[password]zmh286
[position]36 09.94s 175 28.894e

[status]
Well a day of action today. Most of it not good. The plan was for the crew to go ashore for a walk while the captain cleaned out the sail locker.. After the ham net I quickly tossed things in my back pack - nut bar, oranges, water, VHF, shoes and sox, and then at the last minute added the iPhone and good digital camera. Off we went with the boss muttering about getting ashore in surf. A beautiful day with blue sky and barely any wind. We cut the engine near shore and the idea was to go just after the bigger set. Well that turned out to be difficult as after the bigger set there is a lot of undertow taking you back out to sea! However I jumped off when it was shallow enough and headed to shore glancing back when I heard a string of expletives. The dinghy was near upright and the captain standing at the bow. Just as well he is a bit overweight as he managed to get through the wave looking like he was competing in the Mt Maunganui surf championships. Now I have learned over the years not to respond verbally or laugh at such events. The sanitised and summarized version of what he said was 'dearly beloved I told you this was a bad idea'., Anyway off I went and wondered through lovely farm land with black headed sheep and beef cows. It is DOC land and soon I cam across one of their camp grounds and headed off on a loop track that took you through the bush, up to the headland. Fantastic views and I was glad I had the camera. On the return I overlooked Chameleon and after a few photos I called David on the VHF. He replied but that was when my handheld lost power. It had been put in the charging bracket but not connected. He thought I was calling for a ride and said I will pick you up at the southern end! Oh dear. Here I was nowhere near - and on a ridge at the northern end. Off I ran but by the time I got there 20mins later he was back at the boat. And it still looked quite surfy and not much better than the northern end. So I stripped off to colourful underwear and waded out to waist height, tossed the backpack in the dinghy and scrambled in. Our dingly is not that easy to get into now as fittings have been put back in an awkward position. As I got in I looked behind and had an Oh Shit moment as a huge wave had grown further back from where they were most often breaking. It picked up the dinghy, turning it over , I fell out and we crashed towards shore. When I surfaced, there were lines, backpack, seat, and David's hat floating around but no david. The dinghy was inverted and stuck in the surf. It is a very heavy twin hard bottomed dinghy, with wheels so I had a bit of a problem. Somehow the adrenaline kicked in and I managed to lift the dinghy and he crawled out. he was too shocked to berate me especially as we now had an upside down vessel and engine stuck in the surf. We dragged it back out in between wave sets and after a couple of tries managed to get it right was up. I raced back to get the swamped back pack and other stuff from the shoreline and David rowed out past the surf with me swimming alongside. I finally got aboard when it was safe to do so and then the long row home with a stuffed engine. meanwhile another boat, the first, had come in from the other side and seen the fiasco. They put their dinghy in the water and came and gave us a tow home which saved a lot of energy.
An expensive walk as one iPhone 6S now caput, 1 good digital camera caput, one 2 hp outboard semi caput but recoverable. One handheld may recover. It is in the oven drying out. So we now have no internet or telephone. Just as well we have this system.
David has just read this and says it is lacking a mea culpa. Knowing big swells were coming down from Fiji I should have known there would be surf and should not have pressed to go. And although I had the handheld in a plastic bag the camera and iPhone were not as i had taken them out to use on the walk. Given I did raise the dinghy for him, and am making cinnamon rolls for him and our new friends, he has been pretty calm about the incident. He knows I have learned a lesson!
[heading] 03m
[weather] blue sky, 25C, 5ne

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