored ashore includ- collect your pize from Nick
Scour our sponsor’s ads this
ing finally walking (scrambling) up the Duke’s Nose month to be in the draw to win
and found some beautiful spots back in the Bay of this great prize, a dry bag from
Islands we hadn’t visited before. Burnsco.
Keep an eye on the weekly emails (sign up on the Email info@opuacruisingclub.
website) for details about events as they happen in co.nz or call us on 09 402 6924
April. & let us know whose advert you
Some members may have noticed that AIS coverage have found the little yacht in as
of BOI and around it have ceased to exist on web- well as what you like best about
sites like marinetraffic.com. This is because Pacific our monthly newsletter before
April 25th to go in the draw.
Maritime Radio is relocating to the South Island and We really appreciate the feed-
has disassembled their equipment. back, it lets us know what you
So we are looking for a person with some radio value about the information
knowledge, living preferably on a high place, with we include in TellTales
decent internet access, to take over this service. every month.
Peter Mott will assist with the setup if needed. The winner will be
Please contact Hans at 0223072563 if you can help. announced in the May
Chur, Kerry issue.
4 | Tell Tales
BBQ FULL MOON WEEKEND CRUISE
Vera & Ernesto
We picked again a lovely weekend for our BBQ Cruise. 7 Boats came out for our Full Moon party.
We started with our party on Gary’s boat with some drinks and nibbles. At the beach we played
our favorite game the wooden scatter and this time we had to be quick, because the high tide was
chasing us. But Gary, the winner this time, finished the game early enough. After a great sunset
we all went back to the boats to watch the Moonrise, it took a while, because in Entico Bay we
have some hills around. Some had to leave early in the morning and we others did one of the walks
on Urapukapuka Island before we sailed back home.
Join us for the next BBQ Cruise on the Easter weekend
Cheers, Vera & Ernesto
Tell Tales | 5
Test your crew!! Pour a drink and check out your expertise with these five quick questions.
1. A "jib" becomes a "____________" as soon as the clew of the sail passes the mast.
a. Working Jib
b. Genoa
c. Sloop
d. Trysail
2. A compass is used to steer a course or to _________________.
a. Measure the speed and distance to destination
b. Take bearing of an object for charting purposes
c. Determine the distance from an object.
d. All of the above
3. A __________ breeze starts at the land and works its way out to sea.
a. Land
b. Sea
c. Ocean
d. Night
4. In a dinghy, in order to preserve stability, passengers and other items do not need to be
placed to spread the load evenly, both from side to side and fore and aft as the stability of
a dinghy is not affected by weight distribution
a. true
b. False
5.
Which day shape is this ship showing here?
a. Aground
b. Anchored
c. Constrained by draught
d. Fishing
If you struggled with any of the questions or you want to expand your knowledge of sailing theory
take the free eLearning courses at International Yacht Training.
https://www.iytworld.com/courses/course-types/elearning/
Answers on Page 9
6 | Tell Tales
Social
Winter hours start from 11th April - We will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Bingo with Jo - Thursdays 8th & 22nd 7pm start.
Darts - Wednesdays from 7pm
Quiz - Thursday 15th, - 7pm start. Join a team on the night or bring your own.
¡Mexican Night! Saturday 17th
Mexican Music, Food and big hats -
dress up for prizes. Jon in and have a laugh
Weekly Membership Draw - Every Thursday from 5.30-7pm
be in the club with your membership card, if your number is drawn, win a bar tab up
Racing
Total Yacht Care Ladies Championship Trophy is rescheduled to April 11th due
to adverse weather on the 17th January
Pick up your copy of the calendar to get all the dates in one place.
Fees $80 due for new season held at last year’s level!
Enter Online http://opuacruisingclub.co.nz/racing/race-entry-form/
Cruising
WEEKEND BBQ CRUISES
2-4 April Easter Weekend, & 24-25 April Anzac Weekend, weather permitting.
Keep an eye on our facebook page to see where we’ll be heading.
