After a lovely BBQ dinner and a few wines aboard we saw in the New Year watching the fire works over the sky tower. We set sail from Bayswater on the 1st Jan early in the day. It was a lovely sunny morning with a good breeze which got us down to Man O War bay on the eastern end of Waiheke in a few hours. Masses of boats filled the bay so we chose to anchor just past the mussel farm at Karipaka Bay. A really beautiful spot especially at night with the lights from shore and all the boats making a lovely picture.
Our second night was spent at Grants Bay on Ponui. Another amazingly beautiful spot with lovely trees and flax right down to the waterline. We were witness to a spectacular electrical storm in the evening. Mostly in the distance but some strikes quite close (but not close enough to be scary! )
The next day we had a long sail along the northern side of Waiheke and anchored for the night at Matiatia. It was full of boats and our first attempt at anchoring was unsuccessful and made more stressful by having the anchor chain jam as we were retrieving the anchor. Fortunately the men were able to use a bit of force and a couple of tools to free things up and we were all ok again. It was a good lesson for us to keep an eye on how the chain falls when it is coming back into the anchor well.
This was a lovely few days enjoying our new boat with great weather, some great food and great company.
Sailing Kingfisher 
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