Tell Tales | 7
Marine reserve
There is a proposal moving forward to establish a “Marine Mammal Sanctuary” in the
Bay of Islands.
This will be relevant to all boats in the BOI.
Read the proposal and be well
informed.
You may submit your opinion
to DOC. Public consultation
opens for 28 days on the 12th
April 2021.
There will also be multiple
face-to-face events where you
can listen or ask questions
about the proposal.
For full info see - >
https://boimms.co.nz
8 | Tell Tales BOB MCDAVITT’S WEATHER CORNER La Nina is fading When the Pacific trade winds are stronger than normal, they drag sun-warmed sea surface to the west, encouraging upwelling from the cool depths around the Galapa- gos. This has been going on for months giving us a “La Nina” event. It has been shift- ing the subtropical ridge away from the equator and onto Northland. The Ocean: The sea surface temperatures in the equatorial eastern Pacific (area Nino3.4) have been well into La Nina territory over the past few months and are now relaxing and quickly returning to “normal” range. The Atmosphere: ENSO stands for “El Nino/Southern Oscillation”. The main parameter we watch is the Southern Oscillation Index SOI (30 day running mean) and this comes from the weather map, summing up the whole weather pattern over the South Pacific into one number. It counts the average number of isobars between Tahiti and Darwin. The SOI has been more than plus one (standard deviation from its mean) since late 2020, giv- ing us a LA NINA event. It has now zero. SOI can be seen at www.farmonlineweather.com.au/climate/indicator_enso.jsp?c=soi&p=weekly The following diagrams show the trend in the Sea temperature anomalies, taken from www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status- fcsts-web.pdf
Tell Tales | 9
CURRENT WEATHER TRENDS
During the Last four weeks, below average Surface
Sea Temp’s have weakened across the equatorial
pacific Ocean see Diagram->
According to the International Research Institute of
the Climate Prediction Centre, at
iri.columbia.edu/ourexpertise/climate/forecasts/enso/
current/
reviewing all of the different models for forecasting
the future of this La Nina, it has a 60% chance of
transiting to normal in the next few months.
Impact on Northland
The subtropical ridge has been dominating Northland
weather over the past few months, and usually drifts
north of Northland “for the winter”. Since La Nina is
now fading, the drift to the north this year may take
pace quicker than normal, allowing fronts to reach
further north, followed by periods of cooler southwest
winds. This should help to return Northland’s rainfall
to normal levels after a rather dry summer. Basi-
cally, we can all agree with the old adage: “Winter is
coming”.
Note on the NSW Flooding recently – coinciding with the March Equinox.
A La Nina period does strengthen the
trade winds onto northern and central
Australia (but maybe not as far south
as New South wales) so was a factor in
the recent Aussie floods--- but La Nina
is fading , so it’s something of surprise
to have the floods now. The main cause
of the Aussie floods was the combina-
tion of a blocking HIGH in the Tasman
Sea (which gave NZ a long run of dry
sunny weather) and a Low that formed in
NW Australia and took its time travelling
across Australia.
Bob McDavitt is our local weather guru that uses
/\/\etBoB to provide weather information for cruising sailors,
primarily for those in the South Pacific.
Answers to Quiz from page 5
1.b.Genoa. 2.b.Take a bearing for charting purposes 3.a.Land 4.b.False 5.a.Aground
10 | Tell Tales
RACING & PICTURES
Photos by VeraTell Tales | 11
Our Clubrooms are in need of a spruce-up, and redecorating, ideas or offers to
help with decorating materials, inspiration etc should be sent to
jillyjordan.alexander@gmail.com. We are, as always on the lookout for club members
to help as well in organsing social events, you don’t have to be on the committee to get
involved, but we do need more committed members to help keep the club an interesting
and desirable place to visit.
Sponsorship and Team-Building Opportunities
Do you know that feeling of camaraderie when you spend time
together with your group knowing your actions are making a
real difference? Our Earthcare Opua has a no-cost team-building
opportunity for your boat crew, business team, or family group.
Tell Tales readers with big hearts need no reminder of the im-
portance of protecting marine life. We all know these days how
cigarette butts contain toxins and kill seabirds. We are aware
of the effect of plastic on fish and marine mammals, yet sadly,
cigarette butts, pie wrappers, cable ties, and other business litter
are part of the public areas around Opua.
A love for our Bay drew our steering group together last year,
to reduce toxic litter getting washed into our Bay. The informal
Earthcare Opua get-together on the first Sunday of the month
is now a regular monthly event. Two business sponsors, Marina
Café and the Opua General Store, generously offer a hot drink
after the event to volunteers who bring their own reusable cups.
An opportunity is here for further sponsors to take the opportunity for win-win sponsorship over
the winter. No financial commitment involved, simply volunteer a group of 5 or more people to
gather litter at an Earthcare event from 9 – 10.30am on your chosen 1st Sunday between now and
October.
What is in it for your business? You enjoy team-building opportunity at no cost, gain local public
recognition, and you feel good. What’s in it for marine life? Toxic pollutants are kept away from
birds and fish in the marine ecosystem around Opua. Getting together with others is both pur-
poseful and fun, so which month will your group sign up for?
Available Sundays: 4th April/2nd May/6th June/4th July/1st Aug/5th Sept
Email the Earthcare Opua steering group today and confirm your chosen date zerowastegranny@gmail.12 | Tell Tales
NOT A YOTTIE
Thank goodness all the tension of Americas Cup is over. How about the last two races, it
really was on the edge of your seat stuff. So pleased that our team came out on top – Con-
gratulations to them.
My family went on holiday on their yacht for a couple of weeks and left me in charge of their
half a dozen chooks. All I had to do was keep them fed and watered and collect the eggs. Af-
ter a couple of days they were used to me arriving with their breakfast and greeted me at the
pen with lots of loud clucking, they are so comical and there really is a pecking order. They
loved the stale bread soaked in water and the trimmings from the meat – they enjoy a bit of
protein, The eggs that I collected were so varied in size from small white to large brown. It’s
lucky that I have friends who like fresh eggs and gave me the empty egg boxes.
After the Membership draw on the 3rd Thursday we had the monthly Quiz with 8 tables of
happy punters. There was the usual banter with lots of whispering, thinking aloud and laugh-
ter – lots of right answers and a few wrong ones. Quite a few members had their dinner in
the club before we started – you can always rely on Peini’s kitchen producing yummy meals.
We have a lot of fun with Bingo on 2nd and 4th Thursdays and a very happy Dave Gamble
won the members draw of $500 bar tab. The bar tab draw starts again at $50 a week on 1st
April, and the meat raffles have started again.
I’ve been out to lunch a few times, once to Omata vineyard with a couple of friends. It’s
more an experience than a meal, delightful food and beautiful scenery on a bright and shiny
day, and no loud music to intrude on conversations. Their thin crust pizzas are lovely, crispy
and full of gorgeous fillings, and the kitchen boards have a huge variety of goodies – cheeses,
pate, fruit, and biscuits on them. The wine is pretty good too. One of my friends had his
80th birthday that warranted a good lunch at his home with a few friends. Another pal
phoned and asked if I’d like to join her and 2 friends for an afternoon cruise and meal on a
boat. I say “Yes” to most offers of entertainment, and so the following afternoon found me in
her car and on the way to The Landing. We were a bit early and eventually this little Electric
boat came very quietly up the river with another one attached. The skipper helped us – 4
elderly ladies, and none of us sailors - and our picnic onto the boat, It was self-drive with a
little marine type of steering wheel and a gear stick to go either forwards or backwards. He
gave us a map and some instructions as to how to steer the craft, which side of the buoys we
had to be etc. it was apparent to him that we were a bit apprehensive so he very diplomatical-
ly led the way! We booked for 2 hours which gave us enough time to get to the Stone Store
where we tied up for our lunch, and get back to The Landing. It was such fun driving (is that
what you do on a boat?) ourselves, we enjoyed the tranquility of the water just meandering so
low and quiet on the river, it’s a totally different perspective, and seeing some really beauti-
ful homes and gardens and with equally smart yachts on their wharf and some not so smart.
Have a look at: electricboat.co.nz. They also convert yachts to electric propulsion.
Have fun and keep smiling from Jo.Tell Tales | 13
TRADE DIRECTORY
Please support our sponsors
Without the kind support of all our
advertisers and sponsors, the OCC simply
wouldn’t be able to produce this magazine.
So, please show your support in return, use
the products and services advertised in Tell
Tales whenever possible. Make sure you tell
them you found them here
OPUA 2012
WE SPECIALISE IN:
Batteries Solar panels
LED lighting
Stockists of Pratley Adhesives
Marine installation & repairs
Unit 6, Opua Marine Park, Baffin St, Opua
Tel/Fax: 09 402 7177
www.marineelectricsopua.co.nz
OPUA
B OAT BUIL DE RS LT D
ALTERATIONS REPAIRS
TEAK DECKS WOODWORK FIBREGLASS
P 021 236 1721 E opuaboatbuilders@gmail.com
Unit 1, 15 Baffin Street, Opua Marine Park14 | Tell Tales
SHIVER ME
TIMBERS .. at Bay
of Islands ITM
we KNOW THE
ROPES to make all
your building projects
PLAIN SAILING
“We’ll see you right”
• New Racing & Cruising Sails • Repairs, Recuts & Alterations
4 Norfolk Place, Kerikeri
T: 09 407 8153 M: 021 786 080
W: www.willissails.co.nz • E: info@willissails.co.nzTell Tales | 15
April Calendar Sponsor
The team at Great Escape are all passionate
sailors and love to share their expertise with
others, we’ve taught hundreds of people to
sail and introduced them
to the joy of cruising in
the beautiful Bay of
Islands.
If you have friends or
family keen to get into
sailing and they don’t
know where to start,
send them to us. We
have a two-day
introduction course,
designed for those who
just want to have a go
and see if sailing is for them. Or if they want 30th April at the club for a social evening and
to be able to cast off by themselves, our six- then head out sailing Saturday afternoon. It’s
day adventure is a full immersion into the joys a fun rally not a race! Then a shared meal
of sailing and cruising. ashore, and sailing home in convoy on
Sunday. More details on our Facebook page.
This season our fleet of fun to sail, easily
managed yachts have been out pretty much Come sail with us, Bill, Julie, and the
every day. The yachts from the Davidson 20 Great Escape Crew
to the Raven 31 are perfect for exploring the
sheltered waters in the Bay of Islands. If you www.greatescape.co.nz
are between boats or have friends who need
Like and follow us on social media –
a boat for a long weekend or midweek
escape, come and see us. • Facebook
@GreatEscapeSailingBayofIslands
• Instagram @sailinggreatescape
At the end of this month, we have our fourth
annual WOW (Women on Water) weekend.
Women of all skill levels are invited to join us,
either aboard one of the Great Escape yachts,
or bring your own. We’ll commence FridayMonday Tuesday Wednesday
April 2021 Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Membership 1 2 3 12:00 RBC 4
Draw $$$ Single-Handed 3 of 3
Daylight savings ends
Good Friday Easter Saturday Easter Sunday
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Membership
Draw $$$
Easter Monday
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Committe Meeting 12:00 RBC
Membership Women’s Race 3 of 3
Draw $$$
School Holidays start
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Weekend BBQ Cruise Weekend BBQ Cruise
Membership
Draw $$$
Anzac Day
26 27 28 29 30
Weekend BBQ Cruise
4th Annual 'Women On the Water'
16 | Tell Tales
weekend 30/4 - 2/5
Public Holiday
For latest calendar updates see www.opuacruisingclub.co.nz/eventsYou can also read
